In case you haven’t heard, (perhaps you’re homeless and don’t have a TV or a computer…or food) the 2010 Olympics are coming to Vancouver this week.
YAY!
Now, you may have also heard that there are actually CRITICS of the 2010 games – I know it’s hard to believe.
Cha-Ching Beijing!
Afterall, there is no shortage of money – the British Columbia government has borrowed more money than any other point in its 150 year history. It’s even taken the bold step of closing schools, increasing wait times for hospital visits and sacrificing vital diagnosis equipment like MRIs so that we can have the best party that money can buy.
And to make sure no-one gets rowdy, we’re spending a billion dollars to house an army of police onboard several luxury cruise ships in Vancouver harbour.
Now THAT’s commitment to being a good host! Take THAT Beijing!
Truck You!
But probably the most spectacular news of the 2010 Olympics is that we are trucking snow from one mountain to another to make sure that there is white, pristine snow for the media in Vancouver come opening day.
Yes, in true “Wet Coast” form, February plus El Nino has given us more rain in the last few weeks than when than when Moses built the arc. (Can you believe he built that thing without any sponsorship money at all?!).
So, the Vancouver Olympic Committee has initiated project ‘white wash’. There is a convoy of dump trucks trucking snow from Manning Park – a mere 2 hour, perilous mountain drive from Vancouver.
A Modest Proposal
So, in the spirit of Johnathon Swift here is my modest proposal…
Round up all of the homeless in British Columbia (oh, wait – it’s almost 300 KM from Manning Park to Vancouver – gonna need more homeless), line them up shoulder to shoulder outfit them with an official 2010 Olympic Committee approved snow shovels and have them transport the snow – mountain to mountain – one shovel full at a time.
Now in order to be efficient, you have to keep the homeless from freezing, so you could buy hmmm, let’s say 10,000 homeless huts to live in by night when it’s too dark to shovel (or you could also pay the military to light up sky 24/7 with pyrotechnics… you say potato, I say pah-TAH-to)…
And if you do the math, you’d get a mountain covered in snow at relatively cheap price of a few million dollars – plus you’d give the homeless jobs AND a home and you’d STILL COME OUT AHEAD based on the money that’s already been spent on project white wash.
Wasn’t that a Par-TAY?
But what about when the mountain is covered in snow and the party is over, you say…What do we do with the homeless then?
Well, they’ll already have shelters and money from the shoveling snow.
And that’s a heck of a lot more than they have right now…
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Canadians get a bad rap. Clearly Canadians know how to throw a good party. Party on dudes!
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Great suggestion Don!
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Can that include all homeless people in Canada. Most of them could use a paid vacation..
Interesting solution, Don.
In China they’re turning old unused train cars into homes for the destitute. It’s a novel solution. It’s not ideal, but these people are now living in a clean dry place rather than a mud brick hut.
Gordie´s last blog ..Carrots, Sticks And True Motivation.
Hey Gordie!
ANY solution is better than NO solution!
What really gets me (and what this post is really all about!) is that there is no technical challenge too difficult to solve, no amount of money needed that can’t be found – when it comes to accommodating the Olympics.
Why can’t the same sense of urgency and creativity and priority happen for the 98% of the population that doesn’t have anything to do with the Olympics?
The audacity of telling a society that “we have no solution for homelessness, we have to close 100 schools this year and lay off 1000 teachers, we cannot find the money to pay our striking paramedics, if you want an MRI you’ll have to wait 13 months to get one (how long does an Olympic athlete have to wait if he injures his knee?)” AND THEN TURN AROUND and pay millions of dollars to truck snow in from across the province!!!
If you need to look further to unveil the hypocrisy, here’s another example: MCDONALDS IS THE OFFICIAL FOOD SPONSOR! When was the last time you saw an Olympic athlete gorfing down a Big Mac?
One of the universities in BC had a competition with their industrial design students to come up with a shelter suitable for a homeless person. They created something similar to those homeless huts and even had the university agree to donate a bunch of land to put them on…But the government said “NO – we don’t have the money to fund it”.
But they do have 10 million dollars to truck snow in for the TV cameras.
There are no sacred cows. The Olympic Emperor has no clothes!
Thanks for your comment Gordie. The fact that you’re even aware of an attempt at solution for the homeless in other parts of the world proves that your heart is in the right place!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
Very interesting post. I sort of saw trucks on the news last night, but had no idea what it was about.
