Controversy, Vancouver and the Olympics, Part 2.

More of the story behind the story, by Dave Zirin of The Nation.  It is a fascinating time in Vancouver, BC.

When Snow Melts: Vancouver’s Olympic Crackdown 

 

 

Not the Vancouver you remember.

Vancouver is rife with tension with the 2010 Olympic Winter Games around the corner. Citizens and community groups are upset with how the city's poor, homeless, and vulnerable have been trodden over in hopes of an economic bonanza for some. Protests have been planned for weeks and will surely be a stark contrast to the games themselves. The story has been picked up by foreign news outlets with commentary such as this from the Sunday Times of Australia “North America’s festering sore of what do with its homeless and disenfranchised is crystallized in a few short blocks.” Not a nice picture, is it? The New York Times article by Greg Bishop below provides some depth.

photo: Wendell Phillips



The New York Times.

In the Shadow of the Olympics.
Greg Bishop

"Host cities have long been accused of sanitizing rough areas in the run-up to the Olympics. Government efforts were taken to another level for the 2008 Beijing Games, as historical neighborhoods were bulldozed in a slum-clearance program. Vancouver’s actions, though less drastic, have drawn objections from some community groups; at a protest Monday they called the information center propaganda and whitewashing."