by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The 2012 London Olympics are over and the Paralympics are about to begin but what about the legacy?
While the opening ceremony was impressive, to say the least, and Team GB's medal haul as well, the closing ceremony went from the weird to the outrageous and them from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Now the question comes as to the legacy of those games and it may have to be a wait and see before we can judge.
However, so far local people have not benefited one iota from the run up to the games and the games themselves, and jobs for local people just could not be had for love or money.
An entire community has been displaced, namely that of the Romani-Gypsy, who have been living there in peaceful coexistence with local for decades and more, as well as many businesses, and the Gypsy People were forced into an entirely unsuitable area where they don't want to be and where the locals of that areas also don't want them. Those are the casualties already. One can thus but wonder as to the legacy and the benefits to and for the people of the area.
Not that the removal of Gypsies, so they be out of sight, before Olympic Games is anything new; Hitler did exactly the same in 1936 and that was the beginning of the Gypsy deportations into concentration camps.
As I said before it may have to be case of “wait and see” as to what the legacy will be but if other cities that have hosted Olympic Games in the recent past is anything to go by it will be little to no benefits to the locals.
All they got was disruption and trouble and inconvenience and the taxpayers, especially the little man, is the one who carries the can, once again.
Who is going to be benefiting from the sale of the main stadium to whichever football (soccer for our American cousins) club who is going to buy it? We can bet that most of the money will end up in the pockets of a very select few.
Will local people on the social housing list benefit from any of the homes in the Olympic Village? No very likely and the area is probably anyway one of those that is being earmarked by the ConDem coalition to be cleansed of all poor people and the latter to be rehoused in ghettos elsewhere.
Those new homes in the Athletes Village would be far too good for the riffraff and considering that the area is next door to Yuppi Land, aka Docklands, it is more than likely that one will try to entice some more of those rich folks, this time to the Borough of Newham.
I cannot wait to be proven wrong on the matter of the legacy of the Olympics and of all – or most – of the homes in the Athletes Village going to those on the social housing list, but I just cannot see it.
© 2012
