By Christopher A. Shaw
The glossy earrings of the Olympic video games have grown tarnished through the years as doping, corruption, and different scandals upward push to the outside. these scandals are the top of the iceberg, in response to writer Christopher A. Shaw, the lead spokesperson for a number of anti-Games groups.
Five Ring Circus info the heritage of the way Vancouver received the bid for the 2010 video games, who was once concerned, and what the genuine explanations have been. It describes the position of company media in selling the video games, the machinations of presidency and enterprise, and the competition that emerged.
Disturbing questions come to light:
Why does the overseas Olympic Committee pay no taxes? who're the genuine property builders at the back of the Vancouver bid? Why are mega tasks paid for with tax funds? What are the genuine bills of the video games? The Olympic video games, as soon as thought of the top of athleticism and reasonable play, became a cesspool of greed, backroom bargains, and the wholesale trampling of civil liberties. In Vancouver, arrangements for the 2010 video games have had a considerable unfavourable effect at the setting and feature led to the “economic cleansing” of the bad and homeless.
This e-book is a cautionary story for destiny Olympic bid towns, and may entice these excited about the results of globalization on many points of existence.
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Extra info for Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games
Example text
One was Tim Stevenson, a recently defeated provincial NDP minister. Another was Raymond Louie, a relative unknown. For those of us in NO GAMES, Jim Green had an additional reputation that concerned us: He had founded a group that billed itself as the Olympic watchdog, the Impact of Olympics on Community Coalition (IOCC). We didn’t see that they were watching much of anything, particularly developers about to get rich off Olympic deals. NO Games labeled them the Olympic “watch poodles,” perhaps in hindsight, an insult to poodles.
Well, yes, there were construction jobs during the building period, but what happened afterwards? What, for example, was the difference between building a convention center or a hospital? The same jobs might be created by the infusion of government money into any infrastructure project, but the first created a structure to be used by a small segment of society, the other by many. What about dollars tricking into the economy and taxes flowing into the treasury? The same answer applied. Increased tourism?
In one meeting, they had told us that they’d have to seek the guidance of those they considered to be the most able political “strategists”: elected members of the provincial and federal NDP. Considering that the provincial NDP had been behind the bid from the beginning, this did not bode well for a strong opposition position — and indeed none was forthcoming. Weird Political Groupings: The Yes and No Sides Form Up With most of the city councilors behind the bid and the city staff putting up pro-bid banners on every available lamppost, we knew our work was cut out for us to even the balance if we had any hopes of winning the plebiscite.
