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Friday,
Feb. 19
In the
weeks leading up to the Olympics, organizers in Whistler said it was going to
be New Years Eve every night, while their Vancouver counterparts projected the
experience to be like fireworks nights, Grey Cup and all other good things rolled
into one – for 17 straight nights. What they didn’t mention was that every Dec.
31 Whistler requires an extra 40 RCMP brought in on overtime to help blow up
balloons and spread good cheer. Vancouverites have trouble behaving for one
night, let alone 17 in a row. No need for a show of hands from the police, firefighting
and ambulance communities about their enthusiasm for 17 consecutive New Years’
Eves.
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Coming up
to the end of the first week of the Olympic experience and it has been one big
happy party. Downtown Vancouver is drawing crowds from sun up
until, well, almost sun up again. People are taking transit like never before,
with long queues the order of the day and no complaining. Many countries and
provinces have pavilions that offer national or regional food and drink, as
well as cultural attractions. Hour-long queues are the norm and people are
forking out serious coin to sample the food and drink. People are actually
lining up for four hours to take a 30-second zip-line ride at Robson Square, home to the BC Pavilion. Mind you, the ride is free, but four hours?
The
amazing thing is that everyone has been so well behaved. The much-anticipated
protests last Friday, followed by the brief anarchist’s gong show on Saturday,
resulted in a combined seven arrests. An esteemed British journalist commented
that there had been more people nicked at his last year’s family Christmas
dinner.
The
professional pollsters have been beavering away phoning citizens during their
dinner hour to determine that we now love the Olympics, whereas only a week ago
we hated them. If you have ever actually
participated in one of these séances, you will have special appreciation for
the depth of the questioning. A 79 per cent approval rating for the Games was
the result of this question – “are you now in favour of the Games or would you
rather have a punch in the nose?” There was no indication of how many undecideds
there were.
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Betty Smith
Written by Betty Smith on 2010-02-20 01:12:45
Well can't let this article pass without me having a comment..
I have not been in favour of the games..not because I don't care to watch the athletes..I do, and they are all doing a fine job..
What gets me going is the amount of money this government is putting out to fund the occasion, Which of course the tax payers will have to account for, even though they had no say in how the money was going to be spent..it appears to me,that this was just a way for Campbell to look good to the world and the big business' for whom he favours..and what about the money his government has taken away from our health care system and our childrens shools, Where was this government money, when it came to helping the World Police/Fire Games..there was also some very good samples of excellent sportsmanship at these games also.. |
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