gold medals

to all the people who left their cars at home
or parked and rode public transit.
penalty box to those who didn't.

Huge faceplant for John Furlong's French

And for the absolutely pathetic closing ceremonies...even more embarrassing than the opening ones. And another faceplant for the “broccoli” bouquets given to all the athletes who won medals - never seen so many people stare uncomprehendingly at something as it was thrust into their hands - ugh!

There are daffodils in bloom all over the lower island and we give out phony greenhouse mums that look like puke!

Blackbird's Podium: Gold to The Tyee, Faceplant to the Olympics

Gold medal to The Tyee for the freshest, most entertaining and non-insulting to the intelligence of those with more examining eyes who are more interested in the dark underbelly of the Olympic Games, the one that receives sponsorship money from the worst corporate industrial polluters and suppliers of aircraft components to the war machine still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sellers of consumer products made in Asian sweatshops (Mr. Furlong never did get around to visiting the red mitten factories), corporate media that demonized peaceful protesters long before the Games, a local real estate development and marketing community bent on gentrifying the Downtown Eastside and transform Vancouver into a resort city for the rich while government at every level dragged its behind on promises to act immediately on building more social housing for warned of displacement by civil society leaders, an attempt by government to curtail free expression and peaceful assembly rights in the urban domain, the ongoing dishonour of hosting this extravagance while holding the worst provincial child poverty rate in the country. And now a $6 billion bill to pay for God knows how long, and now the coming hacking and slashing to arts funding, years of unfunded high school sports, etc. I find the fact that so many are willing to party about it stupefying.

Yeah, all of those gold medals sparkled sweetly in the sunshine of the warmest February in recorded history (I believe ... in karma), but the costs are enormous and devastating for so many.

Bye Bye Blackbird

I used to be like all of those people celebrating in the street after the men's hockey team won its gold medal. I used to love that stuff. This time around, I couldn't even get into the game. Great hockey, but the national pride part just wasn't there for me on the inside.

This will be my last post on political matters. I won't be convering political issues with my camera any more. Being videotaped and photographed by the Vancouver Police Department so many times over the past two years while exercising my fundamental freedoms under the Charter in covering news stories for The Tyee and Megaphone Magazine, freelancing for NGOs like Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association, and supplying photos to the City of Vancouver's Corporate Communications department has left me with a chill. I am unnerved by this harassment enough to leave photojournalism behind altogether.

Another reason for the bye bye blackbird act is burnout, plain and simple. People who work for the agencies and organizations mentioned above make their living doing what they do. It's their job. I have a day job that has nothing to do with photography so everything you see on Flickr, here and elsewhere is all in my own time. I haven't had a holiday in three years, using my vacation time at work one day at a time to cover public forums, press conferences, protests and demonstrations and so on. Some may not like what I have contributed but even they can't fault me on my work ethic. The cost there has been enormous for me healthwise as I have a chronic illness that has me battling endless bouts of nausea and fatigue. This little blackbird is worn right out - physically, emotionally, socially - folks.

So it's time to say goodbye to those who watch what I do because I fly out on limbs, as blackbirds are akin to do, and chirp challenging questions. I'll be taking photos of beautiful things and people now, kind of like Winston Smith playing chess at the end of 1984.

Thanks Tyee staff. It's been a slice. Stay free.

THANK YOU!

Thanks Tyee for having the People's Podium and featuring these great photos! I love you guys!

@gwest, I agree about Mr Furlong's french. It was pretty terrible and he looked quite uncomfortable. Perhaps Mr Rogge was encouraging him afterwards. :P

Mercy Buckets Furlong!

Nice French! No bonus for his bilingualism I hope! At least he did not lip sink!

Faceplant to most medi for so little reporting of news!

What is happening with the 2 goon cops who beat up an innocent man? Any charges, or just paid leave?

this one?

http://www.straight.com/article-290420/vancouver/students-complaint-tossed-out-vpd

or the home invasion?

Why should cops get special credit anyway for refraining from committing crimes like assault, torture and murder during the games? Are our expectations that low?

we'll miss your photos, Blackbird...

take care of yourself.
Silver to the 'examinations' of the Tyee...but A+ for effort.

In memory of Nodar......as the world "sails calmly on...."

"In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."

(from Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts")

Honestly...

Honestly, I found the police's behaviour honourable, even to my surprise. I did nearly 10 full days of photography in the heart of Vancouver and in those crowd. I was, and continue to be, impressed with the Integrated Security Unit's willingness to remain calm even during some of the most trying times. They did well at diffusing most() tense situations before they turned problematic.

Even VANOC impressed me during the games, though the years leading up to the games was a huge disappointment for years to come. The housing crisis will still be an enourmous sore point in our city and this was the perfect moment to seize a more livable future in the lower mainland.

That said, I'm told by a local academic in Urban Planning that Vancouver 2010 was the first year where the organizing committee listened to complaints (e.g., the luge track changes, the cauldron controversy and the even the ingenious spoof of relighting the torch) AND responded appropriately. Sadly, one of those changes, that of the luge track, will never bring back Nodar Kumaritashvili. That said, it's not only VANOC that deserves blame, but even the international luge federation.

