50 Days to the Olympics - Shorts

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50 Days to the Olympics - Shorts
    Outside Tokyo Station, one of the world's busiest train station, sits a countdown clock. Like hundreds of other countdown clocks in Japan and in the world, it was counting down to the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics until 25 March 2020, while this clock was counting down to 23 July 2020, a whole cycle of 365 days was added. You see, a day before, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) released an official statement to postpone the Olympics to 2021. So what is going down in Japan 50 days from the big day?

Tokyo 2020: Dealing with the Pandemic
    On the COVID-19 front, Japan is not doing well. So far, only 5% of the population has been vaccinated while cases have only started to decrease. Recently, Doctors and Experts have warned the government that if the Olympics were to go ahead, the country's already overwhelmed healthcare system would collapse, from the inside. Just to add to the chaos, the recent B1617 variant has also snuck onto Japanese soil.

    I consider this a bit of a History repeats itself conspiracy. Let's go back to 1918, the year of the Spanish Flu outbreak, when medical staff and advisors warned the Mayor of Philadelphia not to go ahead with the Liberty Loans Parade, the Mayor ignored the warnings and went ahead with the parade. What followed next was chaos in Philadelphia, leaving 47,000 people infected with Spanish Flu. Could this be a return? A sign that we have not followed and learned our lessons? A sign that maybe this Olympics could go completely wrong? I believe that this might just be it for a city already left in shambles...

Tokyo 2020: Dealing with the Finance
    On the Olympics front, Japan is doing, not great. So far, Japan has spent roughly $41 Billion on this Olympics alone. Considering the fact that not even tourists are allowed to travel to Tokyo to watch the games, the revenue for the games is already very limited. And let's not forget additional costs Japan will need to fork out for athletes due to COVID-19. Costs include vaccinations for the athletes, swab tests etc. on top of the current costs of transport, accommodation etc. 

    Factoring everything and all the new additional costs, this Olympics might break some records, in a bad way. this Olympics could possibly be the most expensive in its history. Its already second, behind Sochi 2014 which costed $51 Billion+. 

Tokyo 2020: Dealing with the People
   On the 5th of May 2021, a small petition online began. The petition was to 'Stop the Tokyo Olympic 2020'. Slowly, the signatures flowed in before only 9 days later, the petition received 350,000 signatures and was submitted to the Tokyo Government. And criticism over said Olympics had been growing ever since it was first postponed back in March 2020. So far, thousands are protesting on the streets. In a survey, 83% of Japanese citizens who were polled were against the scheduled Olympics and Paralympics. 

    So with all this backlash from various organisations, what has the Government done? Well, from what i have read, not much. The Olympic Torch Relay is still going as planned and there shows no signs of stopping this Olympic Train heading towards Tokyo. And while only one country has publicly announced that they will not send a team to the Olympics, North Korea, there is a probability of a boycott. I hope that there will be no sudden spikes in cases after the Olympics and during it. But here's another side of the story...

    In a year's time, there will be another Olympic Games, Beijing 2022. Which begs the question, will that be postponed as well? Will there be a Beijing 2022 held in 2023? I think not. Between the duration of the closing ceremony of Tokyo 2020, to the opeining ceremony of Beijing 2022, is roughly 15 months. So let's hope that maybe, just maybe, this Pandemic will be over and celebrations will resume...


Farren's Personal Corner: www.farrenpersonalcorner.blogspot.com

Please check out my new SG Lost Railways series on Farren's Personal Corner where I explore some of Singapore's lost railways. First episode is out!

My Original Article on Tokyo 2020: https://farrenopinioncorner.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-sad-story-of-tokyo-olympics.html

Tokyo 2020 Homepage: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/


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