The 720,000 people evicted from cheap housing for the 1988 Seoul Olympics seem long ago and far away. However they are remembered for their scale and brutality.

One of the first things Barack Obama did after the presidential election was to make a pitch to the European Olympic Committee for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic Bid.

Chicago is up against Tokyo, Madrid and Rio. The winner gets announced in October. While hosting the Olympics would present opportunities, it would also present challenges.

I'm getting more than a little tired of being told by the likes of his Highness Larry Campbell (or is it Sir Larry?) and, today, columnist Milo Cernetig in the Vancouver Sun's lead post-election story, just how awful the recent leaking of secret loan documents was and how the leakers should be hunted down and "hung out to dry." I'm not debating the legality of stealing government documents. What I do question is that they had to be stolen and leaked to the media just for the public to be aware of an important civic detail, like the fact I'm on the hook for $100 million loan to prop up private development that will have a very brief use as the Olympic Athletes' Village.

greenwich park

sockpuppeteers

Betty Krawczyk is a mayoral candidate for the City of Vancouver.

Betty Krawczyk

Issues

The Roman elite knew something about wooing the public with games and parades and their example has its modern imitators. Now that the Olympic ‘heroes’ have had their parade and the politicians have done their best to bask in their reflected ‘glory’ perhaps we can remember the cost of this spectacle to a population greater than that of Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city. The Beijing Olympics were the most destructive on record. According to the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions' Beijing report they resulted in the removal of one and a half million Chinese. While other human rights issues have been reported in the media this particular outrage passed almost unremarked by politicians, journalists and sports commentators alike during the Games.

There’s nothing new in patrons of the Arts censoring the work of artists they employ. Transport for London is no exception. During the summer TfL commissioned two community arts projects through its cultural arm, Art on the Underground. In keeping with current platitudes Tamsin Dillon, Head of AotU, pronounced ‘From the beginning, Art on the Underground was certain that the artwork produced for this station should involve the individuals and groups who live in, work in and visit Stratford. Central to the lives of so many people in the area, the station should embody something about the community that use it.’ The projects would have ‘the Olympic agendas of inclusion and celebration at their heart.’