Sunday, February 14, 2010

Olympia Vancouver - hordes of dirty homeless beggars





The first thing you notice is the many dirty homeless people begging for money.

One doesn't see that in Sweden, Netherlands, France Germany Belgium Spain, Italy, Poland Denmark Finland etc.

Only in USA, Great Britain and Canada.

Heartless capitalist society - rather spends big on weapons of mass destruction and on elites...
The Creed of Capital: Teach people that they are not a society, but a bunch of brutal egoists. its good for business. Cooperatives? NO!! Lone people are much more exploitable. UNIONS?  Fight labor unions! Smear them! Corrupt them!! Memebership in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand is waaaaay down. Right now in Germany there are strikes of public workers.  Every day the word union is mentioned in the news. When was the last time your heard it in an angloamerican broadcast?  Corporate media! Perception Management!


On February 3, 2008, the first annual Poverty Olympics were held at the Carnegie  Library in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Many of the already-overstretched public programs for people in poverty in Vancouver have been eliminated or had their budgets cut to pay for the Olympics

The United Nations survey on livability rates Vancouver in the top handful of cities on earth. And this year we're hosting the Winter Olympics --  But the homeless population is shocking. Canadas are as bad as US Americans when it comes to the victims of capitalism.


About 600 people including many homeless have held the Poverty Olympics in Vancouver to protest!!

Long-time antipoverty activist Jean Swanson told the Straight she “never really had any confidence or faith” in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.

So she is one of the organizers behind an Olympics-style event with a twist: the Poverty Olympics. Spectators can come to Carnegie Theatre (401 Main Street) and check out the poverty-line high jump, the welfare hurdles, and a "broad jump across a bedbug-infested mattress". Swanson is a coordinator with the Carnegie Community Action Project, a sponsor of the event next Sunday (February 3), from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and she is also involved with the Raise the Rates Coalition.
"We want to be able to put some pressure on the government to do something about welfare, housing, and minimum wage," Swanson said by phone. It has been hard lately, not so much with housing, but there has not been much interest with the other things. So we thought we would do this. Swanson promised to e-mail international media to "show the world coming to the Olympics what the real poverty situation in Vancouver is". CCAP community organizer Wendy Pedersen handed out Poverty Olympics posters at the Coal Harbour Community Centre on January 13, where she told the Straight that other organizations behind the event include the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Streams of Justice, and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

Pedersen mentioned the Poverty Olympics when former Vancouver city planner Kris Olds lectured at SFU's Harbour Centre campus on January 21 on housing rights.

Swanson quipped: "The Olympics are going to have mascots, so we are going to have mascots. They are not going to be made in China, and they are not going to be contortions of aboriginal stuff. We have Itchy, and you'll have to come to find out the other two. Itchy is a bedbug."

Swanson also had three quick requests for Premier Gordon Campbell: “Build thousands of units of housing, raise welfare rates, and end barriers to getting on welfare


Protesters disrupt Vancouver Olympics celebration

Last Updated: Monday, February 12, 2007 | 10:10 PM ET   CBC Sports
Protesters hurling eggs, rocks and profanity-laced insults disrupted what was supposed to be a celebration of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on Monday.

A crowd of about 60 anti-poverty activists descended on a celebration outside the Vancouver art gallery, where a crowd of several hundred people were watching dignitaries and political leaders unveil a countdown clock that is ticking down the seconds until the Games begin in exactly three years from now.

Protesters gather at the unveiling of the Olympic countdown clock Monday.(CBC)

Dozens of police, some on horseback and wearing riot gear, arrested seven people. One officer dragged a protester off the stage, another tackled a woman with a bandana across her face. Insp. Steve Schnitzer said police anticipated a protest, but nothing of this scale. He said police will keep the disruption in mind when planning for the next pre-Olympic event. "We have lots of interactions with this group and this is probably the most violent that we've seen it happen," he said, calling the demonstrators "hooligans". "They pushed by police officers, they pushed by citizens that were there to have a good time, they pushed over fencing, they jumped fencing and then they pushed the master of ceremonies to get to the podium." He said the protesters, who are believed to be with the group Anti-Poverty Committee, threw eggs, paint-filled balloons and rocks wrapped in papier mâché. They shouted obscenities and booed B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell as he addressed the crowd. City needs to focus on needy: protesters

Some members of the group unveiled their own doomsday-style clock at the event, which concludes that by 2010, 6,000 people will be homeless in Vancouver. The protesters said the city must focus on finding affordable housing for the poor.

"You can see that the numbers are starting to get bigger, and that's because we're losing the housing in the downtown eastside, to Olympic speculation and gentrification," said anti-poverty activist Wendy Peterson.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) did not acknowledge the protest as it unveiled its countdown clock, which is made of cedar, glass and stainless steel and stands six metres tall and three metres wide.

The timepiece will tick down to the opening ceremony on Feb. 12, 2010.

The clock was inspired by the shapes of the Ilanaaq - the emblem of the Games, and Vancouver's natural and urban landscape.
Two electronic clocks are on the face of the sculpture- one - clock marks the countdown to the start of the Winter Games and the other displays the countdown to the Paralympic Games

"With only 36 months to go until Games time, it serves as a compelling, constant reminder of how close we are to welcoming the world to Vancouver, Whistler and Canada in 2010," said John Furlong, the head of VANOC.

The premier attended the event, along with Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and David Emerson, the federal minister in charge of the Olympics. Olympic silver medallist Jeff Pain and Paralympic champion Lauren Woolstencroft also took part.

"This clock that we unveiled today will not only remind us of the years and months and weeks until we actually light that torch but it will remind us of how intense the competition really is," the premier said.
The Olympics will last 17 days. Events will be held in Vancouver and about 120 kilometres north, in Whistler. The Paralympic Games begin on March 21, 2010.

The cost of the venue construction for the Games has been pegged at $580 million. Last year, VANOC needed a $110-million cash infusion from the B.C. and federal governments to make up funding shortfalls.

Originally, $470 million was budgeted for venue construction. The discrepancy, according to VANOC, came about because the estimate was based on 2003 dollars and didn't take into account soaring construction costs in B.C.

 With files from the Canadian Press

. A crowd on Sunday in Vancouver protested the spending of hundreds of millions of  dollars on the Olympic Winter Games while still being homeless..
http://www.google.com/search?q=wendy+petersen+olympix+vancouver

YouTube - Poverty Olympics 2008 Pictures and Wendy's statement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecei011NahM


StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!

posted at 2/14/2010 10:42:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home