The Future of The Olympics

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't really know anyone who was genuinely offended. Mostly amused at how ignorant US TV is.

Seems like the people who were most offended are Canadians, so you may not have seen them around.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I don't really know anyone who was genuinely offended. Mostly amused at how ignorant US TV is.

I have to say... based on your exchanges with Tim and others... you seem pretty damn offended... and pissed, frankly. You actually seem livid about the whole thing. Like I said, I didn't get it at first... I had to think about it for a while, and then it made sense why people would be offended. What I realized is that I'm not Dutch, so some things that seem clearly offensive and idiotic etc to a Dutch person, might go right over my head. Once I started thinking about it in those terms, the actual reasons the comment might be offensive started becoming clear to me. One thing that suddenly hit me was that it was casting Dutch people in a sort of backwards, primitive light... in essence calling them a bunch of peasants. In any case the potential offensiveness was clear to me... but again... I had to really think about it first, and remember that people in a different culture have different perspectives and sensibilities than I do.

To be fair while we Muricans do have some (many) misinformed, erroneous notions about other countries... that phenomenon goes both ways. I've heard some pretty astonishingly offensive and erroneous things said about Americans, black Americans for example, by non-American folks.

Not you! Someone hired to talk about this stuff on national TV

I'm pretty sure she was reading something off a teleprompter that someone else wrote for her. She's hired for her voice and delivery, not her expertise about global cultures.

 

[Ajidica]

My takeaway from this is that the Dutch are so good at skating because they definitely skate on frozen canals.
They deny it because they want to prevent USA#1!
Why else protest so loudly?

 

[Bugfatty300]

Typical Dutchmen. Always trying to iceskate up hills.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Is there a proper Ice Hockey World Cup or is the Olympics considered the peak of Ice Hockey??

I don't think so TBH. My (admittedly limited) impression of the global hockey scene is that the NHL is generally the best hockey, concentrating the best Canadian and American players along with some elite Russian and other European players. So when the NHL guys actually go to the Olympics, what you end up with is the American NHL players packing the US Team, and the Canadian NHL players packing the Canadian team while the non Canadian/US top NHL players and some lesser NHL players are sprinkled around a bunch of teams with a mixture of amateur and/or non-NHL pros. Without the NHL participating, its essentially a farce, in terms of being a "proper World Cup". At least that's my impression. The women's bracket is a different matter entirely, obviously.

As for the men...contrast that with Olympic basketball, where you have essentially an NBA all-star team, playing against the best pros from all the other countries, some of which are led by actual NBA players that are native to those countries

 

[Arwon]

Hey I think Australia can almost field an entire NBA squad by now!

Baynes Maker Ingles Dellavedova Simmons starting, Bogut, Mills Exum off the bench. Mathiang if he goes anywhere with his Hornets two-way contract. Getting there!

It's really disappointing the Commonwealth Games is in April this year because a full-strength Canada v Australia match for gold would be fun.

 

[dutchfire]

I don't know about the rest of the Netherlands, but the one time I was in Holland, I saw a lot of little canals -- more than I have seen anywhere else.

I do hope you didn't spend too much of your time here in the post-war suburbs
Agricultural land has drainage ditches (more so in Holland since it needs to drain a lot of water) but those contain too many functional elements to be very useful to a skating commuter.

 

[Akka]

TBH, my failing interest in the Olympics has more to do with the bloat of meaningless events than anything else. I liked them when the disciplines were somewhat related to practical activities that human would initially do (like in hunting, war or such), I don't mind to see included extremely popular sports which "speak" to the public, but the ridiculous and nonsensical bonanza of new events that comes out of blue just makes me go "meh".

 

[Valka D'Ur]

CBC is showing women's biathlon now (skiing and shooting, for those unfamiliar with this event). The equipment is fancier than regular skis and rifles, but both are useful skills if you live in a part of the world where skiing is a practical way to get around and you need to hunt.

 

[Arwon]

TBH, my failing interest in the Olympics has more to do with the bloat of meaningless events than anything else. I liked them when the disciplines were somewhat related to practical activities that human would initially do (like in hunting, war or such), I don't mind to see included extremely popular sports which "speak" to the public, but the ridiculous and nonsensical bonanza of new events that comes out of blue just makes me go "meh".

See you say that but they've had horse dancing since Stockholm in 1912

 

[Marla_Singer]

Link to video.

 

[stinkubus]

Skipped most of the thread, but public financing of entertainment venues is a pretty common practice in the United States and there is a well established body of research in economics which shows that tax payers get shafted almost always. It's a boon for anyone connected enough to get a cut, but that's about it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Skipped most of the thread, but public financing of entertainment venues is a pretty common practice in the United States and there is a well established body of research in economics which shows that tax payers get shafted almost always. It's a boon for anyone connected enough to get a cut, but that's about it.

Well, yeah...as long as you define "boon" with a limited definition that can always be measured in dollars and cents. Here's a hint, not everything that matters has a dollar value.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well, yeah...as long as you define "boon" with a limited definition that can always be measured in dollars and cents. Here's a hint, not everything that matters has a dollar value.

Right but again I point out that people should expect their government to provide necessary infrastructure (and here I mean both roads and stadiums) when they need it, not just when the Olympics roll through town.

 

[Lexicus]

Well, yeah...as long as you define "boon" with a limited definition that can always be measured in dollars and cents. Here's a hint, not everything that matters has a dollar value.

The Olympics are a vast orgy of capitalist wealth-extraction. The sporting events are almost incidental to the whole thing.

 

[metalhead]

I doubt that either the athletes who train their whole lives to participate, or the scores of people who enjoy spectating would share that perspective.

An endeavor can be both terribly corrupt and worthwhile at the same time.

 

[sophie]

Well, yeah...as long as you define "boon" with a limited definition that can always be measured in dollars and cents. Here's a hint, not everything that matters has a dollar value.

Except that when the city cedes any possible revenue collection to one private individual, and when these projects are often pushed through without any kind of public referendum, or else public referenda rejecting these proposals are disregarded altogether, it tends looks like something that isn't really being done in a broader public interest either.

 

[Lexicus]

I doubt that either the athletes who train their whole lives to participate, or the scores of people who enjoy spectating would share that perspective.

Yes, this is part of my point. Instead of clear thinking people are essentially zombified by commoditiy fetishism and flashy marketing.

An endeavor can be both terribly corrupt and worthwhile at the same time.

Sure, I'm all for a socialist alternatives to the Olympics, like the planned People's Olympics in Barcelona. If the Spanish Civil War hadn't happened that would have been a lot better than the Nazi Games that year. It's certainly possible to have an Olympics that isn't a giant rent-seeking bonanza.

 

[stinkubus]

The Olympics are a vast orgy of capitalist wealth-extraction. The sporting events are almost incidental to the whole thing.

There's a ton of value,to Americans at least, in watching their sons and daughters courageously vanquish athletes from third world countries.

 

[metalhead]

I prefer the winter games, where the rest of the world laughs at our ineptitude.

It's certainly possible to have an Olympics that isn't a giant rent-seeking bonanza.

We're talking about Earth here right?