Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Know an Olympic Torchbearer?
The torch will be in the borough on Wednesday, July 25, ahead of an official Olympics Evening Celebration.
Nominations are open to select Olympic Torchbearers and many locals are hoping that a handful of Haringey residents will be among the 8,000 picked to help the flame along its way from Lands End to London.
Torch Relay organisers are on the hunt for Torchbearers whose personal stories will inspire millions – from those in their local communities to those watching around the world.
Torchbearer nominations are open until June 29, 2011. For more information and to make a nomination, visit www.london2012.com/olympictorchrelay
Tags for Forum Posts: olympics
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Hugh, I don't know an Olympic Torchbearer, but I now know more about the background of the torch and the relay, now afforded such adoring reverence.
Dr Joseph Goebbels might be permitted a wry smile over this torch "[lighting] up" Haringey (or anywhere else, for that matter). Because if the former German Propaganda Minister did not personally invent the Olympic Torch, he probably knew who did.
A torch was not a feature of the Olympics before the Berlin games of 1936.
But the torch was a feature of Nazi imagery, especially the torch light parades.
Flaming torches were a key part of the most dramatic and pompous State funeral ever seen in Berlin. Torchbearers featured in infamous SS leader Heydrich's funeral. Flaming torches were set in the wall sconces surrounding Heydrich's coffin. Nine other similar funerals were held.
As a symbol of the Nazis, it was perhaps second only to the swastika, but more dynamic and threatening. I think I can see why the master propagandist so much favoured the torch as a potent, uniting symbol for drama, group-think and excitement.
[see also, comment in such disparate journals as the Telegraph and the Socialist Worker]
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Interesting area for discussion, Clive. For my money the Olympic torch has little to do with any 20th Century dictatorship, wether fascist or communist. For me it's more likely explained by the thrall in which fire has held man through the ages and its consequent power of symbol. No doubt that's why it was used at fascist rallies, but they didn't invent its use in this way and so I think to say that the Olympic torch is patterned on what the Nazis did is way off the mark.
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Granted that the naked flame has held men in thrall for millenia (I do slightly question Stephen Fry's nomination of the cigarette lighter as the most clever gadget ever).
However, in an Olympic connection, the torch was not merely patterned on what the Nazi's did: it was begun by the Nazis (for the 1936 Olympics).
So when when you ask, know an Olympic Torchbearer? I would nominate, metaphorically, Dr Goebbels, who was no mean propagandist. He had a genuine feel for what worked as propagandist imagery.
It seems to me that current media coverage of the torch relay has an undertone that we are all expected to adore it and revere it. The Telegraph suggested "trance" of the torch effect at the Berlin Olympics. Not only for cavemen, the torch's capacity to mesmerise and enthral swathes of people continues.
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This morning's news is that the council wants people to wear white while watching the Olympic torch pass through the Borough:
Watch the Olympic torch but wear white, says council
A dress code (while revering the flame) from the authorities touches on the totalitarian, mass-mesmerising aspect and origins that I mentioned earlier. The genius propagandist Dr. Goebbels would be proud of Haringey, although he might disagree with the choice of colour.
Sadly, actual Nazi sentiments seem to be alive and well in association with another current sporting event in Poland and Ukraine.
Today, the adoration of the flame may be intended to distract from the Olympian costs, which we'll all be paying for one way or another, long after the spectacle is over ...
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Oh, c'mon Clive! Where's your sense of humour? This is an obvious spoof.
Clue: Olympic Torch travelling "through Tottenham to Muswell Hill". A quick glance at any map shows this is completely the wrong direction to get to Stratford. If you spot the torcherer, tell them to turn left at the High Cross Monument; take a leisurely stroll to Tottenham Hale station; and it's 13 minutes on the Overground.
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Alan it did cross my mind that this was a spoof. And I checked the date to see if it was April 1. According to the Independent's story:
People in different boroughs will don different colours while the torch travels through the area.
The colour scheme has been selected for visual effect, and will mirror a rainbow of colours as the torch travels through London.
So it appears that this uniformity wasn't dreamt up by our local authority alone.
I can think of many ways the Olympian costs could have been better spent - and in ways that would have lasting benefit. Of course the enormous price-tag has come at the worst possible time from an affordability point of view: Paris must now be thanking their lucky stars at having missed out six years ago.
I won't be gawping at, cheering or saluting the flame. Red (for losses) might have been a more appropriate colour choice for those who wish to gaze at it.
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Clive, please show some compassion!
Someone shivering in shorts will be trying to keep a flame alight while squelching through rain-soaked streets in a downpour.
You own a motorbike! The very least you can do is go along with a spare crash helmet and offer them a pillion ride to the station.
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Now, I also have an old bicycle. The cycling is one of the few events I can have any identification with at the Olympics (i.e individual performance rather than teams; strength and endurance rather than technique).
I think its a mild winter we're having. The synchronised swimmers may be able to save some costs by performing by a drain that isn't emptying properly. If the rain continues, this suggestion could safely also apply to the divers.
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