Canada or China?

[Yarin]

Which opening ceremony did you like better?

I liked Canada's "art" better, and their singers were definitely were better, but I think China's performances blew Canada's away, regardless of leg malfunction :P (much bigger budget though, I know).

[MK27]

Bread and Circuses!

(sorry, no TV here)

[sean]

China's was certainly very impressive, but I had just finished reading an article about all the imminent-domain that occurred to make show so big, and in the end it just annoyed me.

[MK27]

an article about all the imminent-domain that occurred to make show so big

Same story in Vancouver -- it's all laissez-faire democracy until some bunch of mega-developers has a chance to rake billions from government coffers.

How's this for anal retentive:
News from the 2010 Winter Olympics - All Sports - CTV Olympics

For point-of-reference, the "Downtown Eastside" is the lowest income postal code in the nation. Basically, it is an entire neighbourhood of SRO's; like the population is 95% single adult men (no exaggeration, and I've lived there: it is unique in the world I believe*) and 0% children. This is a product of the Canadian welfare system, whereby you get $350 rent max, and the number of places you can live in the city for that is EXTREMELY limited, esp. if you are like a single adult male with a criminal record.

It was also a popular spot for American draft dodgers who never left. I actually really like the community (but I am a single adult male with a criminal record ), there is more real culture there than in the rest of the city, but the mainstream middle class would prefer to see it burn with everyone inside. Apparently some of the Olympic funds was for "cleaning this up", aka disenfranchising the current residents.

*if you look up "Downtown Eastside" in wikipedia, it is DES Van you get ("82% of the population live alone", pop ~ 16000). Having travelled pretty widely, I can say with confidence it would make any American so-called "ghetto" look like a McDonald's playground