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| Friday, 12-Nov-2010 05:23 |
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters
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As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.
That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.
Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.
There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.
It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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| Friday, 12-Nov-2010 05:16 |
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off
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Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.
Pearls
Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.
Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.
Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.
A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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| Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009 02:16 |
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pearl bracelet
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You may find it hard to pearl pendant believe, but crystals and minerals DO actually have healing properties. Although the science is not well understood, there is plenty of people, cultures, and history that advocate the use of particular crystals and gems for particular uses. Allow me to explain the basics.
Have you ever slept with a crystal under your pillow? Try it using amethyst or malachite and you will notice an obvious affect on your dreams. Open up to the idea that crystals can help heal your mental, physical, emotional, and/or spiritual state. Once you do, you will have a new hope and a new method for practical self-improvement through crystal healing.
Most Americans these days only believe in pearl earrings proven science. Well, everything IS science, but only some of it has been proven. Take our thoughts for an example. We all have thoughts, but we still can't read them or prove them with scientific instruments. Here we get the "gray area" of Metaphysics. So, to believe in Crystals that Heal, you must understand that Metaphysics is science not yet proven. We still don't have sensitive enough equipment to measure the higher activities of crystals and minerals. Plus, we're not looking for it.
How do crystals heal, then? By subtly altering our Vibrational patterns. Have you ever seen Dr. Emoto's water experiments? Science has proven that all matter is actually energy and all energy vibrates. Science has also proven that thoughts, prayers, and other surprising things can alter those energy vibrations. Crystals hold a vibrational pattern that affects the frequencies and vibrations of water as well as those of pearl necklace people (and their bio-electro-magnetic field.)
Different crystals and minerals hold different Vibrational patterns, so by utilizing different gemstones, you can affect different parts of your physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual anatomy. The longer you are exposed to a particular type of crystal, the more it can have an impact on you, as your vibrational patterns naturally align with the crystal's vibrational patterns.
Understanding that the vibrations of minerals and gemstones are about as fine as those of thoughts and emotions, is easy to gemstone jewelry see why believing in the Healing Power of Crystals would increase their potency. And so does wearing or holding a crystal right up against the skin or ingesting a Gemstone Elixir (where you are drinking water that has had a crystal soaking in it - thereby altering the waters molecular structure just as thoughts alter water molecules in the Dr. Emoto Research.) The length of time that a person is in contact with a crystal is also a factor in how much impact the crystal will have.
If you are skeptical that crystals and gems may really promote healing and wellness, then please do some of your own research. The use of gemstone in healing is mentioned in the Bible as well as in the Best-Selling Book, "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yoganada. And volumes can be "Googled" on this subject via the World Wide Web.
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| Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009 02:13 |
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cultured pearl jewelry
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If you look at enough pictures of akoya pearl bracelet weddings, after a while, you start to see the same things done in the same way over and over again. Sometimes these are ideas that started out as fresh trends only to become so popular that they have lost their unique appeal. In other instances, brides might be doing something in the established way, and it just feels too dated and overdone. This is a list of wedding things that I am over; read along and see if you agree!
Strapless Dresses.Yes I know that they are very flattering and that they also account for 3/4s of the available gown choices these days. And yet it seems like for the last however many years, every bride you see is wearing some variation of pearl ring a strapless gown. Enough already! The freshest new looks are the one shoulder gowns, often with unique and special couture styling that give them a daring yet elegant appeal. If asymmetry is not your thing, there are also some lovely new gowns with wide set straps that flow into plunging deep v-necks, which is incredibly flattering on most women.
Too Much Jewelry or Not Enough. This may seem like a contradiction, but it seems like many brides have trouble finding that perfect happy medium when it comes to their accessories. You either see brides who are trying to make a minimalist and ultra-modern statement by omitting any ornamentation or brides who pile on so much jewelry that they end up looking like soap opera stars. Neither extreme is good! On the one hand, your wedding is not the pearl necklace style time to dress down, so a subtle piece or two of crystal bridal jewelry makes a nice addition to a very simple gown.
On the other hand, a very big rhinestone necklace paired with a bold tiara is just way too much. You should pick one stand out accessory, and pair it with a good supporting cast. So if you have found a fabulous piece of crystal bridal jewelry to wear for your necklace, try a scattering of dainty crystal hairpins instead of wish pearl a big tiara. If you have your heart set on a show-stopping headpiece, then opt for a necklace that has an open and airy feeling. The right balance will keep you from looking underdressed or overdone.
