Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: Rajan Parrikar on August 12, 2012, 10:14:58 pm
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http://pindelski.org/Photography/2012/08/11/the-olympics-end/
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What a terrible "article". Someone who admits to having watched absolutely none of it pronounces judgement over it? What a load of rubbish.
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Very odd comments indeed with strange reference to Black Power salute. Lots of hate beneath those words.
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Not sure about the relevance of this article,... but I am wondering about the Olympics myself as well.
I have watched my fair share of it this time around, mixing various disciplines. I used to watch a lot and have fond memories of the 1984 LA Olympics. I love sports myself and have participated in competitions of basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, long distance walking,... I did also practise more casually swimming, soccer, archery, running, badmington, kayaking, rafting, skiing,... so sports has already played an important part in my life and I can relate to the fun of competing and to the urge to reach excellence.
Now, my perception of the Olympics started to go down in my mind from Atlanta Games where it became all too obvious that the Coca Cola spirit was playing a much larger role in the Olympics than fairplay or athlete performance. Or perhaps is it just that I started to understand things better at that time.
Yes, there is still impressive performance on display from the best athletes in the world. It is definitely a good show and fun to watch.
I am wondering though whether the Olympics still deserve the holy aura they have been associated with. I haven't spent much time thinking about this, but there are a few aspects I am not very comfortable with when watching the Games...
The Olympics are too commercial
To my eyes, it is more and more a big commercial venture focused, like all the other major sports events, on sponsors value. The controversy that surrounded the usage by Jamaican sprinter Blake of a non official sponsor watch is a good example of that reality. The Olympic spirit sounds more like a marketing feature aimed at inviting more watchers rather than anything tangible. I feel a bit cheated and would probably be more comfortable if the holy aspects were simply removed from the games and them be renamed into something like "The Big Sports Show". It would be a lot closer to the truth and would avoid us having to lie to our kids about the reality of the world we live in.
The Olympics is too big and expensive
On the sports part of the event itself, I feel that it has become too big and complex with sports like Taekwondo having, in my view, nothing more to do at olympics than Karate or Kung fu. I could give more examples like BMX and the like.
The Olympics is more about countries opposition than togetherness
On the Olympic spirit of bringing athletes together... what stands out is more the huge sums invested by the US and China to keep/gain mind share in terms of World's dominance rather than the possible chat perhaps taking place between athletes. I see the Olympic as a stage for a large orchestrated symbolic fight between countries rather than as a place of peace between people. It was the case during the cold war and still in the case today. I have unfortunately never witnessed fairplay or the importance of participation over winning as an actual value being promoted during the event. The event simply is totally about winning with a slight concession that the 2/3 best losers also get a medal.
Heck, if bringing countries together were the real goal of the Olympics, then we would need football teams made up of players from differ nations competing side by side... Hey... wait... isn't that what we already have during European Champions League? Would this mean that the Champions League does more for the world's peace than the Olympics? ;) It seems it does.
I guess that the problem I have with all this aspect of the Games is that the very notion of nation seems outdated and more and more irrelevant. The olympics is just one of the most obvious artifacts showing the meme "country" trying to fight for its very survival against the Facebook and Google+ virtual communities that don't care for borders and nationality.
What else?
No doubts the Olympics are here to stay and I am sure they will keep being a nice show.
But is there really now way to have something close to what we have been calling the Olympic spirit?
One way forward might be to come up with something totally different in parallel with the Olympics, a set of decentralized and truly democratic events that would be designed by the sportsman for the sportsman and would, hopefully, not interest sponsors or TV channels the least bit. An open source Olympics. That would bring a lot more value to our world in terms of letting people know and understand each others. The output would not be living legends aimed at keeping the ball running, but better understanding.
- replace country by person as the relevant granularity,
- remove sponsor money from the equation,
- get small and decentralized,
- ...
But what do I know? The Olympics was a good show, it was fun to watch.
Cheers,
Bernard
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These Olympics were set mainly in London, but these were a British Olympics, not just an English or London Olympics. The comments in the linked to blog about England, rather than Britain, probably stem from the belief that England is the capital of London, just a few miles outside of Scotlandshire, somewhere off the east coast of Switzerland. But I might be wrong. Someone who pronounces on something they've seen nothing of, is probably equally ignorant of the world generally.
