The Olympic Fun and Games Article

Posted on March 30, 2010 by adosini

The current financial climate and the aftermath of the recession has resulted in an increase in job losses throughout the country but despite this many of the major companies experiencing a financial dip are sponsoring the Olympic games. The extensive work being undertaken to get London ready for the games is being justified because of the influx of tourism and the opening of jobs for UK residents but is the UK likely to make a long term profit or will it sink us further into debt? As the initial budget of the games is expected to have increased tenfold, will the British taxpayer be left footing the bill?

This article by Tom Morgan on the website Money.co.uk explores the long term financial effects of hosting the Olympics based on previous countries profits and losses and also looks at the companies set to sponsor the games.

Click London Olympics for more blogs
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See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.

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A local business man speaks out about the Olympics

Posted on November 12, 2009 by adosini

Lance Forman is managing director of H Forman & Son, a salmon smoking factory, that has been based in East London for over 100 years. In these interviews he speaks about the obstacles his business has had to overcome in connection with the Olympics.

After having build a brand new factory with a grand by the LDA, H Forman & Son were faced with a compulsory puchase order by LDA and the task to relocate, along with 250 other businesses.

Part 1 deals with the history of the factory and the bad luck the company has faced during the past 10 years.
Part 2 is an account of the negotiations and dealings with the LDA
Part 3 takes a different view on the Olympic Legacy
Part 4 talks about the public presentation of the Olympics
Part 5 is the story of the search for a suitable site for a new factory
Part 6 tells about the last obstacles that had to be overcome when building the new factory

London 2012 Olympics Logo – Battersea Power Station

Posted on October 16, 2009 by adosini

Battersea Power Station Community Group urge you to take the chance to nominate Battersea Power Station landmark to be used as the design on a set of commemorative pin badges. We here at Spectacle thought about just how great an opportunity this is to raise awareness about Battersea Power Station and the current state it’s in.

You are able to submit one vote on the landmark of your choice, and so this is a very good chance to kick-start some action dealing with the Battersea Power Station problems!

The website can be found here

Visit Spectacle’s on-going Battersea Power Station Project

Watch a video trailer here: Battersea Power Station – The Story So Far

Subscribe to our newsletter mailing list, visit our contact page to subscribe

If you live in the neighbourhood and would like to get involved, contact us here putting Battersea Power Station in your message.

Click here for more Battersea Power Station links

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World Cup effect on South africa

Posted on September 23, 2009 by clockword

Mnikelo talking

In may 2004, South Africa became the first African nation to be nominated to host a football World Cup. Following that announcement, South African’s were overwhelmed by the prospect of much needed development and new business opportunities.

Since then, a lot (mainly the poorest) have been evicted or resettled as the government try to show a “clean” image of South Africa to the world.

Spectacle has recently uploaded and interview with Mnikelo and Zodwa from Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers’ movement, talking about the negative effects of the 2010 World Cup on South Africans. This can be viewed on the Spectacle archive page (World Cup, South Africa) and was filmed in connection with the London Olympics 2012 and the recurring effect of mega sporting event.

Mnikelo’s interview gives an insight into the World Cup backstage and its effect on the host nation.

White elephant Olympic site on horizon

Posted on July 6, 2009 by adosini

The Olympic site risks becoming a white elephant due a plan that “lacks detail” and a budget which is “underdeveloped”. The London assembly’s economic development, culture, sport and tourism committee, stressed in a recent report “There is concern that, given the experience of other cities that planned long in advance of actually staging the games, we are missing the boat”.

The Guardian reported that the committee charged with overseeing spending on the £9.3bn game has concluded that the lack of a tenant for the main stadium means there are “serious doubts as to the future financial viability of the venue and hence attractiveness of the park site to business investment”. Aspirations to create between 9,000 and 10,000 jobs in the Olympic Park could be at risk without private funding, it warns.

In a letter to The Guardian on July 4th, an assembly member argued that the lack of affordable housing being created by the Olympics, particularly for families meant that the legacy was going to leave nothing but a concrete eyesore.

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/01/olympics-london-assembly

Will the Olympics develop any of the promises it made to Londoners in the bid?

