Why I am underwhelmed at the Olympics
London has "won" the Olympic games for 2012. Hip, hip...ugnnngh.
I'm thoroughly disgruntled by the whole affair, so rather than post snarky little posts in everyone's journal (sorry, Bex) I decided I'd post a snarky little post here.
So why am I so underwhelmed?
1) The waste. The millions of pounds already spent on trying to grab the games, the millions of pounds spent on publicising them, on building farcilities (sic) that will get used for two weeks and then decay quietly, on stupid balloons and foam hands and crappy supersize Coke containers with integrated straws. And does anyone really believe that it was necessary for the Olympic Committee to jet around the world for the past two years on inspections, receptions, and the like? It's just one big jolly for a few thousand that's being paid for by millions.
2) The creeping privatisation of public space. You can bet your bottom dollar that all the public footpaths, canal towpaths (OK, owned by British Waterways, but still PROW), roads, alleys, paths, etc, that will disappear under concrete won't reappear again. Instead they'll be blocked with giant arenas patrolled by security guards, until after 2012 they're flogged to some public-private partnership for a healthy profit, subsequently sold to a developer for a healthy profit, and turned into a retail park.
3) Transport and the Environment. England, never mind just London, doesn't have the public transport infrastructure to deal with it all; blame Beeching (railways), Thatcher (buses), the Tories (privatised rail), Labour (privatised rail). Does anyone really imagine that in 7 years time we can have integrated rail-bus-ferry links, a modal shift in transport away from the private car, efficient rail services that cater for cyclists, a reduction in air travel? 'course not. What'll happen is that more car parks will be built, more roads will be built, asthmatics will be SOL, Heathrow will acquire another runway or two, and fuck the environment. Because, you know, we can't possibly delay the arrival of the Esso executive box champagne reception for the opening ceremony.
4) Cheating. Hands up anyone who thinks that top-level sportsmen don't play as close to the line as possible with regard to drugs, doping, blood doping, etc? No, thought not.
5) The big excuse. Well, we'll all have to have ID cards, won't we, to move about within a hundred miles of an Olympic corporate hospitality box so that some bearded hippy pinko terrorist doesn't get his grubby paws on the prawn sandwiches.
Feel free to spot the reasoned debate points amongst the rant. 8-)
I'm thoroughly disgruntled by the whole affair, so rather than post snarky little posts in everyone's journal (sorry, Bex) I decided I'd post a snarky little post here.
So why am I so underwhelmed?
1) The waste. The millions of pounds already spent on trying to grab the games, the millions of pounds spent on publicising them, on building farcilities (sic) that will get used for two weeks and then decay quietly, on stupid balloons and foam hands and crappy supersize Coke containers with integrated straws. And does anyone really believe that it was necessary for the Olympic Committee to jet around the world for the past two years on inspections, receptions, and the like? It's just one big jolly for a few thousand that's being paid for by millions.
2) The creeping privatisation of public space. You can bet your bottom dollar that all the public footpaths, canal towpaths (OK, owned by British Waterways, but still PROW), roads, alleys, paths, etc, that will disappear under concrete won't reappear again. Instead they'll be blocked with giant arenas patrolled by security guards, until after 2012 they're flogged to some public-private partnership for a healthy profit, subsequently sold to a developer for a healthy profit, and turned into a retail park.
3) Transport and the Environment. England, never mind just London, doesn't have the public transport infrastructure to deal with it all; blame Beeching (railways), Thatcher (buses), the Tories (privatised rail), Labour (privatised rail). Does anyone really imagine that in 7 years time we can have integrated rail-bus-ferry links, a modal shift in transport away from the private car, efficient rail services that cater for cyclists, a reduction in air travel? 'course not. What'll happen is that more car parks will be built, more roads will be built, asthmatics will be SOL, Heathrow will acquire another runway or two, and fuck the environment. Because, you know, we can't possibly delay the arrival of the Esso executive box champagne reception for the opening ceremony.
4) Cheating. Hands up anyone who thinks that top-level sportsmen don't play as close to the line as possible with regard to drugs, doping, blood doping, etc? No, thought not.
5) The big excuse. Well, we'll all have to have ID cards, won't we, to move about within a hundred miles of an Olympic corporate hospitality box so that some bearded hippy pinko terrorist doesn't get his grubby paws on the prawn sandwiches.
Feel free to spot the reasoned debate points amongst the rant. 8-)