I don’t weigh in too much on the 2010 Olympics in person and have never opined in writing. Today, as I head off from Vancouver to Whistler for my last visit before the big 2010 extravaganza I’m feeling somewhat compelled. I don’t sway one way or the other on whether the Olympics should or should not happen, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to happen anyway.
This past summer, I sat down with a prominent Vancouver business person for lunch. At the time, he shared with me a thought that I didn’t immediately buy into. He said (and I paraphrase to capture the spirit, but didn’t have a recorder):
“I don’t care one way or the other about the Olympics. I support them in public because of the opportunity for this city and the province. Did you see what happened on The Bachelorette when it was filmed here? One televised shopping trip on Robson Street for a pink hoodie or whatever she bought and that place is sold out of hoodies the day after the show airs. That is the opportunity these Olympics bring us, but on a much larger scale.”
At the time, I thought “Great – let’s have this big, expensive event and reinforce our consumer culture to an extent we’ve never seen in Vancouver. We’ll benefit a few at the cost of many.” That stuck with me a long time. I was torn. I really couldn’t make up my mind what to think while watching the idiocy, indecency and stupidity of activities by certain groups, 2 of which come to mind:
- Vancouver’s Anti-Poverty Coalition, who resort to one of the lower common denominators to get attention for their cause (If someone from APC reads this, could you please Comment on your cause below? I can’t remember if you just wreck things to get on TV or if you were trying to be somehow productive…);
- VANOC, an organization that, as far as I can tell, really doesn’t care about anything, including our citizens’ rights, so long as the sponsors get paid (hopefully there’s no new bylaw that will get me fined for saying that).
One day a couple of weeks ago, it all came together
for me, via Twitter from one of the best people I’ve met through Social
Media, Dorette Steenkamp in South Africa. She quoted a recorded address by Nelson Mandela, a man she reveres and has taught me about over the past year. In discussing the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup, Mandela was cited as saying:
“We must ensure the event leaves a lasting benefit for all our people.” – Nelson Mandela (via Dorette Steenkamp, Dec 4/09)
My response was a reflex, but it dawned on me just what I really expected from my friends and neighbours here in British Columbia when I read it a second time:
“I wish we in Vancouver were so motivated with the 2010 Olympics instead of so much whining about their inevitability.” – Dave Macdonald, Dec 4/09
Every protest against the Olympics, every exhibition of public idiocy, reduces the opportunity we have for this event to benefit all people. Health care before Olympics? Too bad, you didn’t win and they’re coming. Next up? Deal with it and create an opportunity from what we have based on your belief. Your suspect landlord booted you out to capitalize on higher rents in February 2010? Ban together with others who see your cause and create a solution. These Olympics are giving us a massive opportunity to express our creativity and work with governments, businesses and other leaders to do things we’ve never done before. Anyone who lives here knows we have seemingly insurmountable issues with drugs, gangs, politics, poverty, homelessness – you name it and we pretty much need to fix it – the answers need to come from the bottom-up because the “up” only cares about what affects them at the top. Some people are fortunate in that they will directly benefit from the Olympic presence – for the rest of us, we need to get creative. Who will be the next Lululemon and create an opportunity??
People who want to throw tantrums on an international stage demonstrate to the world that their only mode of helping themselves is to create childish spectacles in feeble attempts to show that our governments lack heartstrings on which to tug. Surprise! Everyone knows those heartstrings don’t exist, particularly in this province. Solutions don’t come from simply making a governing body do a 180º turn on their heels – they come from consideration of where we’re really at as a group, agreeing on an ideal outcome, for ourselves and others, then moving forward. The whiners who are not able to work within the framework provided by the inevitable do not speak for the majority when it comes to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and those not able to actually protest in favour of solutions will never speak for me.
