some thoughts on the olympics

we appear now,already to be into a period of some sort of public discussion about olympic legacy.of course irecognise that"those who(think)are in charge",have a responsibilty to do alot of thinking about it well before now.i dont doubt they have-but that will have been with a corporate and statist agenda in mind,not a communitarian or social agenda,and certainly not an outlook that takes any of us into consideration.

i always have doubts that what"public debate"actually amounts to is discussion that excludes us,ordinary folk,but mainly engages those in power"discussing"-meaning manipulating-in the kind of places and spaces that we cant see.accountability means nothing.some discussion might occur in parliament.there will be some talk in the media and that might even engage a few of"us"chosen for say a 15second soundbite.i say 15 second soundbite,in the context of thinking about andy wrahols comment from i think the 1960s,when he expected we would live in asociety where we each got 15 minutes of fame.that was not a future i wanted but  a 15 second soundbite is a pale shadow of even that.we might get to choose the colour of the paint on the walls of some project to do what?"bring sport to somebody,somewhere,sometime?"

i am not a cynic,nor am i cynical but real experience teaches me that whereas 40 years ago projects may well have emerged in the community,to meet expressed community need,things are very different now.it seems to me then that activists would come together around a theme or purpose and some money,always a shoestring budget would be found to pay for a law centre,a woamans refuge,"release",Bit,many other things.now THEY seem to set up heavily controlled and managed projects to TELL us what to do,for a while-they control access and information,involvement and engagement very much n THEIR terms and then move on,when"flavour of the month"or  political. control,at the top changes.

it therefore seems to me that this will be very much the organisational context in which the so called olympics legacy wil take place.