Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

[FluffyMcDeath]

Much not to my surprise the whole games thing is turning into a total debacle.

I voted against it when we had the referendum. I lost, 2:1, but then again less than half the city cared enough to vote at all.

People have been stalked by the authorities for voicing opposition to the Olympics. The police have interviewed friends and associates of people who write letters to the editor and such. VANOC has made licensing deals and recently told the Vancouver Public Library that if it holds any public events (it does all the time) that it would have to use Panasonic TVs for presentations (but if it really needed to use a Sony then it would have to cover the logo) and don't allow Burger King to donate anything because McDonalds is an official sponsor, etc, etc.

We've had new laws like the ridiculous laws they've brought in in London for their Olympics where authorities can enter your property to remove any posters they don't like. We are going to get a ton of security cameras all over the place and we are going to let the same authorities keep them (so that we will be safe even after the Olympics are done).

The city of Vancouver has already had to take on the debt for the Olympic Village since Fortress Group couldn't seem to finance it anymore (yay, private enterprise, always complaining about the government then falling on their asses when the nanny state lets go of their hand!).

I talked about out ski hill weather problems in another thread - we have had unseasonably warm weather for all of this year so far - well, actually it hasn't been so unseasonable. We've been having more of the warmer ones than the colder ones and that was one of my many reasons for voting against the Winter Olympics. Vancouver doesn't have reliable winters. Now it has come down to brown runs and the the hills are closed weeks early so that snow can be brought in. That's going to be cheap, right? And if it keeps raining and stays this warm ...

On the good news side of the equation, the hills in Whistler have plenty of snow. Back on the bad news side - the hills are owned by Intrawest which is owned by ... Fortress Group ... yes, the same Fortress Group we bailed out, but now they've missed a payment to their creditors and the creditors are saying that they have the legal right to shut down the mountain. Won't happen, probably, but you can bet the creditors will hold up the threat while they put the screws to VANOC and ultimately the taxpayers of BC and Vancouver. It looks like they are going to be auctioning off the hill while the Olympics are on which seems like a good way to move the price up, but if it doesn't go well (if all the buyers are in the same financial cesspool) then there will still be time to close the hill and extort taxpayer money before the games end.

I suppose that the Government of Canada could get involved and write some legislation to prevent such extortion for the duration of the games but ... 1) that's not their philosophical position, they only legislate against labour 2) parliament is prorogued.

Other than that ... it's all pretty good thought there are still plenty of transportation and traffic issues to solve. That shouldn't be a problem though. There's still a couple of weeks to work that out.

 

[Glaucus]

If they could pull off a successful Olympics in Athens, they should be able to do it in Vancouver - weather permitting of course. The real problems will begin after the Olympics. Greece spent about a billion dollars just on security. That's insane as overall it's money down the toilet. One could argue that the rest of the 6 billion or whatever went to infrastructure changes, plus the building of some cool stadiums (maybe host the Euro cup one day?), but still, it's a lot of cash for a tiny country surrounded by idiots. One proposal Greece made is that all participating nations should contribute to the cost of security, not sure if that recommendation was ever acted on or if Canada is picking up the bill for security in Vancouver?

I often wonder why cities want to host the Olympics as the cost is ridiculous. Personally, I'm not sure how I'd vote. I might have voted yes if certain infrastructure upgrades were part of the deal, although I'm not sure what was done in Van, haven't been there in years. From what I could remember Vancouver has some serious traffic issues that a city of it's size shouldn't have - but most cities aren't stuck between the ocean and the rocky mountains either. Somehow I doubt the Olympics are gonna fix any of that.

And don't get me started on this proroguing bullshit. For those who don't know, it's a convenient way for the Prime minister to suspend parliament. It used to be the sort of thing you'd see once in a life time under extraordinary circumstances, but our current PM seems to have taken a fancy to it and it's become a yearly event. If anything goes wrong with the Olympics that may have needed legislation (such as a major strike that could have been legislated away) Harper will have an even hard time of things when Parliament resumes. The only good news is that mofo Harper is losing support.

 

[Glaucus]

Oh ya, the Athens Olympics were sabotaged (mostly unintentionally) by correspondents who predicted a catastrophic Olympics for various reasons. As a result ticket sales were way down even though most predictions were unfounded. This really made things worse for Greece. What I worry for Vancouver is internal sabotage. I've heard of plenty of groups set to cause as much trouble as possible. I know certain native groups have serious issues with the Olympics. If they do somehow manage to cause disruptions it will only make things worse for Vancouver and Canada in the long run. Not that I'm against peaceful protest like they did with Tibet in China a couple years back, but I wouldn't be shocked if we saw 1994 style riots in Vancouver. If such a thing happens there will likely be long term ramifications.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

I often wonder why cities want to host the Olympics as the cost is ridiculous.

