I feel quite sad about this. India is my favouritest place ever - have been and travelled

there over a dozen times now. In my experience, the infrastructure and the bureaucracy that exists within that infrastructure means they were never going to be properly geared up for this.

As a developing country, without proper internal backing and organisation, building on this scale, and catering for such an event as this, was never going to be a success. The layers of bureaucracy and red tape that operate from state level down to local panchayats are unbelievable, there are committees for absolutely everything, and administration/record-keeping are intensive and meticulous - at these levels everything is written down in bloody great ledgers (though the Games system may be more modern).

This, combined with the cultural differences and, dare I say it, the corruption and political lobbying that operates at all levels of government have resulted in a disaster.

I feel it is a real shame and a badly missed opportunity to showcase what I have always found to be, a beautiful country filled with resilient, fun, spiritual, caring and humble people.

Posted By: malkybarkid, Sep 23, 11:54:48