Let the Bejing Olympics of Global Re-branding and Marketing begin!

In the run up to the Beijing Olympics, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport. BBC World Service Investigation

According to the LDA the four Olympic Boroughs, Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest lost a total of 93 companies employing 1245 staff as a result of the relocation of businesses. A total of 209 businesses employing 4964 staff were relocated. 25 businesses closed completely with a loss of 65 jobs. A further 10 businesses employing 54 staff are not accounted for.

China's government, which invests up to a third of its $1.68 trillion in currency reserves in [US] Treasuries, is "not smart'' to invest in U.S. debt and should seek higher returns, a former legislator said [June 13 2008]. "I don't think it's a smart move to invest in U.S. bonds,'' said Cheng Siwei, former vice chairman of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, at a Beijing conference.

There has been no end of promises for a sporting legacy for London in the wake of the 2012 Games. But fine sentiments alone are not going to deliver it to future generations of Londoners, argues Kurt Barling, BBC London.

The IOC is now a financially robust organisation, having reinforced its position as a key player in the lucrative world of sport. For the 2005-2008 period alone the IOC will receive about $2.5 billion from broadcasters, $866 million from its TOP sponsors' programme, a worldwide sponsorship programme managed by the IOC, plus money from tickets and licensed programmes.

On 23 April 2008 the House of Commons Select Committee responsible for reviewing the performance of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published its report London 2012 Games: The next lap. This report contains the following judgements.

.."such a radical revision of cost estimates has been damaging to confidence in the management of the overall programme. It has also exposed the Government and Games organisers to the charge that the initial bid was kept artificially low in order to win public support."

As the Olympic Torch forces its way around the globe, with a combined army of hundreds of thousands of police and security personnel to ensure that the "message" gets delivered at all costs, the sponsors of this marketing jamboree from hell are trying to put a brave face on it as the torch becomes an emblem of hypocrisy and oppression.

Conclusions and Recommendations of the House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee Report 22 April 2008

1. Foreseeable requirements for public sector funding were excluded from the estimates at the time of the bid to host the Games, giving an unrealistic picture of the expected costs. Contrary to good practice, the Department [of Culture Media and Sport] did not include programme contingency, now £2.7 billion, because the scale and complexity of the undertaking were not appreciated at the time of the bid. The costs of tax and security, now estimated at over £1.4 billion, were also excluded from the estimates as they were uncertain. Yet £738 million of funding from the private sector was included, despite not being supported by robust analysis. All costs and revenues should have been included from the outset, with the uncertainties explained and a contingency provided.
   
   

A Moscow press conference of ecologists, human rights activists and Sochi residents has suggested that the International Olympic Committee(IOC) has grounds to cancel the winter Olympic Games, set to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014. The press-conference, titled “The 2014 Sochi Olympics. Opportunism, incompetence, disregard for the law – the major threat to the collapse of the National Project,” met in Moscow on April 10th.