| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 1:35:47 AM | I realize so many people are disgusted with the amount of money being spent on the Olympics when there are so many social problems in our country, I just wonder how much of that money being spent would actually go towards these social problems that have existed for decades if the Olympics weren't being hosted in Canada?
The deficit we are going to carry is staggering, again, we've been operating in a deficit for a very long time.
I commend athletic achievement but kind of go back and forth with the support that these athletes get from so many corporations and our government.
Last night I attended the celebration in Nanaimo and had a lot of fun, but with all the policing and helicopters flying and fireworks ... just wonder what that one night cost and there are still 3 months before the games.
Go Canada??? | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 3:11:57 AM | it's a nice thought and i support our canadian athletes wholeheartedly...however check out the olympics track record with sydney, australia. they were in a helluva lot better shape than us before that happened in ALL regards including social programs...let's not succumb to the urge to hijack the olympics for personal (or familial, or cultural) financial gain when the truth has made inself all too evident in the past...just a thought 
The PMS Realist  | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 5:47:16 AM | | I think it is a little too late to be worrying about the Olympics now. It's a done deal and regardless of the outcome, we will be paying for this for a long time. It's the nature of the beast. Try and think positively and hope that because our beautiful Province will be centre stage for the world for that time period, it will entice people and business to come here and set up shop. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 7:29:23 AM | I think it's ridiculous the way special interest groups are blaming the olympics for every problem in the city right now. If anything the coming of the olympics has been the incentive for the government to take a very hard look at a lot of issues. Remember Expo 86? The same thing happened, everyone complained of the money spent etc., but I can tell you that before Expo 86 it was pretty hard to find work in this town. It employed a lot of people, especially college students like myself. Afterwards the city of Vancouver really took off. The olympics has helped a lot of people stay employed through some tough economic times. People need to think of the positive aspects instead of the constant focus on the negative. There's been so much contradictory information about how much money is being spent that I don't think we'll really know the truth for years. The city of Vancouver has become known as the 'no fun zone' thanks to the lack of events. People tend to forget that you have to spend money to make money. These idiots that are running around trying to ensure the failure of events such as this are nothing other than selfish.
Quite frankly I don't understand why people continue to hold to the idea that certain athletes should be 'amateur', and not make money for their hard work and achievement. Why? If there is money to be made from being a good athlete maybe more kids would be inspired to get off the couch, and our country would be healthier in the end. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 8:04:37 AM | I was ill at home on Wednesday morning and it was all I could manage to watch some TV so endured watching some of the pompous ceremony in Greece when they lit the Olympic cauldron and then transferred the flame to a special miners lamp (which looked golden) and evidently there were several others available, which then had to be flown to Canada. I regretted there was nothing more interesting for me to watch.
No doubt the travel and lodging cost for the various dignitaries, runners, support teams, etc. were of some consequence too.
What a tremendous waste of money. Gag!
The flame could have been proudly lit in Canada!
My initial thought was they could have "flicked a Bic" but since, the Bic butane lighters are made in the USA, Bic butane lighters are not a patriotic choice. The Eddy Match company is Canadian.
If a more rustic, pioneering flame origin was desired I'm sure there would have been plenty of people, ranging from First Nations to the Boy Scouts of Canada willing to create a tinder in some moss and Canadian Red Cedar.
The "carrying" of the torch through various places all over this nation is expensive enough. Now add in the security costs required because of all the protests taking place along the torch route and the cost bumps up more. Sadly much of it proves to be a waste and disappointment because the protests make it impractical or unsafe and some torch runners don't get to run at all or are re-routed.
Hopeful fans are denied the pleasure of watching the torch get carried past them.
The whole spectacle of the bringing home the Olympic flame and running it through the country is so unwelcome to many people, especially when considering the high costs and given the poor state of our economy. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 8:33:39 AM | | I have to agree. Its here so lets just go with it and enjoy. We , in Lake Cowichan were fortunate to be able to participate and it was the best thing ever. of course we had a huge Torch volunteer committe helping to make sure things went according to plan. Most of the runners were from away , but that meant their families came to our beautiful little town and saw what they never would have seen. Lots of pictures taken with our INUKSHUK . Lots of security but that is the way it is. That group will be with the Torch til the end. Media like we've never seen. Our Mayor was one of the lucky ones to go to Greece and get the flame, a time he'll never forget . It was just good for our town all the way around. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 8:46:10 AM | | i was listening to Dave Brindle on the radio friday. He was interviewing this guy who made a documentary, Olympia, about how the torch relay and ceremony came about during the berlin olympics...the nazi party essentially. They're the ones who "invented" and started that tradition. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 8:47:30 AM | I hear one of the major supporters of the Olympics is shutting down one of it's operations; that is in my town.