Choreographed First Dances. Taking dance lessons so that you don't feel foolish taking a spin around the dance floor during your spotlight dance is a wonderful idea. Hiring a choreographer and involving an entire cast of "extras" (usually bridesmaids or groomsmen are the unlucky souls to get roped into this duty) is just plain tacky. Your guests come to your wedding to join you in celebrating your marriage, not to see a Broadway show. Can we please have a return to the days where the newlyweds did an awkward but honest shuffle around the dance floor to "At Last" or "Unforgettable" and then the floor was opened up to others? Please?
Overly Clever Wedding Cakes. The trend in recent years has been for wedding cakes that are more and more unusual and eye-popping. Neon colors, tilted tiers, lights, sparkles, and cakes costing many, many thousands of dollars have become the norm. There comes a point, however, when you can just get too clever in trying to make your cake unique and it loses the idea of simple beauty that has guided brides for generations. I think that we have reached a tipping point on the trendy cakes, and that it is time for a return to the classics. After several years of over-the-top cake design, more simple desserts will feel like a breath of fresh air.
Each person has their own pet peeves when it comes to weddings. Even if they are things that at one time appealed to you, eventually you find yourself just wishing that they would go away. This is my list; what is on yours?
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| Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009 02:10 |
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opera or rope necklace
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The best thing about giving your bridal party jewelry sets as bridesmaids' gifts for the wedding is that it not only looks fantastic the day of opera or rope necklace your wedding, but it can be worn again. If you choose the jewelry with your bridal party in mind, you are sure to select a gift the bridesmaids will appreciate.
Let's look at the many options available today for bridal jewelry starting with crystal jewelry sets. Crystals come in a rainbow of colors. Selecting a crystal bridal jewelry set allows you to match the jewelry to your wedding scheme color. For example, are your colors chocolate brown and pink and your bridal party is wearing chocolate brown? A pale pink crystal jewelry set will beautifully accent the chocolate brown bridesmaid dress but is freshwater pearl necklace also now considered a neutral color and can be worn with everyday outfits.
Keep in mind that if you do select a color crystal jewelry set, you don't have to match your wedding color. Selecting a lovely ivory or champagne necklace set is a lovely accent color that will bring a shimmer to the bridal party while allowing the wedding color to stand out fully in the bridesmaids dresses.
If you are getting married in the spring or twisted pearl necklace summer, you can choose lighter colors such as sky blue, lavender, or mint green. Fall and winter months lend a brilliant backdrop to burgundy, chocolate, or black bridesmaid jewelry sets.
Choosing a different necklace set for each of your bridesmaids is also another fantastic option. You are technically giving each one the same gift however you are tailoring the design to their particular personality. Everyone always has a friend that's larger than life. She loves to have fun and is brilliantly boisterous. The perfect necklace set for her would be a rhinestone jewelry set that's big and bold. Think lots of sparkle to match her sparkly personality.
Then for the bridesmaid that's more reserved and quiet - think classic. Staying with the rhinestone necklace sets, a double tier rhinestone choker with matching earrings that from a distance looks like a necklace of diamonds. This allows you to capture her particular personality while keeping the jewelry in the same family as the rest of the bridesmaids.
If you really want your bridesmaids to wholesale coral jewelry wear the same necklace set, choose a pattern or design that will look equally stunning on each of them. Perfect examples would be classic, art deco or Victorian inspired designs.
Pearls are as perfect for the bridesmaids and they are for the bride. Classic pearl strand necklace and earrings sets are often available in several colors but the most common are white or ivory. Which color you choose would depend on the color of the dress. White looks fantastic with primary colors such as red, blue, purple, green and of course, white. Ivory is very complimentary with champagne, ivory, brown, orange, and yellow. Either white or ivory may be worn with black.
Choosing a bridal jewelry set while keeping each bridesmaid's personality in mind ensures the perfect gift for your important girls sure to be worn at many happy events in the future.
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| Wednesday, 30-Sep-2009 02:08 |
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pearl jewelry
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The purest thing is pearl jewelry absolutely the crystal in the world. It is compared to the tears of the virgin girl. The crystal is the spiritual sustenance to people, also the leading role of those beautiful legends. The most important reason for its popularity is the physical function of it.
The crystal jewelry becomes the turquoise jewelry popular decoration in modern life. People wear the crystal bracelet or crystal pendant are often different from others. Crystal with different colors may have different functions.
The white crystal can focus or magnify the memory. It is the crystal queen with large energy; The amethyst can develop the human wisdom, improve the thinking ability, bring courage and power to man. It also stands for the pure love and is the love stone between couples; The purple topaz has double functions gathering the purple crystal with yellow crystal. It stands for wisdom and treasure, which can enhance the sixth sense and adjust the relationship between partners, parents and children, leader and underling, couples, lovers, etc.; The citrine is the symbol of treasure. Wear the yellow topaz can make person more confident, collect treasure and luck. The another function of the yellow topaz is to cure cold stomach and strengthen the liver sausage and peptic powder.
