Euro 2012: For Poland and Ukraine, the hangover begins now

In one of his short stories, Polish science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem imagined a spy from an alien culture making a report on the Earth’s activities based on years of distant observation.

One of the things he marvels at is our piety — every weekend, tens of thousands of us fill large, open-air houses of worship to cheer on the priests, who work in teams on grass.

Lem meant this, like he meant just about everything, as a swipe at totalitarianism and our circus-cult generally. Like all great satire, it turns out to be indistinguishable from the truth.
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For Poland and Ukraine, the hangover started Monday.

Euro 2012 left little of real worth for either country. Many of the planned infrastructure improvements — the easiest way to sell these things to non-sports fans and various other realists — weren’t finished. Watchdog groups have been stymied in their efforts figure out the exact cost of hosting the tournament — originally estimated around $50 billion (U.S.).
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When people remember the tournament in five years time, they’ll remember Spain, Pirlo’s Panenka and racism. None does Poland or Ukraine any good.

All big, expensive, global showcases are idealized as a vast program of forced modernization. They need to be. Developed countries, where it’s harder to hide the cost overruns, have been slowly losing interest.