I have never been a supporter, and never thought there would be a great benefit outside of the lower mainland... now it seem they are actually having a negative impact. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 10:49:01 AM |
My initial thought was they could have "flicked a Bic" but since, the Bic butane lighters are made in the USA, Bic butane lighters are not a patriotic choice.
Well some Zippo lighters are made in Niagara Falls, Ontario . if that helps your flick your big flame . I not games supporter never have been and never will be , its not the games themselves its all the money that goes in to it . and are hard working athletes that don't get hardly any money to support them , during there training. But it is here now money has been spent hope they bring home some of those melted chocolate bar looking medals.  | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 12:47:15 PM | I'm not shy to voice my disgust of the Olympics. Among the many issues, this boils down to a party for the rich, paid for on the backs of the poor. Did you know that nice little parties during the olympics for dignitaries will be paid for by us to a tune of over $5,000? Doesn't seem like that much but do you get to go? No. Your money pays for things you can't attend.
What about the Olympic flags? There's a company right in downtown Vancouver that makes flags; that's their business. Are they making the flags for the Olympics? Nope. They're being made in China.
There's no money to increase services in the health field; senior's are suffering by the cut backs because of lack of funding for day care services, extended care facilities. We have hospitals that routinely practice "hallway medicine", there are often patients who cannot get up to the ward they need to (ex. ICU) because there aren't enough beds, so they say in the ER taking up space making your wait times longer (doesn't help that some idiots go to the ER with a cold or a stubbed toe). As an employee of the FHA (Fraser Health Authority) I have lots of e-mailed documenting the cut backs and the out right cancellations of certain things. For example, there's not enough money to perform endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs more than a certain number a month. If someone comes in with an abdominal aortic aneurysm ready to burst (or recently burst), they have to undergo an OPEN procedure; which is more painful, more dangerous, and generally not as good as an endoscopic procedure. But there's not enough money to perform endoscopic procedures all the time on these patients.
We have children that go to school in class rooms that are too crowded, they miss that important one-to-one teaching that happens in smaller class rooms. Therefore, more kids are being pushed through to grades they really aren't ready for simply b/c there's not enough money to fully help them.
There are children that go to school hungry because they live below the poverty line. The line ups for the food bank are astronomical but there's money to help them; to implement better social structures, programs. etc.
Then you have the big issue: Homelessness. Many of the people living on the DTES are individuals with mental health afflictions, many of them coupled with addiction problems. But there are no readily available treatment centers, for EITHER issue, for those who want the help. People with untreated paranoid schizophrenia aren't going to have the wherewithall to get to the hospital, keep a psychiatry appointment, take their medications which they wouldn't be able to pay for. There's not enough facilities able to handle in patient psychiatric care; if they do make it to the hospital, they're given a psych consult, a sample of medication, maybe kept over night, maybe kept for a week if they're certifiable, then sent on their way BACK to the street. There's no money to fund anything that would really make an impact on them.
My mother says something that pisses me off all the time, her reasoning for not bothering to help the homeless is "you build all that stuff, you'll still have homeless people". So what? At least you'll have the facilities to help those who WANT the help, who maybe couldn't get it where they used to live.
Would any of these issues been taken care of by the money that is being spent on the Olympics?
In a word: No.
They are not important issues to the people in government, as clearly evidenced in the last several years. They do not care about our senior citizens, they do not care about the education of our children, they do not care about those suffering in the health care system, and they do not care about the homeless.
If we didn't get the Olympics, we wouldn't be any better off. They wouldn't have "found" the money for these issues like they "found" it for the Olympics because these issues aren't a big deal for them. In fact, I'd go so far as to say by NOT addressing these issues, the politicians are helping themselves. Every politician makes their platform based on these social issues, promising a lot and doing very little when they get elected. Without these social issues, the politicians wouldn't have much to base their platforms on. They need these problems; and that's sickening.