Though the crystal is as beautiful as the moon, it will be old or damage without careful store. So it is important to know the best way to freshwater pearl necklace store it.
The best but also the easy way is to put it on a ventilated place, and when the moon or star appears, move it to the place under the moon light to absorb their energy completely. Or put it into a flowerpot located at the veranda in a thunder night to let the crystal absorb the energy. If you feel that way is too trouble and not safe, you can wash the crystal by clean water in the night and put it into the jewelry box after wipe, which means not too dry to crack.
Before buying a crystal jewelry, you can exam it simply to make sure your money is worthy. Firstly, have a look at it to see whether there is any average fault inside it, the natural crystal normally has little fault resembling cotton. Secondly, to jewelry boxes judge the grade of the crystal according to its transparency, the more transparency, the better it is. Thirdly, the crystal is cool even in the summer. Forth, it is shining from each aspect. Finally, use a rubble to scratch softly, there will not be any trace on it.
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| Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009 07:52 |
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A national shame
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IT IS hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to pearl earrings Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world. In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of freshwater pearl earrings little more than tortillas does permanent damage.
This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of Guatemala’s GDP). Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of akoya pearl earrings protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to their children.
The government and aid donors are providing emergency food supplies for 300,000 people scattered in some 700 villages. Up to 400,000 more may need help. In Jocotán, in the east, rehabilitation centres have admitted dozens of children who are so malnourished that their black hair has turned blond, their faces are chubby from fluid build-up as their organs fail, the veins in their legs become a visible black spider-web and their face muscles are too weak to pearl pendant smile.
What makes this even more distressing is that Guatemala is rich enough to prevent it. Other Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, have reduced child hunger. Yet according to Unicef, the incidence of stunting—a common indicator of chronic malnutrition—in Guatemala is twice what it is in Haiti, where income per head is only a quarter as high. Stunting is not genetic: a study by the World Bank found that Mayans in southern Mexico are taller than those over the border.
That points to a failure of government in Guatemala. The Mayan population were the main victims of a long-running civil war between military dictatorships and left-wing guerrillas. Although democracy came, and eventually peace, social conditions have been slow to improve. Income inequality remains extreme, even by Latin American standards. Two-thirds of the rural population remains poor. Guatemala came second to bottom of a new index measuring inequality of opportunity in Latin America published by the World Bank last year. Whereas Guatemala City has shiny shopping malls, gated mansions and trendy restaurants, many indigenous Guatemalans scratch an inadequate living as sharecropping subsistence farmers. “These people were totally abandoned in the mountains with no infrastructure, no education, no health,” says Rafael Espada, the vice-president.
Much research shows that children who are undernourished tend to suffer from learning difficulties and end up poorer. So proper feeding is the first step in breaking the cycle of poverty. But schooling is vital too. Guatemala lags behind in educating girls in particular. As a result, mothers may not prepare corn-soya feeding supplements correctly, and may share them among all their children rather than favouring the malnourished.
The government fails to collect enough taxes from wealthier Guatemalans to provide good schools and health care for the majority, let alone the kind of targeted cash-transfer programme that has helped to cut poverty in Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere in the region. But urban Guatemalans are more worried about rampant crime, much of it by drug gangs. The government, like its predecessor, is full of good intentions. But several attempts at tax reform over the past decade have foundered in the face of entrenched political resistance. So malnutrition looks set to freshwater pearl pendant continue in a country in which it ought to be a cause of national shame.
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| Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009 07:47 |
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A wounded force in search of a new compass (two)
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Lula turned to Ms Rousseff as his heir-apparent. She is a relatively new recruit to the PT. Although she is impressively competent, she lacks the president’s vote-getting charisma. She also has several troubles. She has undergone treatment for lymph cancer. Piauí, a monthly newsletter, has revealed that the PhD listed in her profile on the government’s website never existed. And a former head of the tax office claims to have had a meeting with her in which they discussed how to curtail an investigation into Mr Sarney and his family.
Perhaps worse for Ms Rousseff’s candidacy is the fact that Marina Silva, who has many of the qualities that she lacks, is likely to run for the presidency for the Green Party. Ms Silva is not very charismatic either, but she is one of pearl necklace the few other people in Brazilian politics with a biography to rival Lula’s. The daughter of rubber tappers in the Amazon, she learned to read as a teenager and did some of the menial jobs that many Brazilians labour in before becoming a star of the international environmental movement. This month she met an audience of pearl jewelry wholesale business people at the Fundação Dom Cabral, a business school in Minas Gerais state, who expressed grudging respect for her uncompromising integrity.
