Commonwealth Games

[SanmukhKaur]

From a Common Man’s perspective

                Commonwealth Games have started and so has the misery of the common man. The Commonwealth Games are a matter of pride for the rich and powerful. For the poor they really don’t make a difference because as always they are pushed out of sight and out of mind. But what about the common man? Common man has to sit back and watch as live becomes difficult for the next ten days or so. For months they watched as India was ridiculed for the preparation of games, then the watched the Indian Government ignore the innocent people fighting with malaria and now are watching as the games make them third class citizens in their own country.

                With the elite heading to Delhi for the Commonwealth games (ohhing and awing over the preps and occasionally complaining), the common man is just happy the daily bashing of India’s prep is finally over.  Daily we had to hang our heads in shame over a country that never truly listens to its citizens and is just in a race to prove its worth to other countries and leaders. But what good is a country without happy citizens? Either way we are just glad we don’t have to read daily about the next epic failure of the Indian government when it came to getting things ready for the games. Or about how unhappy the other countries are about the arrangements. Now that the games have begun, people can focus on that instead of how big of a failure India was in getting ready for them. One misery over, one to go.

                The daily shame game is over and the citizens of Delhi can now go about their daily lives full of pride for hosting the games that have made their lives miserable. The heavy rains have made malaria a huge problem for the common man and the government is too busy with games to care. People by the hundreds are sick and the hospital conditions are so bad that one bed is usually shared by at least 2. The hospitals are becoming a place to get sicker, not to get cured. The government needs to stop playing good host and focus on the miserable state of the citizens, also. The citizens that have survived the malaria deal with other problems caused directly by the games.

Daily the citizens become victims to not very well thought out traffic plans and spend hours stuck in traffic or waiting for public transport that has been spread too thin to meet all of public needs. The extra security and checking cause all plans to be delayed, games or related or not. The government has also declared extra holidays especially for the games. Which is a joy for the working class but what about the small business owners? Can they really afford to give paid days off to their employees? The government should have encouraged business to close for the opening and closing ceremonies but they should not force or declare anything. The middle class small business owners should be allowed at least this much courtesy that they can think about their business and their needs before the making the country look good for events which many can’t even afford to attend. India needs to stop thinking about public image and think about its citizens. The day India can do that, the day middle class citizens will breathe easy.

In about 10 more days the games will be over and hopefully with it the bad press, horrible living conditions and out unnecessary bending over to please others will end also. Then we can focus on getting on with our lives and focus on what is really important; making a decent living and enjoying life.

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