Finally, while I am impressed by the peaceful protests, and wish more had been done during the lead-up to the games to create a lasting legacy for the so called "World's Most Livable City, I must say loudly and clearly that the violent protesters are cowards. If one truly believes in their cause, be brave enough to show thy face or don't show up at all.

Thank you Vancouver for all the great photo-ops and for a wonderful celebration. I had a fun time and hope that the games bring out the best in our city's future.

RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili

police are not our

prison guards who choose to be kindly at their own whim. They are servants, either good or unworthy.

Wasn't That A Party?

I thought the mime raising the final cauldron of the Olympic torch at the closing ceremony was a delightful laugh at ourselves. The oversize hockey players who get oversize admiration and oversize wages in real life; the bigger-than-life mounties, giant beavers and monster moose were pure satire. They represent a past that probably never really existed, but they live on in Canadian mythology as others see us.

The best outcome of the Olympics was the road closures. Normally, we build more roads and bridges and we get more cars on the road to fill them. This time we closed roads and we got less cars on the road. Conclusion, Gateway isn't necessary.

A year ago I was criticized for calling the Olympics a party. It was a great party ... and we needed one, for the worst is yet to come.

cheers,

Harold

What Harold said

I've been a critic of the Olympics all along and remain so, but that does not negate my opinion that some positives emerged from the event, nor does it negate my opinion that great fun was had in those street parties. Who doesn't like a good street party? And what Canadian doesn't like to see our hockey team score the winner in OT against the USA?

The cops behaved well, even in the face of being goaded -- by a handful of Black Bloc idiots -- into using tear gas and clubs. The police did not use that force, thankfully. The cops exercised enormous restraint in that and other situations, much to the frustration of protesters, and they deserve credit.

The lack of an Olympic opposition movement has never been helped by the fact that there has been no political opposition to the Games since the bid was dreamed of by an NDP premier. From Glen Clark to Carole James to Jack Layton (seen going crazy on Sunday at Wayne Gretzky's Bar in TO) to super booster Mayor Gregor Robertson, this was every bit an NDP Games as a Campbell Liberal Games. Even organized labour held back.

I like Harold's point about the impact of the Games on the commuter psyche. If nothing else, this Olympics forced people out of their cars, to at least consider alternatives for a couple of weeks. That's a good thing and I hope that transportation legacy is nurtured on.

Do I think the party was worth the tax dollars spent. No way, no how. But that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the most thrilling hockey game I've ever seen, or stop me from acknowledging a good street party when I saw one. We can still be a critics of the Games and, at the same time, salvage some good from the event before getting back to holding the govt's feet to the fire in the final accounting of the bills.

One of the saddest legacies coming out of the anti-Olympic movement (of which I include myself) is the shameless exploitation by some in that movement of a dead luge athlete, used as martyr for by opponents who feel they have very little else to cling to or appeal to in expressing their opposition. The message here is: When the mass rallies fail to materialize, or when the anarchist vandals don't get the police riot they seek, and when your own spokespeople get pied by your 'allies', well, you can always fall back on the tragic death of an athlete. Sad.

Gold to the Tyee

Absolutely Gold. Thank-you Tyee for your intelligent, insightful and entertaining coverage of the Olympics. I consider your work essential reading, and it just keeps getting better. I don't know how you've managed to assemble such an incredible pool of talent on such a meagre/meager budget. I hope everyone keeps clicking all your ads every time they visit.

barney

"The cops behaved well, even in the face of being goaded -- by a handful of Black Bloc idiots"

On CKNW I keep hearing the hosts saying the same about the Friday night protest, the one that was supposedly peaceful.

Olympics fallout

Dear Vancouverites. You partied hard, you were joyous, gracious hosts. I wish I'd been there too, with a fat wallet.

Sport is a mass entertainment that can mask/overwhelm other events, vis a vis Neil Postman's 1985 book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." Given that the same corporate interests are running the US and Canada the nationalism displays were poignant.

Now your overlords will make you pay. Why aren't you more organized? Is it easier to get high?

Lotusland. BC Bud. Soma. Delusion. The lotus - the flower symbolizing spiritual evolution - the roots rising from mud.

Make your choices, beloved British Columbians. Exercise discipline. Support each other. The world is watching.

Thank you Tyee

for mentioning how terrible the closing ceremonies were.

Did I just miss the coverage in other media?

It may be okay to laugh at the world's cliche impressions of us, but it would have been so much better to give them something other than beavers, hockey, maple leaves, bad jokes, and Nickelback to remember us by.

How about taking a few lines from the Maple Leaf Forever:

"Protect the weak, defend your rights,
And build this land together,"

and actually saying something interesting about how the Canadian experience can help the world establish a happy, multicultural global society.

Barney, since you mentioned it.......