I can understand, and share some of his cynicism, but this Games was unlike any other. It wasn't to do with records being broken, though we saw a good number of those. It wasn't to do with the general gorgeousness of the Dutch women's hockey team. It wasn't even about Usain Bolt simply being the fastest man on earth, again. It is to do with legacy. These were the first legacy games, where we weren't out simply to break even financially, weren't putting on a games that was going to cost us a fortune (though cost they inevitably did) which we'd spend forever paying off. These games were designed to leave a lasting legacy of infrastructure & regeneration, and youngsters' involvement in sport.
Yes, big sponsorship, from big companies. And in austerity Britain, the taxpayer had to cough up bugger all. And much as I dislike the business model of companies like McDonalds & Pepsi, they paid lots of money to make this games happen, and leave British kids a great sporting legacy.
And yes, Tommie Smith & John Carlos were great Olympians treated shabbily, and those images of the Black Power salute are powerful & evocative, but I've seen some wonderful photographs from these & other Olympic Games too, and right now, I'm finding it hard to be too cynical. Which makes a refreshing change.
Thomas Pindelski should get out more.
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I didn't spend much time watching as I have little interest in sport, but the nasty, silly, small-mindedness of the article, clearly attempting to hitch his hobby horse to whatever wagon happens to be available, is offensive and demeans only the author.
I can understand, and share some of his cynicism, but this Games was unlike any other. It wasn't to do with records being broken, though we saw a good number of those. It wasn't to do with the general gorgeousness of the Dutch women's hockey team. It wasn't even about Usain Bolt simply being the fastest man on earth, again. It is to do with legacy. These were the first legacy games, where we weren't out simply to break even financially, weren't putting on a games that was going to cost us a fortune (though cost they inevitably did) which we'd spend forever paying off. These games were designed to leave a lasting legacy of infrastructure & regeneration, and youngsters' involvement in sport.
And in austerity Britain, the taxpayer had to cough up bugger all.
The taxpayer coughed up nine thousand million quid, actually. I regard that as quite a lot of money. It's hardly the first Olympics to justify its enormous expenditure by bleating about legacy, either; time will tell.
However, some things were fun to watch. "As I write these words there are semi-naked women playing beach volleyball in the middle of the Horse Guards Parade immortalised by Canaletto. They are glistening like wet otters and the water is plashing off the brims of the spectators' sou'westers. The whole thing is magnificent and bonkers", as Boris wrote.
Jeremy
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... The taxpayer coughed up nine thousand million quid, actually.
Where's the 'embarrased' emoticon? I heard some Tory MP say it was all paid for by sponsorship. Yes, I actually believed a Tory MP. If life has taught me nothing else, it should surely have taught me never to trust a Tory MP.
Early on-set dementia? I'm certainly worrying now.
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The coverage by the BBC was way over the top. Not only BBC1 had coverage but the news channel seemed to have nothing else but the Olympics. I wonder how much the tax payer shelled out for it? Probably another couple of weeks before they stop talking about it? ::)
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I have absolutely no interest in sport; my daughter and one of hers were here and sat watching a lot of the stuff as I wandered around from the computer (LuLa, cellpix etc.) to the kitchen, to the tv.
The highlight, for me, was a mockery: I saw the beautiful cheer leaders (?) for the beach volley thinggy, and they never did anything at all during my short watch. However, the actual players did their thing, and what a pity. I would far rather have watched the short, attracive ladies do theirs. or was there no 'theirs' to be done and they were simply window dressing, bait for ever-hopefuls such as I? As for the sponsorship from Visa...
In equally serious vein: Olympics spirit used to be about the amateur. The moment you include pros you have killed both the ideal and the level playing field, the latter very apt here but just as illusory as anywhere else.
I think these events are huge wastes of money, whether private or public. They are the equivalent of the Roman death games with lions, tigers, slaves and various nitwits with swords, pikes, nets and chains. Or is that just Hollywood? If that amount of money is available to spend, then surely to God the world needs financial help in better directions? They could start by buying me that '59 de Ville already refurbished! I do a very low mileage, so it wouldn't hurt.
Rob C
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These games were designed to leave a lasting legacy of infrastructure & regeneration, and youngsters' involvement in sport.
I'm really not an expert on the history of the Olympics, but I guess a lasting legacy has always been an intent of the organizing cities. Take the '72 games in Munich for example. Most of the former Olympic venues are still used today. IMHO the Olympiapark is one of the nicest places in the city today. The Olympics village next to it is a very popular residential area.
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I'm really not an expert on the history of the Olympics, but I guess a lasting legacy has always been an intent of the organizing cities.
