Vår egen Mark Saunders, ägare av Spectacle, har blivit intervjuat av Charlotta Hedman från Yleisradio/Rundradion angående OS i London sommarn 2012. Vi tycker det är jätteroligt att våran dokumentärfilm har blivit uppdagat i Skandinavien också, och hoppas att fler upptäcker den efter detta.
Ni kan lyssna på hela intervjun här:
En skriftlig versjon av intervjun, Inte ett OS för alla, hittar ni vid att clicka in på Yleisradios/Rundradions hemsida.
Joao Havelange has resigned from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) just days before an ethics commission was due to deliver their findings on allegations he received bribes when FIFA president.
With his resignation the investigation is likely to be dropped on the grounds that the committee no longer have jurisdiction over him.
Fifa also confirmed Havelange’s resignation adding: “Fifa has taken note of Joao Havelange’s resignation as IOC member and the fact that the IOC has closed the case accordingly.”
The 95-year-old was the IOC’s longest-serving member having joined in 1963. He served as Fifa president between 1974 and 1978, before he was replaced by Sepp Blatter.
Two other IOC members, International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack and Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football, will have their cases considered by the committee on Thursday.
Prestige Tickets Ltd has been selling hospitality packages to the equestrian events in Greenwich Park and their specially designed restaurant without having planning permission to build the structure.
Owned by former England rugby player turned sports agent, Mike Burton, and a French company, Soxedo, Prestige Tickets Ltd is the official supplier of “world-class hospitality packages” for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Their plan is to build a restaurant seating 500 people in Greenwich Park, consisting of two connected by a glass bridge under which competitors will ride.
On March 29th 2010 the Council granted full planning permission for temporary use of the site for the hosting of the equestrian and modern pentathlon events, including the test events in 2011.
In an email Janice Goldsmith, Assistant Policy Officer at Greenwich Council, said: “The temporary structures include a 23,000 seat arena, training areas, stabling, a cross county course, operational site set up and removal compounds, vehicular and pedestrian access areas, operational parking and ancillary structures. Concessions areas and structures were also included.”
However, this response did not give any information regarding the building for the restaurant, so Spectacle politely responded and asked whether a planning application had been submitted for “a proposed two-towered structure seating up to 500 diners” in the area.
Our first email questioning the planning permission was sent on September 27th 2011. On November 30th, many excuses and nearly two months later, we received an email from Ms Goldsmith saying that “the Council has received a planning application for the structure. The application number is 11/2604/SD.”
A quick search on the Council’s website reveals that this application was made on November 2nd, a long time after we first requested the information and a long time after the tickets went on sale.
If the two towers and glass bridge was included in the first planning permission, why would they then have applied for it again?
The planning application made on November 2nd this year can be found on London Borough of Greenwich Planning Pages.
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Road signs giving priority to 50, 000 Olympic vehicles were revealed earlier this week.
The signs, published by Transport for London, show how regular motorists will have to give way for official vehicles during the 2012 Games. Members of the Olympic family will have exclusive use of the right-hand lane of a dual carriageway, in a few cases shared by local buses.
Olympic lanes will also be used by athletes, media, officials and corporate sponsors, while cyclists and taxis are banned. The use of the roads by about
25, 000 sponsors has proved particularly controversial, as they will not be travelling out of operational necessity.
Priority road corridors will operate from 7am to 7pm on a third of the 106-mile Olympic network.
The signs will be installed next year but won’t become active until a few days before the operating ceremony on July 27th. Affected roads will also be painted with the Olympic rings.
Back in 2007 the organisers claimed that “walking, cycling and public transport would be promoted as the best ways to get to the events”. Despite this, they’ve now gone ahead and banned cycling on a third of the Olympic network.
Also, it has previously been revealed that guests of soft drinks company Coca-Cola will be travelling to the venues in Stratford using VIP buses, rather than public transport as called for by the Mayor.
One can certainly start asking questions about whether the organisers will be able to live up to their promises about making the London 2012 Olympic the “greenest ever.”
To quote Simon Jenkins of the London Evening Standard: “The only green thing (…) is the traffic light phase fixed for the IOC limousines and luxury buses. “
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Today’s anti-capitalist revolt around the world did not start a couple of weeks ago in Wall Street, but has its roots in the 80s. The fears of “unequal redistribution of wealth” first emerged and spread when the colonisation of the financial centers began, just when the London City annexed the docklands area. But only now the real protests have grown in power, with St Paul’s Cathedral yard and Brighton park being resolutely occupied in the past weeks.
“Despite the City” witnessed this movement of discontent since its beginnings in the 80s and documented it in a community-led video showing local residents under threat. They are filmed when confronting the planners and property dealers, who broke their promises about the “real” job opportunities. Relocating the world’s biggest banks and companies to the aptly named Isle of Dogs changed the realities of many. For sure!
You can buy this still very relevant documentary on corruption, lies and broken promises on Spectacle’s website.
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Coinciding with tomorrow’s Anti-war Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square tomorrow, there will be a demonstration marking Shaker Aamer’s 10 year incarceration in Guantanamo.
