With Glowing Hearts

As usual I’m more ambitious than prolific, and had hoped to blog more during the games but shit happens and life ensues. More video soon!

Thus ends the most expensive party ever thrown, 17 days of drunken revelry. There seemed to be some sort of sports competition going on as well.

Today it must be one huge hangover.

Yesterday was the craziest scene I ever did see here upon the streets of downtown Vancouver, or any where else for that matter. The exuberance, joy and good will was palpable, everywhere impromptu parades we’re taking place on the downtown streets, spontaneous eruptions of cheers and hugs and mitten waving. It was an incredibly fun time.

I saw more than one street hockey game being played, and in the downtown parades, all the boys with the biggest trucks had the biggest flags--correlation? hmmm...

An incredible day that could have so easily been flattened if the Americans could have got a follow-up goal. It would have left a bitter taste upon these games, and yesterday would have become ‘somber Sunday’ instead of the celebration it was. Thank you, Sidney.



Canadians have a lot to be proud of in the way we live and get along with one another. We also have many shameful acts perpetuated in our names to be accountable for. But its hard to be cynical in the afterglow of the Five Ring Circus. Once the party started, we all seemed to put on our Sunday best and were welcoming and hospitable to all, as any host should be. A good perspective here, and here.

Not 14 gold medals or hockey bragging rights, but Canadian warmth and hospitality was the real showcase of these games. With glowing hearts, indeed.

Torch

don't blink

No Stinking Badges

These Olympig Games are touted to be “Green”. Or some shady variation thereof. Greenish is more appropriate, which is how the taxpayers are going to look when the final bill comes in.

The ubiquitous Olympig SUV fleet rolls on, every corner has a cop, or more likely, a thug hired for the occasion. (You can tell them apart from the badges) Of course we are all waiting to see if the much anticipated riot squad will show up to beat down the homelessness protestors. Riot squad cops are easily recognized by their high tech ‘man-in-black’ look. They get to carry the BFW’s. Of course, these guys don’t need no stinking badges.

One positive aspect of the whole business is that there is NO PUBLIC PARKING! at any of the official venues. In this case, “public” means the majority of the unwashed sheeple, even when they are shelling out $1500 for a nosebleed seat for the opening fiasco, er ceremony. Of course the Olympig SUV fleet will be exempt. I’m sure also exempt will be the entourage of the various war criminals who masqurade as our political “leaders” and corporate parasites.

All those cars that used to occupy public space now just seem to be roaming around more, gridlocking the streets, perhaps looking for a parking spot that no longer exists. Even though much public money has already been spent on propaganda to get people to take transit, most everybody thinks the advice doesn’t apply to them, and continues to operate under the delusion that what they do is “important”.

Olympics Open

Well here it is, finally. The countdown clock rapidly approaches zero, many cheques have been cashed, the DTES has been sanitized, somewhat. We’re up to our elbows in debt and near civic bankruptcy but all that doesn’t matter now, cuz its time to party!

The buzz has been palpable the last week or so, or is it just the amount of carbon monoxide doubling as downtown routes become gridlocked. You can’t go a block without seeing a Olympig branded SUV rolling down the street, inevitably with a single driver and three empty seats. These are all sponsor provided oversize 4WD, as if this event was going to actually have snow! I happened to see them all parked beneath the Cambie Bridge, a rolling promotional fleet of destruction. The city has pleaded for a 30% reduction in regular traffic to help accommodate the games, but it seems to have only gone up by thirty per cent or more.

I thought it is a horrible glimpse of the future if we carry on with ‘bidnes as usual’.

The Olympic Games juggernaut is business as usual on hyper steroids. As we have been under the heel of the Olympic Corporation for nearly six years now, a lot of people have been ground under that heel, trampled without heed or remorse. Property taxes have increased cross the entire province as a result, and a reduction and failure of public services will be the legacy. As with any public debt, it will weigh most heavily upon the poor.

I’m sure a few people made A LOT OF MONEY off these games, the builders and contractors, the hotels, bars and restaurants. Peter Kieweit comes to mind, for one. Oh, and the prostitutes too, apparently, will cash in. The VANOC people thought they did such a good job that they gave themselves yet another raise in the midst of the most crippling depression the western capitalist world has ever known.

And then there is the security. Planned in the paranoid frenzy of the post 9-11, moron in the whitehouse world, A BILLION DOLLARS hs been thrown down the “security” sewer hole. A billion fucking dollars, that’s nine zeros behind that one, kids.

Meanwhile public spaces that haven’t been taken over by the Olympig corporation--anyone attempt to go public skating this year? futile.--have been defunded and closed. Bye bye Bloedel Conservatory. Those eight hundred teachers the government has promised to lay off, where do you think the money for those jobs went, hmmm?

All told, I’m told the price tag is going to be SIX BILLION DOLLARS! No wonder people are pissed off that they have to work like a dog all week to bring home $350. If they are lucky enough to have a job...But of course, bidnes as usual rolls on, people think they’re rich, Olympig souvenirs are flying off the shelves. Get yer red mittens. Made in China.