tagged w/ Olympics 2012
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You may ask, who is Sachin? Sachin is a boy who lost this legs after drinking water contaminated by the Bhopal disaster that DOW Chemical now refuses to clean up as it continues to effect the people of Bhopal today. This is a crime against humanity, but we all have a voice to raise against DOW's sponsorship. Please watch the video and take action.You may ask, who is Sachin? Sachin is a boy who lost this legs after drinking water... more
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December 22, 2011
"PETER CAVE: The Prime Minister's peace deal was supposed to end decades of conflict in Tasmania's forests. But protests are continuing and now AM can reveal that a London company is boycotting timber products from the island state.
Last month it emerged that timber from Tasmanian forests was being used on London's Olympic building sites."December 22, 2011
"PETER CAVE: The Prime Minister's peace deal was... more
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The Olympic Games literally and symbolically ‘take place’ in major cities. They represent the mega-event par excellence which not only physically transforms areas of cities beyond recognition but also shifts the urban place imaginary. City growth coalitions eagerly bid against other cities to win this world-class spectacle primarily for the boost it is supposed to impart to the local politics of urban regeneration. Researchers and activists over the last thirty years have highlighted how such grandiose visions and accelerated development projects produce spectacular but also highly inequitable outcomes for urban citizens. As with other neo-liberal regeneration programmes, the vital question of ‘who really benefits?’ is highly pertinent. However, many of the texts which researchers have produced are not well known or well understood outside the various academic specialisms within which they circulate. We are setting up a reading group open to students, academics, activists and other individuals interested in exploring the social, economic and political processes of these spectacular urban mega-events from critical perspectives.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/uncategorized/olympic-city-critiques-a-birkbeck-reading-group/The Olympic Games literally and symbolically ‘take place’ in major cities.... more
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The Welfare-to-Work Programme has been described as “set to fail” by Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham – the host borough for the 2012 London Olympics. In a fortnight, the winners of contracts are due to be announced, putting the unemployed and people on disability benefits back to work. However, Sir Robin believes that there is “a serious risk that some of the best prime providers may walk away”. Out of 11 bidders for the East and South London contract, 3 will be appointed in order to provide competition. Sir Robin said that he is yet to be convinced that ‘three prime contractors each delivering across 17 boroughs will do anything other than lead to confusion amongst job seekers and contractors’.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/financial-times-reveal-welfare-to-work-programme-chaos/The Welfare-to-Work Programme has been described as “set to fail” by Sir... more
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Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient are applying to the high court for a review of the OPLC’s (Olympic Park Legacy Company) decision to award West Ham United the chance to move into the Olympic stadium after the 2012 Olympic games. One of the reasons for OPLC’s decison to pick West Ham was that they had said in their bid for the stadium, that they would keep the athletics track, whilst Spurs had argued the only viable option was to rebuild the entire stadium as a dedicated football ground.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/spurs-and-leyton-orient-to-launch-review-over-olympic-stadium/Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient are applying to the high court for a review of the... more
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After London was announced as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games, Labour made a number of promises about using the Olympics as a way of inspiring people to be more healthy and get involved with sport and exercise. They planned to get a million more people playing sport three or more times a week and to get a million more people doing more general physical activity. Whether it is actually possible for mega events such as the Olympics to have this kind of impact is something which has been contested by a number of studies.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/olympics-could-have-negative-effects-on-sports-participation/After London was announced as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games, Labour made a number... more
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The London Olympic 2012 Games Organisers promised £20 million in airfares to pay for the travel of athletes and officials. They attempted to quietly withdraw from this commitment by the use of price caps and a distance formula. Countries without direct flights to London will be out of pocket having a greater effect on poorer countries especially those from Africa and the Pacific, who like Londoners are finding out that Olympic promises are easily broken. Zimbabwe’s Olympic committee secretary general Robert Mutsauki said the African nations would hold the London organisers to their promises. Good luck!
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/olympic-organizers-back-out-of-promised-air-fare-for-athletes/The London Olympic 2012 Games Organisers promised £20 million in airfares to pay... more
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Olympic chiefs are having a luxurious beano in handily located Acapulco Mexico to hear progress reports on the preparations for London 2012. British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt was jubilant that the Con-Lib coalition government had excluded the games from the recent drastic spending cuts.
Hunt told the audience that the Olympic budget of 9.28 billion pounds included “7.3 billion pounds for the regeneration of east London.”
“I think a two billion pound investment for staging the games feels about right and appropriate for what’s going to be a fantastic games.”
Why Acapulco? Well you have to travel a long way to find an audience who will believe that the London Olympic budget is being spent on anything other than the London Olympics. I dare Hunt to come here and tell East Londoners that nearly four fifths of the Olympic budget is being spent on them and only £2bn is going on the games.
Fancy a dip? Or getting your figures massaged? Or are you happy just lying on the beach?
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/british-olympic-association-pretends-olympic-budget-is-for-regenerating-east-london/Olympic chiefs are having a luxurious beano in handily located Acapulco Mexico to hear... more
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Grass roots sports lose- Olympics win
Schools and community sports will be the biggest losers under the Comprehensive Spending Review while the London Olympic project is likely to avoid major cuts to its budget or contingency. Losses of local sports amenities like Hackney Marshes and Drapers Fields as a result of the Olympics will now roll out across the nation as non-Olympic cuts hit.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/london-2012-olympics-saved-from-cuts-in-comprehensive-spending-review/
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport is understood to have reached a settlement with the Treasury that will see about 30 per cent cut from its annual £1.6 billion budget. However London 2012 will escape significant cuts to its £9.3 billion budget, and is expected to have its remaining contingency fund left largely untouched, partly out of necessity and partly expediency.
