Sri Lanka for Commonwealth Games 2018 - Plz sign up [Archive]

saraprobe

04-03-2010, 11:23 AM

THEY both have beautiful beaches but that is about the only thing the Gold Coast and its surprise Commonwealth Games competitor Hambantota have in common.

The southern Sri Lankan city unexpectedly entered the bidding to host the 2018 Games after the Nigerian city of Abuja, in the midst of a political crisis, failed to submit a formal nomination by Thursday morning's deadline.

It will now be up to the Commonwealth Games Federation to decide if the Games come to Australia's sixth-largest city or Hambantota, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.
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A former Sri-Lankan cricketer and Griffith University academic believes human rights injustices will mar the developing country's Commonwealth Games bid.

Griffith Sports College manager Michael Jeh said Hambantota's bid would likely become a political minefield.

He questioned how the tsunami-devastated, poverty-stricken, war-torn region could justify spending billions on sporting infrastructure when residents were still living in squalid refugee camps and illegally entering Australia by boat.

"It will draw two separate emotions: the sympathy vote from the tsunami and the cynical anti-civil war sentiments," said Mr Jeh.

"There will be international questions about human rights issues ... why boat people are coming to Australia and leaving Sri Lanka in their droves if the living conditions are not that bad.

"If I was living in that sort of hardship, you would think they would sort out the refugee situation before taking the luxurious step of hosting the Commonwealth Games."

Mr Jeh said it would be wildly ambitious for Hambantota to believe facilities could be constructed to host the event in eight years.
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"what about aboroginial communities ? conveniently forgotten them and talking about other countriesn.. keep it up !"
udana

"The best analogy to use would be to compare the Coast to Yamba -- a sweet, little, beautiful, sleepy beach town.

"That's seven years to catch up to the Gold Coast and it's taken the Gold Coast 50 years to get where it is."

Mr Jeh said residents had little use for Olympic-sized stadiums and swimming pools and the facilities would likely become a white elephant.

But Brisbane-based Sri Lankan Association past president Hiran Cooray said Sri Lanka would get far greater benefit from hosting the Games than the Coast.

"Sri Lanka is a poor developing country, to get a chance for foreign exchanges to come to them ... it would be a boost," he said.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/04/03/204395_gold-coast-news.html
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Michael Jeh ponnya was born in Negombo and moved to England and later to Australia:angry::angry::angry::angry::angry: