You are either with us, or you are against us.
I was mixing it up with a so called "progressive" about the Owelympics this evening and I'll be damned, if he didn't start channelling Bush.
His supposition was that we should all just lay back now and support the owelympic athletes, and yanno, what is done is done!
He also said that by me sticking to my guns in NOT supporting this travesty, that I was a) NOT progressive b) Mean. c) fanatical.
Also naive! Um. Ya.
And apparently because I do not support this even now, I am condoning violence, defacto!
Anyone who knows me knows that that is a slanderous thing to say. Libellous, in fact. But since I consider the source and I am not a litigious sort, I just walked away. No point in continuing a discussion like that, it is as pointless as talking to a Republican or a dining room table. Those who have no defence usually start name calling or picking on spelling errors.
I really think that Athletes are going to come out just dandy with their shiny corporate sponsorships and product placements. I am just hoping my own kids will have a school to go to. Silly me eh?
So it was with a HOLY CRAP, that I read this piece in the Guardian that I found in a friends FB feed.
A tale of two Vancouvers.
Five-ring flag-waving Olympic boosters will tell you these anti-Olympic protesters are a grumpy gaggle of naysayers intent on spoiling other people's fun. Even worse as Am Johal of the Vancouver-based Impact on Community Coalition told me, "If you start criticizing the Olympics, you're portrayed as a sort of Trotskyist on the fringes of society." But for those willing to listen, many anti-Olympic activists are actually advancing rational, principled resistance that chimes with Canadian public opinion in many ways.
Check.
But the so called "progressive" said....apparently ALL of BC suports this, so I am also not democratic!!! Ya. Like I said. Paging GW!!!
The closer we get to the Olympics, the more people agree with Johal that "The Olympics are a corporate franchise that you buy with public money."
And, are civil rights, and privacy rights, NOT a progressive value?
Speaking of money trouble, the security budget for the Olympics has skyrocketed from $175m to about $1bn. For the residents of Vancouver, this hefty price tag translates to the militarisation of public space. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada reported the installation of nearly 1,000 surveillance cameras in Vancouver. The Canadian government has formed the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit comprised of thousands of police and military officers.
And this is only what we're aware of. David Eby, the Executive Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association told me, "I'm really worried about what we don't know. I'm worried about the weapons we don't know about that the police may have purchased, the tactics we don't know about that they want to use on activists." These are not the irrational howls of a paranoiac, but the
levelheaded concerns of someone with on-the-ground experience.
This article lays out many of the issues that are going on....
I guess I simply didn't get the handbook that says that I need to rollover and accept.
Btw, my main "activism"? Is hoping that no one gets hurt while protests do continue and people get educated about this, and that it rains on the snowhills. Yes, that is all terribly subversive. Terribly.
But MEAN. SOOOOOOOOOO MEAN!
And, I hope my kids get the education and services they deserve although that is all on the chopping block ATM, and that the people who were evicted have a warm place to stay....That the wildlife that was displaced so another lane could be out into Whistler can survive elsewhere....And. And. And.
And I also hope that this travesty doesn't happen elsewhere. The only way to do that, is to make a hell of a lot of people uncomfortable.
But that would be mean.
Mean.
Yup . . . .
And I also hope that this travesty doesn't happen elsewhere.
That's exactly why I attended the peaceful part of yesterday's protest, pale. Having lived through the '96 "Owe-Lympics" in Atlanta, and now in Vancouver I'm over it. Just an excuse for world corporations to throw a party and pat themselves on the back.
Can't wait for March 1st . . . .
Goodstuff.
I am there in spirit. Just have too many responsibilities to be there in body.
Hope you saluted VANOC appropriately for me!
(Not all 5 fingers.)
It's a fact: 100% of all the people who ate carrots in 1850, are dead.
I am sooo sick
of being preached at and finger wagged by pundits too. You should have seen Les Lane frothing at the mouth this morning! Every last one saying lay back and shut up, the neighbours are watching! SHHHH!!!! The more I hear it, the less likely I am to aquiesce.
