So much for all the crud we’ve been hearing for years about how the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic movement and Vancouver 2010 are all about promoting amateur sport, fitness and healthy lifestyle.
Tell that to B.C.’s kids who are suffering a $14 MILLION CUT this year alone in school sports funding … just months before the I.O.C. millionaire directors and organizers, the management elite and their phalanx of fawning followers check into their first class Vancouver and Whistler hotel suites and perhaps even gather in exquisite ballrooms to enjoy their next month-long feed of caviar and sockeye salmon at a series of public trough parties, celebrations and receptions … probably much of it paid for by VANOC and a smiling, welcoming B.C. provincial government.
The “by invitation only” party officially opening the Richmond Speedskating Oval alone a few weeks ago cost taxpayers $500,000.
Where is the I.O.C. as the kids in B.C. face all kinds of cancellations and cutbacks of school athletic and amateur sports programs right here, at the sponsoring home of the 2010 Games?
Does the I.O.C. also think the kids should just frolic and dance in local parks instead.? Are frolicking and dancing ”new” sports to be included in the next Olympic Games?
If the I.O.C. and VANOC really care about amateur sport, they should speak out and support those who are fighting just to keep existing programs from being cancelled … and they should even call for expansion of the programs as a key component to keeping kids in our society healthy and positively focussed.
In fact, why not cancel a few of those high-priced parties planned for the I.O.C. brass during the games and hand the money over instead to B.C. amateur and school sports programs???
Or why doesn’t the I.O.C. take some of the hundreds of millions of dollars it will take in as part of t.v. revenues and sponsorships and contribute funds to cover those local school sports cuts?
What a wonderful legacy that would be … perhaps a new long-term legacy it could establish to assist cash-strapped amateur sports programs in all future Olympic cities!
Wouldn’t that best embody the true Olympic sporting spirit? Wouldn’t that be a better ”left-over” than just a bunch of dirty dishes at some 2010 party palace? Or a few dozen party venues?
It’s time for VANOC and the I.O.C. to stand up, speak up and literally put their money and their influence where their mouths are … in support of at least MAINTAINING and even EXPANDING B.C. amateur and school sports programs.
And not just party while the kids around them literally can only watch … from the sidelines.
Harv Oberfeld
12 responses so far ↓
1 Kim // Sep 16, 2009 at 2:37 am
h.o. YES!!! Nailed it again. Exactly what I want to know! Plus, how are the kids going to afford the $5.00 user fees in the parks to dance and whatever?
(Response: Oh… no problem. They’ll no doubt offer $5 refunds for kids … as long as they fill out the proper forms ..and send in a $10 handling/processing fee. h.o)
2 genuine // Sep 16, 2009 at 2:53 am
Harvey what makes you think we can watch from the sidelines? Don’t forget the billion dollar (probably more )pay off for the police to keep us away!I hope people will vacate the streets and make Vancouver look like a ghost town ,just like this e hem…government is doing to our social programs,they are like a holly wood set just a fa-sad once you go through the door your outside there’s nothing ,(edited..ho.),didn’t you hear were in tough times.You can see right through the pab at question period and the mimisters handlers,another joke and they think there fooling us .If that’s the best they can do(ida chong) OMG LOLOLOLLLLLLL!
3 DMJ // Sep 16, 2009 at 4:26 am
H.O., when the Olympics were first approved, I was neutral on the subject of 2010. Though not really an Olympic supporter, I just thought live and let live; they are only going to be 2 weeks and what the hell, the masses needs an international spectacle to cure their collective insecurities.
But no more. I hate the Olympics and all they stand for; I hate the politicians fawning over VANOC; I hate VANOC; I hate the IOC; I hate everything associated for this massive rip-off.
The Olympics are nothing but an international confidence tricksters game, using athletes and athletic wannabes to sooth politicians egos at the expense of the common man or should I say the common taxpayer.
Sad to say, I wish that we have a warm winter, no snow and the usual landslides on the Sea to Sky.
Is there a god? We will see in 2010.
(Response: I actually used to like the games, when they really celebrated amateur sport, and international good will. But something has changed… thanks to those huge broadcast and sponsorship deals .. and now it seems more like just a HUGE global business … with lots of excessive partying … all subsidized by taxpayers and drenched in excessive spending, and drowing in one upmanship. I’d be happy to see a spending CAP …complete with c.o.l.a. controls on costs … and a return to the real values the games should represent. h.o.)
4 Crankypants // Sep 16, 2009 at 7:14 am
Just read an article on the Globe & Mail’s website that the Federal Government has shunned BC’s proposal to share a pavillion at the games. BC will have to go it alone, which I guess will lead to more cuts to some sector that can least afford it to cover the government’s increased costs.
Harvey, I think you are being too hard on the IOC and the politicians. These people are entitled to be wined and dined with the best BC has to offer. Just ask them. And I’m quite sure that if you ask the people standing in line at the various food banks, they would be ecstatic that these people are living as royalty while the less fortunate try to stretch a box of Kraft Dinner into more than one meal. It’s all good. Those that has gets, and those that don’t gets out of the way. The IOC and government elite will have it no other way.
Maybe our 3 sports ministers and the education minister need to get their message out to the students that disorganized activities are much more beneficial to their well being than learning discipline and the ability to work together through organized sports. After all, what better way to prepare them for a career as a politician or a full-fledged member of the gang of their choice. I can already envision the Red Scorpions, the UN Gang and others setting up scouts at the parks to start recruiting those kids that may be frollicking in the parks or doing the old soft-shoe at their local mall.
As the government states over and over again, they must make tough choices. Should they serve sockeye or filet mignon?
(Response: The worst part of the school sports cuts is that rich parents may come up with dionation bucks to keep programs going, so once again those with the least will be hit the hardest. h.o.)
5 Lynn // Sep 16, 2009 at 9:42 am
DMJ,
I am so GLAD you are now awake and savy to some of the things that are going on. So many B.C.ers were under the impression that the Oly games would be like Expo 86. They are not. The games are all about branding and networking. The host city/country pays for the party in more ways than one. Enjoy.
6 Kam L // Sep 16, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I know what we can feed the elites from the big O gang…. farmed salmon! Within days they will be sick and some might die. Good work gordo, you mental misfit. Heil gordo!
7 DN // Sep 16, 2009 at 6:56 pm
H.O., thanks for expressing, much more eloquently than I could ever hope to, the views I and many others are having about the Provincial governments’ recent cuts to school and community sports.
In addition to wondering why we haven’t heard a peep from the I.O.C . about Campbell’s shortsighted, mean-spirited demolition of youth sports, I have also been wondering (aloud, to anyone who will listen) why we also aren’t hearing much from those athletes who have benefited over the years from BC’s school and community sports programs.
Just to drop a few names … Steve Nash (high school basketball & soccer), Rick Hansen (high school & wheelchair sports), Joe Sakic, Cam Neely, Darcy Rota & so many more (community hockey), Carol Huynh (high school wrestling), Silken Laumann (ok, not specifically BC school sports, but a BC athlete and founder of ActiveKids Movement). None of these athletes just burst into the NBA, NHL or Olympics without first receiving a solid grounding in school or community sports. Why are their voices also silent? Some of them must be aware that the same opportunities that they, and myself for that matter, had access to are in danger of being eliminated, either totally or for all but the wealthiest of kids.
And what about the reporters who cover BC school and community sports … at this rate there soon won’t be much to report on. What are they thinking?
Campbell, the sock puppets of his regime and his CanWest buddies might not care what I (lowly taxpayer with no real voice) think , but they might pause a moment if some of our local sports celebrities were to stand up in support of youth sports.
8 wstander // Sep 17, 2009 at 3:35 am
Actually, Howard Tsumura of the Province, who does an excellent job covering High School sports, was on this right from the start. And Team 1040′s McDonald and Rintoul gave it a pretty good shot for a morning or two.
9 Frank // Sep 17, 2009 at 4:11 am
I’m holding my breath. Sheesh! Exhaled. I just remembered the elites only look after their own.
10 Brad // Sep 17, 2009 at 7:37 am
I was in the Legislature Vistor’s gallery on Monday, Harvey, when most of this was being fired off at question period.
First time i’ve ever been in there, and I found it MOST interesting (and very sad, too…heard a quiet comment in the gallery echoing similar sentiments I’ve heard before –bunch of squabbling kids, not working together) More interesting was the fact that Ida Chong introduced a bunch of medal winning amatuer athletes, also sitting with me in the Gallery. I noticed they were less than impressed with the liberal’s answers to the questions of whether they could explain how they justify a half million dollars on a party, while cutting funding to amatuer sports.
As a side note…I was introduced as the Victoria Organizer for the FIGHT HST rally happening saturday in conjunction with many other cities (14,last count) ….and apparently, according to my MLA….I’m a piece of history…she’s never heard a guest introduction heckled before
11 DN // Sep 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Just as a follow-up to my earlier comment questioning why many of our sports celebrities aren’t commenting on this matter … Rod Mickleburgh of the Globe & Mail mentions he was contacted by former Olympic swimmer Elaine Tanner with the following comment:
“WOW!” she wrote of Dr. MacDiarmid’s prancing-in-the-parks idea. “I can’t wait to see what type of world-class athletes that will create for Canada.”
Add in Tsumura, mentioned by wstander above, and that makes 2!
I just can’t help thinking that the people who are bored, blaise, or whatever about BC politics & the gutting of youth sports might sit up and pay attention if a few superstar Nash types spoke up!
H.O., greatly enjoyed your “knee in the groin” this am on 1410!
12 Ruaridh // Sep 17, 2009 at 4:53 pm
The problem is that during the Games time frame, and given the restrictions on protest locations, the poor disenfranchised amateur sports organizations have nowhere to protest.
They will likely not be allowed to register their displeasure in the mismatch between highly feted, affluent and professional Olympics administrators and disenfranchised amateur sports organizations in B.C. Our federal and provincial governments have lost their perspectives on what is “public interest”.
The founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, would be spinning in his grave if he knew how divorced the Olympics administrators, and our federal and provincial politicians are from the everyday life of citizens.
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