Topic: Olympics..soon

[Digeroo]

banned words, including "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London"."

Summer banned?.  Perhaps that is why it constantly raining. ;D

[Squash64]

The USA athletic team will be training at the Alexander Stadium here in Birmingham from tomorrow.  This is just the other side of our allotment fence.  There have been all sorts of rumours about security but we haven't been notified of anything definite. 
Have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.

[manicscousers]

Can't wait to see Bolt running around in a fleece and everyone wearing wellies and kagouls  ;D

[Jeannine]

I am shocked and completely toppled. I expected to read about all the excitement and fun things going on like folks wearing their national colours,showing flags etc.

It was such a fantastic thrill when it was here for the winter games,everyone got involved from the kids in schools to old folks in care homes. There is a care home at the end of my short road and the folks had their mobility scooters decorated.

I can't remember speaking to one person who was negative, the town I live in was bulging with pride. I have a friend who was a volunteer bus driver, she took the athletes up to the slopes she was over the moon for being picked for that job. Our local branches of seniors centres had loads of their folks being used as volunteer greeters in Olympic city.

Kids in school were wearing team colours, they also had a day when they wore the dress of their birth country and even did geography lessons based on their individual roots.

I saw babes in  arms dressed in team colours with Mums dressed to match.

Restaurants were selling special food of all nations as a tribute to the athletes.

I remember having my car detail cleaned for a treat and I was offered the bronze, silver or gold  pockage and a percentage of the cost was donated to a fund for comforts for athletes families. We even had folks opening their homes to athletes families from some countries were money was tight and families didn't have much money for accommodation.

It seemes to be the difference between night and day and I simply don't understand why it would be so different.

It makes me very sad to read this.

Do I deduce from the mood of the postings that no one is trying to go and see any of it to.

Can I ask .. what do you all think could have been done differently, done in a way that the country and yourselves would have been excited and would have thought it all a fantastic event as we did here.

XX Jeannine

[schmelda]

I tried to go and see some of the sport.  Applied for several tickets and got nothing.  Friends of mine applied for several hundred pounds worth of tickets and got none.  Work for the right company and you're guaranteed tickets.

I think the two big issues for me are the fact that hardly anybody got tickets, and also the whole sponsorship thing - for example, local car washing companies can't offer a bronze, silver or gold package - they're banned words.  For the torch relay we saw more of the sponsors than the actual torch.  They've built the biggest McDonalds in the World in Olympic Park (and nobody else is allowed to sell chips!!!)

I am looking forward to the games, but will have to watch them on the TV - same as every other year  >:( So they could be anywhere.

I have, however, got tickets to three sessions at the Paralymplic, which I am looking forward to immensely.  Hopefully it'll be less corporate.  8)

[Jeannine]

I have just been on the Radley handbag site and they are selling a line called. The British Summer..it has the radley dog and a string of Union Jack decorations on it, surely this is suggesting the games.??

XX Jeanninw

[cornykev]

I'm sorry to hear it too Jeannine, it doesn't matter what this country try to be proud of, Olympics, Jubilee or any other event, people are always knocking our country, I am very sad but will be putting up my flags, your more patriotic than these lot put together, nuff said.   :(

[Flighty]

Jeannine it would probably have been a different story it had been held here 12 years ago.  
Now it's only about money, which at a time of austerity and recession is simply wrong.   The corporate sponsors greed and control is, I'm sure, resented by many people.
Getting tickets proved difficult and expensive. Many people going will find the security aspects unsettling and what they have to pay for food, drink, etc. exorbitant.  
It will bring few benefits to ordinary people despite repeated, and mostly worthless, assurances and promises by politicians and others. In fact for some it has had, and will have, just the opposite effect.
It is sadly part of the present day world that I simply want no part of.    

[manicscousers]

Maybe I'm being dense but, how does an olympic 'legacy' help the ordinary people of this country the way the NHS (cuts galore), our police force (cuts galore) and our armed services do ?

[katynewbie]

What Manics said, also, the obscene sight of the games being sponsored by two companies which are largely to blame for the obesity epidemic across the western world just makes my blood boil!

[BarriedaleNick]

Jeannine - I think the issue is that it seems completely detached from us everyday normal Londoners.
First up was tickets - no one I know got tickets to see what they wanted - so many have tickets to sports that they are just not interested in and most seeemed to get nothing at all - see above post.
Then it is the corporate involvement and the brand police - Corpoates pay far less than the taxpayers for the games but seem to get all the breaks.
We have bus lanes which have been converted to olympic lanes causing massive disruption already - and cyclists are not allowed to use them anymore.
Take LOCOG, the organising committe, thier board is made up entirely of men (aside from Princess Anne) and they are almost all corporates or Sirs or Lords - not representitive at all of London or the UK.
Ground to air missiles being placed on housing blocks with very little consultation.
As is posted above, all the talk makes it sound like we are preparing for war.  Everything is very negative - from issues at Heathrow to security warnings to travel chaos warnings.
You can't take food or water in really - just a small bottle of water and a sarnie..
I have never forgiven them for destroying an 100 year old allotment site (even though they now say they will reinstate it at a later date..)

This should have been a people's games not the bloody Macdonalds and Coke games..

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/whose-olympics-are-they-anyway

[shirlton]

Too many money grabbin sos and so's involved in it for my liking

[Flighty]

Manics no Olympic legacy has benefited ordinary people in recent times, and in most cases it has left the countries concerned well out of pocket.  For the IOC and corporate sponsors however it has been a very different story.

[BarriedaleNick]

Not mine..from http://www.mau-mau.co.uk/

[Flighty]

Barrie well said!

[Digeroo]

Just seen the cartoon mega.   ;D ;D

Did not know Dow was a sponsor.  Now I am definitely not interested.  Three years on there is still signs of damage to plants on my lottie from weedkiller in manure.

I HATE DOW BIG TIME.

[Borlotti]

Not really bothered, and that is sad.

[tomatoada]

Well Jeannine you did ask.   I am glad you did because all the above I agree with.  I would love to feel patriotic and say three cheers for the games.  But no because of what has been stated. The banning of certain words would be funny if it was not based on greed.

[manicscousers]

Also, what happened to our freedom of speech. Banning the use of the word  Summer, it's laughable, if I felt like laughing. I thought politicians were elected to represent the views of the people, obviously not me, and lots like me.

[Flighty]

Whose Olympics are they, anyway?

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/whose-olympics-are-they-anyway