|
Friday, December 16, 2005
Editorials: Gold medals and bum checks
There are people who bitterly curse the financial woes of organizers after the Southeast Asia Games (SEAG).
The spectacle of creditors — hotels, caterers and transport operators — pounding the door of officials of the organizing committee (Cebu-SOC in our community) and waving unpaid bills and bouncing checks is jarring and saddening.
Duplicate the scene in other venues of the Games, Manila and Bacolod, and you see the flight of beautiful memories of the hosting and the winning from the mind of Filipinos who would have liked to keep and treasure them.
Failure of management
What happened? Clearly, there is a failure of management. Planning and implementing fiscal affairs of hosting crashed. The result is the embarrassing money problem now hounding the organizers and tarnishing the country’s reputation.
After the accusation of cheating by the host during the Games, here is a picture of the host’s house in disarray.
To be sure, they must find out what went wrong.
Was it negligence, naivete, or, one hopes not, dumbness? Was it a case of contributors shortchanging the country host, or of
Manila organizers cheating Cebu and Bacolod counterparts?
Lessons from the experience will be useful and, if the fault is not mostly ours, may remove some of the smear on the public image of local organizers.
Flogging ourselves
It would be defeatist, however, to flog ourselves by believing we cannot get anything right when it comes to handling funds.
Already, we hear talk of corruption and some people looting the till.
That is being unfair to the organizers who, until now we believe, had worked hard to make SEAG a success.
That is also losing faith in civilian leaders and volunteers whom we look up to after government repeatedly dashes our hopes.
Suspicion of incompetence is no better. It means we may not be equipped to manage regional or international events. For Cebu, it can mean losing confidence in its ability to host the next Asean summit.
Don’t drag athletes
Then, there are the athletes and their fans who might look at the post-SEAG troubles as another aspersion on their victory.
That would be silly and wrong.
The scandal cannot be blamed on the athletes whose prowess in the Games cannot be diminished by inability of managers to pay the bills.
Bouncing checks cannot remove the glow of the gold medals our athletes fought for and won.
(December 16, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
