speaking of olympics, here is a good satire article
http://www.chaser.com.au/show_story.asp?ID=134&ED=24&NAME=angrysocog
Angry SOCOG board members deny ‘all knowledge’ of so-called ‘Olympic’ games
SYDNEY, Tuesday: Key members of the SOCOG Board were kept in the dark about a planned series of sporting events, to be held in Sydney during September, it was revealed to the media today. The revelations come just days after SOCOG Chief Executive, Mr Sandy Holloway, promised greater communication between the organisation and the politically-appointed Board, and made a public commitment to improve accountability within the secretive organisation. Angry scenes at today’s Board meeting were later played out again in the public arena, with Board members and SOCOG management each pointing the finger over the mix-up.
The sporting events, tentatively titled “the Olympic Games” and scheduled to include participants from around the world, will feature many of the world’s most popular sports. SOCOG senior staff readily concede that the Games themselves are likely to “significantly affect” the activities of SOCOG during the year 2000. Indeed, now that they are aware of it, many SOCOG executives estimate that up to one quarter of their total work-load of public engagements, fact-finding tours and corporate entertaining may need to be connected in one way or another with the Games.
News of the proposed Games arose when Board members were questioned by the media about the further appropriation of $140 million for SOCOG’s needs. The Government had agreed to provide the money, in a line-item in the Budget marked ‘further unallocated resourcing issues - SOCOG’, notwithstanding the promise of the Treasurer that no further money would be made available to the statutory corporation unless it more fully explained its activities to the Parliament.
The Chaser spoke to sources close to the Board about the exact exchange that led to the furore. “Basically, Sandy stood up, and put a slide on the screen showing a sort of ‘five-rings’ thingy, and mumbled something. Someone at the back said ‘What? Speak up man!’, and then Sandy said, more loudly: “I SAID, WE’RE HOSTING THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN SEPTEMBER, SIR, AND WE NEED A BIT MORE MONEY FOR THE VOLLEY-BALL COURT!”. It certainly started a very animated discussion, I can tell you.”
Key Board members are angry that the proposed Games had not been more fully explained to them, but conceded that it was a relief to understand what exactly it was that SOCOG did. “I must say, it certainly explains the whole name issue, which had always confused me” said one Board member. “I’d thought that we were something to do with sport - but one guy was convinced that we were running an airline. It’s been quite a fertile topic of conversation amongst the Board, but somehow, in discussions with Sandy, its never really come up.”
Another Board member, Ms Anna Booth, claimed to be furious that the group she had assumed was a ‘lunch-time seminar group on issues relevant to the Real Estate Agents Act 1996’ had turned out, in fact, to be a publicly-funded administration with a budget greater than the NSW Department of Education. “It’s an outrage - why weren’t we told earlier? I’ve got just six weeks to my final exams to become a registered real estate agent, and I don’t know a bloody thing!” she glowered, when asked about her role in the organisation and its plans.
One Board member who may have been aware is former NSW ALP Right powerbroker and breakfast radio announcer, Graham Richardson, who recognised the SOCOG logo on some press releases that he saw at 2GB. “Yeah, it rang a bell alright”, the laconic Richardson told bemused journalists in Sydney earlier today, “but its not like I’m an expert on that sort of thing. I’m a big picture bloke - we all are. We just trusted Sandy to get on with it ... whatever it was ... and let us know if things were off the rails. I mean, jeez, the Olympic Games - that’s a job and a half, so I’m not surprised they needed a lot of money.”
SOCOG management is adamant that it made suitable information available to Board members to allow them to piece together the truth. “Sandy definitely mentioned that September 2000 would be quite a busy time” noted SOCOG Director of Public Affairs, Megan Grolsch. “We have never concealed the fact that money was being used for a sporting event. We are under no statutory obligation to advertise that fact. It is incumbent on the Board to conduct their own affairs with due diligence. I mean, what did they think we’d done with the last $2 billion that they voted us?”
