Sunday, August 30, 2009

Juxtaposition

Yesterday, the Herald was discussing Pyeongchang:
Pyeongchang, not contented with being the best winter holiday destination in the country, is also famous for its unrelenting efforts to host the Winter Olympics. The city has failed twice in bids to host the 2010 and 2014 games, but that doesn't seem to discourage them. Gangwon Province is trying yet again to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, this time with more ambitious and systematic preparations.

This is all well and good, except for an article a month ago in the Times:
For the people of Gangwon Province, bidding to host the Winter Olympics was first an ambitious goal, then a heartbreaking defeat, and now a dangerous dream that could end up throwing their home province into bankruptcy.
...
But the problem is that the province's primary channel of capital inflow for the construction has for months been clogged up.

Once again, I am unable to escape the quotes feature in Blogger - I think it doesn't like Safari. I will have to jump across the partition some day and try Chrome, Firefox and Explorer to see if similar errors occur.

Anyway, 'Alpensia' - Alps in Asia, of course - is well-described in the Herald's article which is more tourism related. I want Pyeongchang to do well, but I have long been ambivalent about Winter Olympics here.

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