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Vancouver's Olympics head for disaster
Drowned Out
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ics-police
Vancouver's Olympics head for disaster
Two weeks before the games and with police officers on every corner, Vancouver is far from an Olympic wonderland
Douglas Haddow guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 January 2010 15.00 GMT
It's now two weeks until the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games, a city-defining event that is a decade in the making. But a decade is a very long time. Much of what seemed sensible in the early 2000s has proven to be the opposite: for instance, allowing investment bankers to pursue profits willy-nilly was acceptable when Vancouver won the bid in 2003, but is now viewed as idiotic. So it comes as no surprise that just days before the opening ceremony, Vancouver is gripped by dread. Not the typical attitude for a host city, but understandable when you consider that everything that could go wrong, is in the process of going wrong.
Vancouver has been continually ranked as the world's most livable city. An Olympic sized-dose of gentrification would only serve to speed up Vancouver's transformation from a livable yet expensive city into a glitzy hotel for international capital. But these neoliberal dreams are now little more than fantasy. In the mid-2000s the games were originally slated to cost a pittance of $660m and bring in a profit of $10bn. This ludicrous projection was made before the market crash – an event that the Vancouver's Olympic committee failed to anticipate.
"The Bailout Games" have already been labelled a staggering financial disaster. While the complete costs are still unknown, the Vancouver and British Columbian governments have hinted at what's to come by cancelling 2400 surgeries, laying off 233 government employees, 800 teachers and recommending the closure of 14 schools. It might be enough to make one cynical, but luckily every inch of the city is now coated with advertisements that feature smiley people enjoying the products of the event's gracious sponsors.
Conservative estimates now speculate that the games will cost upwards of $6bn, with little chance of a return. This titanic act of fiscal malfeasance includes a security force that was originally budgeted at $175m, but has since inflated to $900m. With more than 15,000 members, it's the largest military presence seen in western Canada since the end of the second world war, an appropriate measure only if one imagines al-Qaida are set to descend from the slopes on C2-strapped snowboards. With a police officer on every corner and military helicopters buzzing overhead, Vancouver looks more like post-war Berlin than an Olympic wonderland. Whole sections of the city are off-limits, scores of roads have been shut down, small businesses have been told to close shop and citizens have been instructed to either leave the city or stay indoors to make way for the projected influx of 300,000 visitors.
Vancouver's Olympic committee has also assumed the role of logo police. Librarians are being commanded to feed McDonald's to children while unauthorised brands have been banned from Olympic venues. Worse yet, they've begun to casually slip clips from Leni Riefenstahl films into their Coldplay-soundtracked promotional videos.
This manic mix of hype and gloom is a byproduct of the games' utter pointlessness. For those who have been planning their resistance since 2003, Vancouver is about to become the world's premier political stage. It will be the best chance yet for the Olympics to be derailed and exposed as what they are: a corrupt relic of the 20th century that does little more than gut city coffers and line the pockets of developers and investors. If things go pear-shaped and Vancouverites resort to their riotious ways, at least the city will get its money's worth out of that bloated security force and the ensuing spectacle will boost NBC's slumping ratings. After all, the Olympics are primarily a patriotic event, and in the words of the late Howard Zinn, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".
Vancouver's Olympics head for disaster
Two weeks before the games and with police officers on every corner, Vancouver is far from an Olympic wonderland
Douglas Haddow guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 January 2010 15.00 GMT
It's now two weeks until the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games, a city-defining event that is a decade in the making. But a decade is a very long time. Much of what seemed sensible in the early 2000s has proven to be the opposite: for instance, allowing investment bankers to pursue profits willy-nilly was acceptable when Vancouver won the bid in 2003, but is now viewed as idiotic. So it comes as no surprise that just days before the opening ceremony, Vancouver is gripped by dread. Not the typical attitude for a host city, but understandable when you consider that everything that could go wrong, is in the process of going wrong.
Vancouver has been continually ranked as the world's most livable city. An Olympic sized-dose of gentrification would only serve to speed up Vancouver's transformation from a livable yet expensive city into a glitzy hotel for international capital. But these neoliberal dreams are now little more than fantasy. In the mid-2000s the games were originally slated to cost a pittance of $660m and bring in a profit of $10bn. This ludicrous projection was made before the market crash – an event that the Vancouver's Olympic committee failed to anticipate.
