The very notion that we are spending money on an assortment of rubber disk chasers, gravity assisted sled-fanatics and dancers-on-frozen water angers me. What infuriates me is the notion that throwing money at this motley crew will somehow enhance Canada’s standing as a nation and that “owning the podium” will bring us international regard.
What a pile of feel good nationalistic hoo-haa.
Canada should be spending its money on improving the living conditions of its people. When our First Nations have a safe and clean water supply our international standing will grow. When our homeless do not freeze to death in the streets our international standing will rise. When we eliminate child poverty our standing will increase.
Spending money to win a shiny metal disk for a 7 second soundbite on the world stage is not only stupid, it is irresponsible.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
10 comments
January 27, 2014 at 6:50 am
stephenpruis
So … now you want the bread and the Circuses! It is greed which is killing us! The U.S.
LikeLike
January 27, 2014 at 7:26 am
Kirbycairo
When I was writing my blog on a regular basis it seems like every time the olympics or some other world sporting event came up I found myself writing about how absurd and ridiculous they were. I seldom got a positive response because people love their ritual violence and for reasons that continue to escape me Canadians seem to imagine that if some young woman from Quebec (for example) can ski down a hill faster than anyone else it raises all somehow. I have only one word for it all – bollocks!
LikeLike
January 27, 2014 at 9:58 am
syrbal-labrys
Being old enough to recall, not a politics-free Olympics (was there EVER such…even in ancient Greece?), but coverage that showed more of the world competing in (live?) coverage that lasted entire DAYS…I miss those days. For a pre-teen girl it was a fascinating look at the world…more of it than the US, Canada, Britain, and America —which does compose the bulk of what you see on today’s truncated coverage.
Frankly I am now disgusted with the entire mess; I think the selection of hosting cities is an exercise in both corruption and idiocy….Sochi has potential to be a bloodbath, for instance. I sometimes think the choice of medal-winners is a presumption from the start, and since the bulk of people see so few competitors, we wouldn’t necessarily know it, would we?
I will say Russia wins less now that the one-time Soviet state cannot afford to wholly subsidize their athletes; our area here has been home to a number of competitors and there was always much complaint of how American athletes have to cover their own training, costumes, and all — while the once Warsaw Pact nations basically sent professionals.
Which brings up the matter of the things like basketball and hockey teams — they ARE professionals and not even a pretense of non-paid athletes, so yes, winning trumped that little bit of mythology, too. Bah humbug!
LikeLike
January 27, 2014 at 10:24 am
john zande
Spare a thought for the Russians. But then again, pumping tens of billions of dollars into Vlads favourite summer resort town can’t be all bad, right? :(
LikeLike
January 27, 2014 at 7:50 pm
bleatmop
I’m glad to see that Vancouver has turned into a thriving tourist mecca since the Olympics have been there. Weekly news reports about the hotels being sold out and the hospitality industry offering $30/hour for entry level positions just to attract workers to come there. Sure there is a rising cost of living there, but the high wages make up for it. After all this economic upswing is what we were promised for the billions and billions we spent to bring the Olympics to Vancouver right. Displacing all those poor people and trampling on the homeless, essentially jailing them in an Atco trailer village ended up being all worthwhile because the Olympics ended up making their lives better with all the new opportunity we see there.
Wait, what? WHAT? You’re telling me that economic upswing isn’t happening? That things are business as normal in Vancouver? Wait, they aren’t business as normal? Oh right, I forgot how rich developers got to bulldoze the poor housing areas and make their millions developing the rich area. Clearly that was worth spending billions on? To give those billions to developers to make all the stadiums and then give them even more?
Right, that’s what the Olympics are all about. I forgot.
LikeLike
January 27, 2014 at 10:34 pm
The Arbourist
@Bleatmop
*slow hand clap* – Well done sir, well done.
LikeLike
January 28, 2014 at 10:28 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
I wonder how many billions he sunk into
bribingpromoting Sochi to the IOC. Because Russia certainly doesn’t have pressing social issues of its own. Russia’s poor I’m guessing have it made in the shade…LikeLike
January 28, 2014 at 10:30 am
john zande
Don’t talk to me about that. We have the World Cup here in a few moths then the Olympics… Both won with obscene bribes.
LikeLike
January 28, 2014 at 11:03 am
The Arbourist
Do you think that Brazil will be ready? Al Jazeera’s quick vid makes me wonder.
Plus police repression and general unrest.
Kinda makes me wonder about the IOC, do they deliberately choose powder-keg locations to host the Olympics?
LikeLike
January 28, 2014 at 11:12 am
john zande
I like Brazil, the good is very, very good, but the bad is very, very, very bad. Honestly, Rio should never have gotten the Olympics, and the World Cup might be a disaster. Winning both events was nothing but an open invitation for politicians to steal money when teachers salaries haven’t increased in 10 years.
LikeLike