Helen Lenskyj's Presentation at UBC
Helen Lenskyj's Presentation at UBC
Two corporate media articles on Helen Lenskyj's recent presentation at the University of BC regarding the Olympic industry. Jeff Lee's article is crap but a good example of the pro-Olympic slant he takes while attempting to appear as a real journalist (haha)...
At this link you can find the first part of Helen Lenskyj's talk at UBC's
Green College. Feel free to rebroadcast, crediting the
Vancouver Media Cooperative:
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/audio/1904
Vancouver's Olympic problems not unique: critic
By CBC News, cbc.ca, Updated: September 15, 2009 12:13 PM
http://news.ca.msn.com/local/britishcolumbia/article.aspx?cp-documentid=...
Vancouver's pre-Olympic growing pains are virtually identical to those in other, recent host cities, according to Helen Lenskyj, a retired University of Toronto professor and outspoken Olympic critic who spoke at UBC on Monday night.
Lenskyj, author of the books Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics,and Activism, and The Best Olympics Ever?, said Olympic cities often see new programs leading to the criminalization of homelessness and the displacement of the poor, just like former mayor Sam Sullivan's Civil City initiative.
"Allegedly there was a growing problem of public disorder. Sullivan denied, initially, that the recommendations were driven by the Olympic agenda of street cleanups," said Lenskyj.
"Every recent host city has had street cleanups of homeless people, sex trade workers, people with visible drug problems or whatever," she said.
Lenskyj is a professor emeritus with the department of sociology and equity studies in education at U of T, whose work combines radical socialist and feminist perspectives, to focus on gender and sports, according to her website.
The academic was also critical of the Sea-To-Sky highway improvements on the route between Vancouver and Whistler, where many of the ski and sliding events will be held, saying it was an infrastructure project that was not a priority for most British Columbians.
The star value of being associated with the Games is too bright for people to seriously question the impacts, while at the same time the promised benefits never really appear, said Lenskyj.
Activists must not stop resisting the 2010 Games, even though it may seem no one wants to listen, because too many people buy into the idea of the Games as a force for social good when really it's just another major industry, she said.
Lenskyj also said it's difficult to prove what benefit or harm the Games actually bring to a host city. But part of the onus should be on organizers and governments to show the Games aren't responsible for the same issues that arise every time a city is awarded the Olympics, she added.
With files from The Canadian Press
Olympics bring debt, evictions and civil-rights abuses, critic says
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun, September 15, 2009
Helen Lenskyj, a University of Toronto professor and self-described critic of what she calls "the Olympic industry," laughed Monday when someone asked if there was any way to abolish the Olympic Games.
"I can't see one, but I wouldn't give up hope," she said. "It would be magic if hosting the Olympics was not seen as a prize but seen as a liability."
Lenskyj's comments were made to a receptive audience of about 40 people, mainly seasoned anti-Olympic protesters mixed with a handful of students at Green College at the University of B.C.
Her talk was the first of nine themed lectures on the perils of any city endorsing the Olympic Games. The lectures are being organized by anti-Olympic activists Chris Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of Olympic Watch.
Lenskyj, who wrote three books criticizing the Olympic movement, took a broad swipe at the Vancouver Games, the International Olympic Committee and even the concept of athletes being role models for young children.
She argued that cities that host the Games discover terrible trade-offs in the form of high debt, evictions of low-income renters and abrogation of basic civil rights.
Her message in the opening lecture of "The Olympic Games in Myth and Reality" stuck to those themes, and she used historic examples of Games past to argue for "the dismantling of the Olympic industry."
Hers was the No-Games version of the Vancouver Board of Trade's "Spirit of Vancouver" series that has promoted the Olympics as an economic benefit to the city and province.
The reality, she said, is that cities like Vancouver end up in debt and the most vulnerable segments of society, those in the Downtown Eastside, will suffer the worst effects.
However, Lenskyj was hard-pressed to cite evidence that Vancouver's Games have led to evictions in the Downtown Eastside or that there is a direct causal relationship.
"That's the whole point. It's virtually impossible to substantiate a claim of a causal relationship, but it is sufficient to me," she said.
Lenskyj also questioned the value of Olympic athletes as role models, saying they tend not to be well-rounded people but rather single-mindedly driven. Using such athletes in school motivation programs gives children an unrealistic expectation of their own abilities, she said.
"The athlete shows a video of themselves with their medal, they give an inspirational talk that you can be anything you want to be, you just need an Olympic dream, work hard and you will succeed. Those are three lies. You cannot be anything you want to be, you don't just need an Olympic dream and working hard in itself doesn't guarantee success, particularly in the Olympic arena.
"We should be telling that to kids in classrooms, that your chance of being an Olympic athlete is point-zero-whatever."
She said parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders and neighbours "are of more significance in shaping children's lives, and I would argue, more appropriate role models than Olympic athletes."