"The Bailout Games" have already been labelled a staggering financial disaster. While the complete costs are still unknown, the Vancouver and British Columbian governments have hinted at what's to come by cancelling 2400 surgeries, laying off 233 government employees, 800 teachers and recommending the closure of 14 schools. It might be enough to make one cynical, but luckily every inch of the city is now coated with advertisements that feature smiley people enjoying the products of the event's gracious sponsors.
Conservative estimates now speculate that the games will cost upwards of $6bn, with little chance of a return. This titanic act of fiscal malfeasance includes a security force that was originally budgeted at $175m, but has since inflated to $900m. With more than 15,000 members, it's the largest military presence seen in western Canada since the end of the second world war, an appropriate measure only if one imagines al-Qaida are set to descend from the slopes on C2-strapped snowboards. With a police officer on every corner and military helicopters buzzing overhead, Vancouver looks more like post-war Berlin than an Olympic wonderland. Whole sections of the city are off-limits, scores of roads have been shut down, small businesses have been told to close shop and citizens have been instructed to either leave the city or stay indoors to make way for the projected influx of 300,000 visitors.
Vancouver's Olympic committee has also assumed the role of logo police. Librarians are being commanded to feed McDonald's to children while unauthorised brands have been banned from Olympic venues. Worse yet, they've begun to casually slip clips from Leni Riefenstahl films into their Coldplay-soundtracked promotional videos.
This manic mix of hype and gloom is a byproduct of the games' utter pointlessness. For those who have been planning their resistance since 2003, Vancouver is about to become the world's premier political stage. It will be the best chance yet for the Olympics to be derailed and exposed as what they are: a corrupt relic of the 20th century that does little more than gut city coffers and line the pockets of developers and investors. If things go pear-shaped and Vancouverites resort to their riotious ways, at least the city will get its money's worth out of that bloated security force and the ensuing spectacle will boost NBC's slumping ratings. After all, the Olympics are primarily a patriotic event, and in the words of the late Howard Zinn, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".
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you know what I meant...but arguing the progressive point has nothing to do with the topic, so I'm going to resist the urge to derail my own thread.
My bad, sorry.
group and protest itinerary:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho ... 970&ref=nf
ALL OUT AGAINST THE 2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES!
* New promo video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoLQ6ThezTk
The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver & Whistler, on unceded Indigenous land, from February 12-28 2010. We call on all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents. We are organizing towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the 2010 Olympic Games.
* BASIC SCHEDULE:
The Convergence is called for Feb 10-15:
- Wed Feb 10- Thurs Feb 11: Olympic Resistance Summit from noon until 10 pm.Workshops and speakers discussing Impact of the Olympics on Indigenous Communities and Land Defence, Corporatization of the Games, Legal Rights, Housing and Poverty Impacts, Creative Resistance, and Struggle beyond 2010. Childcare and Food will be provided. Wise Hall (1882 Adanac St) and nearby Centre For Socialist Education (706 Clark Dr). Details: http://olympicresistance.net
- Fri Feb 12: Take Back Our City! “Welcome” the 2010 Olympic Torch with Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food! Beginning with a festival at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 pm, followed by a parade and protest to BC Place Stadium. Details, including childcare, at: http://2010welcoming.wordpress.com/
- Sat Feb 13. 2010 Heart Attack: Street March to Clog the Arteries of Capitalism. Arrive at 8:30 am in Thornton Park (Main and Terminal). This demonstration will respect diversity of tactics and aims to disturb "business as unusual" on the first day of the Games! Details: http://olympicresistance.net/content/2010-heart-attack
- On Sun Feb 14th, we will be standing with the 19th Annual Women's Memorial March to honour all the missing and murdered and women in the DTES (this is not an anti-Olympic protest). Details at: http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/
- Mon Feb 15 (ONGOING): Noon at Pigeon Park (Carrall and Hastings). No empty talk, no empty lots! Rally for Homes and Support the Olympic Tent Village. Organized by DTES-based, anti-poverty, and housing rights groups. Visit: http://dtesjustice.wordpress.com/
- Mon Feb 15: Vancouver Art Gallery, Gathering at 6:00pm and leaving at 6:30pm. Come out and be part of an anti-war and anti-militarization moving spectacle. This event is a festive and creative demand for the Canadian government to respect and uphold human-rights, international law, the right to self-determination and civil rights.Organized by Stopwar.ca
etc...
don't get me wrong - i'll be cheering for canada at the events but everything behind the events is crooked as crooked can be ... i turned down a chance to carry the torch for that reason ... if you are a city (and toronto is one of them) that bid and lost the olympics - consider yourself lucky that you only got screwed over for a bit of cash ...
