says VANOC CEO John Furlong, the same night CBC's Passionate Eye runs a doc on the 165,000 Chinese evicted from their homes and let go from their jobs in Beijing to make way for what Furlong describes as "a celebration".
Tell you what, John.
Given that the Olympics are but a thin veneer of sport covering up forced urban renewal projects, 1.5 million evictions according to the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, how about making it a condition of winning the Olympic bid that the host country must set up decent refugee camps ahead of time?
Bravo, Alison!
ReplyDeleteExcellent suggestion, re: host country requirement . . . .
Like Furlong cares about homeless in China when he doesn't care about it in his own city.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Naomi Klein's piece about Corporate America using the Olympics as an excuse to put billions of dollars in cutting edge technology into helping China build a police state for the 21st century?
ReplyDeleteWorth checking out. I particularly like her description of the Chinese authoritarian capitalist system as 'McCommunism'.
McCommunism, yes, very good - thanks, Cliff.
ReplyDeleteDid you also see her longer version in Rolling Stone on this same thing, end of May, thereabouts?
I looked up L-1 - they have a branch in Canada.