Let's talk exploitation - and how a ubiquitous and warped development mentality has not only tragically changed the face of this province....but the lives of everyone and everything it touches:

Quote:"In an interview from his Leipzig lab, Gurgel said that the extremely high speed of the Whistler track was not a function of his design intentions or engineering decisions, but of marketing and investment decisions on behalf of the Vancouver Olympic Committee, VANOC. "It wasn't desired or demanded that the track be as fast as it is," he says of the design contract he won in 2004. He defends the design, but says its speed and its jarring turns were considered acceptable tradeoffs for a more appealing location.
Initially, the luge track was to be located at Grouse Mountain, north of Vancouver, allowing a shallower, more traditional course at very fast but not extraordinary speeds. But VANOC soon asked that the track be moved to a location in Whistler that was far steeper, Gurgel says, because they wanted it to be commercially viable after the Games. He told them that this would create a much faster track, and there were no objections.
In the traditional discussions about the trade-off between safety for athletes and track visibility for audiences, no one demanded that higher walls than usual be built on the final fast curves, he says.
And no objections arose when it became clear two years ago that the chosen steep terrain had resulted in a faster track than planned. "The track had to be near Whistler, for use after the Olympics. You don't want to ruin an investment," he says. "So the track is on terrain that's a little steep."......

"But the track's design, and the non-engineering factors that pushed it to such high speeds, continue to worry insiders. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that VANOC had been informed of the higher speed and had signed off on it, along with the sporting federations, but that officials in the federations decided last year never to design such a fast track again. The high speed and sharp corners were not considered desirable features for other tracks.
"That was not an engineering decision," Bob Storey, president of the International Federation of Bobsleigh and Tobogganing, told the Wall Street Journal. "That was a commercial decision." End Of Quote

No argument, Lynn

I have no argument with all the issues raised, including your citation. The same arguments could be applied to the many X-Games type sports added to the Olympics in the past decade. The IOC is as much in the entertainment biz as it is the sporting biz.

However, for people like you to prey on tragedies like this for purely political, self-serving purposes, that's as shameful as the political and commercial circumstances that may have led to the tragedy. You likely had no clue where Georgia was on a map prior to this, and suddenly, you have a convenient fallen martyr to serve as the symbol of all that is wrong with the Olympics. What the Wall St Journal and NY Times were doing was hard investigative journalism. What you are doing is exploiting a tragedy for no other reason than to feed and arm your political opposition to the Olympics. Enough already.

barney

Don't think so.

Lynn is one of the most astute, well-informed and lucid commenters here at Tyee - She certainly knows where Georgia is and I'll bet she can tell you who the president there is and why Georgia is the most US friendly nation of the former Soviet bloc.

She can probably describe the background of the recent contretemps between the Russian Republic and a couple of 'Georgian' areas that were involved in that unpleasantness as well.

She's not exploiting anything - she's pointing out that the spin and justification being given by Vanoc and the Canadian Olympic Committee among others (and not forgetting John Furlong's pitiful babbling contrasting with the shameful way the authorities 'rushed' to blame human error for the tragedy) are entirely out of synch with the real story behind this young man's death.

Not nearly enough already - you don't ration the truth. Keep on doing what you do so well Lynn. Thank you.

again, Lynn, thank you

for continuing to raise the death of the Georgian luger. Ironically, since I don't have a TV, I saw the clip of his death on CTV by accident and also played and replayed and I cannot erase it from my mind. It has forever changed my mind about the spectacle of sport - of any kind. Nowhere (although I may have missed it) have I seen anyone talking of the violence of his death, other than in these postings...but endless and ad naseum blather about the 'violence' of broken windows. The 'violence' of the Black Bloq is awfully understated compared to legal corporate and organizational violence exhibited in these games...
"And what Canadian doesn't like to see our hockey team score the winner in OT against the USA?" Well, you raised the question Barney - so, not me. I could give a shit less, truthfully. About 20 % of us did not tune into the hockey game on TV, and that figure does not include the people within households where the game was on who did not watch. Further, I find your posting regarding Lynn obnoxious...you make assumptions and assertions that display a phenomenal ignorance, as well as being vulgar. Kindly display some politesse.

Thanks snert

How did I miss the original controversy? Or the "upset" Canadian reaction to it? Must not have been in my usual reading list, which includes remarkably few Canadian media.

Can't disagree with Gil LeBreton, though. I saw none of the Owe-limpics, but my sister-in-law gave a blow-by-blow of the outrageous nationalism and poor sportsmanship displayed by the Canadian "fans" that she saw when she stayed with us. Mind you, I just shrugged, not being sure of anything I could do, given how I've been ignored the last five years.

It's really funny to be taking lessons from an American on the ugly side of patriotism, but in this case, it appears well-deserved.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/28/2003874/in-these-olympics-canadians-only.html

This may be the first year I remove the Canadian flag from my suitcase when I travel to Europe this year. For safety.

zalm

Just had a quick read through the comments appended to Gil LeBreton's columns...if there was any doubt about the truth of what he had to say - 30 minutes scanning through hundreds of examples of mindless vituperation and purblind ignorance removed any doubt I might have had about the accuracy of his observations.

The truth, as is so often the case, hurts.