But sporting spectacles often prove poor focal points for protest.
Problem: Rich countries have proved poor at delivering on their aid pledges.
In the words of the Vickers commission, "banks' debt proved poor at absorbing losses.
Still, Troy's wealth has proved poor inoculation against the financial problems of cities and states across the country.
Both proved poor investments, but many people at the time saw them as evidence that Japan was overtaking America.
H&M stumbled with its choice of Madonna back in March 2007, while Gap's choice of the French designer Roland Mouret, best known for his tailoring, proved poor.
Rhodes's patience had begun to wear thin even earlier, partly because he knew his health was precarious and partly because he learned that the gold deposits of the Transvaal were enormous, whereas those of Mashonaland were proving poor.
But in Britain, as in many other countries, by-elections can produce results that prove poor predictors of the voting patterns in general elections, and pundits here were cautious in projecting what Thursday's result might portend for the next general election, which must be held by May 2010.
But the pluses must be set against a loss of flexibility and freedom to allocate resources in an organisation that can never know for sure what war it will next be called upon to fight.Moreover, defence PFI deals have also proved poor at transferring risk from the government to suppliers.
In fact China's mountainous demand for the metal had barely reached the foothills (see chart 2).A stumble and a courtshipBHP's timing was as good as its rival's proved poor when, two years later, Rio won a desperate bidding battle for Alcan, a Canadian aluminium-maker.
