Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Olympics - godess forbid we might actually have a good time
Tags for Forum Posts: olympics, olympics 2012
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I wasn't fearless on the 8th July. I was terrified. Colleagues died that day
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I'm sorry to hear that some of your colleagues died on 7/7.
BBC News 24 reported a short while ago that 17,000 servicemen and women will be involved in the games.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Not everyone who loves sport and the Olympics is a fan of how the London Olympics have been 'sold' to us, funded by corporates, and organised by Hugh Bonneville LOCOG
Here's a quote from Mark Perryman's blog:
The book that I have written is neither anti-Olympics nor is it against sport. I am a fan of both. But I am opposed to what the Olympics have become, the false promises made on their behalf and the chronic lack of ambition in the way they have been organised. My argument is that a different Olympics isn’t only possible, but better. If our only experience of the Games in this much hyped once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to host them is watching them on the TV, well they might as well be anywhere.
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Agree. I'm actually a fan of the Olympics. I once visited Olympia and think how truly wonderful it would be if we could get back to something closer to the original Olympics - the blokes wouldn't have to run around starkers and I'd even let women in.
You might believe me Alan when I say I am not some rabid leftie who is opposed to all forms of competition. Indeed I believe that is the natural state of affairs (and subject to moderation).
But the modern Olympics have come to be about ego in a less attractive form: the nationalism, the ZIL lanes, the overblown opening ceremonies, the giant junk food sponsorship, the top heavy administration, the huge effort in countering doping, the greed and corruption. These monstrous games will now require 23,500 of security personnel (I understand some fine athletes are part of it too!)
I sincerely hope that this London Olympics, with its ghastly logo and vast spending, is a high water mark in the flood of excess. Someone needs to rein them in.
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Fan of the Olympics? Me too. I'm enjoying it immensely. Friendly rivalry about who gets tickets. Truly amazing artwork on our lamposts. Relentless up-to-the-minute drama from Group 4. And a standing ovation for the Daily Mail. Not forgetting Jessica Hynes - a joy.
I'm told there will even be a revival of Torch Song Trilogy at the Ally Pally with Boris playing the role of Arnold Beckoff.
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For those who haven't lost their heads over the flame and the games, a sober assessment of can be found in yesterday's Guardian. Former Times Editor Simon Jenkins wrote an opinion piece on the effects of the current Olympics on this city:
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An entertaining read. But what a curmudgeonly old fart he's turning into. He doesn't like large live events in cities; and has never heard of Godwin's Law.
Reminds me of a meeting years ago when former Bruce Grove councillor Irene Robertson announced that everyone should be in bed by 10 pm. Other people were tut-tutting about music events in Finsbury Park.
James Dawson the youngest councillor then confessed that not only was he born after the death of Queen Mary - or was it Victoria? - but he actually enjoyed going to see rock bands.
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I did wonder, Alan, if you would pick up on Simon Jenkins' brief Hitlerian reference.
The trouble is, its rooted in reality and more so than Olympic boosters are prepared to admit.
The purest link back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics is the elaborate torch relay. If this wasn't a Goebbels innovation, he knew whose it was (Dr Carl Diem?). Then there's the theatre, the spectacle, the nationalism. Is it a coincidence that a Life Honorary President of the IOC (Juan Antonio Sammarach) was a prominent Spanish fascist? Last year, the New Statesman responded to Tracey Emin's comment about fascism thus:
The Olympics have always been a bit fascist, Tracey
also,
Aryan ideals, not ancient Greece, were the inspiration behind flame...
(Independent)
It's worth reading these before reaching the conclusion that comparisons with fascism are "way off the mark" or made in ignorance of Godwin's Law.
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Clive, there is nowhere that any fascist or authoritarian regime would have allowed a BBC camera team full access into a sensitive and huge public project like this for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Nor to broadcast an uncensored warts-n-all record of events as they unfolded/unravelled week-by-week.
It's up there with programmes like Sir David Attenborough's nature series for absorbing detailed, factual television.
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I'll accept that Twenty Twelve is not in the same vein as Leni Riefenstahl's filmic effort. The current Olympics owe much to the 1936 games, but how much should be gratitude?
The bloat has been a post-war phenomenon, but I doubt AH & Co. would have disapproved, as long as they were running the show.
NB The Independent link should be: Aryan ideals (inspiration behind flame tradition) ...
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