Games Monitor - Latest Stories

Let the Bejing Olympics of Global Re-branding and Marketing begin!

Martin Slavin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:50:31 +0100

Let the Bejing Olympics of Global Re-branding and Marketing begin!

The Olympic Dream: A Sci-Fi Short Story

Charles Batsworth — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:00:08 +0100

Please note some of the links in this article are to pages with Chinese text and some computers may not display them correctly

The following “Sci-Fi” short story has been (re)posted in many Chinese online forums and blogs, originally from SCI-FI Great Wall blog, translated by China Digital Times’s Linjun Fan.

Leaked IOC Beijing Media Kit

Charles Batsworth — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:59:01 +0100

German public service broadcaster Südwestrundfunk recently obtained this 48-page IOC media kit for Beijing 2008 (or 'One-Year-to-Go Countdown Resource'). Marked CONFIDENTIAL – FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY, it offers an intriguing insight into the way the IOC views itself and its relations with the media, governments and NGOs and protest groups.

Human Rights in China and the Beijing Olympics

Martin Slavin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:33:44 +0100

.: Li Changchun (C), member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, attends a evening party for the up-coming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China, on July 29, 2008. (Xinhua Photo/Li Tao)

'Secrets in the Blood' coming to the Beijing Olympics ?

Martin Slavin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:31:32 +0100

In the run up to the Beijing Olympics, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport. BBC World Service Investigation

Locals in Sochi Fight Off Olympics

Martin Slavin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:48:33 +0100

.: © Vasily Shaposhnikov

Residents of Imeret lowland, which has been chosen to as a construction site for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, clashed with bailiffs and police yesterday, July 22, 2008. Armed with sticks and bottles of incendiary mixture, 200 locals defended their houses.

'One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games'

Martin Slavin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:26:06 +0100

The Beijing Olympics has displaced 1.5 million people since 2000, according to the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). A new COHRE report, One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games, has found that the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to award the Games to Beijing has been a catalyst in increasing forced evictions and displacements in Beijing.

Big Brother goes global for the Beijing Olympics

Martin Slavin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:26:11 +0100

Now, as China prepares to showcase its economic advances during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, Shenzhen is once again serving as a laboratory, a testing ground for the next phase of this vast social experiment. Over the past two years, some 200,000 surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the city. Many are in public spaces, disguised as lampposts. The closed-circuit TV cameras will soon be connected to a single, nationwide network, an all-seeing system that will be capable of tracking and identifying anyone who comes within its range — a project driven in part by U.S. technology and investment. Over the next three years, Chinese security executives predict they will install as many as 2 million CCTVs in Shenzhen, which would make it the most watched city in the world. (Security-crazy London boasts only half a million surveillance cameras.)

Hackney Wick residents complain about noise and dust from the Olympic Park

Julian Cheyne — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:09:56 +0100

Residents in Hackney Wick have protested at the dust and noise being produced from the Olympic Park. The statement reproduced below was sent on Sunday 6th July to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, David Higgins, Chief Executive of the ODA and Sebastian Coe, along with other relevant officials and representatives, by Sona Abantu-Choudhury on behalf of the Leabank Square Residents Association about the disturbance being caused by work on the Olympic site.

What happened to the relocated businesses? LDA FOI response

Julian Cheyne — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:55:55 +0100

According to the LDA the four Olympic Boroughs, Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest lost a total of 93 companies employing 1245 staff as a result of the relocation of businesses. A total of 209 businesses employing 4964 staff were relocated. 25 businesses closed completely with a loss of 65 jobs. A further 10 businesses employing 54 staff are not accounted for.

Why Bush will stand with Hu Jintao at the opening of the Beijing Olympics

Martin Slavin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:34:18 +0100

China's government, which invests up to a third of its $1.68 trillion in currency reserves in [US] Treasuries, is "not smart'' to invest in U.S. debt and should seek higher returns, a former legislator said [June 13 2008]. "I don't think it's a smart move to invest in U.S. bonds,'' said Cheng Siwei, former vice chairman of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, at a Beijing conference.

Put out more (Olympic) flags

Martin Slavin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:06:24 +0100

.: The Olympic flame passes brightly through somewhere in the the Uyghur Autonomous Province !

‘A prime opportunity for the property industry.’

Julian Cheyne — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:43:31 +0100

Recent reports in the Press (see attachment) reveal that businesses evicted to make way for the Olympics are still having to battle with the LDA over compensation. Looking back in time to reports published by the media can provide an interesting insight into the attitudes of the Olympic team (and how the media approached the project) and the difference between the rhetoric and the reality of the programme. One such report was contained in the Property Week Newsletter of 05.12.03 (see attachment) which included some particularly chilling assertions for the residents at Clays Lane.

Olympic Blacklist?

Julian Cheyne — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:06:38 +0100

Several weeks ago I came across the event featured below and thought it might be interesting to drop in. However, when I sent in my on-line application for a ticket I received a message saying I would have to wait to find out if my application had been accepted. The site run by the London Festival of Architecture also said there was no point in replying to the message as they were not organising the event and I should contact the event organisers directly. But the site failed to say who the organisers were!

Olympic sporting legacy – whose responsibility ?

Martin Slavin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:40:40 +0100

There has been no end of promises for a sporting legacy for London in the wake of the 2012 Games. But fine sentiments alone are not going to deliver it to future generations of Londoners, argues Kurt Barling, BBC London.

Will the Athletes Village provide adequate community benefits after the Olympic Games ?

Martin Slavin — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:29:39 +0100

While recently reading the New Economics Foundation report 'Fools Gold, How the 2012 Olympics is selling East London short, and a 10 point plan for a more positive local legacy', I came across a reference to a report '2012 Home Games' published in 2006 by East Thames Group. East Homes, a part of the group, is a Registered Social Landlord which is "the largest multi-tenure landlord across east London and Essex, providing general needs accommodation and home ownership initiatives for the Group.”

Perjured evidence before a House of Commons Select Committee.

Julian Cheyne — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:04:58 +0100

It is said History is written by the winners. Committees from both the House of Commons and the Greater London Assembly Committees have held hearings into the Olympics. Apparently subjects are chosen on the basis of who makes the most noise. Amongst the topics discussed by the relevant House of Commons Select Committee has been the relocation of communities, be they residents, allotment holders, businesses or users, from the Olympic Park. The rule of subject choice also seems to apply when it comes to dishing out invitations to give ‘evidence’. Most people are left out of the magic circle and are unaware the opportunity might even exist. Not so those who run these programmes. They get to give their version of events as they either they get asked along or are warned the committee will be meeting and ask to go. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to either set of committees to track down those who were actually moved to ask them how they felt about their eviction and how it was handled.

Putin's power plays around the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

Martin Slavin — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:04:32 +0100

In 2014, the Russian resort of Sochi will host the Winter Olympics. But already this mega-event looks set to cost Russian taxpayers more money than the combined costs of the last three Winter Olympics, and up to 4,000 local residents face evictions with compensation far below current market values.

How British Waterways are destroying the annual natural spectacle of Bream spawning in the Old River Lea

Martin Slavin — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:33:06 +0100

The International Olympic Committee's tax free billions

Martin Slavin — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:11:19 +0100

The IOC is now a financially robust organisation, having reinforced its position as a key player in the lucrative world of sport. For the 2005-2008 period alone the IOC will receive about $2.5 billion from broadcasters, $866 million from its TOP sponsors' programme, a worldwide sponsorship programme managed by the IOC, plus money from tickets and licensed programmes.