I think it's been more a nice side-effect rather than a specific intention
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There is a lot of propaganda being peddled by the Government and it's stooges about the Olympics. On the face of it there has been a success with the regards to medals. It will take a while for the dust to settle and the "real" gains and more importantly the losses to be assessed and even then the propaganda will still be forthcoming. By that time Lord Coe will have banked his earnings and the profiteers will have moved theirs off shore to avoid tax.
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I believe it was actually planned that way. The same can be said about the olympic villages in Berlin (ok, maybe not the best example from a historical point of view :-\ ) and Barcelona. At least those are the ones where I specifically read about it.
I guess nowadays you can't really justify to the taxpayers the spending of hundreds of gazillions of whatever currency to build a whole new urban district out of thin air without a good concept of what to do with it after the event.
By the way, I'd really like to see some of the more fun events reintroduced. Like dueling, live pigeon shooting, and solo synchronized swimming :D
Have at look at this (http://www.oobject.com/category/12-absurd-olympic-events/).
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The legacy in Sydney was essentially a white elephant with a football park attached.
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The legacy in Sydney was essentially a white elephant with a football park attached.
The last legacy we were bleeding over in the UK was that of the anointed, teflon saint: Anthony Blair. Some effin' legacy!
Rob C
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The legacy in Sydney was essentially a white elephant with a football park attached.
Sadly the Olympics has become the ultimate sucker-punch for the people who live around a host city and also a little (too little) about athleticism.
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Cost of the games met by sponsors, the infrastructure by public money. Hopefully, like Bill said, these are going to be the first games to leave a lasting legacy!
But a legacy of what? At least Barcelona got some new roads, available to all. You might get lost finding them, but once you do, they take you where you want to go. Once you get to France, though, you discover that all roads lead to Paris; heaven help you if you want to go from left to right or even top to bottom; you are almost obliged to gravitate to the capital which becomes very difficult to avoid, which I always managed to do, just. I love LuLa; so very broad.
Rob C
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Where's the 'embarrased' emoticon? I heard some Tory MP say it was all paid for by sponsorship. Yes, I actually believed a Tory MP. If life has taught me nothing else, it should surely have taught me never to trust a Tory MP.
Early on-set dementia? I'm certainly worrying now.
Perhaps my own mind wanders; was it a Tory who 'won' us the 'opportunity' to host the games? Have we, they been in power that long? (Thought it was still a honeymoon with two brides, or is that apprentices?)
Rob C
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Perhaps my own mind wanders; was it a Tory who 'won' us the 'opportunity' to host the games? Have we, they been in power that long? (Thought it was still a honeymoon with two brides, or is that apprentices?)
Rob C
It was, at least in part, His Toniness Blair. So yes, a Tory of sorts.
Jeremy
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Very odd comments indeed with strange reference to Black Power salute. Lots of hate beneath those words.
That's funny, I don't see any hatred at all. What I do see is a reference to photojournalism and a statement (in the picture) about a long-running wrong to an entire society. I can't forget that Bessie Smith died of loss of blood because of something closely related to her situation and personal looks. But hell that's just old news; everything today's cool.
Right.
Rob C
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It's a bit naive, well, no, it's wrong, to say that all Sydney got was a "white elephant" with a football park attached.
We got a new stadium, a train line and public transport system going to it, new trains, the whole CBD was remodelled with the footpaths widened and made for more pedestrian friendly, giving the whole city a lift. Numerous roads were upgraded and redone, there are additional sporting facilities all over the city (and Sydney is a large place, spread over a large area).
The Australian Tourist Commission still calls the 2000 Olympics the most beneficial event in the history of Australian tourism. I believe they feel that the brand "Australia" was advanced by a decade.
The Sydney Olympic Park (the stadium) hosts many commercial and sporting facilities and is used for national and international sporting events. The aquatic centre is open to the public.
There was restoration of around 150 hectares of degraded land and creation of a 425 hectare urban parkland. Australia's first large-scale urban water recycling system was built and saves around 850million litres of drinking water p.a. and the Sydney Olympic Park area makes extensive use of renewable energy sources.
These are just the things that I can remember, and doesn't count the wonderful atmosphere and vibe of living in the city at the time.
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That's funny, I don't see any hatred at all. What I do see is a reference to photojournalism and a statement (in the picture) about a long-running wrong to an entire society. I can't forget that Bessie Smith died of loss of blood because of something closely related to her situation and personal looks. But hell that's just old news; everything today's cool.
