LONDON 2012: OLYMPICS IN CONSTANT TROUBLE

It appears that Mitt Romney got it right: the 2012 Olympic Games in London, known as London 2012, are in huge trouble. Day after day, one scandal is being chased by another one. It all started with shortages in security personnel: turned out, that organizers were missing approximately 3,000 people necessary to provide safety to the olympians and their audience! It was too late to train the necessary personnel, so, the organizers had to call in the military forces to cover for the shortages - Thank you Sir Sebastian Coe for converting the civilian holiday into a military operation! Then, as soon as the olympians from all over the world started to arrive in, the London airports were not able to process them, the baggages were misplaced, the buses were getting lost in traffic, unable to reach their destinations for hours. Finally, before the opening ceremony was wrapped up, one country after another started to protest the treatment of their teams, the most vocal being the team of India, who felt humiliated by an exposure given to unknown woman marching by India team's flag-bearer; the intruder dominated the 10 seconds spot of the tv coverage, granted by the organizers to the second most populated country in the world. We are now only in the fourth day of the 2012 Olympics, yet scandal follows a scandal. Country after country experiences so called false flag shocks, to be associated forever with London 2012; the most crude example being the football match between North Korea and Colombia, prior to which North Koreans walked off the pitch. Eventually, as a result of organizers' display of their enemies' (South Korea) flag as a purported emblem of North Korea, the match had to be delayed for approximately one hour. Yesterday, it was the Chinese's turn to get offended by display of their flag at a lower height than South Korea's flag; swimmers from those two countries were classified both in second position and both received silver medals, and the olympic etiquette required that both countries' flags should have been placed at the same height. Well, I never thought the English were so lackadaisical! And, most of the times, the olympic venues shock with huge patches of empty seats! Some of the observers must be quipping that BBC Panorama and Sol Campbell had something to do with it! I can understand that the US liberal media jumped on Mitt Romney to show his purported lack of diplomacy and inexperience on international scene, in an attempt to score a point for Obama campaign in the US presidential elections. Yet, Romney's words, perhaps crudely undiplomatic, were definitely warranted and the majority of the media, instead of pouring the scorn on him, should have rather applauded Romney for the sincerity, which the same media often says is so needed in the politics. Let's hope that the Londoners finally will get a grip on the olympic machinery and redouble their efforts in the remaining days of the 30th Olympiad. Yet FIFA, the world footbal (soccer) authorities, should be applauded in their collective wisdom for not gratning England's bid to organize the 2018 World Cup. For once, FIFA got it right! And let's hope that England, before applying for organization of another international sporting event, would first hone their organizational skills. Perhaps, they should consult the Poles and the Ukrainians, the hugely successful organizers of Euro 2012 - whom, paradoxically, the London and English media denounced so prematurely, prior to the kick off of Euro 2012, for alleged racism, xenophobia, lack of infrastructure, and expected calamities. Well, those dark predictions at Euro 2012 did not come to fruition, instead, the English now have to constantly blush for their own shortcomings. I presume, with some dose of satisfaction and "schadenfreude", that English media, including BBC's Panorama (and Sol Cambpell), Guardian, Telegraph, the London Times as well as their loud tabloids, enjoy the quality of British paper while eating their own words. Bon appetit, mes amis!

Janusz Andrzejewski, is a New York based attorney, writing on legal and other important community topics. You can contact him by telephone: (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

THE BATMAN MASSACRE: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ABOUT OURSELVES?

Another random massacre, and another opportunity to do something about gun laws, appear to be as good as gone. What is happening to America? Is this how the modern society resolves its social pathologies? What kind of an animal a man of 21st century is about to become? Where do we go from here? Does anybody care about random violence anymore? Do we still remember Fort Hood, Texas massacre in 2009, Northern Illinois University massacre in 2008, Virginia Tech University massacre  in 2007 or the one near Aurora: Columbine High School massacre in 1999? Was anything done about the roots of any of them?
The usual suspects such as entertainment industry, media, politicians and gun industry, with its chief client and advocate, National Rifle Association, have lost  another opportunity to do something meaningful about the exposure of American society to random violence. The new thread, characteristic to the Aurora shooting, was an PR offensive undertaken by Hollywood and entertainment industry (one of the main culprits and inspirators for the random shooters)  in aftermath of the batman massacre, in particular the series of statements issued by Warner Brothers, and all the stars associated with "The Dark Knight Rises" production. Imagine, the community at large "held their collective breath" waiting for Christian Bale or Jason Gordon-Levitt's nuggets of wisdom (LOL!). Not better were politicians, i.e. John Hickenlooper, the governor of the State of Colorado who wasted no time in stupidly defending gun control laws, or, rather, a lack of them, and indirectly defending NRA interests. Not better were mayor of Aurora, Steve Hogan, and its Chief of Police, Dan Oates, or New York City Commissioner of Police, Raymond W. Kelly. All of these officials seem to propagate a stupid belief, which they repeat like a mantra, that freedom to purchase arms would not have stopped the batman massacre or that it would not have limited its monstrosity or its size.  Comme on! Have some decency! It is shocking to any human mind that there are people who advocate total freedom in acquisition of arms and consider 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting an uninfringed right to keep and bear arms, to be holly and unassailable. Don't you know that people created laws and people can change them? How long can America cling to something created in 1791, when semi-automatic or automatic guns were not invented yet. Times change, things change, people change.   Imagine how much good the nay sayers could have achieved in redirecting their energy and money towards the real causes of the shooting, instead of protecting themselves and their profits through PR schemes. The modern society with its hierarchy of values is obviously full of pathologies. The man of 21st century seems to be lost among various forces attacking his psyche, the chief among them being a God of materialism and consumerism, propagated by the masters of finance, utilizing such servants as media and entertainment industry.

Janusz Andrzejewski, a New York City based attorney, writes on legal as well as other important community subjects. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com