Originally Posted by Glice

1. Comparing anything to the Nazis is off-limit. Because nothing is rational then.
2. I was contrasting that 'Ni'k is extreme' with your also excessively extreme statement. Ni'k is criticising the here-and-now, not relying overly on historical/ hysterical antecedents.
3. China (by western reports) didn't kill people in preparation for the games, they relocated them; they also shut down any means of peaceful protest. The did this in a horrible and inhumane fashion. The Nazis shot insurgents and protesters. As did Pinochet (etc).
4. Regarding the 'foot-in-mouth' comment, I talk a lot of shit. I didn't, however, at any point start and continue defending a thread in which I suggested that "Germany's" holocaust memorials were somehow 'Disneyland-esque'; I likewise didn't suggest that Germany was somehow proud of murdering a sizeable proportion of Jewry in Europe.

Originally Posted by ni'k

i mean WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG with a human being who dedicates their life to trying to run a certain distance in less and less miliseconds. how much do you have to hate your body and the possibilites of existance to dedicate yourself to something like that? and all the fucking nationalism that goes along with it? yuk. disgusting.

Originally Posted by PAULYBEE2656

fuck that shit. id give my left arm to live in a city which holds a major sporting event like the olympics or the world cup or whatever just to have the opportunity to attend the event. stop whinging and complaining and maybe go out and enjoy it. this thread reeks of the "twitchy net curtain syndrome" that is prevelent in ireland.. oh..look at him over there, he isnt from this parish, he must be up to no good, ooh hes got long hair, drugs mary, drugs i tell you, if he aint selling he is buying " fuck that shit up altogether. enjoy it, feel proud that the event is on your doorstep! think how the georgian team feels, think how Nodar Kumaritashvili's family is feeling, get some perspective. sorry to piss on your more than likely valid soapbox but whine whine whine whine....... etc, repeat to fade!

Originally Posted by jon boy

hi,

i live in vancouver these days, the city is hosting an olympics if you didnt know. ok so its pretty much extremely unpopular with just about all who live here as the massive amount of restrictions that have been put in place on where you can and cant go, what are not allowed to wear (anything remotely anti olympics puts you in the back of a police car) plus the travel chaos that is being caused. a one hour wait just to get onto a train or bus is about normal and all this in a city with a major homeless population that is being pushed (literally) out of site and a poverty gap that gets bigger by the day, poorly functioning transport system, translink that has 28 CEO's all earning well over the standard amount for people in their position, a budget of $2bn dollars for homeless projects of which less than 1% has been used and given that they have had many many years preparation there are virtually no shelters for anyone yet the olympic village (which is supposed to be turned into affordable social housing afterwards and now is going to be luxury condo's instead) is millions over budget paid for by tax payers, VANOC basically making political requests as they see fit and getting them and also creating policy including pissing off the ambulance workers on strike over poor pay, the fact that so many streets are going to be closed to the public and when i live less than six blocks from the olympic village it means a commute of 25 minutes is now going to be 2 hours, passing through many security screens and closed off to the public areas even though we live here, the corporate sponsorship involved and the general feeling that the city is no way near ready, the 200,000 extra people that are going to be crammed into a very small space. all this plus the fact that its very warm here, the average temperature is +12 which means that must of the snow has melted, what you will see on your tv has actually been shipped in from other areas as basically its warm and raining. on the ground it basically feels like a poorly planned money making shit storm. the budget for this whole thing is mind blowing and i just wish that they could have spent the money on something else but as is most common with these kind of deals, things only change when the eyes of the world are upon you.

as a sporting event i think its fine but they should have it somewhere with snow that is able to cope with the whole thing.

i know the usual posters will post the usual thing but there you go. rant over.

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

if this was an art event would you think differently?

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

why

Originally Posted by jon boy

i would feel the same about any event causing as much disruption and etc. i just think its funny that there would be an art event that would be as big which is why i said yes.

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

well if you were in edinburgh it would be comparable, the populace nearly triples.

Originally Posted by jon boy

hhmmm i somehow think its different.

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

comparable per capita

Originally Posted by jon boy

yes but the differences between the Edinburgh and Vancouver are quite big.