India's Bid

I've always been astonished by India. Here is a country of startling contrast. On one hand India has never lacked ambition, having a large armed forces including aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons. India's exploits in information technology are known throughout the world. And when China sent men into orbit, India announced plans to send men to the moon.

And yet, there is widespread poverty amongst the people and sadly these include a huge population of street children in and around its cities. I do not know the exact figures but the population of street children number in the hundreds of thousands. Just Google it and you'll find out. I've only been to India once as a child, and it was an experience I do not remember. But colleagues and friends of mine who have visited the subcontinent tell sad tales about the homeless. One friend of mine said he could hardly bear to look out the car every time he was driven around.

And yet we now have India trying incredibly hard to organise high profile sporting events such as the Olympic Games (a bid that thankfully failed) and of course, Formula 1 Grand Prix. GrandPrix.com has this story about the current plans for a street circuit in Delhi. Herman Tilke has already been spotted in the city. And now it emerges that the investment for the grand prix will be as high as USD 100 million, after suitably compensating Mr B. Ecclestone and friends.

Wouldn't it have been better perhaps to have found some wiser means of investing that money to help the plight of the poor and homeless? Street children are being abused physically and mentally. Am I alone in thinking that the many millions is urgently needed elsewhere?

Its one thing to do grand prix in oil rich countries (and even this is questionably sometimes) but surely the Formula One Group must have limits to its avaricious drive for bottomless government money. Surely these people must have a sense of ethics about them, right?