Me,
I'm an SF illustrator so it's unsurprising that I'm not crazy about
sport, but that doesn't mean it's not vitally important, both to
people's lives and as a massive part of our lives
and economy. Chances
are that your local sports centre, playing fields, swimming pool or
allotments have been closed for development. The money will go, via
the 2012 Olympics, to developers to transform into prestige
projects for the Rich and Outside Investment. The whole deal is
sweetened by a minimum of £9.3Billion of Taxpayers
money.
In
London itself, the new Westfield Shopping Mall directs tourists away
from the local shops to the multinational megastores with the
Government contracts. The
liklihood of the taxpayers getting to see this sporting spectacular
is slim. It's an event for shareholders from all over the World with
some tickets at a face value of £3,000. The event has
been an excellent excuse to 'increase security' for the tourists,
with No-Go zones, armed guards, patroling helicopters and camera
seizures and the right to use 'reasonable force' to enter private
residences to 'remove advertising of a non-commercial nature'.
The public will be tracked by the police via their tickets.
It's legal to arrest a taxpaying ticketholder for wearing a
Pepsi T-Shirt because the event is sponsored by Coke. The
event is being seen as a 'dry run' for more rigourous surveillance
of the public by private companies via the police.
In
short, a golden opportunity to privatise public land and assets to
benefit rich private companies and at a time when basic public
services are being scrapped wholesale. Also an advertising
bonanza for the corporations that sponsor every Olympics,
irrespective of which country is paying for it (Like McDonalds and
Dow 'Those people who gave you Napalm' Chemical) as their logos are
placed as 'Ambush Advertising' all around the public spaces of the
city.
Criticising
this process is unthinkable because the whole thing is
cynically publicised upon the high ideals of those who
spend years of their lives training to compete in the events
for free. Also free is much of the labour suppied by
volunteers, inspired by the 'Olympic Ideal'.
This
is a part of what is going on all over the world - a loss of Public
Space, owned by the voters of a country to become Private
Property of a Multinational. This
process was widely commented on during the Beijing Olympics and the
world was assured that 'Everything was fine'. In fact, they
lied. When we do it, we somehow believe the same process does
not apply to us. In fact, the Olympics lower the standard of
living of the indigenous poor wherever they are held.
If
you like sport, gardening, walking the dog or just mucking about
(the traditional sport of kids for millenia) then you need local
space to do it - and room to do it just for FUN. That's what
it's FOR. Watching
a superhuman display on TV to advertise Coke, Macdonnalds
or Snickers is NOT the same.
Oh
yes, and that offensive logo by 'Kino Design' cost the taxpayer at
least 4000K. Now,
THAT's offensive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/15/ghost-milk-iain-sinclair-olympics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/aug/26/ioc-london-2012-olympic-games
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/nov/09/london-2012-olympic-torch-route
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jan/07/lord-moynihan-olympic-policing-2012
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Olympic-Industry-Politics-relations/dp/0791447561/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=928eDiPv3K8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false