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British press doesn’t like our Olympics, thinks we’re mean? Take this

February 18th, 2010 · 28 Comments

Most of the flag-bedecked partiers here don’t have a clue that we’re being trashed in the international media and, even if they did, they probably wouldn’t care.

But it’s a big topic among the inner circle of Olympics diehards, reporters and news junkies. I got invited to give a local perspective on the Games and our image to the Guardian, which has been running articles so far saying the city is “filled with dread” and shipping homeless people out to clean things up.

Here’s the link to my piece, which has already kicked off several dozen comments since it was posted this morning London time.

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  • michael geller

    I was interested to read this comment

    “The games have problems. But it’s also great to see the games exposing on an international stage just how problematic British journalists can be too.

    Sorry, Canada. But at least you don’t have to live with these cretins!”

  • Paul

    Whoa, who edited that story? They are mean over there!

  • R Ritter

    Thank you for your piece “Flaming Canada’s Olympics”. I am shocked that the international media continues to call this “the worst games ever”. In my humble opinion, that honour should be given to the 1936 Berlin Games or the 1972 Munich Games (as you rightly pointed out).

    As a proud resident of Vancouver and supporter of the Canadian Olympic Team and my country, I say “GO CANADA GO”.

  • Urbanismo

    Wankers? Well errrr . . . umph, what else would you expect young eleven year old English public school boys to do cooped up in a dorm with twenty five other deprived young lads?

    Oh and yes, I laundered my bed sheets yesterday: previous to that . . . errrrr . . . ten days ago . . . ten days? Phew!

    I used to call myself British but now I’m sort of altermondialiste: obviously an anomaly!

    The Guardian was good until it moved to Fleet Street . . . and of course Fleet Street can be . . . well . . petty, nasty . . . it’ll pass!

    I arrived in Vancouver, 1951, after a whiff in His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Taking up a brief job on Water Street, then, acquiring some vital insights into my new home, counting trees in Skuzzy and Yoho . . . until I got down to my real career.

    I brought up my family in Lighthouse Park and eventually settled on Kits Point and later South Granville until I moved on to other places.

    Vancouver was very good to me: professionally I was bestowed with medals and awards and home was always views, parks and seashore . . . I have no complaints.

    In my opinion Granville Island and South False Creek were the apex of Vancouver development. Culturally the town was in high gear: The Cultch, Gallimaufry (whose cast you will often see today, Corner Gas etc) for theatre: The Young Romantics, Angela Grossman Richard Atila Lukacs and earlier The Anything Co on Fourth were all cultural originals: architects the early Richard Enriquez and Peter Cardew: writers, Bill Bissett and of course Earl Birney.

    I am not suggesting these were defining moments: just milestones in my memory.

    Three weeks of Olympics pale in comparison . . .

    The genré “developer” had not been quite beatified then . . . I could go on . . .

    In those days we didn’t take the city for granted but we were not constantly being regaled with the phuccin’ views, world class or paradise (commutes to Maple Ridge soon blows that myth!).

    Warnett Kennedy abused his position on council by persuading us all that the integrity of the cone of vision, south on Granville would be preserved: yunno et. al.

    Cones of visions are Vancouver’s corrupting nemesis . . . for many reasons . . . if the city has to rely on its views, looking outward, never inward, then . . . fill in the blanks . . . the hyperbole invites smart ass talk . . .

    Then I dunno, the whole scene became corrupted: lots of bullshit about a Caliph from some God forsaken desert outpost being mesmerized by . . . oooooh . . . Vancouver development: frankly I couldn’t see their point! Indeed there ensued a whole migration of naive planners heading to aid and abet that dusty slave camp: Huh I’ll bet they’re on their way home now.

    The current hoopla, hoopla, hoopla just exposes a very immature childish streak of a population deprived on real in depth cultural history and exposure to life beyond the rent and mortgage: one that goes way beyond trying to make easy money . . .

    One big draw back has been the uni-ownership of local media: it really has not serve the cities needs and perhaps a bit of negative expose will open us up a bit.

    These were, sort of, milestones in the warping of a very livable charming city that greed and ignorance and self-serving officials have used to their own purpose, to wit; Vancouver is paradise if you bought into Kerrisdale in the ’70’s.

  • david hadaway

    Well, it seems to me that if you want nasty you should look at the Canadian over-reaction to this criticism. Even Frances can’t resist the impulse to go for the British as a people. As far as I can see the British press, as well as that of other countries, has focussed its ‘nastiness’ largely on the organisers of the games and I’m not shedding any tears over them.

