Comments | primroseburrows: Hmm. Interesting.

primroseburrows

Hmm. Interesting.

Jan 30, 2010 16:47

I've been a fan of the Winter Olympics since I was a kid (not so much the summer ones, because I'm not all that interested in watching gymnastics or swimming or running, stuff like that ( Read more... )

things that make you go 'hmmm', politics: world, linky mclink, politics: sports, flist is smart, olympics

Comments 4

exbex January 31 2010, 03:06:45 UTC

I started to have mis-givings about the Olympics during the Beijing Olympics, when I was reading about how Beijing residents were getting kicked out of their homes and about how China has shipped weapons of genocide to Darfur (it's not any culture I have a beef with, it's governments). I shared these misgivings with people and got a lot of "the Olympics is about the world coming together, politics should be put aside, blah blah blah..." I couldn't put my politics aside, and as this talk has revealed, everything is wrapped up in politics.

callumvixen January 31 2010, 03:41:50 UTC

I've been feeling it for a few years now [I live in Vancouver, near one of the skiing venues], what with road and building and venue construction and all the associated local news and planning and such. Really feeling it now with road closures, lots of interesting foreigners in the city, massive security presence, transportation challenges. Pretty head-spinning stuff to be living in. The sheer logistics is incredible. There is SO SO SO much more stuff going on here than 'just' the Winter Games - free concerts and events, theater and protests, famous people and the "Cultural Olympiad". My SiL is volunteering and she's been doing her volunteer training for this for the past couple of years ( ... )

primroseburrows January 31 2010, 04:54:14 UTC

I've head about the Cultural Olympiad--not sure what it is, but I'll look it up.

What do you think about the opinion that the games are on stolen land? That's the thing that actually bothers me the most, even though the other stuff is also bothersome.

And yeah, I'm going to watch and cheer and everything else this year. And if Canada and the US are ever in a dead heat I'll be in big trouble, because I'm cheering for both countries.

callumvixen January 31 2010, 05:33:46 UTC

Cultural Olympiad is a giant arts event - plays, performances, art, seminars, etc, that happen at the same time as the sporting events... basically the entire city is a huge event centre ( ... )