This is pretty much my view as well.
I wish they'd bring back the Canada or World Cups (international pro hockey tourney) so that there were no events I really cared about...then I could revel in my righteous indignation without the guilty conscience
I am very proud of the city and hope it does act with pride and dignity even in the spirit of social justice and opposition.
Bejing was supposed to be a disaster... Lake Placid was supposed to be a disaster... Sarajevo was supposed to be a disaster (Hint: The Olympics had NOTHING to do with the fall of the Soviet Union and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia... so, don't even think of it...) and Los Angeles (1984) was supposed to be a complete and utter economic meltdown.
I have a pretty good feeling... and will go out on a limb here... and predict that Vancouver willl still exist after the Olympics... and that Canada will still be there, too.
Hail, Hail!!!
I'm not predicting a nuclear attack cosmo....although two tonnes of ammonium nitrate did go missing a couple weeks ago in Vancouver (since called a clerical error, but the RCMP are still looking into it)...
I'm just wondering if the 'itangibles' of publicly funded stuff like stadiums, expos, oly's are worth it when you consider that they ARE most often money losers for the cities that undertake them? You're in LA, right? The Staples Centre / downtown revitalization there is being touted as a model for my city to follow....but I don't necessarily buy that the process benefits many people at all.....Who comes out the winners and losers? What did the 84 oly's really do for LA? I'm asking honestly...
And I'm pointing out that Van may have a populace more willing to undertake this kind of opposition than other recent hosts, combined with the economic climate created since the last games (which weren't going to get much opposition anyway considering the host city).
Did I say nuclear attack? Nope.
I just remember all the talk about the Olympics going to bankrupt Lake Placid. Well, Lake Placid is still there, right?
And yup.. I'm in Orange County. In 1984, talk was there was going to be such an influx of people to Los Angeles, that it would gridlock the area for years. The incorrect reasoning was that people would not leave or move into the Southern California area in the years following 1984. There were people saying that by the end of the decade (1989) it would take us about 20 minutes to travel one mile on our freeways... every day. Sure... it happens... every once in a while... on the 405... near LAX... when it's raining... and there is an accident. And the increase in the population would drive housing through the roof and no one could afford to live here.
Well... if no one lived here... why would it take me 6 and a half hours to make the 20 mile commute to work?
What did L.A. get from the Olympics? not much. But, there wasn't an economic disaster that its critics claimed there'd be. Life went on... Los Angeles is still here... we're doing okay.
...
Now... if you guys spent more on things to build for the Olympics, such as stadiums with no home team or hotels with no guests... and have no use for them afterwards. Then, yeah... you're probably going to get screwed. But, that's not the Olympics fault... it's the fault of Vancouver's elected leaders... and the people of Vancouver who vote for them.
Hail, Hail!!!
the IOC is a corrupt organization ... in order to secure the olympics - a city must basically cede governance to the olympic committee ... they impose demands that ultimately is burdened by tax payers ... and short of the local spin off in jobs for 2 weeks - most of the profits are reaped by the big corporations that control these games ... it is why they spend so much money threatening small businesses that might remotely violate some copyright infringement ...
because the so called benefits of an olympics is long-term - it is hard to actualize the benefit but all independent studies have shown that most recent olympics do not provide the benefits they often tout ... it's funny cuz the initial budgets are NEVER anywhere close to being what they are when the bids are going in ... the numbers are made up to fool the public ...
Did I mention traffic snarls as a major concern? nope...
I'm talking about the estimated 2 million people (1.5 in china alone) displaced by olympic development in the last 20 years...the land grabs, the low income people evicted to allow greedy landlords to cash in on a two week price increase...the manipulated economic forecasts, the forced closure of small businesses...
VANOC sued a company and tried to trademark the number 2010 after a business used it in their promo literature ffs....
the incalculable, intangible benefits are not so beneficial to the poor. A new, 9-figure, world class speed skating oval, while great for elite athletes and our sports programs...doesn't do a fuck of lot for a min wage worker who lost his home because of it...
