"Did Chirac joke the olympics to London?" ~ Iltasanomat

[Black Lotus]

"Did Chirac joke the olympics to London?"​

This was the title of the Finnish most read newspaper, "Iltasanomat". The title is quite raw translation, but you get the picture. This title was hilarious, and I started laughing when I read the whole article. The article was about the olympics going to London. Here is, yet again, a raw translation of what read in the article:

"The French people have felt in their skin, what mocking the Finnish cuisine costs; the Olympics.

The president of France, Jacques Chirac joked about the bad Finnish food to his collegues in Kalingrad. Chirac says that the British are terrible in the kitchen -- the only place where people eat worse food is Finland.

Half of Finland's nation got pissed off (no, they didn't use this phrase, but I couldn't find a better word to match it) about the president's statement and yesterday it was payback time. The International Olympic Committee voted for the 2012 summerolympic's host country in Singapore, and Paris was clearly expected to win.

But in the end, the competition went to London with a tight score, 54-50. The hit was very hard for Paris, which again had to swallow their defeat in the olympic host competition.

In theory 54-50 voting result means that if two of the ICC's members, say the Finns Peter Tallberg and Jari Kurri, would've voted differently, the vote would be 52-52, which results in a tie and a new round -- two votes decided the competition for London's fortune.

Although Finland's ICC's members Tallberg and Kurri won't reveal the city they voted for, it can easily be read between the lines of Tallberg's statement:

- Let's just say, that me and Kurri are satisfied with this end result. I think it was the correct decision, Tallberg said.

Finland has been "the throwbag" in European food conversations, but the ICC's voting result gave ammunition for shots back. The opportunity to shoot back was used by, for example, the EU expansioncommission's member, Olli Rehn, who hit the point directly:

- I have the pleasure to congratulate London for the host of the competition, because these days the Finnish have a hard time to find reasons to be on the French people's side.

Same goes to the British people, who yesterday enjoyed the Paris's olympic project for lunch."

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I think this serves Chirac right. What you leave behind is what you will find in front of you later, goes the old saying (or something like that at least). While I wasn't really that pissed off because of the comments on Finnish cuisine, I was slightly annoyed, because Chirac is a president and president's shouldn't go about mocking the culture of the others'. A president should really know that. Tarja Halonen has never gave a negative comment on the Italian cuisine, and I'm sure at least someone has something negative to say about that too.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Chirac was being an arse at that time, but I don't think it was that, that helped London to win and if it was, well those two must like their food a lot. Obviously, Anglo-French relations have been bad for... forever basically, but Chirac's comment really was uncalled for on Monday/Tuesday (I can't remember when -_-)

But, Olli Rehn's comment does hit the nail on the head for me at least...

 

[Black Lotus]

I don't think it was that either, in the end, but partial reason, yes. I don't know about the British people, but most of the Finnish people were quite insulted of the offending comments on the cuisine. London did get help from famous athletes, like David Beckham and they did do "more" to get the hosting of the olympics.

 

[mewthree w/armor]

Seriously though, France is coming out on the better end of this for a few reasons.
1. They now have several billion dollars they will not have to spend on the Olympics, which can be basically freed up for other purposes I.E. Military (They just paid for there second aircraft carrier and a few brand new surface escorts)
2. The UK is now going to gain prestige with the Olympics, but there Military continues to slide into obscurity with cuts, more cuts, and slap a few more cuts on. The Navy, once the most powerful in the word now lies in ruin with the aircraft carrier program being more then a decade late, and they have been relegated to selling off there surface escorts to second world nations who will actually end up taking better care of them then the UK ever could.
3. The UK will have to find several billion dollars to re-modernize and upgrade there forces in order to ensure a safe Olympics, on top of paying for the Olympics themselves. Not going to work.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Seriously though, France is coming out on the better end of this for a few reasons.
1. They now have several billion dollars they will not have to spend on the Olympics, which can be basically freed up for other purposes I.E. Military (They just paid for there second aircraft carrier and a few brand new surface escorts)
2. The UK is now going to gain prestige with the Olympics, but there Military continues to slide into obscurity with cuts, more cuts, and slap a few more cuts on. The Navy, once the most powerful in the word now lies in ruin with the aircraft carrier program being more then a decade late, and they have been relegated to selling off there surface escorts to second world nations who will actually end up taking better care of them then the UK ever could.
3. The UK will have to find several billion dollars to re-modernize and upgrade there forces in order to ensure a safe Olympics, on top of paying for the Olympics themselves. Not going to work.

You do remember that the IOC tries to help wherever they can in terms of planning the games. And relax... it's 7 years from now, sure the building will start soon, but the security isn't going to be planned years in advanec, because, for all we know, the world could be a completely different place 7 years from now. A lot has changed in the past 15 years, and a lot could change in the next 7 years as well.

Plus, France wouldn't spend the money on military, but trying to make their food better :P

 

[mewthree w/armor]

Don't laugh...the French are probably going to build the UK's carriers anyway, the UK have let there facilities slide into deplorable states that they now lack heavy building facilities...

IOC? Even with there support?what they can offer?I?d rather start planning and building now to have everything ready and worked up in preparation?lets not forget that Greece was ALMOST a disaster with incomplete facilities. Time is valuable?I don?t even wanna think about the 2008 games yet in China?yuck yuck yuck.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Don't laugh...the French are probably going to build the UK's carriers anyway, the UK have let there facilities slide into deplorable states that they now lack heavy building facilities...

IOC? Even with there support?what they can offer?I?d rather start planning and building now to have everything ready and worked up in preparation?lets not forget that Greece was ALMOST a disaster with incomplete facilities. Time is valuable?I don?t even wanna think about the 2008 games yet in China?yuck yuck yuck.

Let's remember that this is a thread about the Olympics, not national security.

 

[Kylie-chan]

Exactly.
Well, I think the food jokes were pretty low. If I had my way, I wouldn't give it to either London or Paris, because both were being very bad sports during the whole bidding. And apparently the Olympics are about sportsman[/woman]ship.