How much will it hijack the medal standings after pouring what American Olympic officials describe as staggering resources into its long-planned coming-out party?
If the staggering resources of talent, insight, dedication and energy bound up in our communities generally go untapped in conventional commercial revitalisation plans, there is at least some cause to believe a portion of them are now being activated under the rubric of "social innovation".
Despite Congo's staggering natural resources — its diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, crude oil and seemingly endless miles of hardwood forests — this nation now ranks as the least developed on earth.
Only 36 years old, it has put together an encyclopedic collection of some 150,000 works of art, including an extensive group of German Expressionist paintings, but it of course cannot match the Getty's staggering finanical resources.
Corruption is not a crippling problem here, as it is in neighboring Kenya, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, two African nations blessed with staggering amounts of resources but suffering from the so-called resource curse.
This means that they secretly hope the other startups in their portfolio fail fast, rather than staggering onward as resource-consuming "zombies".
I say "pipe dream" because the staggering amount of resources and labor it would require to build such a wall plants the project firmly in the realm of the implausible, if not the impossible.
Page B4 Sports GOVERNMENT IS LOSING Perspective in Hunt for Bonds The government continues to throw staggering amounts of resources and time at efforts to convict Barry Bonds on charges that he lied to a grand jury about steroid use in sports, the latest 300 pages of evidence on the subject.
It's a familiar complaint but one that he believes is responsible for out-of-control pay, the short-term greed that helped spawn the recent financial meltdown and a staggering waste of resources.
With their staggering influence and resources, a Hip Hop forum, town hall meeting, collective sponsorship of after-school programs, or even a national fundraiser to support the many local agencies that are on the frontlines doing the right thing, may save lives.