It is claimed that most of the major Olympic contracts have been awarded, so it is too late for major savings. The games are predicted to be completed with surplus contingency of £700 million. However the DCMS and the Olympic bodies have argued that is politically better to leave the contingency in place rather than take it back, and risk having to pay out in the event of an unforeseen crisis in the project.
The cuts to the DCMS budget will make it unlikely that the government can deliver on its promise of an abiding participation legacy from the London 2012 Olympics.
Sports minister Hugh Robertson will prioritise protecting funding for elite athletes in the run up to the London Games, and grass roots initiatives and projects run by UK Sport and Sport England’s will be cut.
Shadow Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell who told the nation the Olympics would only cost £3bn when it was nearer £10bn now claims she is concerned school sports initiatives will be hit by the cuts. So clearly nothing to do with her.
The details of the Olympic funding will not be announced by the Government on Wednesday. The cuts are likely to be made public on Thursday.Grass roots sports lose- Olympics win
Schools and community sports will be the... more
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Glastonbury 2012 has been cancelled due to the London Olympics procuring all available portable toilets in the south of England. In addition, the organisers have also been told that all the 600 strong police force which patrols the event will also be redirected to patrol the Olympics.
Michael Eavis spoke of a price hike in 2012 for any spare toilets due to their scarcity, which would also inevitably lead to problems. “I can see it getting very expensive,” he said. “So we looked at the timing and thought that a year off seemed sensible.”
Sadly, yet somewhat unsurprisingly, the Glastonbury Festival has become another casualty of the ever increasing collateral damage inflicted by the controversial 2012 Olympic event.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/glastonbury-cancelled-due-to-london-olympics/Glastonbury 2012 has been cancelled due to the London Olympics procuring all available... more
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The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) has warned that the 2012 Olympic games would be harmful to Britain’s tourism industry. The ETOA has published research from cities who previously hosted the Olympic Games, which shows it has a “profoundly disruptive” effect on local tourism. They describe the official estimates for the number of visitors as “exaggerated”. The association warned: “Normal tourist businesses suffer during the Games period . . . The region around the Games can suffer more than the host city . . . The impression that everything will be overcrowded and overpriced blights a region . . . [and] these difficulties are exacerbated by exaggerated claims of the benefits derived from the Games.”
Meanwhile Boris Johnson is drumming up a further 8000 voluntary positions for the role of “London Ambassadors”, which would involve helping the vast increase of tourists and visitors in 2012 to find their way around the city. So no paid tourism jobs there.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/etoa-claims-2012-games-bad-for-tourism/The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) has warned that the 2012 Olympic games... more
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The London Olympic Marathon will not go through the East End or finish at the Olympic Stadium as is tradition. To please the Olympic Committee, it will pass through the West End showcasing tourist landmarks St Paul’s Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Tower of London. The race is planned to finish in the Mall with Buckingham Palace as its TV friendly backdrop. The race walks are also set to be held in central London instead of the East London as first planned.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/olympic-marathon-dumps-east-end-for-tourist-sites/
Rushanara Ali, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, has claimed that the change meant that organisers were “embarrassed and ashamed to showcase the area and its people to the world”
“If LOCOG goes ahead with this proposal, the message they send to the world is ‘while we are happy to use the vibrancy, dynamism and diversity of the East End of London to win the Olympics bid, we’re embarrassed and ashamed to showcase the area and its people to the world’,” said Ali.
Tower Hamlets Council have created a petition as well Facebook group to protest the decision. They claim that Sebastian Coe, chairman of London 2012, had promised them that the marathons would pass through their area.
In his defense, Coe stated that “This is not a beauty contest and it would be ludicrous to suggest that we are ashamed of the East End,” when he met with Ali during the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Although defiant, Coe did promise that the Olympic Torch Relay would pass through East London.
The London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC), the Government’s lead regeneration agency for East London, has described the decision not to route the marathons and walks through that area as a ”missed opportunity” to promote the region as a key investment destination to international investors.The London Olympic Marathon will not go through the East End or finish at the Olympic... more
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Images of the collapsed footbridge neighbouring New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru main stadium have made front-page news across the globe and shone unflattering light on India’s Commonwealth Games preparation. The Games, which are due to begin in under two weeks on the 3rd October, have been dogged by whispers of corruption, corner-cutting and a lack of leadership. Such whispers have recently descended into deafening shouts as concerns are voiced, by laymen and ministers alike, about the quality of construction efforts. Newly-erected buildings have been left in varying states of dilapidation due to annual monsoons, and the athletes’ village has been denounced as unfit for habitation.
It is possible that such a high-profile setback may become a symbol of the dangers of rushing regeneration into cities and societies unready for it, given that it has ultimately caused more destruction than good and more haste has resulted in less speed. Similarly, another footbridge closer to home, though still un-built, has also caused destruction. Manor Gardens in East London, a 100-year-old allotment, was wiped off the map for an Olympic footbridge, and though this footbridge may not fall apart, the loss of this historic and green site is perhaps a troubling indicator in itself of progress for the sake of thinly-defined progress.
If the concept, as well as the spirit of jugad is alive and well (the idea that things will get done, by hook or by crook), then organisers may be hoping that what is quickly turning into a Commonwealth debacle is only an exception that proves the rule.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/the-downside-of-jugad-mega-event-footbridges/Images of the collapsed footbridge neighbouring New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru... more
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