The State of Affairs in Russia

[Liep]

Twitter might become my go to source for hilarity during these olympics.

Stool evaluation committee:


Крупы = Cereals (Groats)

[derspiess]

This is awesome.  It's like some kid who forgot to do his science fair project and is throwing something together at the last minute.

[celedhring]

The snaps of random furniture inside bathrooms just crack me up 

[derspiess]

[Sheilbh]

I like this room's decor:

[Admiral Yi]

 

Seriously, they must have hired all Dagestani and Chechen workmen.

[DGuller]

Seriously, they must have hired all Dagestani and Chechen workmen.

I doubt it.  The workers are mostly Tadzhik.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't get it.

[Syt]

I mean, if you have to cut corners, don't do it in the hotels of the people who're likely to broadcast your incompetence to the whole world.

Then again, maybe they expected the foreign media to be as tame as the Russian one?

[Berkut]

The IOC has a choice.  Either they do what they say they are going to do under their Charter.  Or they should adopt the Dorsey Rule of very few are perfect so why bother.

As a reminder this is what the IOC says it stands for:

2 Mission and Role of the IOC*
The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the
Olympic Movement. The IOC's role is:
1. to encourage and support the promotion of ethics and good governance in sport
6. to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement;

1 is dubious in this instance--a general law against "homosexual propoganda" doesn't directly impact "ethics and good governance in sport".

6 also is also a close call--does this discrimination affect the Olympic Movement? Certainly many many regulations by Islamic countries do so in a much more direct way, and I believe they have since their participation began.

In both cases, clauses have been added that in theory narrow the scope of the discrimination being acted against: in 1, "in sport" and 6, "affecting the Olympic Movement".

But that isn't central to what I am saying. What is central is that there are competing priorities. There are all the items that you didn't bold, which require some sort of global buy in to the Olympic games. You can try to uphold a stand against discrimination that would exclude most of the world's population and most of the previous hosts of the games (as their laws stood then). Or we can allow somewhat dodgy countries like Russia and China host the games.

Or we can allow countries like Russia and China to host the games, but the IOC could hold lack of basic respect for human rights against them when it comes to making these decisions. Or the IOC could NOT hold it against them, and we could respond accordingly and decide to either take a pass on our leaders attending, or make some other clear gesture.

It isn't all or nothing.

[Grey Fox]

I mean, if you have to cut corners, don't do it in the hotels of the people who're likely to broadcast your incompetence to the whole world.

Then again, maybe they expected the foreign media to be as tame as the Russian one?

It's not that. The same thing happened in Beijing.

It's a none-western culture trying to anticipate & meet the expectations of westerners. Some they get, others they don't because before any of this they didn't know.

And no one told the Western, especially Americans, that most of the world's waterpipe don't have enough pressure to push paper thru them.

The 2016 Olympics are going to be an hoot.

[DGuller]

Maybe hotels were the least shoddiest things constructed, it's just that no one has seen anything else there yet. 

[Sheilbh]

The 2016 Olympics are going to be an hoot.

Brazil will be fine. They're used to tourists and they've got the World Cup in 2014 to iron out their problems.

The Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups on the other hand

[Capetan Mihali]

I like this room's decor:

Looks like the set for an unreleased Beckett play.  Or where someone suddenly wakes up in a David Lynch movie.

[DGuller]

And no one told the Western, especially Americans, that most of the world's waterpipe don't have enough pressure to push paper thru them.

Back when I lived in Ukraine, used toilet paper went down the toilet with no undue drama.  Well, by toilet paper I mean old newspapers for the most part, but the idea is the same.