To think that the Olympics is a disgusting spectacle of thuggery and corporate whoredom

[MonkeysNuts]

The last one was in China where no-one would be surprised to hear about abuses done in the name of the spectacle.

It seems however we've imported this totalitarian state to the UK.

To wit, boy riding his bike assaulted by the Torch Guardians:

All the food vendors at the Olympics banned from selling chips, because McDonalds sell them:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172168/London-Olympics-2012-McDonalds-force-Olympics-bosses-ban-restaurants-selling-chips-unless-FISH.html

Ground-to-air missiles sited on blocks of flats

stoptheolympicmissiles.org/

13,500 troops deployed, more than in Afghanistan, thousands more, many unpaid, private security staff, attack dogs, sound torture device
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18042528

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/10/london-olympics-lockdown-2012-games

All cashpoints shut down at Olympics sites if they take cards other than Visa, non-Visa cards banned for payment
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153008/Visa-branded-cynical-bans-rival-cards-Olympics.html

Advertising exclusion zones around all the Olympic sites

www.london2012.com/business/advertising-and-trading-regulations/

£675m taken from charities to pay for it

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9366935/London-2012-Olympics-Charities-who-lost-funding-to-pay-for-the-Games-wont-see-their-money-for-another-decade.html

Total fuck-up for central London for transport/living for weeks.

Tourist numbers massively down

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9311869/Third-of-London-hotel-rooms-empty-for-Olympics-as-normal-tourists-stay-away.html

Olympics sponsored by shit: McDonalds - shit foreign food; Heineken - shit foreign beer (all other beers banned, arrests likely for anyone trying to promote/sell them); Coca Cola - shit foreign drink.

The Olympic ideal was supposed to be pure athleticism, competing for nothing more than honour, instead basically we give our country over to a bunch of plutocrats who get their own Zil lanes to whisk them from Mayfair (they couldn't possibly demean themselves to stay in Stratford) to Stratford and around the country to other venues and to a few big corporations who, in return for putting up a tiny fraction of the cost of the Olympics, get to dictate what we can and can't do in our own country. Did we really want this? A militarised city, where the armed forces are there essentially at the behest of a foreign force, namely the IOC?

What a lot of miserable beggars you are!
I'm really looking forward to it, although I will be watching if from the comfort of my own sofa .

It's the Olympics - I'm not that opposed to it & I have every intention of enjoying it (yes even as a marginalised/inconvenienced Londoner)

HOWEVER

The corporate sponsors tax breaks/and tight control over what can and can't be sold/said fucks me off beyond belief.

And I'm sick of hearing about what a favour they are doing us all by stepping up to be major sponsors. There is no WAY these huge corporations would be involved if it didn't add up to ££ in their bank at the end of the day.

It also is bloody awful how London foots the bill whilst the IOC makes a HUGE amount of profit from the games.

interesting Vanity Fair article

Just HOW MUCH are MacDonalds expecting to make for the sale of FRIES at Olympic venues? Surely in the scheme of things its tiny compared to their sponsorship.

Its about flexing muscles, having power/control and squeezing any competition as much as they can.

HipHop you've summed up capitalism nicely in your second sentence.

YANBU.

The first clip is shocking

somebloke123 fab solution!

Two key quotes from HipHop's excellent Vanity Fair link:

'The I.O.C. will earn $4 billion in broadcast rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Summer Olympics and $960 million from corporate sponsorships. Of this, the I.O.C. will contribute a mere $1.6 billion to the cost of putting on the Games.'

'The contract requires British customs officials and London police to confiscate all non-licensed goods bearing the Olympics name or logo, be they fake T-shirts or marzipan renderings of the five Olympic rings on cakes in bakery windows. To help officials do this job, the contract stipulates that ?brand protection teams? must be formed to roam the city.'

"Nini* well maybe it depends what you mean by capitalism.

What seems to be operating here is not the operation of the free market but corporatism: big business in cahoots with trans-national bodies.

Trans-national bodies always seem to be corrupted: UN, EU, IOC, FIFA etc etc. There is never enough transparency, or checks and balances, to deal with corruption and malpractice.

Yanbu.let's all boycott the sponsors and buy from British firms. Especially the small British firms.

I find it hard not to want to go and sit in a dark room and weep at the utter awfulness of it all.

I love sport - but this just isn't about sport and has ripped the heart out of sports clubs where mostly run by hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

YABU OP.

Whats the matter, is it going to interrupt your soaps?

lookto I think the OP has made it very clear why she objects to the Olympic games....

Hate it all. Monopolies. Chaos. Distuption to my home town and no bloody tickets for decent events.

Yanbu.

lookto have you actually read the thread?

I'm with somebloke. My husband suggested sending the Olympics back to Greece permanently months ago. When we were stuck in a traffic jam in Dorset while they messed with the roads there for the Olympics.
Greece is broke and needs investment. No-one really wants to host the Olympics as it's a monster that sucks money from every country who takes it on and leaves them with vast unused facilities that no-one wants. They have to have the corporate sponsors to even start to break even, although the "chip" deal is a bit bizarre.. they are French Fries at McDs. The weather is better in Greece, they have the infrastructure. Let them keep the games. I'll watch from the comfort of my sofa ta very much.

I was in London for work yesterday and my god it was unbearable, if I was a Londoner I would be fuming

We have tickets and are really looking forward to the rowing. Without the sponsors (and I admit it is all a bit corporate greedy and the stories are like some sort of police state) the whole thing would be more expensive. We got tickets for £60 - far cheaper than a comparable sporting event such as a football match. Our train tickets from the other end of Britain were reasonably priced (if you have Olympics tickets you could buy before bookings opened to everyone else). We will take our own food and water bottles to the venue and so the day out will be cheap and great fun. YABU - it is something my children will always remember.

Just make sure your water bottles aren't 'branded' by anyone that's not Coke rose - and enjoy!

The tickets are cheaper than a comparable sporting event? I don't think so.

Check the prices for say the badminton, and then compare that with the cost of going to the World Championships or whatever (last year in London)

They did sell some cheap tickets, but they were few and far between.

Opening Ceremony £2012, or £1600?
www.tickets.london2012.com/eventdetails?id=0000455ACF410E78

Who are they kidding?

My tickets are for the rowing and cost £60 for 4 tickets - 2 adults and 2 children. We bought the tickets we could afford and did not apply for those we could not, just as we would for tickets for anything else.

Well I am thoroughly looking forward to it, as are my dds and my dh. And if that makes me a corporate foreigner loving whore then that's me

So ner.

YADNBU - It makes me very angry

We've got tickets for football at Old Trafford. Today I read the list of 'prohibited items' we're not allowed to take - it includes branded clothes! We're not allowed to display logos of any companies other than official Olympic sponsors.

A friend of mine owns a touristy shop in London. She is allowed to sell licenced Olympic stuff, but is not allowed to have an Olympic display, as this is reserved for the official shops. She has had an unannounced visit to check that she complies with their standards.

Apparently, according to our lovely parcel force man, only one delivery company is allowed to deliver within one mile of any Olympic site, which means that letter boxes are having to be sealed up. So tough for anyone wanting to send a quick postcard back home. And tough to the people who live there, who will now have to post their letters potentially far out of their way for the month.

I think that the Olympics committee are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

These sponsors are pumping millions into the staging of the games and therefore presumably saving tax payers from having to dig even deeper.