I don't hate the Olympics, I just think we have no reason to have them. We have SO many problems in our province that our government needs to start helping its own citizens before it opens the doors to the world.
When the torch makes it to Vancouver, I'm debating on whether I'll protest. I feel strongly enough even though I know it won't do a lick of good.
But I firmly - firmly - firmly disagree with the Olympics. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 12:50:04 PM | | Wow - lots of spelling mistakes there but I'm too lazy to go through them. My apologies. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 6:25:37 PM |
i was listening to Dave Brindle on the radio friday. He was interviewing this guy who made a documentary, Olympia, about how the torch relay and ceremony came about during the berlin olympics...the nazi party essentially. They're the ones who "invented" and started that tradition.
I guess you stopped listening before you heard the bit where the Brits decided to revive the Torch as a symbol of international peace in 1948. I guess it's not convenient to include that if your aim is to cast it all in a bad light.  | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 6:41:20 PM | | I don't think they talked about that, nope. Or maybe they did and i don't recall. Did you hear it too? | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 6:43:25 PM | hhmm those crazy brits  ... they renewed a nazi ceremony as a symbol of international peace?
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 6:54:46 PM | I really regret not applying to run with the torch. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity. I feel bad for the people get blocked by the protesters.
I wasn't 100 percent behind the Olympics when we were bidding for them. I had reservations about them, but they are coming and a few protesters here and there are just an annoyance imo. I caught part of a news story and the speaker was saying the protesters interfered with a disabled person's turn to carry the torch. I would like to protest this. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 9:13:34 PM | | Not only did they do that, but they threw marbles down on the road in front of police horses. Don't know why the media gives these idiots any air time at all. They've completely lost sight of right and wrong. | |
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/2/2009 9:28:11 PM | | I think in this case it may be good that the media is giving attention to this group of protesters. People need to be aware of how foolish these people are. Throwing marbles in front of the horses' hoofs is appalling and cruel. The horses do not support or not support the Olympics. These protesters seem to be lacking something. Oh, I think it may be intelligence. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 10:13:30 PM | | Despite my unsupportive nature in regards to the Olympics, I agree - throwing marbles infront of the horses is just insane. The protesters are NOT helping the cause by behaving in this sort of manner. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 10:17:46 PM | Yep, throwing marbles in front of horse is insane and totally inappropriate, no matter how strongly you feel about your cause. It is as idiotic as spiking trees. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 10:36:55 PM | | ^ I agree. Where is the logic here? How can you convince others that your argument is legitimate, when you are behaving in such a dishonourable, cruel, irresponsible way. | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 10:45:01 PM | They do it for the cause . Never thinking of what they are causing . Just like the 2 ladies from some whale society from WA state that came up here in a boat and told people to stay away from the Luna the killer whale and not interact with her , and what do they do interact with Luna and video tape it and it airs on PBS . Hope these protester slip on there own marbles . But I doubt that since they have no marbles .  | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 11:30:49 PM | The marbles thing is really disgusting and those people that would try and injure an animal like this should be in jail! I have nothing against sport but the Olympics have gotten so out of control. My dream job is getting on the Olympic committee, travelling the world...eating in the best restaurants...staying in the best hotels...having a lot of powerful people kissing my ass...! You can run a race in a farmers field but this has become about who can spend the most money. The taxpayer is the last one that reaps any benefit....
All that said, the Olympics are here now and we might as well enjoy what we can from it! So rejoice in the celebration and be a decent ambassador to those visitors that you meet along the way. And don't throw any marbles at horses....grrrrr | |
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Posted: 11/2/2009 11:39:28 PM | | and maybe...those people throwing marbles under horses...should be kicked in the marbles.... | |
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Posted: 11/3/2009 12:26:07 AM | i hate the olympics, i am not proud.
it's the lamest thing since sliced bread.
does 'homes not games' mean anything?
7 billion dollars in taxpayer money towards a 17 day party for elitists.
weak.
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| The Olympic Torch
Posted: 11/3/2009 1:14:36 AM | | I think it's crap -- money could be spent much better elsewhere..... | |
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