Didn’t something similar happen when Toronto held the Olympics?
Hey Matt!
No – Toronto never got the Olympics. They bid for the summer games but lost out to Athens I think…
Don Power´s last blog ..A 2010 Olympics Solution for Homelessness-Let Them Shovel Snow
Incidentally, I did read a review that one of the olympic marathon runners does look forward to a Big Mac after a race.
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Sure – the Olymoians are smiling and chewing on the McDonalds TV commercials…
But I suspect their coaches are purging their systems one way or the other in order to get them fueled up for competition.
With the amount of technology that goes into these athletes, I’m sure a Big Mac is classified to something like a poison to those guys…
Don Power´s last blog ..A 2010 Olympics Solution for Homelessness-Let Them Shovel Snow
There’s homeless in Canada? Say it ain’t so! Maybe I should let the Republicans down here know so they can feel better that if we go socialist, they can still spit on homeless people here.
Those homeless huts are better than a lot of houses in West Virginia! I think two thick blankets and a pair of mittens should suffice. After all, they’ll be warm from the shoveling. And really, should they take breaks? That seems overly generous. Get it done and go home, is what I say. Well, go wherever it is they sleep. Maybe after working for a few days, they’ll stop being so lazy and get real jobs and stop causing embarrassing “should I give that guy money knowing he’ll spend it on liquor and cigs” moments while walking down the street.
And cruise ships for the cops? I think those homeless huts would be just fine. They’ll be out 24/7 beating people anyway (such as any homeless who didn’t sign up for the snow train).
On a different tac – does Canada not know about snow machines??
Ah Chuck! Methinks you’ve read A Modest Proposal from Jonathan Swift. (Don’t provide a copy to the Republicans – they’ll think it’s a training manual!).
Yah with all those cops and paramiliitary around, it’s surprising the BC politicians have’t declared a “war on homeless”. It’s a perfect time for it – you’re not allowed to protest the Olympics and you’re not allowed anywhere near the “offical protest sites” with cameras. Maybe the “offical protest site” could be declared for that 300KM stretch of mountain highway and you could kill two birds with one Taser…so to speak.
Snow machines? They’re reserved exclusively for our Comrade Leaders in the Proletariat!
Thanks for your comment!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..Then They Came For Me – a Cautionary Tale
Oh yes, Don. I loved A Modest Proposal. So raw, so sarcastic. And, at the time, many people took him serious. Hilarious. I bet the Tea Baggers here would eat that stuff up, if you know what I mean.
With the “war on xxxxx” stuff, it would be War on Homelessness, because it has to be something vague, that never ends, so funding never ends. War on Terror, War on Drugs, etc.
I may take a page from Stephen Colbert and John Stewart and try attack through satire from now on…
By the way and on a completely different topic, still like arto…haven’t forgotten. How much startup cash do you think something like that requires? I’m going to be speaking with a venture capital friend in the next couple of days (not about arto – just a “keep in touch chat”) but there might be an opportunity to drop a few hints…
Don Power´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
Hey Don,
Now that is a solution lol!
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Hey James!
My reference (and reverence) for Jonathan Swift in this post really is the key to the whole thing. He wrote (satirically) in the 1700s that the solution to poverty in England was simple to eat all the poor children. The rich would get fatter AND there would be no more poor children.
A Modest Proposal, don’t you think?
Thanks for your comment!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
Thanks for the link to the homeless huts. It’s good that some people are thinking up innovative solutions for those in need.
I can’t imagine what the homeless must be going through this snowy winter.
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Hey – thanks for your comment. Like I said to Gordie above, your heart is clearly in the right place!
I really like your favicon. You should make a larger version of it and add it to gravatar. That way it will show up whenever youpost a comment on a a WP blog!
Cheers!
- Don
I gave you the sunshine award! Check it out bud on Writers Addict.
Ryan´s last blog ..The Sunshine Awards!!
Hey Ryan!
Thanks so much buddy! Your comment got help up in Askimet but it’s all good now.
Tweeted out your Sunshine Award too. Seth Godin would be proud of your action to make yourself remarkable!
Cheers and thanks again!
- Don
Np and Thanks bud! Keep up the excellent stuff!
Ryan´s last blog ..The book of Eli
Not sure how to comment on this one. Not too familiar with being homeless. … Isn’t anywhere you lay your head home?