Why should we shut up when our own media ignores us completely. Why would we not try to get the word out past them, through other people's still free press.
I'm with you pale, they can't make me!
:)
They are trying to shame us for not looking the other way.
How can anyone look the other way and look in the mirror?
It's a fact: 100% of all the people who ate carrots in 1850, are dead.
Aboslutely True!
Such an excellent summary, Pale. And further to that, I have lots of relatives living in B.C. - I mean CLOSE relatives - & they are all worried sick about the fall-outs of financial costs, as wall as social costs, when the circus folds up its tent & gets out of town. And some of these live on the Island, in the interior, etc - not just Vancouver. Bravo to the peaceful protestors. I hope their numbers continue to grow & that the IOC or Police don't do something stupid like shut down the peaceful protest demonstrations.
I think everyone I know
Is disgusted at some level.
But those who know the reality, are sick about it.
We didn't watch the opening even. Nope. Screw that. Now I see that the IOC even is bizzy on youtube pulling clips. Such humanitarian spirit......Such a feeling of fuzzy wuzzy oneness. Assholes.
I do not believe in "evil" in a supernatural sense. But it is in the hearts of men. And they are evil.
It's a fact: 100% of all the people who ate carrots in 1850, are dead.
Finally, Someone who gets it:
People are absolutely shocked with me for politicizing something that is to be as 'fun' as the Olympics, (or should I say Perilympics http://sistersagesmusings.ca/2010/02/13/rah-rah-siss-boom-bah-st-stevie-...)
When my husband and I went out to dinner this evening at a place we frequent regularly, the girl who serves us some of the time was even wondering why I was down with the Olympics. When I mentioned my issues (poverty, the cuts to resources for Vancouver's most vulnerable, the fact that it took us Montrealers 30 years to pay off the 76 summer games, Stevie's own branding touch: anyone see a navy blue c on some of the clothing? Talk about politicizing: HA! etc.), she clammed up right away and became visibly uncomfortable with my presence. No matter, Montreal has plenty of great healthy reasonably priced restaurants near our home to go to.
Even the Montreal Chapter of the CAPP group has lost steam. they spoke of how nothing must be done on the night of closing ceremonies or hockey final. I hope Canada loses the hockey final. I hope we are once again, without a gold medal.
I hope for the protests to continue without anyone getting hurt or arrested. I hope they get the air time they've been getting.
So Pale, you're not alone here! From another supporter from that big province in the middle, where we speak en Francais and are blamed for minority governments.
Right on!
As a Canadian progressive, I will not sell out my values just to "look" good for the tourists.
They can bite my fat white ass. :)
It's a fact: 100% of all the people who ate carrots in 1850, are dead.
It's worrisome
"I'm really worried about what we don't know. I'm worried about the weapons we don't know about that the police may have purchased, the tactics we don't know about that they want to use on activists."
Saw some police tanks going to the west. That was more than a bit worrisome.
Are they worried of a riot like in '94? Or a riot such as in Seattle some years back?
The only riot they're gonna get now is probably a police riot.
Edit: the Seattle example is considered by many to be a police riot.
Slightly depressing that...
... a good number of friends who had reservations about the amount of money spent, the militarization, the security cams etc... and had issues with the way the IOC and VANOC operate have all of sudden decided they like the taste of the kool-aid after all now that the games have actually begun.
Have also been hearing some talk and chatter from the kool-aid drinkers about how some of us are not 'Real CanadiansTM'. Now where would they have learned that kind of talk, eh?
I'm not trading my principals either. Although I am a sports fan (always been a closet jock) I haven't watched a moment of these games, and I'm here in Vancouver near ground zero. Don't expect that will change.
W.E.B., I was also at the VAG rally and march to BC Place. Also participated in the Friday morning protest along Commerical Drive.
Everything's cheaper than it looks.