Right.
Rob C
From Wikipedia: Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's G.T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smith's death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged about the circumstances; namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale. Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.[15]
"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital, you can forget that." Dr. Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."
A similar story that gets repeated is that Dr. Charles Drew, the developer of blood banking, died because he was refused admission to a white hospital in Burlington, NC, in 1950, after a car accident. Again, Wikipedia: A persistent urban legend (even recounted in an episode of the TV show M*A*S*H and Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain) holds that Drew was denied care — ironically, a blood transfusion — at a nearby hospital because of his race and bled to death. In fact, Drew was well treated by the hospital. Claims that he was not treated because of his skin color are unfounded.[5] As Dr. John Ford, one of the doctors traveling with Drew, later explained, "We all received the very best of care. The doctors started treating us immediately. [...] He had a superior vena caval syndrome—blood was blocked getting back to his heart from his brain and upper extremities. To give him a transfusion would have killed him sooner. Even the most heroic efforts couldn't have saved him. I can truthfully say that no efforts were spared in the treatment of Drew, and, contrary to popular myth, the fact that he was a Negro did not in any way limit the care that was given to him."[6]
This is not to defend the mores of the Deep South. At the time, racism was vicious, persistent and pervasive. It is precisely because of this fact that these errors are believable. Better now, but by no means perfect.
Dale V., a shallow Deep Southerner
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Dale -
At least you've still got the best music!
Speaking of blood and race, I read online (in an offical UK health spot), that beta-blockers are not to be taken by folks of African origin because these products can kill them; an alternative is, apparently, available, but it all seems to me to go towards showing up how different people really are from one another. Even within the same ethnic race we are very different - the ideas of the 60s about "coffee-coloured people" being the ideal product of the future seems unlikely.
Perhaps the big problem with colour is the tendency to mass-characterization, as if all black, white or whatever peoples are all the same within their spectrum. We ain't thank God! Another problem is distance: until one gets to know people from different races on a personal basis, it's just too easy to accept those broad brush strokes of identity. That's one area where music helps: you do get to meet and mix and it's quite rewarding. It seems strange that one can love rock 'n' roll, jazz, sport etc. but 'hate' some of the best exponents off-field
Humans are strange creatures!
Rob C
P.S. Imagine an English group trying to come up with this:
http://youtu.be/aAk-3U2ODdo
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Perhaps the big problem with colour is the tendency to mass-characterization,
The same is true for nationalities, professions, blood types, hair color,...
Cheers,
Bernard
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Speaking of blood and race, I read online (in an offical UK health spot), that beta-blockers are not to be taken by folks of African origin because these products can kill them; an alternative is, apparently, available, but it all seems to me to go towards showing up how different people really are from one another. Even within the same ethnic race we are very different - the ideas of the 60s about "coffee-coloured people" being the ideal product of the future seems unlikely.
I don't, of course, know what "official UK health spot" you're reading, Rob, but race is not mentioned as a contra-indication or even a caution to use of beta-blockers in the British National Formulary, which is the prescriber's bible; and a scan around Google fails to find any mention of such a problem.
Jeremy
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I don't, of course, know what "official UK health spot" you're reading, Rob, but race is not mentioned as a contra-indication or even a caution to use of beta-blockers in the British National Formulary, which is the prescriber's bible; and a scan around Google fails to find any mention of such a problem.
Jeremy
I'll try to find it for you, Jeremy. I came across it when I had my first heart attack about ten or eleven years ago - my daughter, who was teaching in a children's hospital at the time, forwarded the link to me. It was general info. about heart medicines; I seem to associate it with a body called the British Heart Foundation, or similar.
I'd imagine that with the readership/viewership(?) that we have in LuLa, there'd be somebody with the qualifications required to advise us about this. Oh - one granddaughter starts her second year at Uni studying the subject - I'll ask her if she can find out, if nobody else here can let us know; probably way too advanced for her, but I'm sure she must know someone who can say.
Ciao -
Rob C
Found a way to the information, but a direct link won’t fly.
1. go to:
http://www.bhf.org.uk
2. at the top of the page, in Search, type in: beta blockers african ethnicity
3. click Search
There’s lots of info. to read.
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I'll try to find it for you, Jeremy. I came across it when I had my first heart attack about ten or eleven years ago - my daughter, who was teaching in a children's hospital at the time, forwarded the link to me. It was general info. about heart medicines; I seem to associate it with a body called the British Heart Foundation, or similar.
