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Tag Archives: public space
The Regeneration Games
Posted on July 2, 2021 by Spectacle Media CIC
By Mark Saunders, 12 September 2007
Originally published by Mute Magazine
Whatever the overruns on time and cost, one thing the London 2012 Olympics is certain to deliver is a huge public debt. The enormous bill for two weeks of telematic sport is legitimated by promises of urban regeneration but in reality the games are a corporate landgrab facilitating the looting of nature and labour as prices go up and people are pushed out, argues Mark Saunders
News item, 2005 commenting on London Olympics, 2012
On the 6 July 2005, crowds of Londoners gathered on Trafalgar Square for an Olympic 'decision day' event. With no real expectation of winning, the Olympic Bid Team had billed it as a 'Thank You London, Thank You UK' day. Crowds could watch on giant screens the International Olympic Committee's decision on the host city for 2012. It would probably be Paris.
Up on the platform, a host of London 2012 ambassadors expectantly held hands. All white teeth, perma-smiles, and synthetic fabrics, they prepared themselves for sporting and gracious defeat. It would surely be Paris.
At 12:49, the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, made his dramatic announcement. The winner is… pause… pause squared… (the open mics amplifying the deafening silence)… London.
News item, 2005, commenting on London Olympics, 2012
A moment of disbelief… Not Paris? Then the crowd erupted in celebration.
That evening, TV newsreaders had particularly puckered brows and quizzical looks as they announced the news. Despite being the top story, it had the 'would you believe it' feel of the light-hearted 'and finally…' item, intended to put viewers back into a happy consumer mindset for the rest of the night's fare.
The blue wall surrounding construction for London Olympics 2012
NO DAY AFTER
The euphoria was destroyed within 24 hours when the 7/7 bombs exploded on London's public transport. Four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters and injured 700. The events of the day before seemed remote, doubly unbelievable and distant. Some frivolous aberration from a naïve time the other side of a watershed moment.
Seb Coe and his Olympic Bid entourage returned to London to a muted welcome, after celebrating all night at what Coe described as the 'mother of all parties' on the banks of the Singapore River. Despite being 'shocked and saddened', their return had the air of galavanting playboys who had had a high old time while at home all hell let loose.
The bombings overshadowed all debate. In the public consciousness, the Olympic party in Trafalgar Square had had no 'day after'. As the media dust settled, the London Olympic reality slipped back into view. Like some post-traumatic flashback, computer animations of the Olympic site on TV showed a grey expanse turning green. Dome-shaped structures mushroomed everywhere like 1950s lunar bases linked by wobbly bridge walkways.
Out went the sporty types, in came the suit-and-tie squad. It was the men's tri-athletes: legal, PR, and planning. It's time to hide behind the sofa, because this is the invasion of the technocrats all those politicos were warning you about.
WHY LONDON?
The main reason London won was because it was not France. The Olympics is basically corporate America in Lycra. The US Olympic Committee receives 20 percent of marketing revenues and 12.75 percent of TV income from the Olympic Games – a dominance that concerns other National Olympic Committees. The US is a serial Olympic host: St. Louis in 1904, Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984 (and a bid for 2016), Atlanta in 1996, and Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1932 and 1980, Squaw Valley 1960 and Salt Lake City in 2002.
Since the Gulf War, the US has been virulently anti-French. There was no way that McDonald's or Coca Cola, the latter a major sponsor for the past 80 years, were going to let those smug surrender monkeys enjoy the reflected glory and glitz of corporate America. After all, it was France that forced McDonalds to deviate from the one-size-fits-all burger because of their finicky eating habits.
The Bush regime and its business allies know all about mega-spectacles like the Olympics. Recall 1 May 2003, when Bush landed a fighter jet aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, delivering his Iraq victory speech standing in front of a giant 'Mission Accomplished' sign.