Ok a little sarcasam. I know a little about homelessness, slept unde a bridege b4 myself, for me it was a choice and not for long. Stayed in a few rough rugged motels in bad neighborhoods and gave’em a dollar or 3 on occassion and carried Holiday dinners. But is that enough, no. Like some things similar, it takes more than turning a head the wrong way thinking in denial that the problem will go away. I know I don’t have the answers but it’s not because I turn my head and am in denial it exist. Shit shouldn’t burnt that box I had left over for Christmas, or better yet should have put the money I spent on my soon to die gift in a kettle.
Hey Lee!
Thanks for your comment.
If the Olympics were just about the sport, I’d have no problem with it…But designer athletes that would put the 6 million dollar man to shame and a 6 billion dollar party in BC at the same time that they can’t pay paramedics (they’ve been on strike for about a year now), where they close schools, and where you have to wait 13 months to get an MRI at your local hospital (how long does an Olympic athlete or a politician have to wait?).
And I don’t know if you heard the latest but they are moving mountains (literally) to bring snow from one part of the province into Vancouver via a convoy of trucks. Then to keep the snow frozen, they’ve installed dry ice tubes under the snow.
But houses for the homeless? Hospital beds for the sick? School desks for the kids? “Sorry…we just don’t have the money in our budget…”
That’s just wrong!
The Olympic committe could have housed the homeless in Vancouver by spending just a fractio nof the money they’re spending to truck snow across the province. It is just so ridiculous it sounds like some sick fiction…but it’s not.
Why can’t we have a humanitarian Olympics instead and provide gold medals to all the folks who make the world a better place for more than 16 days at a time?
Cheers!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..Going Local – How do You Use Social Media to Boost Local Business?
Sorry Don
That really wasn’t a good comment to such a serious post. And I sincerely mean that. I hope you didn’t take me wrong. I have worked in the helping field and know what it’s like to live that way. It is a touchy subject for me when it comes to homeless and addicts and the likes. I damn sure don’t think we go about it appropriately. I’d like to take all the NBA stars, all the NFL pros, all the olympians and each of their owners and drain them for the lost and homeless. Believe me I would if I could. I apologize for the sarcasm, this wasn’t a time for it even from me.
I’m not religious but a spiritual person and truly believe that Rom-8:18 says it all. ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Someday those fuckers will pay for their misgivings and then the homeless can have their party, piling more than snow on them.
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Hey Lee!
No worries. I did not see anything wrong and did not take any offense to your original (and subsequent) comment.
I believe in justice too. Ultimately, everyone will reap the entirety of what they’ve sown. (Interestingly enough, those who believe in ‘karma’ understand that the goal is not to have “good karma” – it’s to have NO karma – ie: neither you good deeds nor your bad deeds are attached to you any longer and therefore you’ve acheived Nirvana. Which is why those belivers also believe, out of necessity – in reincarnation and many lives to work out all the shit!).
As a wise man once said: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreampt of in your philosophy!” None of us have any idea of just what’s in store for us, so let’s try and do and be the best we can while we’re here!
Cheers Lee! Thanks for your comments!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..How to Make Fire from a Block of Ice
I agree Don,
If we focus on the good and look at it this way then even if there isn’t anything better afterwards we haven’t missed it, and if there is then we will surely be rewarded.
Karma, reincarnation, don’t believe in either. I only know that when I’ve done the next right thing I’m usually rewarded for it in some way or another. Have I always acted this way no, but when I have I’ve reaped what I’ve sown either way. Great post
Lee´s last blog ..Installed intense debate
Funny – “there are more things in heaven and earth…” is one of my favorite quotes.
“Fortune favors the brave” is another one of my favorites – which, in essence says the same thing – you deal bravely with the hand you are dealt – not the hand that you want to be dealt or the hand that you think you deserve.
Not quite sure how it relates to this post, however, but I have to give credit for a great quote!
Thanks for your comment!
- Don
Don Power – Marketing Consultant | Social Media Strategist´s last blog ..Using Social Media as a Networking Tool for Your Business
wow it really is sad that the money is used for the Olympics and all these other more important budgets get cut. Hospitals, schools, Olympics??!? terrible. Fortunately there are long term benefits from having the Olympics thats why countries are dying to host them. Its tough to say if its worth it though.
The Vancouver olympics had passed but I still remember the excitement inside the competitions. Right now im looking forward for the next olympics. I wonder where it will be held.