    The British papers have been described as a pack of rabid rottweillers. Yes they can be pretty bad but that is still better than our doggy daycare of apathetic poodles.

  • Booge

    Hope we get a lot more negative reviews. We deserve it! Hope people stay away from Vancouver in droves. To the world: Leave us in peace, stay home in your own cities. For us to be even more livable we need to shed about a 1000 people.

  • Booge

    @Roger: I enjoyed reading your piece on what is a “World Class” city. Vancouver not there by a long shot. But that is ok. No need for us to be World class. Love the “CittaSlow” concept… That is the route for Van to follow. The other is depressing to contemplate, Developers and Real Estate developers, setting the tone for Metropolis or Polis… World class cities don’t develop from that quarter.

  • Urbanismo

    Thanqxz Booge.

    cittaslow restricts pop to 50,000: i.e. Cowichan Village on VI . . . the only community in Canada so far committed.

    Vancouver would work if the several identifiable villages, yunno DTES: then Fraserview, Oakridge etc were coalesce and densify, de-sprawl, around their respective centres . . .

    That will have to happen eventually but that’s along way off . . .

  • A. G. Tsakumis

    Not one of your better pieces darling.

    Not if you were downplaying whining…

    It’s absurd for anyone to suggest that these Games are a success based on the fact they are delivered on the backs of the most needy and at risk in the province.

    Haven’t seen you do a proper piece on that.

    Then again, you write for the Mop and Pail.

    …a CTV Globemedia property.

    AND PROUD SPONSOR OF THE OWELYMPIC GAMES.

    Nice necklace, BTW…new picture?

  • Richard

    the British press is simply living up to its boorish reputation…..end of story !

  • Denis

    I support the athlete’s, ( but not the paid professional hocky players all that much) It’s the goofy moves by Vanoc and the imported made in China regallia that our beloved Premier seems to refuse taking off. Us bus lines that can’t get up the hills, as BC companies are crying for work but left out of the money making process. And of course just wait till the international press get onto the security when a guy made it through security with a bogus pass and got close to the US Vice President. The planners must be thanking thier luck that the big guy Obama didn’t attend. With all the security around that cost us a huge amount of money , the idea of a guy getting shot by some security guy would ceratainly have made headlines. Lucky that two undercover women cops got to the fellow first. Yes it’s been said he was no threat but what about the next guy or guys? What will be the next clanger?

  • david hadaway

    Stephanie – I hope you are continuing to read this blog. You mentioned knowing the case that I quoted a few days ago of a disabled person and his son at risk of losing their home.

    I would very much like to make contact with him which I hope would be to his advantage and therefore wonder if you could get my e mail address to him?

  • Higgins

    “Vancouver has always been home to a robust contingent of people who love to trash the city”
    …
    “But those critics have been stunned into silence in the last few days, while the media express picks up steam on the narrative of “Vancouver – worst Olympics ever”

    Wow! Frances, you couldn’t be more wrong on this one, nobody have been stunned into silence! They might have been stunned into disgust, boredom , more disgust,yes. But hey, you have to write about something,don’t you, they gave you a gig in the Guardian didn’t they? The thing is what else can anyone say about these Games?
    They suck! You’re simply blind.

  • Charles M

    Well, I like the fact that this is the ‘greenest’ Olympics (no snow helps). According to GM there are 2000 of their vehicles making airport drops and running team members in. Here at UBC I get a bird’s eye view of all those Olympic cars running through my community -rarely more than one or two people in each of the wonderfully GM gas guzzlers.

    But, despite cardboard and straw ski tracks and melting ice in the Richmond skating rink it is fun to watch the hockey games and the snowboarding on the tv.

  • Denis

    I see this evening a couple of articles connected to the circus. Seems some cops and military guys got sent home for their behaviour. It was suggested that the floating palace they were in was a great place for drinking and women visitors sometimes called working girls. And of course another security error when somebody got stopped and a bag x-rayed and during it all the owner simply picked up his bag and walked away. After the event, our sharp as bent nails security folks toured the building looking for something. Yep we sure are being handled by some sharp folks. They wouldn’t want to evacute the building as it might need returns of tickets. God help us all if a real terrorist ever bothered to show up. So look sharp security, if one does he probrably won’t be wearing a turbin or dragging along a Ak47 and a bag of explosives

  • Frances Bula

    George

    My Guardian piece was pretty light-hearted so I’m not going to expend a lot of energy on lengthy defences, but you seem to have missed the point. I emphasized at the top of the story that people thought that if there would be criticism on anything, it would be over the homelessness and huge money spent on the Games. And it’s stunned them that what the British press have chosen to focus on is not these pretty serious issues, but petty s**t about fences and buses. Do I really think that people who are opposed to the Games have suddenly become united with Gordon Campbell in loving the Games and hating the Brits? No, but I think people who usually love to pick little holes in how pissy Vancouver is are shocked at having outsiders criticize them — and for ALL THE WRONG THINGS.

