Managing Projects: Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics (Research Paper Sample)

Managing Projects: Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
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Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc374123905 \h 3Problem Statement PAGEREF _Toc374123906 \h 4Research Objectives PAGEREF _Toc374123907 \h 5Methodology PAGEREF _Toc374123908 \h 6Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc374123909 \h 7Pollution and Population PAGEREF _Toc374123910 \h 7Food Safety and Water Scarcity PAGEREF _Toc374123911 \h 8Political Challenges PAGEREF _Toc374123912 \h 9Human Rights Abuses PAGEREF _Toc374123913 \h 9Doping, Underage Participation and Extreme Training PAGEREF _Toc374123914 \h 10Findings and Discussion PAGEREF _Toc374123915 \h 11Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc374123916 \h 13References PAGEREF _Toc374123917 \h 14
Introduction
Over the century great sports and entertainment festivities have been organised globally. These events had been controversial in many ways and becoming canters of various international agendas and socio economic forums. Each event was characterised by certain issues and factors which later could have described the event either successful or not successful. But then failure and success of any program or event is a simple cost benefit analysis as we have seen in many of these major events. Olympics games were created in order to foster good relationships around the world, promote economic and political development and ensure unity around the world. Thus the success or failure of these events have been characterised not only on the profits a host reaped but also on the social and political effort that were reached during the occasion. Factors such as economic development, human rights commitments, governance, political and security stability, cultural influence, project management and infrastructural support are some which matter most. The Beijing Olympics games are among the greatest events that were organised on 2008 that brought nations of all kinds, culture and influence, feat that in history is able to identify sports talents and definitions from all nations in the globe. Indeed, the question therefore is, did the host Chinese government make or break the Olympic games .The Beijing 2008 Olympics was a "Total Success" that brought change to the host country China in areas as diverse as press freedom, the environment and public health, according to an assessment released by the IOC. The figures were recorded to be a total of 10,942 athletes from 204 NOCs competed in 28 different sports and 302 events (a total of one event more than the schedule of the 2004 Games). Beijing was awarded the Games over four competitors on July 13, 2001, having won an absolute majority of votes from members of the IOC after two rounds of voting, (Longman. J, 2001). The Government of the People's Republic of China promoted the Games and invested heavily in new facilities and transportation systems. Media outlets reported unprecedented audience interest in the Games, and these Olympics had the largest television audience in Olympic history to date, an achievement later surpassed by the 2012 Games, (Reuters, 2012). Some politicians and non-governmental organizations criticized the choice of China as Olympic host because of the country's human rights record, and protests by pro-Tibetan independence activists and critics of China's human rights record marred the international portion of the Olympic torch relay. In every way the Beijing Olympics brought both success and failure in a number of areas, maybe the level and aptitude of the significant successes outweigh the number and velocity of the failures achieved, that is to these paper to identify, at the same time its unlikely that such events mantra and objective was not achieved as they are more specific and realistically.
Problem Statement
Even before the Beijing Olympics there were multiple concerns on the reality of state of political, social and security concerns were raised and promoted. In every way the Olympics had been foreseen as battleground for various international issues facing the People’s Republic of China. Concerns were raised, a lot of concerns on the Beijing’s pollutions state, China’s human rights violations, racism and other ethnic discriminations, food safety, population concern and security issues. These issues will later compromise the effectiveness of the events. Official malpractices were observed, human rights violations identified, demolitions and unethical constructions effected, (Deutsche Welle, 2008). Indeed, the event was overshadowed by much negative events. The Tibetan rights and independence was raised with increased street protests and terrorism acts on the same seen. These concerns raised brought the eligibility of holding the Olympics at the coastal metropolitan at a negative and hot seat. The Chinese government on other hand continued to indicate that such issues were not have much concern that efforts were being made to ensure that all was well. Therefore while compiling the facts gathered for the research done and written down in this report, certain questions relating to problems had to be addressed which includes; was the security for the Olympics a total success as China is known for its large population size? Was the budget set for the Olympics utilized appropriately or did the go over the budget? How was the issue of transportation addressed in the host country China? Was the project completed satisfactorily on time? What was the economic impact of the project? All these would be the main factors based on the huge success of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, (Haaretz, 2008). The problems that were perceived and that were experienced will become an overview of these research paper, that we may identify where the Chinese thrived and where they failed in the management and planning of the Beijing Olympics.
Research Objectives
* Identification of political concerns and controversies from the Beijing 2008 Olympics project.
* Identify Challenges that faced the Olympics
* How was pollution and population managed
* Examine the economic impact of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Methodology
All information gathered for this report is secondary data. The data gathered were all analyzed carefully and summarized appropriately with necessary reference and appendix to accompany. All information gathered was from different sources like journals, critic’s reviews, websites, books and articles. To avoid plagiarism, all information were understood and then summarized in own words. The narration of the collected data and information will provide a format on the topic of identifying the challenges that faced the Beijing Olympics and therefore create a solution theory on more applicable means to deal with such situations in the future.
Literature Review
On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, protests had erupted around the world and in China about various concerns and boycotting the great games. Therefore, the Beijing Olympics was marred with quite a number of controversies and challenges even after the great performance of the country in the games. The President of Olympics later congratulated the Chinese government and organisers on the good work done that had led to the great success of the games. Maybe he was wrong and the Olympics were a failure. The following are some of the socio economical and political issues that were marred during and after the Beijing Olympics.
Pollution and Population
Before the start of the Beijing Olympics, there were concerns and foreseeable challenges that organisers of the games had to deal with. The international press once denounced the successful bidding of the Chinese government in winning the games at Beijing, terming it as an abuse on the Chinese and the participators. Indeed, China has a long time challenge, dealing with its large and increasing population. With more than 1.3 billion people the most populated nation has an everyday crisis of population traffic. Increased traffic of people on the city streets, vehicle traffic and a bouncing population are the common population of the Chinese government. Now with the Olympics it became a huge challenge on how pursue decreased population traffic in its roads as another huge population of people will be pouring its streets and all Beijing areas in the country, (BBC, 2008). The government first ordered people to reduce or thereafter stop driving the period, something that was never affected. The level of driving traffic during the games increased by threefold and there was constant traffic jams in almost every corner of the biggest of China. During the same period the government had increased constructions to its transportation sector with more rails and city transport vehicles increased to meet the demand that had arise. New subways were opened and increased number of migrant workers were sent back home as they sought to decongest the city. Even that these concerns continued to haunt Beijing for the long haul of the Olympic Games.
Pollution has been an international concern on Beijing even before the Olympics award. Beijing had been known as a city that could not meet WHO pollution standards with air pollution being the largest polluted matter, (Calgary Herald, 2008). The IOC air quality standards had to be met, the government took into their hands by shutting various industries and burning of furnaces. With a 1.3 billion population, the country had difficult meeting the standards even with government increasing its efforts. During the eve of the Olympics the government ordered for the shut down of various industries in the city. But at the same time the increased number of vehicles in city streets had increased the level of pollution. These indeed became a challenge that could not be diagnosed. The international environmentalists made statements after testing that Beijing was far worse anywhere in meeting...