The Olympic flame.....what's all that about?????

[Arch]

[QUOTE 1945569, member: 76"]IAs for the whole sponsorship garbage, how many of you 'we must not have sponsorship, it's the Devils own money' spouters are going to turn their backs on the first British Tour winner? After all he is sponsored entirely by big business, Sky, Pinarello, Oakley, Gatorade etc etc Of course none of you are!

[/quote]

I'm barely interested in the Tour either, to be honest.

I like the Olympics because it's a chance to see a lot of sports we don't often see. I'm not that bothered who wins. I'm sure we had plenty of facilities suitable without building all new stuff - stadiums were you can't go in wearing the wrong sort of t-shirt. What wonderful Olympic ideals eh?

I heard a chap interviewed on radio a few days ago, who competed in 1948 as a gymnast. No sponsorship, no special diets (unless you count rationing), no multimillion pound opening ceremony. He couldn't even train in a gym, because there weren't any - he practised handstands on hoardings - the nearest they got to advertising I guess! I don't suppose those games were any less special to him and the spectators than this year's will be....

 

[snorri]

, it is worth remembering that for some people to be involved as a torch bearer, it's a great thing. As TonyEnjoyD's post shows.

It is indeed worth remembering some of the torch bearers. Sadly even the struggles or achievements of these people have
been overshadowed now that we discover some of the torch bearers "qualified" merely as a result of their empolyment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9411625/Torch-bearers-tattoo-misspells-Olympic.html
I'm afraid the lasting image of the torch relay will be of a bunch of heavies blocking the view leaving the torch bearer to a minor role.

 

[slowmotion]

I read somewhere that soldiers were drafted in to fill up the empty stands at White City for the 1948 Games. Is that true?

 

[LarryDuff]

I can't believe that it's taken until now for people to question what a load of tom kite the torch relay is. It went through about a minth ago.

 

[ufkacbln]

[QUOTE 1945670, member: 76"]

I know, why not complain that the rotten piles of poisonous shite that were on the site before were somewhere for poor East End urchins to play, now they have no-where because Coca-Cola and McDonalds have forced them to all wear red and white stripey clothes and stupid big clown smiles? Or that all the hard working East End lads were made to move to Solihull because all the council accomodation was needed to house 8 year old Adidas slave children who are going to hand stitch all the athletes clothing in the dark?[/quote].


Poking fun at the poor who have been most affected by the "cleansing", "gentrification" and development is rather ironic as they are the ones most affected. These are the ones now homeless and may be would have preferred your fantasy to the real life they now have?


Even the United NAtions

As money is pumped in to develop, regenerate and ‘clean’ the city, the ‘community’ is forced to flee, transforming an urban collective identity into an individualised consumer one, defined by a narrow homogenised racial, economic and ethnic suburban ego ideal. This process of gentrification and suburbanisation results in deep political and cultural insulation, alienation and detachment; detachment of families from one another and detachment from the commons.

(Ceasefire)

Even the United Nations (COHRE) has expressed concern over the level of evictions, deceases in affordable housing and the use of operations like "Operation Poncho" where rough sllepers are woken, moved on and their sleeping area soaked with a pressure hose to prevent their return. Raids on "Sex workers" are now between 5 and 8 times greater in the Olympic boroughs than in any other borough in the UK.

... and then just t cap it all the promised "affordable housing" is the next victim as despite massive profits the developers are "unable to build" and these will now casually be dropped whilst they are allowed to continue with the higher profit private ousing.

 

[rich p]

.
Blah blahblah blah blah....

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Oi, this thread is about the olympic flame not the flaming olympics.
Go and start your own thread.

 

[Piemaster]

Oh dear, if I'd known I was going to pose like that, I'd have worn my skinnier jeans and teeshirt! Honestly, I look spherical. And I'm not, only a little ovoid.

And posing in front of the Olympic symbol hanging up in a shop. I'd get them down sharpish before the Olympic enforcers come round and slap a £20,000 fine on you.

Unfortunately I'm half serious about it. Link

 

[ufkacbln]

Oi, this thread is about the olympic flame not the flaming olympics.
Go and start your own thread.

My apologies, I wasn't aware that replying to other peope's posts was something you objected to so strongly.

Shall I ask permission next time someone posts something and I wish to reply... would you wish to simply approve all comments on the threads, or would you want editing rights as well?

 

[rich p]

My apologies, I wasn't aware that replying to other peope's posts was something you objected to so strongly.

Shall I ask permission next time someone posts something and I wish to reply... would you wish to simply approve all comments on the threads, or would you want editing rights as well?

Not strictly necessary but it might be in your best interests.

 

[Arch]

[QUOTE 1946124, member: 76"]

Training, facilities and funding has all moved on. Your 1948 chap wouldn't even qualify with a poxy hoarding assisted handstand. We don't live in 1948, we are in 2012. Get a grip.[/quote]

Nice, dissmis an Olympian.

Clearly he did more than just handstands. Oh, and he did it all after fracturing a vertebrae and having a kidney removed due to TB.

Some progress is good, clearly. I just don't see a huge corporate bandwagon as progress.

 

[Norm]

My apologies, I wasn't aware that replying to other peope's posts was something you objected to so strongly.

Shall I ask permission next time someone posts something and I wish to reply... would you wish to simply approve all comments on the threads, or would you want editing rights as well?

I think Rich P is sponsoring this thread and you just turned up wearing the wrong coloured t-shirt (or, more worringly, wearing the wrong brand of crisps! )

 

[ufkacbln]

Note: this post has NOT been approved by RichP

The other weird thing that follows on from the previous posts was the wrongly spelled tattoo on another thread.

The unfortunate woman was a torch bearer in Derby and describes herself as resident in Atlanta Goergia... now I thought that the US had gained independence some years ago. How does working for a hotel chain qualify as being an inspirational pillar of the local community?

8,000 inspirational people will carry the Olympic Flame as it journeys across the UK. Nominated by someone they know, it will be their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide.

Like much of the Olympic propaganda it is though far from the truth
All in all 1,200 of the "inspirational" torch bearers were in fact neither local or inspirational, but rather corporate mebers including senior management and their families. One sponsor ArcelorMittal, chose the company's founder, Lakshmi Mittal, and his son Aditya. I ams ure the locals were really inspired.

I wonder which local was displaced or turned down so these individuals could buy their fantasy.

 

[Arch]

[QUOTE 1946151, member: 76"]Let's be clear, I am not dismissing the Olympians achievements, I am dismissing your harping on about how bloody good 1948 was, and wouldn't it be great if we went back to those times. No it wouldn't, the post war years were bloody awful.

Now either embrace and enjoy the coming month along with all the success and failure that all the competitors will go through, or at least shut up wittering on about how dreadful it's going to be.[/quote]


And I've not said it's going to be dreadful. I actually quite like seeing bits of all sorts of sports. I don't like the commercialism, that's all. You seem to have trouble dividing the two ideas.

I think 'poxy handstand' is quite dismissive, by the way.

 

[slowmotion]

Oi, this thread is about the olympic flame not the flaming olympics.
Go and start your own thread.

Thank you Constable, at ease!

 

[ufkacbln]

[QUOTE 1946166, member: 76"]I'm wondering Cunobelin, did you get your application turned down by any chance? You seem extremely bitter.[/quote]



Just able to identify a gross waste of money, resources and a societal change that we may all live to regret.

The Torch fiasco is just the first illustration of the farce