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Post by Abbyromana on Feb 12, 2010 15:27:24 GMT
I"m curious to know. Who's going to be watching the Opening? Who's going to be watching the competitions? Is anyone attending them live? For those living in Canada, what do you think about hosting the Winter Olympics? For those living in Vancouver, what do you think of it and its impact on your city? With the Opening Games being tonight, I'm wondering what everyone thinks and plans on doing during that time.
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Post by Stripes on Feb 12, 2010 16:52:26 GMT
I don't live in Vancouver, but i lived on Vancouver island, which is an island, close to in Vancouver. It was 2007/2008 and it was on the news every day. Actually, Vancouverians were not happy. Empty houses that could have gone to homeless or poorer families but were left untouched were fixed by the city then rented out to Olympic athletes. Traffic was horrible, everything was under construction and the city was pretty much spending money on the Olympics and ignoring the citizens and their needs. The people didn't seem too happy.
I for one, am against the Olympics. What is happening to Vancouver has happen to many other cities, the poorer countries often don't have the money to build new housing, so they kick people out of their homes. Yes, there is alot of dirty politics and corruption in the Olympics. I guess you can say the same about the world cup though.
Don't get my started with the Olympics going to China. That is their way of saying "hey, we support their politics" so many human right laws were broken for the summer Olympics yet the Olympics ignored it They never stepped up and said anything they have the power to do so, and they didn't.
I may watch the speed skating for the dutch, that is if CTV is willing to show other athletes besides the Canadians (they do that, they show a Canadian, then have ten minutes of commercials until a new Canadian comes on).
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Post by clocketpatch on Feb 12, 2010 20:05:01 GMT
Some of the politics that go into the Olympics are absolutley disgusting. Vancouver's East Side, which is notorious for its crime and poverty, has been forcibly cleared out. There's a lot of rumours going around about the government giving low-income families one-way bus tickets out of the city to small communities up north which don't have the infrastructure to deal with them.
The same thing happened when Australia hosted the Olympics.
Just wrong.
Also, it must be understood, that a plane ride to England is about the same length/shorter than a plane ride to Vancouver. It's another world over there.
For one thing, no one speaks French! O.o
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Post by Stripes on Feb 12, 2010 20:16:13 GMT
I heared about people being forcibly kicked kicked out but I wasn't 100% sure so I didn't say anything. They did the same in China.
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Post by jjpor on Feb 13, 2010 0:07:31 GMT
I've heard, I may be wrong, but I understand, that British Columbians are something of a breed apart as far is Canada is concerned? The most American of the provinces, or something? This is based on decade-old recollections of drunken conversations with Canadian folks at uni, so may be completely off the mark!
But yeah, the degree of corruption and politicking that accompanies any Olympics, winter or summer, is well known by now and absolutely disgraceful. Newton is right to mention the World Cup, because the same is true of that. I mean, does anybody think it's a good idea to put 100,000-odd football supporters into a situation like South Africa? Nobody but FIFA...
As for the Beijing Olympics - the attitude of the IOC strangely parallels the attitude they took in 1936 in terms to turning a blind eye to certain things in return for sucking up to the apparent rising power in the world. Although, I strongly suspect the 21st is going to be The Chinese Century, so we will all of us be sucking up sooner or later, I imagine...
That thing about clearing poor people out of Vancouver by semi-force, however, is mind-boggling; definitely the sort of thing you'd expect to go on in somewhere like China rather than Canada...
I probably ought to boycott it on those grounds, but nevertheless I like the Winter Olympics, quite look forward to it; all of these obscure yet entertaining sporting events I never get to see the rest of the time. Yet, it seems that this one is more controversial than most, and with good reason.
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Post by Abbyromana on Feb 13, 2010 0:32:58 GMT
I've heard, I may be wrong, but I understand, that British Columbians are something of a breed apart as far is Canada is concerned? The most American of the provinces, or something? This is based on decade-old recollections of drunken conversations with Canadian folks at uni, so may be completely off the mark! But yeah, the degree of corruption and politicking that accompanies any Olympics, winter or summer, is well known by now and absolutely disgraceful. :/ What are you suggesting here? That America is corrupt? While I'll admit corruption exists in the States, we're not all corrupt and I wouldn't go so far to say that all politicians are corrupt either. In fact, I think it is fair to say any country has some corruption unfortunately going on, including the often admired Canada. Or are you suggesting something else with referring to British Columbia as American?
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Post by clocketpatch on Feb 13, 2010 1:24:31 GMT
Er... no, BC is very Americanized. That's fact. Though the island tries painfully hard to be British.
It's the Olympics which is corrupt, wherever it goes. I'm not passing judgment on your government Abby. Heavens knows, Canada's' is being a tad special at the moment.
Anyway, in light of certain happenings at the Olympics tonight, I suggest that we have a quick change of topics out of respect.
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Post by jjpor on Feb 14, 2010 0:52:04 GMT
Oh no, Abby, no disrespect intended to the United States - I had merely heard that British Columbia was the most "American" of the Canadian provinces (you know, apart from the fact that they're ALL in North America), as Clocket confirms...
The extreme corruption and political dubiousness that accompanies the Olympics, wherever it goes, is another topic entirely. And it isn't just the Olympics; as the conduct of the World Cup over the years seems to indicate, it's major international sporting events in general that seem to be magnets for this sort of thing.
But yes, as Clocket says, the tragic death of the Georgian luge competitor tends to put the whole thing into context and to suggest that there are more important things in this life than sport/corruption/politics.
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