[mobglob-discuss] Olympic boosterism has a hollow ring

[Bella]

By LYNN COADY 
Tuesday, July 8, 2003 - Page R1 
Globe & Mail 

Boy, the Asper papers weren't making it easy for anyone to maintain a
healthy skepticism about the 2010 Olympics this week. Every block you
walked down in Vancouver was graced with a cheerful lineup of newspaper
boxes -- The Sun, The Province, and the B.C. edition of The National Post
-- all depicting different versions of essentially the same scenario:
ecstatic B.C.-ers, orgasmic with pride over their province's successful
bid. The maple-leaf-painted visages of fresh-faced children beamed from
the front pages, no doubt soon to be inspired to their own feats of
excellence thanks to this incomparable opportunity to witness our nation's
elite athletes skate around in circles really fast and what have you. 

Apologies. I could not sustain the high-blown rhetoric above, but this is
a cultural column after all, written by someone whose knowledge of sport
is roughly akin to Bill Gates's sweaty-palmed grasp on the tenets of men's
fashion. One thing I do know, or thought I knew before the headlines
started hollering otherwise, is that one-third of the province has
significant reservations about the benefits of holding the Winter Olympics
in Vancouver (oops -- that's Vancouver-Whistler) and have been grousing
about it since February. But these grinchy old naysayers were nowhere to
be heard this week above the din of the rah-rahs and whoo-wees. Except on
a CBC call-in show or two, where one wag inquired if Vancouver residents
who voted against the bid in the plebiscite a few months back would be
permitted to abstain from shouldering their part of the immense tax burden
hosting the games will entail. 

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released a study that
states: "There will be a substantial net cost to British Columbians in the
order of $1.2-billion, even taking into account increased tax revenues and
the benefit of not having to upgrade the Sea-to-Sky highway at a later
date." They add that, as the sole guarantor of the games, British Columbia
is assuming all the financial burden of what is "clearly a risky business
venture." 

So how exactly did it happen that I find myself taking the part of Joe
Taxpayer and that Gordon-fricking-Campbell is suddenly running around
assuring everybody that it's good to pay taxes, that taxes go to things
like infrastructure, housing and jobs. What sort of upside-down bizarre
world have we breached here? Is this like that episode of Star Trek where
Spock had a goatee and you could tell it was the evil Kirk because he was
wearing eyeliner? Since when has our premier given the proverbial rat's
ass about, you know, stuff that people in this province need? Human Rights
Commission? Nah. Hospitals, schools in the interior? Iffy. How about roofs
over the heads of the poor and the elderly? Please, weren't you listening?
People who want to go skiing in Whistler will now be able to drive on a
nice new highway. Everybody wins. 

So the concept of "need" is what's really at issue here. A booster of the
games, speaking on the CBC's Afternoon Show, told the story of watching
the announcement of Vancouver's win on television with his 11-year-old
daughter. At that heady moment, the proud father rhapsodized to listeners,
the adorable poppet announced, "I'm going to be there!" 

She had set her cap for Olympic gold! See how, already, the dreams of our
youth have been ignited by the Olympic spirit. If she starts training
obsessively now, taking performance-enhancing drugs and maybe cultivating
a handy eating disorder lest puberty take her in unwonted directions, she
could be doing spots for McCain's Mr. Juicy by 2012. In a magnificently
cranky editorial written pre-plebiscite, The Vancouver Courier's Patricia
Coppard expressed her frustration with this kind of overblown Pollyanna
positivity, especially the breathless oratory she encountered on the
2010-bid Web site. 

"First of all, if government wants to rally our 'community pride and
national spirit,' " she fumed, "they should stop dismantling our community
services and programs. . . . They should stop shutting down hospitals and
old folks' homes. Oh, I forgot. We can't afford it. Well how come we can
afford to dump $1.25-billion on the games?" 

This is a question that only turned up in mainstream media outlets
(although not exactly on the front page) when local poverty groups
established an "Olympic Tent City" on the Downtown Eastside. They are
there, they have announced, to protest against the baleful lack of social
housing in Vancouver as well as the Campbell government's upcoming plan to
sever the benefits of 38,000 welfare recipients in April, 2004. 

Of course, there's also all those drug- and HIV-related deaths going on in
the neighbourhood, but that's not officially part of the protest. "We view
the Olympic bid as directly connected to the B.C. Liberals' agenda of
privatization, neo-liberalism and poor-bashing," reads a curmudgeonly
press release by organizers of the tent city. God, where is their Olympic
Spirit? Don't they read The Province? Exactly how many Asper papers do we
need out here before these cranks get it through their heads? 

Skiing. Highway. Nice to drive on.



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com