Attending a conference about the 2010 Olympics - need possible questions

[Invincible Summer]

Hello all,

There's a student conference at my university with speakers discussing various aspects of the 2010 Olympic Games.

It's $20 to attend (extortion, much?) but if I go, I plan on asking the speakers questions/challenging them; I've looked at the speaker profiles, and almost all of them are somehow involved w/ the Olympics, or previous Olympic endeavors, so I don't expect any critical discourse on the Olympics. Therefore, I want to be one of the students (on the list of names of people that are going, I recognize a few that are active pseudo-leftists on campus) that challenges their pro-Olympic propaganda.

www.soc2010.ca is the website so you guys can check it out.

I was planning on attending the "Economic Impact," "Security and Civil Liberties," and either the "First Nations Perspectives" or "Media and the Olympic Brand" topics.

Suggestions?

[StalinFanboy]

Ask them why they feel it's alright to hold a sporting event on stolen land.

[Bilan]

^^ wut

[Invincible Summer]

Ask them why they feel it's alright to hold a sporting event on stolen land.


Well, that's sort of the elephant in the room and almost a given.


Anything more uh... constructive? No offense.

[StalinFanboy]

Well, that's sort of the elephant in the room and almost a given.


Anything more uh... constructive? No offense.
LOL IM SO OFFENDED


You could also bring up the economic situation of indigenous people in contrast to the obscene amounts of money being spent on the games (as well as Canadians in general). As well as the fact that the Olympic village is going to end up costing the Canadian tax payers something like 800 million dollars because they won't be bring in any profit.


Hope those aren't elephants.

[Invincible Summer]

Just thought I'd bring this to your attention:

So I read this recently:

http://www.straight.com/article-198107/olympic-critic-says-vancouver-charter-changes-threaten-civil-liberties


The last of the amendments would provide that “the city may remove illegal signs from real property with limited notice, and may charge the owner for the cost of such removal”, according to the staff report recommending the changes...

...
Fellow COPE councillor David Cadman said he wasn’t concerned about “another APEC” happening, referring to the RCMP’s pepper-spraying of protesters at the 1997 summit in Vancouver.
“That [amendment] is to deal with illegal advertising, not someone putting a sign in their window,” Cadman said by phone, adding that he is of the opinion the city needs greater protection from “ambush marketing”.


Bullshit. The clause is so vague that it could mean anything. Basically, they don't want people to put up anti-Olympic advertising/organizing posters so that the superfluous amount of 2010 Olympic advertising will be pristine.

[StalinFanboy]

I sure hope none of the advertisements for the 2010 Olympics get stolen or vandalized :(

[Eastside Revolt]

if it's @ UBC on the 31st there will also be anti-olympic speakers

[Merces]

correct me if I'am wrong but wouldn't the olympics bring in money than cost it. As well as the event happening on "stolen land"? Maybe from the canadians as it was stolen by the japanese?

[Invincible Summer]

correct me if I'am wrong but wouldn't the olympics bring in money than cost it.
The Olympics has no guarantee that it will bring in money - look at what happened in Greece.




As well as the event happening on "stolen land"? Maybe from the canadians as it was stolen by the japanese?
I don't understand what you're talking about here




And I'm sad to say that I won't be attending the conference after all - I simply do not have the time, and $20 seems like a rip-off considering it should be free and anyone from the student body should be able to go.

[Merces]

^ The amount of japanese people in vancouver is mindblowing, and I thought you guys will protest it to get the land back from the japanese.

[Invincible Summer]

^ The amount of japanese people in vancouver is mindblowing, and I thought you guys will protest it to get the land back from the japanese.


I... don't know if there are enough Japanese people in Vancouver to warrant that; Japanese cultural festivities are fairly small in size and number around here. There are definitely a lot of Chinese though, myself being one of them.


I'm also sensing a troll, or a Revlefter with a poor sense of humor.

[obnoxious10]

Ask members of the organizing committee whether or not there is any truth to the claim that they are trying to displace, and or exclude poor and the marginalized segments of society from the downtown core in order to make parts of the city look attractive to outsiders.