Ms Silva is unlikely to be Brazil’s next president, but she could well siphon off votes from Ms Rousseff. Before then, though, she will have to sort out the Green Party. It, too, lost its moral impetus somewhere in Brasília. Its leader in the Chamber of Deputies is wholesale pearl jewlery Zequinha Sarney, a former environment minister who is also the son of the senate’s compromised president.
A couple of months ago it looked as if the election would be a straight fight between Ms Rousseff and José Serra, the governor of São Paulo, of the opposition Party of Brazilian Social Democracy. In addition to Ms Silva, the list of possible candidates has expanded to include Heloísa Helena, who leads an earlier leftist split from the PT, and Ciro Gomes, a populist former minister in gemstone jewelry Lula’s government.
The splintering of Lula’s political base ought to be good news for Mr Serra. Hugely experienced but lacking a popular touch, Mr Serra commands a consistent 40% or so in pre-election polls, 20 points ahead of Ms Rousseff. He has recently spent time in the poorer north-east. And he has started revealing mundane aspects of his life on Twitter. João Augusto de Castro Neves, a political consultant, reckons that Mr Serra will wait for as long as possible before declaring his candidacy to avoid the sort of attacks that Ms Rousseff is now attracting. Being the front-runner is pearl jewelry not easy and the race, which suddenly seems to have begun, is far from decided.
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| Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009 07:36 |
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A wounded force in search of a new compass (one)
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WHEN the Workers’ Party (PT) was founded in pearl earrings
1980 it saw itself as a different kind of political outfit: socialist, ethical, youthful, even romantic. But little by little its role has been reduced to getting its founding and unrivalled leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former lathe operator and trade-union leader, into power and keeping him there. This has meant disappointments and compromises that are now causing the party harm. This month two of freshwater pearl jewelry
its 12 senators (out of a total of 81) walked out. One, Flávio Arns, accused his colleagues of “throwing morality in the dustbin”. The other, Marina Silva, a PT stalwart since the 1980s and a celebrated environmental campaigner, left to join the smaller Green Party.
The latest troubles stem mainly from Lula using his power to swing the party behind José Sarney, the Senate president and the kind of pearl jewelry wholesale
old-fashioned political boss whom many in the PT went into politics to get rid of. Mr Sarney commands a chunk of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), a centrist bunch that follows where opportunity leads, but is Brazil’s largest and best organised political force. Mr Sarney has had troubles with the Senate’s ethics committee but has clung to his job thanks to Lula’s support. This is in aid of keeping the governing coalition together and swinging Mr Sarney’s block behind Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s chief of cultured pearl
staff and chosen candidate for the presidential election in October 2010. “Lula had no choice,” judges David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasília, “but he has almost destroyed the PT.”
The turmoil has exposed problems that had been camouflaged by success. The biggest is that the party which became a vehicle for Lula’s election never really came up with a plan B. Having almost completed two terms, the president is out of the electoral picture until 2014 at least. Several of freshwater pearl
Lula’s most prominent lieutenants were taken out of contention for the top job by a corruption scandal in 2005, when it emerged that party leaders had bought votes in the Congress. This also had the effect of damaging the party’s image among its supporters and the wider electorate.
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| Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009 07:32 |
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Sliding off piste (two)
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The provincial government insists that it will not spend more than C$765m on the pearl jewelry wholesale
games. But that omits some C$4 billion for infrastructure projects which formed part of the successful pitch to hold them. These include widening the road from Vancouver to Whistler, a new rail link to pearl jewelry the airport, and a new convention centre (which will act as the media centre during the events). British Columbia’s auditor-general calculated in 2006 that the net cost of the games to provincial taxpayers would be C$2.5 billion.
Some locals are anxious, too, that closer inspection by all those visiting journalists may damage Vancouver’s reputation as one of freshwater pearl jewelry the world’s most liveable cities. Not far from the gleaming waterfront are the squalid streets of Downtown Eastside, an infamous ghetto of the poor, the homeless and drug addicts. They will be joined by several groups of protesters, whose causes range from world poverty to opposition to seal hunting or to the games themselves. An elaborate security operation is freshwater pearl planned, involving thousands of police and troops, and costing C$900m, mostly from the federal government.
Canadians are great fans of winter sports. Perhaps a string of gold medals will disperse the gloom. Much of the new infrastructure will be useful long after the athletes have returned home. But already it is clear that the Vancouver Olympics, like most of their predecessors, will not “break even” without big taxpayer subsidies. Londoners, who are preparing for the much bigger and more expensive summer games two years later, will doubtless be watching with interest.
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