A tale of two Olympic cities - Barcelona and Beijing are poles apart (page 2 of 2)

In this ambition they are not just being encouraged by the IOC but also by the corporate sponsors (twenty-two of the world's biggest corporations) who have lined up to get their brands prominently on display - not least for the 1.3billion consumers of the world's most rapidly growing economy.

Beijing won't be the ideal Olympics any more than it will be an Olympics of ideals

Aside from the affront of holding an Olympic Games in a country where even the most basic human freedoms are absent - and one that, rather like Franco and Catalunya suppresses a people within its borders (in Tibet) - there are also some practical reasons to regret that Beijing is the host of the 2008 Games. The construction boom has brought further pressure on the city's fragile environment and its health and safety record is deplorable. As the Olympic deadline approaches the human and environmental costs of meeting it will be huge. And for those who choose to go to swallow their distaste and actually go to the city in August 2008 I can only warn them to expect discomfort unprecedented at an Olympic Games - the heat will be oppressive and the air will be heavy and foul.

After Beijing, London will need to restore the Olympic ideals

I'll be waiting until London in 2012 to see an Olympic Games again. And, as in 1948, when London hosted the first Games since Berlin, the city will need to restore some tarnished Olympic ideals. In the meantime give some thought to the forgotten people of China who will be kept from the public eye during next year's spectacles. Beijing 2008 isn't a "Peoples' games" but a Games for the ruling Mandarins, for the multinational brands and for the worship of mammon - with a Chinese face of course.