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Found a way to the information, but a direct link won’t fly.
1. go to:
http://www.bhf.org.uk
2. at the top of the page, in Search, type in: beta blockers african ethnicity
3. click Search
There’s lots of info. to read.
OK, Rob, I've done that. None of the six papers which appear after the search supports the proposition, I'm afraid, or even comes close. The nearest is a suggestion in the first link that there may be better drugs than beta-blockers for the treatment of high blood pressure in Afro-Caribbeans.
Jeremy
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OK, Rob, I've done that. None of the six papers which appear after the search supports the proposition, I'm afraid, or even comes close. The nearest is a suggestion in the first link that there may be better drugs than beta-blockers for the treatment of high blood pressure in Afro-Caribbeans.Jeremy
Okay - it's a few years -around ten - now since my foray into Internet medicine (I don't advise it!) and maybe the 'theories' have changed a bit since then, toned down the drama? - but anyhow, it does tend to support my original point that there are distinct differences between races, or why would there be different drugs recommended on a racial basis? I also remember that when I was being kicked out of hospital after the first attack they told me not to have more than two eggs in a week; a year or so ago, all this was turned on its head and, apparently, eggs are good for you again, even with heart history... my cardio seemed surprised when I asked.
It definitely ain't my field of expertise, should I still even have one... but I sure hope it's someone's! ;-)
Rob C
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Okay - it's a few years -around ten - now since my foray into Internet medicine (I don't advise it!) and maybe the 'theories' have changed a bit since then, toned down the drama? - but anyhow, it does tend to support my original point that there are distinct differences between races, or why would there be different drugs recommended on a racial basis? I also remember that when I was being kicked out of hospital after the first attack they told me not to have more than two eggs in a week; a year or so ago, all this was turned on its head and, apparently, eggs are good for you again, even with heart history... my cardio seemed surprised when I asked.
It definitely ain't my field of expertise, should I still even have one... but I sure hope it's someone's! ;-)
Rob, of course there are some differences between races: it would be decidedly odd if skin colour were the only thing affected by genetics. I took issue originally with your assertion that beta blockade might kill black people, an assertion for which there is simply no evidence at all.
Jeremy
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Rob, of course there are some differences between races: it would be decidedly odd if skin colour were the only thing affected by genetics. I took issue originally with your assertion that beta blockade might kill black people, an assertion for which there is simply no evidence at all.
Jeremy
Okay, it seems we aren't going to let this die.
If you read my original post on this, you'll see that I'm quoting something I read around ten years ago: it's not my assertion at all - I'm not a doctor and don't pretend to be; that would be even more difficult than passing myself off as a photographer!
Whether the information I digested those years ago concerning the potentially fatal aspects of beta-blockers for African-origin peoples was correct, mistaken or has been changed since then I don't know: I certainly didn't invent it; I can read; what I read did leave a strong impression on my mind.
For the sake of everybody's health, I certainly hope that those alternative medicines to betas (alternatives that I believe you accept exist for African people?) remain available and that they work... that they need to exist to accomodate specific ethic groups brings me back full-circle... but this ain't the Lancet.
;-)
Rob C
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Pharmacogenetics is a real discipline.
It evolved from the combined situation that drugs were seen to work or not work in certain individuals or in some cases definable groups of individuals (occasionally whole racial groups) and the overall advances in genetics making the research at the molecular level viable..
As a medical professional for some decades I have to say that I am not aware of beta-blockers been harmful in Negroes (I started my career in South Africa and most of my patients were Negroes).
Interestingly enough though ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure and some forms of heart failure) appear not to work at all well in Negroes.
There are lots of other examples of this sort in different racial groups.
BTW - no axe to grind, just sharing interesting information.
Regards
Tony Jay
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Pharmacogenetics is a real discipline.
It evolved from the combined situation that drugs were seen to work or not work in certain individuals or in some cases definable groups of individuals (occasionally whole racial groups) and the overall advances in genetics making the research at the molecular level viable..
As a medical professional for some decades I have to say that I am not aware of beta-blockers been harmful in Negroes (I started my career in South Africa and most of my patients were Negroes).
Interestingly enough though ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure and some forms of heart failure) appear not to work at all well in Negroes.
There are lots of other examples of this sort in different racial groups.
BTW - no axe to grind, just sharing interesting information.Regards
Tony Jay
Me too; it's fascinating stuff and only goes to show what an amazingly complex thing is life on Earth.
Rob C