"Cities" don't. These things are always brought to town, not by popular demand, but by a small group of business people who think that they will make money. The idea is to shake the slop bucket and see what splashes over the side. You get a lot of money flowing so you can skim a small portion. Like parasitism, it's not beneficial to the host, but the ticks get fat.

I might have voted yes if certain infrastructure upgrades were part of the deal, although I'm not sure what was done in Van, haven't been there in years.

The hook is often baited with just those things. Of course, a lot of it is for stuff we don't need or want and some of it is for things we DO need but we will end up paying more than we should for those things. Sure, people will come and spend money and the other levels of government will throw money at us (good for the developers and construction workers here in Vancouver, not so good to you guys in Winterpeg and everywhere else who are paying for it!!).

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Oh ya, the Athens Olympics were sabotaged (mostly unintentionally) by correspondents who predicted a catastrophic Olympics for various reasons. As a result ticket sales were way down even though most predictions were unfounded.

That may just be some baseless finger pointing. Negative talk about the Olympics doesn't really play past the border, it's not relevant to most people - but then again, nor is the Olympics. That's what kills ticket sales. There will always be people with more money than sense who want to go be a part of that sort of Haj so by all means let them spend their excess cash, but mostly the Olympics is just another good reason not to turn on the television.

 

[Glaucus]

So far these games are on track for going down in history as the most cursed or doomed (well, besides Munich I hope). A death on the opening day, a major malfunction with the Olympic flame lighting (I felt so bad for the tor bearers), protests (although not enough to cause a major disturbance) and a main event already postponed (Men's Alpine due to lack of snow). The sort of things people predicted would plagued Athens (but never did) now plagues a first world G8 member nation. If things keep up we're likely to see a major terror attack, or even worse, the Canadian hockey team may settle for 3rd place. :shock: What a disgrace that would be!

Did anyone see the opening ceremonies? The segment on the prairies did a good job of portraying how boring the prairies really are. I almost fell asleep to that. Oh well, at least KD Lang sang Leonard Cohen's song well (highlight of the night, and I'm not a KD Lang fan).

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

protests (although not enough to cause a major disturbance)

The torch relay got rerouted on a couple of points through town to go around protests.

As for terrorist attacks, the authorities still haven't found that missing two tons of ammonium nitrate. I haven't heard any news on if that investigation has turned up anything yet.

 

[Glaucus]

I was kidding about the terror attacks, I hope so are you.

However, the problem legitimate protesters seem to be facing lately are smaller groups on nut jobs who just like to cause trouble. It seems some non-locals have decided to show the Vancouver locals how to get things done:

Police, protesters clash in Vancouver

Seven protesters were arrested and will likely be charged with assault and possession of a dangerous weapon after 200 anti-Olympic demonstrators marched through downtown Vancouver Saturday, smashing plate glass windows and overturning newspaper boxes.

Police say they recovered a bag with a hammer. One protester had a bicycle chain wrapped around his fist when he was arrested, police also say.

A criminal element mingled with the legitimate anti-Olympic protestors. "The criminal element apparently willing to wield anything that might cause damage or injury marched among about 200 legitimate protestors," police said in a statement released about an hour after police broke up their march.

"This group contained more than 100 masked people many of whom kicked and damage numerous parked cars. They used spray paint on cars and transit buses and tore down signs. They also clashed with members of the public and pedestrians who didn't support them," police said.

"The demonstration involved a number of anarchists, some of whom dress all in black and employ a tactic, called Black Bloc. This included a loosely organized group of thugs from central Canada known to attach themselves to any cause, travel to any event that attracts media coverage and promote anarchy wherever they go.

"Vancouver police respect the rights of those who wish to express their criticism but that does not give them right to commit crimes and jeopardize the public's safety," police say.

The problem is they make legitimate protesters look like a bunch of hooligans. It reminds me of when I went out to protest against the invasion of Iraq, back in 2003, outside of our legislative building. Lots of normal looking people that day, but there was a small group of all-black, face hidden dudes that I made a point of keeping the {bleep} away from. Luckily they didn't do anything, but they had an ominous presence. Hate those goofs.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

I was kidding about the terror attacks, I hope so are you.

Let me say it in capital letters.

THE AUTHORITIES STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THAT MISSING TWO TONS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE

The problem is they make legitimate protesters look like a bunch of hooligans.

Wonder what there is about that on youtube.

 

[Glaucus]

Let me say it in capital letters.

THE AUTHORITIES STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THAT MISSING TWO TONS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE

Ok, no need to yell, I just somehow missed that news item somehow. So I just assumed you may have been joking, but I just googled it and ya, there's 2 tonnes unaccounted for, possibly due to clerical error, but possibly due to more sinister reasons. Ya, that's not good either way.