You're right, the people of Van need to accept some accountability... But can we say that the war in Iraq is the fault of the average US citizen? To some extent, sure...but you can't overlook the lies that helped take you there.
You could apply the 'life goes on' adage to any injustice, doesn't excuse it at all.
Yup... we are bankrupt.
Please... never come to California... PLEASE!!!
Hail, Hail!!!
It really is a corporate bonanza, I started noticing my transit rides lately being overwhelmed by Samsung, GE, Coke and McDonalds Olympic ads. They have even removed all the ads on the bus and skytrains that aren't official Olympic sponsors.
If we do make money, it certainly won't be going to the right places - but does anything when it comes to politicians?
When Gordo convinced Vancouver of the olympics he arrogantly suggested we would make 10 billion dollars on the games. 10 Billion to pay for the atrocious health cuts he has been making this past year? I don't think so. And while he shrugs at an 885 million dollar convention center ($390 million over budget!) with its marble floors (not an exaggeration) they tell us they don't have money to fund our universities, schools or hospitals.
And now the Olympic security has taken over everything. I completely agree drivers need to choose transit instead when they can, but can our transit system handle the load? They estimated a couple weeks ago (VANOC) that wait times would be "only an hour and a half". Not only that, but I've heard of pedestrians, residents and business owners being left out to dry because of the new security perimeters. (case in point)
Like most of you I'll wait and see if we can recover from this, but most estimates are that we won't. Moreover, it'll be my generation and the generations after that which will have to foot the bill (so they say).
Personally, if I were to prefer where my tax money will go, I'd like to keep the hospital wards that are being shut down open rather than a speed skating track. I'd rather support the 600 teachers who are about to be laid off than the likes of Coke and McDonalds.
No snow! Which means they shut Cypress down a month early! Glad I didn't buy a season pass this year... whew.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/12/olympics
Brian Williams (the ctv opening ceremony host) stated 25k showed up, but I think he read it with an extra zero.
CBC is reporting 1500 - the official police number....youtube vids don't make the crowd look much bigger, but there isn't much coverage to be found. There were some rowdies, two cops hurt...
Should be interesting to see if it grows or dies out..
I watched CTV and CBC news last night and really felt that CTV's coverage was unfair to the protesters. Understandably, they are the official Olympic network here but they could have at least tried to not look so blatantly polarized. They used the veteren's misfortune and played it up to really make the protesters look bad, even though that was completely a matter of circumstance and nothing that the protesters intended to do. "It brings a tear to my eye" says the reporter behind the camera while interviewing the vets; how is that neutral reporting? They also never mentioned clearly what the protesters were speaking up about and had an air of making fun of them.
I was really disappointed with their coverage, because these people have been organizing for a long time and put a lot of hard work into making what seemed like a peaceful protest very successful, and CTV didn't do their job as far as broadcasting and journalism go.
Ya, aside from the democracynow piece above, which isn't even any investigation of their own, I've seen no mainstream coverage of the protests...if you can even call democracy now mainstream.
And the coverage has been one-sided, yes.
Now this 200 person riot thing.... I have to wonder....more provacateur BS ala Seattle 99, Genoa 01, Montebello 07, London 09 etc etc etc....state sponsored discrediting of legit peaceful movements? smash windows in front of cameras ---> crack down...? Is this the good ol' Black Bloc again?
So basically they have done stupid senseless violence that has infuriated the entire city and the blame all falls on genuine protesters trying to make their point in peace.
fucking sick.
edit- ok i think thats what you meant to say with your post i just didnt take the time to read the last couple sentences lol
I think I have these straight:
Seattle 99 - speculation that the Black Bloc (the anarchists that started the serious rioting) were paid to be there by the government....
Genoa 01 - protesters caught a senior police officer on camera, posing as a journalist, chanting slogans about pigs and trying to get people to push the 'front of the line'.
Montebello 07 - protesters caught two RCMP officers undercover, posing as masked-anarchists, carrying rocks and trying to incite a riot.
London 09 - the Black Bloc TOLD the police their agenda....the police ignored it, and focused on peaceful protesters while the 'anarchists' tore up buildings in front of a mass of cameras.