2010 winter olympics have begun

Vancouver saw the onset of the 2010 Winter Olympics this past weekend and unless you’ve been hiding in the depths of your own dark bubble, you’ll know that some people ain’t too happy about this.

On February 13 the Heart Attack March saw protesters aiming to block the vital transportation routes leading to the olympic games events.While the previous afternoon over 3,000 protesters converged for a peaceful rally and march through downtown Vancouver to the site of the Games’ opening ceremonies.

You can read some independent coverage of the protests at rabble.com, IPS and Vancouver’s media coop.

Check out this video to see scenes from the Heart Attack March and discussions about why this event took place.

For an easy-to-digest summary of why the Olympics are being met with resistance look here.

Alongside stealing native land, we’ve seen increased homelessness, social cleansing, ecological destruction, corruption, corporate invasion, displacement of the poor to name just a few… all this for the glory of seeing our beloved sports stars do their thing? Can victory and glory really be achieved when it is attained at the cost of another?

Here’s another summary of what’s going on:

sunsets, beaver tails and naked people on bikes

Arriving back in Vancouver saw a change of pace at both extremes. Camping in one place for 2.5 weeks brought my journey to a screeching halt, but being in a city inevitably meant a fast, more hectic speed of life. But what a time was had! So much goodness packed into those weeks.

Highlights?

1.    The Seventh Ave crew. In keeping with the bartering theme from my bike tour, I camped in the backyard of a share house (not far from Kitsilano Beach) in exchange for gardening. Weeding. Soil prep. Seed planting. Watering. Was so good to be working with my hands again. The garden had a calm, quiet atmosphere featuring two big fig trees complete with hammocks and outdoor chairs. So much time was had hanging outside sharing stories with the crew, drinking wine, reading books in the hammock, dinner parties, soaking up the sun (it didn’t rain for the whole time!). At time I almost forgot I was in the city. And with such a great group of friendly people, I immediately felt part of the ‘family’.

2.    World Naked Bike Ride. I promised myself last year after meeting Marte (the Newcastle WNBR organiser) during the Otesha tour that I’d participate in WNBR this year regardless of where I was in the world. So on 16 June, I took a deep breath, grabbed my bike and headed down to English Bay where I was to find another 200 crazy people keen to get off their kit in the name of bike advocacy, climate change and other environmental/social issues. WNBR aims to be a fun, creative platform to express whatever message you’re passionate about. We rode for two hours through every busy street to be found in Vancouver! And it was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. The cheering and encouragement of stander bys constantly overwhelmed me. Alongside the bike awareness and climate change slogans painted on bodies, demystifying body image norms seemed to be a big theme this year as well. You’d think that 200 naked bodies strutting around the city would perpetuate the sexual objectification of the human body. But the event seemed to have the opposite effect. Largely because of all the different shapes, sizes and colours that were represented. You begin to understand that it just doesn’t matter what you look like!

3.    The Beaver Tail. I have to admit, Canadian ‘cuisine’ isn’t something I find particularly sensational. Too much grease, sugar and salad dressing for my likling! But my partner’s folk’s insisted my Canadian experience wouldn’t be complete with tasting a ‘beaver’s tail’. Ok, so think squished doughnut the size of a dinner plate, deep frieds and ooooozing with maple syrup or sugar and cinnamon! And you know what? I almost enjoyed it… although my stomach certainly paid the price!

4.    Meeting Uncle Charlie. Spending time in Vancouver has largely been about meeting family. And this family time has definitely been a highlight. Telling you that meeting ‘Uncle Charlie’ was inspirational is an understatement. Uncle Charlie is 102 years old. Until just last year he was pottering around his house with his wife (96 years old) making jam, baking goodies and attending a vege garden. Just realising the energy and agility required for all these activities perhaps gives you an ideas about the level of inspiration and respect I felt in spending time with him. But combined with his sense of humour and wit the whole experience was brought up yet another notch.

5.    Sunset Beach Experiences. The days were getting longer and the weather was warming up rapidly. The city folk were bustling around and about with giant smiles on their faces, rollerskating along the beach promenades, and basking in the sun at the beaches around town. I joined the crowds on many occasions for a ‘sunset-on-the-beach’ experience. Sitting on the beach with a good glass of wine, delectable food and an awesome view of the snow-capped mountains. Does life get better than this?

6.    Street Parties. Festivals feature regularly on the calendar at this time of the year. And I was lucky enough to experience Commercial Drive’s Car free Day (think King St, Newtown or Brunswick St, Melbourne). Many streets throughout the city were blocked off that day, and the streets were lined with food vendors, artisans selling their arts and crafts and organisations providing information about their activities. Our crew spent the day wandering about soaking up the atmosphere, drinking a few too many jugs of Mohjitas, spending far too much money on second-hand clothes, and joining in spontaneous games along the street (eg. Skipping rope double-dutch style!)…

next stop Kootneys, Okanagan and Calgary…

critical mass-ive

Why pay for a packaged tour of a city you’ve just arrived in when you can jump on your bike (which you’ve no doubt packaged up and carried with you across the pacific) and join critical mass – a monthly bike ride that occurs simultaneously in nearly 100 cities worldwide. I’ve been a frequent ‘masser’ for years now, but I’ve never been to one quite as big, colourful and crazy as the one in Vancouver last Friday night…

We cycled for over 3 hours, holding up the Lion’s Gate bridge for over 20 minutes. It was so exciting to be part of such a fun celebration of bike riding. I was impressed to see so much support from car drivers who (mostly) cheered, honked and high-fived us as we cycled past their gridlocked cars…

It’s not compulsory to vote in Canada, so with the forthcoming election in BC on 12 May Critical Mass (April ’09) was an important platform for election campaigning. Hundreds of cyclists rocked up wearing election placards all over their bikes, helmets and bodies in an effort to inspire the larger community to vote.

The citizen’s assembly has also called for a referendum to decide between the current voting system of ‘first-vote-past-the-post’ or a new model: a ‘Proportional representation by Single Transferable Vote’ system (BC-STV).

Each electoral district elects a single candidate to the BC government under the current system. This candidate is elected based on receiving the most votes. With BC-STV voters are required to list their preferences and your ballots becomes proportionally divided to help several candidates get elected. eg. If your first choice gets more votes than they need to win, then some of your vote will go to your second choice.

The BC-STV is similar to the model we use in Australia and allows for a more efficient use of votes, greater accountability, better voter choice and fairer representation.

According to the citizen’s assembly the current system sees almost 64% of votes wasted leaving these people with no one to represent them under a so-called democratic government compared to the BC-STV which has a theoretical maxium number of wasted votes of 18%. BC-STC translates more votes into seats far more accurately and votes go towards candidates rather than parties.

Under the current system parties are routinely over rewarded if they win more than 40% of the vote and under rewarded if they win less than 30 percent of the vote. In contrast the Single Transferable Vote system rewards parties with a number of seats that is close to their proportion of the popular vote.

More informtion about the system can be found here.