Olympic Buffoonery - Not Saving The Planet

Congratulations to the "brains" behind the decision to use three Hydrogen-fuelled taxis to ferry Olympic VIPs and other assorted hangers on around various Olympics venues.

The cabs can only be refuelled at service stations that offer hydrogen as a fuel.

Can you guess where the nearest service station that offers hydrogen is children?

Yes, that's right, Swindon - which is (cough) 130 miles away!

Seemingly (as per the BBC) the designated hydrogen fuelling station, at Lea Interchange near the Olympic Park, has had to close for security reasons.

Therefore the taxis are loaded on a transporter to take them to Swindon.

Well done lads, a great idea that has definitely contributed to "saving" the planet!


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The Meter's Ticking Guv!

In order that they are not left out of the Olympics' rip off bonanza next year, London cabbies are demanding that they be allowed to raise their fares by 20%.

The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association has suggested that without the increase there may be "mass walkouts" of cabbies during the Games.

Seemingly members are "concerned" about the  increase in traffic restrictions etc during the Games.

I dare say that the Tube drivers' recent £1200 Olympics bonus settlement may well have had a bearing on this issue!

The Olympics are not about sport, but are about money.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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BBC Olympic "Budget"

The Sun has outed the BBC's travel "budget" for the London Olympics.

"The BBC is to land licence-payers with a £3 million bill to send sport staff to cover the London Olympics from Manchester – just a year after it relocates from the capital....flights, train fares, taxis and accommodation".

The reason that the BBC, based in London, is expecting to spend so much money is that (for reasons that only a "detached" and poorly managed bureaucracy such as the BBC can understand) the BBC sports department are moving out of London to Manchester one year before the Olympics.

Clearly an intelligent plan would have been to move after the Games.

The BBC then go on to dig themselves into a deeper hole by saying that, because plans are still being developed, they "can't speculate on the costs involved".

In other words, they have no budget (clearly taking their cue from the organisers of the London Olympics!)

Not very impressive is it?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Snouts In The Trough

How reassuring to see that, despite the current recession and a budget that is out of control, those tasked with keeping the costs of the London Olympics 2012 under control are making sure that they are personally not in danger of facing any undue financial hardship.

CLM, a consortium of surveyors overseeing the Olympic construction project, received £151M last year (double what had been previously paid).

On top of this largess to the consultants, Olympic bosses found the time and the funds to award themselves some very generous pay rises.

Staff at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) took home £30M, including £2M of bonuses. David Higgins, CEO, received took home £537K (generously deferring half of his £201K bonus until 2012).

Howard Shiplee, director of construction, claimed £19,343 in expenses, including £11,478 on hotels and nearly £2,280 on taxis.

It is reassuring to know that those who are running this "venture" on behalf of the taxpayer, really know and understand the true value of money.

Our money safe in their hands!

Yes?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Olympic Bugs

It seems that we may be taking one step further to becoming a police state. Emulating the Chinese, the police are studying Chinese surveillance tactics as they ready themselves for the 2012 London Olympics.

One tactic being considered is the installation of miniature microphones in thousands of taxis. These bugs will transmit passengers' conversations to a police control room. The police, if they consider the conversation to be "suspect", would then activate a disabling device to stop the cabs.

Another tactic used by the Chinese was to embed tracking microchips in the tickets and passes of Olympics spectators.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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www.olympicsdiary.com brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Chinese Visit States

Chinese officials, as they gear themselves up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are taking advice from researchers in North Carolina to help combat smog and other environmental problems in Beijing.

A group of Chinese air modelers, engineers and meteorologists recently completed three weeks of training at RTI International, a research institute based at Research Triangle Park, where they learned to use state-of-the-art computer modeling to forecast air pollution.

Bob Zerbonia, project director for RTI, said:

"They have some pretty severe air pollution problems.

They have been addressing them but are still not where they want to be. The Olympics are the driving force now, but it's a long-term deal."

Environmental improvement efforts in Beijing have been hampered by the country's rapid growth, a high level of construction activity and increasing number of vehicles on the roads.

Shi Aijun, director of monitoring and pollution management for the city of Beijing, said:

"We hope the effort of this project will help Beijing produce more scientific and economically efficient pollution control strategies.

Specifically, by using this modeling system, we can finally decide which are the major emission sources."

Special measures will be implemented before the Olympics, including a 30% cut in emissions from factories, replacement of old diesel buses and taxis, and tighter emission standards for automobiles.

Olympic Clean Up

Shi Hanmin, director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said that Beijing was expected to invest over $3.29BN in anti pollution measure this year.

"Now Beijing is in the critical phase of pollution control ahead of the Olympics. Investments will be largely increased as expensive and large facilities are built so we estimated that the city will spend more than that of last year."

Beijing vice mayor, Ji Lin, said that Beijing had invested a total of $16BN in the past 10 years to protect environment.

Quote:

"The large-scale environment protection was begun in Beijing in 1998 when the government spent 5.4 billion yuan ($0.7BN) and the sum of spending on it kept increasing. The number reached 10 billion ($1.4BN) in 2005."

However, the number of cars in Beijing now exceeds three million. As such, the government plans to stop using some cars during the Olympic Games to ease the traffic and improve air quality.

Ji said:

"Car control, that is to temporarily ban part of the cars, is necessary both for traffic administration and air pollution control.

But the number is yet to be decided. We need to take reasonable measures which least affect Beijing residents' daily life.

I heard of some experience from past Olympic host cities such as Atlanta.

But to ensure clean air during the Olympics, we have to begin working on it a couple of years ahead.

So we have some other measures to implement now."

Ji also said that the government is going to eliminate 2,580 buses and over 5,000 taxi cabs this year.

An Olympic task in itself!