tagged w/ mega sporting events
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The Sochi Olympics of 2014 will be the 150th commemorative year of the Circassian Genocide. Choosing Sochi as the site of the Winter Olympics, in such an auspicious year for the Russians, represents the perpetual celebration of Imperial Russia’s oppression and systematic murder of the Circassian People. Building the Olympic Village over the mass graves of the victims symbolizes the virtual erasing of this atrocity!
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/14-reasons-for-opposing-the-sochi-2014-olympics/The Sochi Olympics of 2014 will be the 150th commemorative year of the Circassian... 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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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 signs of regeneration are all over Delhi. Billboards proclaim ‘DELHICIOUSLY YOURS’ throughout the city, and it is. The pace of work completed between June and now are staggering – the air-conditioned metro, Delhi’s prize feature, works efficiently; lights decorate various hubs of tourist activity and promote a warm, festive atmosphere; and customs takes only ten minutes to get through, as opposed the the previous hour. These are the positive aspects of regeneration and they indicate how far India can go and how much could have been achieved minus the corruption scandals and the delays.
Walk a few metres away from all of this, however, and you are confronted again with real Delhi – unpaved streets, buildings fallen into disrepair and open sewers perfuming the air. There is no sign, however, of the customary wallahs – the newspapers are full of tales of people returning to collect suits from streetside tailors only to find they have been moved on; cigarette wallahs, barbers, fruit-sellers, as well as beggars and the homeless – all have mysteriously disappeared without trace or concern.
According to some Delhi residents affected by the migration, their maids and their families were simply told to ‘leave Delhi for twenty days’ – the duration of the Games and the days preceding and following. Those who did not comply willingly were forced; shacks burned up in inexplicable circumstances and not all dwellers were recompensed. It is an open secret in Delhi that many of the poor were herded to a large slum outside the city, but it has been made extremely difficult for activists and media workers to photograph or document it, and those living there who have tried to fight back have been effectively dissuaded.
Regeneration is a game, of course, even if its prizes do not glide by neatly on a conveyor belt, and so it follows that not everybody wins.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/the-regeneration-game/The signs of regeneration are all over Delhi. Billboards proclaim ‘DELHICIOUSLY... 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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In their bid for the games London Olympic officials promised to keep an athletics track in the stadium.
Now, during a meeting in Acapulco, British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt only “hoped” the Olympic stadium would retain a running track after the games- neatly side stepping the issue of empty promises by saying the decision was down to the mysterious “Olympic Park Legacy Company”.
Two Premier League football clubs, West Ham and Spurs, have made bids to move into the Olympic Stadium after 2012, but only West Ham’s bid includes keeping the running track.
Hunt made clear his determination to honour that promise telling AP . “Of course, we would love to see the provision of a truly world class athletics track….I think we’d all be disappointed if that didn’t happen.”
Fighting talk, might as well rip up the Spurs offer then.
If the London Olympic organisers keep none of their promises to Londoners (on jobs, on housing, on costs) will it be an Olympic record? Or does it happen where ever the five rings descend?
One way East Londoners could economically benefit from the games would be to put money with the bookies that the stadium will be home to Tottenham in 2013. I wonder what odds they are giving.
http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/olympics-2012/olympic-promises-fingers-crossed/In their bid for the games London Olympic officials promised to keep an athletics... more
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