Read this.

Yes, you read right.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (sadly, such a thing really does exist) has a budget of a mere $620 MILLION dollars for the 2010 Winter Olympic games. And the tragedy is that their venue costs have risen to $580Million.

Though I admit that the Olympics have never held my interest for very long, I never realized how much time and money goes into this event. Despite the great history behind the Olympics, I have never understood the unnecessary commotion surrounding these games.

Because after all, they are just games. And for those of us living in the First World spending this many millions on a series of sports seems like a worthy investment. But for the hundreds of millions of people drowning in poverty, hunger and disease coming at them from all angles such an amount of money isn't even feasible in their minds.

How exactly do we rationalize the Olympics - a supposed union of the world and culture, when a majority of our world is so stricken by pain. How exactly would you explain to one of these people that rather than increasing aid to African and Asian countries to help children receive food, shelter and vaccinations (money which we were told we cannot spare) we will be spending the money on curling, the biathlon, and speed skating.

It doesn't seem right. For the love of all that's holy - they're just SPORTS. Meaningless when considered how much more important a human life is.

I realize how much more money goes into other useless events, including other North American sports and movies and all other media and entertainement. But the Olympics are a worldwide phenomenon in which we all compete for bits of shiny medals and a licence to gloat for 4 years, and countries go out of their way to have this opportunity. I can understand why - presitge, tourism money, increase to the economy, attention are all just a few of the things the Olympics land a country.

It's just that a number like $620 million staggers me. I can't understand how and why we do this every 4 years. Why each time the Olympics come around we seem to spend more money in bringing more focus to the event. Vancouver is buzzing with excitement, and their turn to host is still 4 years away.

I don't even want to imagine the sum of money we as a world could have given to those who need it had the Olympics not even exisited to this magnitude. The whole thought of this possibility haunts me. I mean curling isn't even a real sport! Come on!

I don't think it may be necessary to get rid of the games altogether (though I wouldn't care if we did). But to control the expenses and maybe even share some of the profits with other countries would truly make it a worldwide event.

It's just one more of things that causes me so much fury but there's nothing more I can do than to sit down at my computer, my eyes burning from the lack of sleep over the last 3 days, and type out my streaming thoughts in a blur of words (my way of saying that if some of my sentences don't make sense, blame it on the fact that my head is falling from the sleepiness).

• Wikipedia's Article on the Winter Olympics
• Official Website of the Olympic Movement