    By the way, if I ever were to sell out, think I’d do it for more than 85 British pounds.

  • D. Volk

    Here is an interesting piece on why the Daily Mail was trashing the Vancouver Olympics:

    http://bit.ly/cN3WI7

    Answer: They trash everyone.

  • Derek Weiss

    D. Volk: Precisely. I think we Vancouverites are just especially sensitive about this kind of criticism, even though it is par for the course.

    Let’s chill out and enjoy the games, then take a good, hard look at ourselves after. There’s a season for everything, and right now its time to party and cheer and enjoy the fruit of our efforts. Then, when it is over, we need to ask ourselves what kind of city we want to live in, and what we are really going to do about our most significant problems, such as homelessness and affordable housing.

  • Sean Bickerton

    Great piece, Frances. I have my own criticisms of the organizers, but I agree with you completely and it’s nice to have someone stand up for our City in the British press that is needlessly eroding ties they will wish they’d kept some day.

  • Jon McCullough

    It makes me wonder if the British press are actually here. Has anybody noticed that Vancouver is hosting the biggest love-in that the world has ever seen? The city is humming with positive energy. Bad weather? The sun is shining, the cherry blossoms are out, the conditions at all the sites are fantastic. We have 2000 people staging a dance on Robson street for charity. How about the athletes – putting out their best even when it doesn’t matter. Think of Shaun White’s 1260 double McTwist in his secodn almost meaningless run. And the thousands of volunteers who are making everything work. If this is the worst ever, the others must have been really fine.

  • Barb Saylor

    Well done, cuz.

  • Vortex

    The great tragedy here (and I do mean tragedy) is that people are even discussing this. All that has happened is that someone in London, whose only job is to create controversy and sell more newspapers (remember that the British despise their own media) has printed something controversial which his buddies in Vancouver, whose only job also is to create controversy and sell more newspapers, can latch onto and have a great laugh as the people of 2 great nations turn on each other.

    I have lots of British friends who love Canada and its culture and people. I bet they are pretty mortified by all of this.

    Why do people continue to let the global media divide and conquer them? That is all that is happening here. Anyone who knows the Brits, knows that they are not a patriotic people. In fact, they seem exhausted by the leaders of their own nation who seem hell bent on running it into the ground.

    Come on people. Let’s have a little faith in each other and stop giving our power away.

  • Andrew

    @Vertex

    As a Briton living in Canada I am mortified (and horribly embarrassed) by the negative press coverage, which is unwarranted. All you Canadians out there, rememember that the British Press do not represent the feelings of the British People in general.
    Mind you, wait until you see how they cover any shortcomings in the London Olympics. If you think they’ve been vicious with Canadians, wait until you see how they treat the London Organisers! I hope Lord Coe has a fireproof flak jacket.

  • Dave

    Derek Weiss // Feb 19, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    …thanks Derek. (and D.Volk) Exactly what I was going to say.

    Nothing wrong with pointing it out when the boosterists, or the critics, go a bit over the top, also nothing for us to twist ourselves in knots about. Free speech is one of our values, right?

  • J.R. Wares

    After reading the Guardian (Olympic) flame war, my mind has been changed.

    Traditionally, Guardian readers were seen as pipe puffing, tweed wearing, mild mannered academics. The evidence from the flame war is that the readership seems to have changed places with the Daily Express and is now a jingoistic, pipe puffing, tweed wearing, angry mob.

    But to be fair, most of my friends and associates are heartily sick of the MSM Vancouver boosterism (with the exception of the insights of several incisive bloggers in Vancouver) and really welcome a view from afar.
    -30-

  • Kevin

    Maybe the British should write about why they only have 1 medal. Is London really giving Vancouver a hard time about rioting? Wow ever seen a soccer game loss or a beetles concert? Who cares what England thinks they still pay millions to a family just because of bloodlines and tradition. Not to mention they put topless women in their public newspaper now that’s class.

  • Vicki

    It’s to bad that the British Press is so against
    Vancouver Canada, but I understand that this
    is the type of comments you are always making.
    Wait till the summer olympics come your way and you may have to swallow your words about Canada. We are the best country in the world with the least amount of problems.

  • Vicki

    What will the British Press have to say against
    someone. You did alot of negative about Canada.