My life + Olympics

[greenie_breizh]

Allie and I were talking earlier and for some reason I brought up Hush and I was like, "y'know, the Buffy episode where they don't talk?" And she was like, yeah, Hush! Which makes my little geeky heart so happy, that she would even know episode names, and so I ventured to ask if she'd seen Dr. Horrible, and she has. This, on top of general awesomeness, and the fact that she's borrowed 17 Again from me. Guys. I've really lucked out here!

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Some not-so-celebratory coverage about the Olympics and two quotes that sum up a lot of issues for me:
- The Guardian: Vancouver's Olympics head for disaster
- MSNBC: Canada’s Olympic city has notorious skid row (I have problems with that one but glad the DTES is getting some attention)
- Sports Illustrated: As Olympics near, people in Vancouver are dreading Games

Carol Martin who works in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, the most economically impoverished area in all of Canada, made this clear: "The Bid Committee promised that not a single person would be displaced due to the Games, but there are now 3,000 homeless people sleeping on Vancouver's streets and these people are facing increased police harassment as they try to clean the streets in the lead up to the Games." (Sports Illustrated)

"The Bailout Games" have already been labelled a staggering financial disaster. While the complete costs are still unknown, the Vancouver and British Columbian governments have hinted at what's to come by cancelling 2400 surgeries, laying off 233 government employees, 800 teachers and recommending the closure of 14 schools. It might be enough to make one cynical, but luckily every inch of the city is now coated with advertisements that feature smiley people enjoying the products of the event's gracious sponsors. (The Guardian)

(Interesting to read people's feelings about the event on the Vancouver LJ community, too.)

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I am NOT HAPPY with UBC for claiming that they sent an email out to students about a guy who's been banned from the central building on campus for inappropriate touching of women, when no one has actually received that email. Ugh.

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Reading the platform for Europe Écologie makes me both feel awesome that this coalition even exists and sad to think people like this could be in power and doing so much good but they're not. You know how people always complain that there is no political party that stands for what they believe in? Yeah, I totally don't feel that way. I have so much love for the Green Party in France, even though it's not perfect by any means. But reading about their vision of what to do makes me feel like we could actually turn things around if we had the political courage to do so.

Comments

[greenie-breizh.livejournal.com]

What's the difference between the national Green Party and the Independent Green Party of VA? It frustrates me a lot when people vote "strategically" for big parties - not only does it mean smaller parties never get anywhere, but it also fails to call the big parties on their BS, because all they see is that people keep voting for them no matter what. Sigh.

[menyhapyreturns.livejournal.com]

The Independent Green Party of VA trends more to a fiscal conservative position (full disclosure - i too tend to trend a bit more towards the libertarian side myself on some things) which I find appealing about them. And they are huge advocates for renewable energy and most of all, the light rail system which we really need expanded in NoVa. Aside form their foreign policy/military stances, I like the US Green Party's...values, I guess, but as a friend of mine pointed out recently, "They'll need to pay for all that non-bureaucratic bureaucracy they’re going to have to create to impose their platform."