Given the destruction caused by the Olympics and the lack of solid plans for after the event, is it worth it?

To find out more about Spectacles Olympic project please visit our Project Page

The Fog of Games: Free talk at the LSE

Posted on May 27, 2009 by admin

In The Fog of Games, the first casualty is the truth. The Olympics are brief and transitory television events that disguise and justify mega projects of vast urban restructuring that permanently distort our cities for the benefit of a few business interests. Common features of such projects are unprecedented land grabs, the peddling of myths of ‘regeneration’ and ‘legacy’ benefits, the sweeping away of democratic structures and planning restraints, the transfer of public money into private hands, and ‘information management’ to hide truths and silence critics.

Mark Saunders from Spectacle will be showing clips of Spectacle’s ongoing Olympic Project The Fog of Games: Legacy, Land Grabs and Liberty.

Also Reporting the London Olympics Martin Slavin from Games Monitor website will discuss the gap between the media image of the Olympics and the historical impact they have had on communities.

This free event will take place at The London School of Economics on Thursday 28th May at 7pm. Everyone is welcome.

For more information on Spectacle’s Olympic project visit our Olympic project page

To see more clips from our Olympic project please visit the the Spectacle Archive Page

Interview with Johnnie Walker online now

Posted on May 11, 2009 by admin

An interview is now online with Johnnie Walker from the Hackney and Leyton Sunday league about the effects of the Olympics on Hackney Marshes football. To view this interview and other clips from our Olympics project please visit the Spectacle website.

Olympic firms use construction blacklist

Posted on March 23, 2009 by admin

It has been revealed that several firms working on the Olympic site, including Sir Robert McAlpine who is building the stadium, were subscribed members of the Consulting Association which is accused holding sensitive information on 3,213 workers. This information came to light after a raid by the Information Commissioners Office.

Contract journal writes

‘Union leaders are demanding the Olympic 2012 site is purged of all blacklists held on construction workers.

Olympic Stadium builder Sir Robert McAlpine is believed to have spent nearly £30,000 last year alone on information to vet potential employees.

Unite joint general secretary Derek Simpson is calling for an immediate probe into all Olympic contractors caught up in the Consulting Association scandal.

He said: “On the basis that many of the employers concerned will be winning billions of pounds worth of public and private sector work, the government should announce an immediate investigation into the practices that exist in the industry.”‘

source:http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2009/03/11/65585/construction-unions-demand-olympic-blacklist-ban.html

For more information on Spectacles Olympic Project please visit our Project Page

For Spectacles latest film on the Olympics please visit our archive page.

London Social Forum – Katie Andrews

Posted on February 10, 2009 by clockword

An interview with Katie Andrews on the consultation process of the London Olympics taking place in east London. Katie Andrews talks about the ways in which there was a lack of communication and information being delivered to the members of the public prior to the bid being being put in for the olympics to be held in London.

To watch interview click below:

London Social Forum – Katie Andrews Interview

Iain Sinclair banned from Hackney libraries because of Olympic criticism

Posted on February 9, 2009 by admin

Iai n Sinclair, novelist and long standing Hackney resident has been banned from reading extracts of his new book in Hackney libraries because of his criticisms of the 2012 olympics. In an interview that was published in the Guardian, Sinclair describes the measures taken by Hackney council to stifle debate on the Olympic issue.

“I was asked to go along to Stoke Newington library to speak to 20 people: old hippies and local history buffs, probably. But I’d written an anti-Olympics piece in the London Review of Books, and so the Hackney thought police decided: no, we can’t have this person in our library. They lied about this all the way down the line, insisting it was nothing to do with the Olympics but that they can’t have ‘controversial’ topics discussed in libraries. Eventually someone from the Hackney Citizen used the Freedom of Information Act to get the transcript [of what was said in a meeting] and, sure enough, it came directly from the Mayor, Jules Pipe, saying that this person is anti-Olympics, and he doesn’t go into our libraries. So Hackney Council is my co-sponsor, really – and, of course, this manipulation [on the part of the council] is also a big theme of the book.”