The wrong message is communicated through the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver

PEJnews – Joan Russow Global Compliance Research Project
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When the Olympic Torch left the grounds of the BC legislature and passed by the entrance to the Blue bridge, one of the Olympians exclaimed in response to protesters; “We are doing this for the children”.

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The wrong message is communicated through the Olympics

When the Olympic Torch left the grounds of the BC legislature and passed by the entrance to the Blue bridge, one of the Olympians exclaimed in response to protesters; “We are doing this for the children”.

The Protesters responded: Which children - the ones who are suffering from government cutbacks.

What health message to children are Olympians communicating when they participate in the Olympics that is sponsored by Coca Cola and MacDonalds, and when the Olympians, drinking Coca Cola or easting Macdonald hamburgers are displayed in ads. What environmental message are Olympians communicating to the children when Olympians are participating in an event, which is sponsored by Petrocan-Suncor, and the Royal Bank --- producer and funder, respectively of the tar sands. (Even the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has called on Canada, for the sake of climate change, to cease exploration in the tar sands).

What legal message to children are Olympians communicating when they participate in the an event sponsored by Dow which has continued to evade its legal responsibility to the victims of the Bhopal disaster, or by Cominco which has continued to avoid its legal responsibility for transboundary pollution?

What message is communicated to the global community, when the civil and political rights of individual who wish to protest are being investigated? 

Or when plain-clothes investigators appeared at a community house asking if XXX, an opponent of the Olympics, lives here?

Or when Amy Goodman was stopped at the border, and queried about what issues she would be addressing at her presentation in Vancouver?

or when the Olympics misappropriated the culture of the First Nations Peoples of Canada, through occupying unseded land, through using meaningful cultural symbols for advertising purposes?

or when millions are being spent on security at the  Olympics to silence the  critics in a supposedly democratic society?

or when a leading Canadian environmentalist, David Susuki, actually gives the Olympics a bronze medal for the Olympics Environmental record.?

or when alternative media and bloggers are not given accreditation? (Joan Russow)

Politics of the Olympics  Dennis Pilon PhD
see an excellent video by Denis Pilon, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University. at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/intellectual-muscle/the-talks/article1312702/ Listen to Dennis Pilon’s analysis of the politics of the Olympics.