[Reader-list] Fallacy of Commonwealth Legacy

Sudeshna Chatterjee sudeshna.kca at gmail.com
Fri Aug 20 13:50:25 IST 2010


There is an article by me on the fallacy of Commonwealth Games legacy in
today's Hindustan Times 20Aug2010 (edit page- page12). Since the print
version had taken out some vital sentences to reduce the word count from
1000 to less than 800, I am attaching the real piece that I had submitted to
HT to make better sense. They even changed the title!

You can find the HT article at: - Mega size, minor gains
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HD/2010/08/20/ArticleHtmls/Mega-size-minor-gains-20082010012004.shtml?Mode=1>


Best wishes,

Sudeshna

*

Fallacy of Commonwealth Legacy


What do four children, one sitting outside a modest house in an African
town, another in a Chinese living room, a third in a Latin American market
place and a fourth at an East European dining table have in common? All four
pairs of eyes are glued to TV sets watching the London Olympics in 2012.
This was the inspirational film that was part of London’s winning Olympic
bid in 2005. But that’s not what connects these four children across the
globe; the real connection is the shared dream of glory as future sports
persons representing different sports and winning for their respective
countries in future Olympics. That is the kind of inspirational dream a mega
sporting event has the power to evoke. That is also the possible legacy of a
landmark sports event like the Olympics, hosted by a major global city such
as London, a legacy that instils love of sports not only among the young of
the host nation but also among children across the globe. London’s Olympic
legacy plans continue to be focused on sports and development for youth.


If we now shift our gaze to the other contemporary mega sporting event, the
2010 Commonwealth Games, hosted by another mega and aspiring global city,
New Delhi, the discourse around legacy appears to be at best flimsy,
uninformed and perhaps meriting new terminologies such as “lackacy” or
“lootacy”. To put it bluntly, at least in material terms, legacy of a mega
event is what is left behind for the city after the party leaves town.
Mostly this is measured by the benefits accrued by the city such as in
improved living conditions: better transport, better housing, better sports
infrastructure, better urban space. Delhi in its bid for the Games had
indeed pledged improved city infrastructure to make over Delhi as a world
class city. According to some experts, CWG is actually an exercise in urban
renewal, sports is an afterthought. This argument is supported by facts such
as 85% of the spending has been on infrastructure.


Quite recently the so-called “legacy plan” of the Commonwealth games was
unfurled. It comprised a request for qualification (RFQ) for operations and
maintenance of five Commonwealth Games stadia in Delhi through
Public-Private-Partnership. The closing date for the bids is August 23,
2010, barely days away from the Games. Who will qualify? Companies
possessing net worth in hundreds of crores and with experience of
construction and not sports management! Typically PPP involves funding and
resources of private parties in creating public amenities. Here public
money, public resources and public land have been used to create public
facilities which will be handed over to private parties paying the highest
premium to the authorities as a concession fee. In return the private
companies will be given the right to host sporting and non-sporting
activities (read Shaadis and Bollywood tamasha as in the Asiad facilities)
to generate revenues for maintaining these facilities. How will already
leaky, badly constructed, waterlogged sports facilities, all potential white
elephants, maintained by private companies for profit help develop a
sporting culture among our youth—one of the ridiculous CWG promises of
Suresh Kalmadi?  Will the private company allow neighbourhood kids to come
play inside the facility every evening? Love of sports can only be instilled
in children if they have readily accessible grounds of different scales
within and around neighbourhoods. You only get good at something by playing
it on an everyday basis while having fun. Can any of the stadium operators
promise that even to the children living in the immediate vicinity of the
stadium complexes? In its current format, the legacy plan is just another
lootacy plan which might go the Emaar MGF way of financial bailout by the
government in case any private party fails to maintain the sick white
elephant. Why couldn’t these facilities equipped with expensive turfs and
tracks and swimming pools be handed over to the respective sports
federations for hosting appropriate sporting events and engage local
communities in developing a culture of that sport?


The term “beautifying” has never been as ugly as in the case of the
streetscaping to create world class amenities in Delhi. Knee-high kerb
stones, badly laid pavers that come loose with rains, narrowly spaced
bollards that prevent wheelchairs, strollers and prams in sidewalks are but
some of the reasons why the public consider the beautification drive a big
scam. Moreover why pour hundreds of crores in beautifying facilities in the
NDMC areas which anyways enjoy the best infrastructure in the city? Wasn’t
this a perfect opportunity to develop areas which are never considered for
development?  South Africa set a wonderful example of such a development
paradigm through the FIFA world cup by constructing beautiful
transit-oriented community spaces in the most underprivileged parts of Cape
Town as public viewing areas to enable people who cannot afford to get to
the stadiums, which were located in the central areas, to watch the games.
This is part of a very tangible 2010 World Cup legacy that furthered the
concept of dignified public places as an integral part of a post-apartheid
spatial planning strategy.


Cut back to Delhi. What we see is a reverse trend of snatching away vital
public space around low-income settlements in the proximity of the CWG zone
to create more white elephant infrastructure such as parking decks. Imagine
if Delhi had a socio-spatial strategy of creating new public spaces in
Bhalaswa, Holambi Kalan, Bhawana and other such unheard of places which
serve as resettlement colonies for displaced poor people from the city, many
of whom had been displaced by the games housing, the commonwealth games
would indeed have created a legacy of social and spatial integration. And
best of all, the city would not only have shared the social experience of
CWG with the poor but also given a chance to their children to share the
dream of future sporting greatness with other children around the world.
Those would have been legacies worthy of a mega sporting event in an
aspiring global city.



Sudeshna Chatterjee is an urban designer and writer.
*

This is the edited print version that managed to decontextualize some core
ideas such as the deal with streetscaping.





-- 
Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD

Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates
Architecture  Urban Design  Research
New Delhi, India

Research Affiliate
Children, Youth and Environments
Center for Research and Design
University of Colorado, Boulder


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