Monday, March 01, 2010

With Glowing Hearts....

Seven years ago, soon after it was announced I wrote on my blog about how excited I was that Vancouver would be hosting the 2010 Olympics. Well, in those seven years I became a little more cynical...or what I like to say is a little more critical about the issues around me. As the Olympics descended upon my "little" hometown of Vancouver I became even more critical about the costs, the potential impact on the homeless, the blatant commercialism, and the throngs of drunken rowdies on my city. I was determined to boycott them and sleep in a red tent for the duration of the games showing my solidarity for the marginalized in Vancouver. Sigh...I must admit that I was all talk and eventually my anti-Olympic resolve started to crumble with every medal we won. It was hard to protest the Olympics when your cries were drowned out by the spontaneous singing of "O Canada" and when the protesters broke windows. It was hard not to get swept up in the sea of red and white. In my defense, I was the most anti-Olympic Olympic watcher I knew. I did attempt to talk to people about the social issues surrounding the games but no one wanted to listen to me. I even participated in a project to distribute harm reduction kits to the masses and gave out free condoms to all those that I could. I must have distributed over 500 condoms during the games. That hopefully reduced a portion of my hypocritical guilt I felt for participating in some of the events and cheering on the Canadian Hockey team. I am proud to say that I didn't support the HBC and buy the much coveted red Olympic mitts but I did visit some of the sites and listen to the free concerts. I couldn't resist.

So with that said I developed an Olympic complex and now I am trying to figure out how to reconcile the two sides. Perhaps supporting para-Olympians who I feel have been left out in the proverbial cold and will not get the recognition they deserve or by making a donation to Pivot Legal Society. Maybe both.

Anyways, here are some interesting facts about the seedier side of the Olympics.

It is estimated that 100,000 condoms were distributed to athletes, staff, and volunteers to the games. Averaging 15 condoms a person. My 500 condoms was just a drop in the bucket.