“Ten Hours for Ten Years” – Demonstration for Shaker Aamer will be staged by The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign’s (SSAC) where a Guantanamo cage will be set up for ten hours from 10am to 8pm in the south-west corner of Trafalgar Square.
The Shaker Aamer Campaign urges the UK Government to demand the immediate release of British Resident Shaker Aamer to the UK as a matter of great urgency. Shaker is a UK resident and was originally cleared for release in 2007.
Shaker Aamer is the last British Resident still held in Guantanamo without charge or trial – a victim of US aggression following 9/11.
For more details on Shaker Aamer and the demonstration, visit the SSAC’s website and their Facebook page.
For more information on the Anti-war Mass Assembly please visit the Stop the War Coalition’s website and/or the Anti War Mass Assembly’s dedicated site.
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The Anti-war Mass Assembly, marking 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq will start at 12 noon in Trafalgar Square, London tomorrow 8th October.
It will be officially opened by Joe Glenton, the ex-soldier who was jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan alongside Grace McCann, who in 2010 attempted a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair.
Supporting Glenton and the assembly will be high profile figures such as Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange, Jemima Khan and Tony Benn.
For more information including a list of who will be attending, a complete timetable and for the chance to sign the pledge to attend please click on the Stop the War Coalition’s website and/or the Anti War Mass Assembly’s dedicated site.
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London local campaign group, NoGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events), has addressed a Freedom of Information Act request to Greenwich Council with a regard to tree 1253 in Greenwich Park.
Tree 1253 Not chopped down- just pruned
NoGOE discovered that in spite of London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG) promises being made on not cutting down the trees and returning the park to its current condition after the Games are to be broken. Now, they seek to find out “how and why and by whom, and on whose authority, tree 1253 has been cut down.”
Residents fear Greenwich Park, being the oldest Royal Park, as well as listed Grade 1 UNESCO World Heritage Site, will be “wrecked” after the Olympic Games. This is due to 72 trees planned to be further “pruned” to allow a 11-foot clearance for horses, in addition to other serious damage to the plants in the park.
Initially, the LOCOG planning application for Greenwich Park did not included the tree survey, but NoGOE managed to obtain a tree schedule under FOI from Greenwich Council. It clearly shows a handful of trees located alongside the proposed route of the cross-country course, and these are 1254, 1256 and 279. Some of them are ancient and veterans, as NoGOE points out.
The planning application also shows information about the grassland being re-opened as late as in November 2015, which enhances the conflict between NoGOE and LOCOG even more.
NoGOE members, and among them the FOI request issuer Rachel Mawhood, believe the Olympic Equestrian events in 2012 should not be held at Greenwich Park, as it is not a suitable site for this mega event.
Will Connell, Performance Director of the British Equestrian Team, said: “LOCOG has no intention of cutting down trees or closing the park for a year, and I think that local residents should be proud that such an exciting Olympic sport will be on their doorstep in 2012.”
LOCOG in its planning application for the venue announced:
The entire park will only be closed for a four week period from 6th July to 3rd August in 2012;
The children’s playground and the majority of the flower garden within the park will remain open throughout this four week period with the exception of cross country day;
There are no planned residential road closures, and no trees will be cut down;
After the Games, the park will be returned to the condition in which it was received.
NoGOE fear they cannot trust LOCOG, as one tree has already been cut down with no prior warning.
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Further to our earlier post, the Future Communities blog points out that the recent riots “diverted attention from the decision by the Government and the Mayor’s Office to reject a £1bn bid by the Wellcome Trust to transform the Olympic Park into a science and technology hub.”
Instead of creating up to 7000 new jobs, turning the Olympic village into a new research and innovation facility, its sale to Qatari Diar and Delancey Estates, the two property development companies who have recently acquired it for £557m (with a staggering £275m loss) is a shortsighted one.
Unemployment in the east end boroughs of London are among the highest in London and the prospect of creation thousands of jobs for local residents is yet another wasted opportunity.
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A pig is flying over the Battersea Power Station, London again, 35 years after it flew there for the first time in 1977. On both occasions Pink Floyd released the albums with the floating pig shot on the covers, and even though the musicians did not attend the events in person, they once again brought desirable publicity to the derelict station.
The two covers, Animals in the past and Why Pink Floyd…? today, can be easily confused, as this landmark site looks exactly the same as 35 years ago. This is in spite of the owners constant promises to renovate the station and “create an entirely new district for London“. The current development proposal aims to create the first zero carbon office space in Central London, “a stunning event space”, the river walk section, a green energy plant and a conference centre etc.
However, so far the inflatable pig is probably the only “cultural” mark at the station site, despite the cultural rejuvenation plans proudly announced on the Battersea Power Station Website . The power station has been unused since its closure in 1982, and is gradually falling to the ruin. In consequence, English Heritage described the conditions at the place as “very bad”, and included it on the Buildings at Risk Register.
The current owners, Treasury Holdings, struggle to make the ends meet due to the Irish banking crisis. This might force the company to sell the station to another private developer willing to face those financial challenges, which the previous three owners failed to cope with. Further information can be found on the Spectacle’s Blog.
Perhaps real pigs will start flying sooner than the actual redevelopment will finally begin.
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