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VANCOUVER
OLYMPICS ARE HUGE SNOW JOB
If I had any vestiges of doubt left
about society's collective insanity, they disappeared July 2nd
with the news reports re Vancouver having been chosen for the
2010 winter Olympics.
One CBC reporter said (and showed) that many people prayed Vancouver
be chosen. If that doesn't prove lunacy I don't know what does.
Some 18,000 people in Vancouver's GM place and many others in
other venues hugged each other in jubilation when the announcement
was made. That's like kissing your doctor after being told you
you need a heart transplant!
Thousands more people stayed up all night to catch the announcement
from Prague without apparently realizing that this is much more
a business event than a sports event. It demonstrates how easily
people can be conned into supporting a project with completely
nonsensical assurances that this will benefit everyone in British
Columbia. To spend between two and six billion dollars (depending
on who you believe) over the next seven years for a 17-day event
is insane when schools are closed for a lack of funds and hospitals
are short-staffed. Who is going to pay for the unavoidable shortfall,
e.g. maintaining facilities built for the event after the athletes
have finished using them? Not the promoters, but the taxpayers.
Claims that this huge--but short-lived--event will pay for itself
are reminiscent of former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau who said
it would be more likely that he would become pregnant than Montreal's
1976 summer Olympics incurring a deficit. Predictably Drapeau
did not get pregnant (He died instead), but the games incurred
a huge debt. After paying down this debt for 27 years there is
today still a $300 million debt left!
How can Premier Campbell justify spending hundreds of millions
of taxpayers dollars after ordering countless cutbacks in government
services because he claims that the province is basically broke?
The taxpayers in this province will suffer paying the bills while
privileged business interests will reap the benefits.
The Vancouver-Whistler Winter Games are yet another example of
screwed-up priorities by the BC Government and a gullible public
that is largely unaware they are the victims of a huge snow job.
JM
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