It's all about image. And such sophisticated connoisseurs of the spectacle are hardly likely to squander the global arse-kicking razzmatazz of their athletes sweeping up medals just to puff up the French cock… er…
A MODEL OF MULTICULTURALISM
Rather than confessing to it being a reward for British military support of the US in Iraq, and perhaps to pre-empt accusations of bribery, the London Olympic Committee claimed the UK was favoured over France (which, after all, had all the infrastructure in place) because of London's (and particularly East London's) tolerance, multiculturalism, and ethnic diversity. There is nothing in the constitution or history of the International Olympic Committee that betrays this concern.
News item, 2005 commenting on London Olympic bid, 2012
In 2006, an international coalition of human rights organisations issued a joint statement saying that the International Olympic Committee has failed to protect Olympic ideals citing continuing human rights violations and political propaganda abuse of the Games by the Chinese government.
Multiculturalism? It would be surprising if the IOC even thought about it. Had it done so, it would soon have had concerns about the UK. In one typical week earlier this year, stories in the national newspapers included the following:
The Conservative homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer, stepped down after saying that being called a 'black bastard' was part-and-parcel of life in the armed forces.[1]
Magistrate reprimanded for 'bloody foreigners' outburst in court. Mr Mitchell, a magistrate for 36 years, did not accept the punishment issued by the Office of Judicial Complaints, part of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and remains on the active list.[2]
Police accused of brutality after officer beat 19 year old woman during arrest at night club. An investigation into alleged police brutality was launched last night after a black teenage epileptic woman was filmed being repeatedly punched by a policeman, while two colleagues held her down outside a Sheffield nightclub.[3]
These are all examples of institutional racism. It may be that on the East London street and within communities, there is a certain class based solidarity and community cohesion across and beyond race. But to describe the East End as a model for multiculturalism is simplistic. While the area does have a long history of fighting fascism and racism, from resisting Mosley's British Union of Fascists in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 to Bengali youth reclaiming Brick Lane from the National Front in the 1980s, it sadly has often been in response to an equally long history of racism and intolerance.
In 1968, ex-Tory minister Enoch Powell's speech in which he predicted 'rivers of blood' if black immigration continued inspired several hundred London dock workers to strike and stage an 'Enoch is right' march.
In 1986 Tower Hamlets Liberals proposed to put hundreds of homeless families (mainly Bengalis) into ships moored on the Thames. A report by the Commission for Racial Equality in 1988 found Tower Hamlets Liberal Council guilty of allocating ethnic minorities disproportionately to poor quality estates.
In local elections in 1995, the total number of votes cast for far-Right parties in Britain amounted to just over 20 thousand. The vast majority were cast in East London. On 5 May 2006, the British National Party (BNP) gained 11 of the 13 seats it contested in the East London districts of Barking and Dagenham, becoming the second biggest party.
There are incidents of race hate crimes in the Olympic area, but there is also the manipulation of racial tension for political ends. In her paper, 'Playing the ethnic card – politics and ghettoisation in London's East End', Sarah Glynn details how local politics has linked territory and race.[4] From the mid-1980s, the Tower Hamlets Liberals had in effect used housing policies based on ethnicity to divide and rule. They had systematically shifted the blame for housing shortage onto the homeless (predominantly Bengalis) while continuing to sell off housing and land.
High unemployment, scarce and neglected housing, excluded from the dockland development boom – there were reasons for local residents of the Isle of Dogs to be angry. The Island's relatively small Bengali population provided an easy scapegoat. Similarly, the Olympics is bound to intensify competition for housing, especially with an expanding buy-to-let sector hyping rents. Locals, already squeezed between two of Europe's biggest business districts, Docklands and the City of London, are going to find themselves surrounded on all sides by intensive gentrification. It would be ironic if racial tension were to deflect from class-based 'yuppies out' hostility to the gentrification and privatisation of space in the East End that the 'multicultural' London Olympics will presage.
Paris was favourite to win the Games because it has much of the necessary infrastructure in place. In opting for London, the International Olympic Committee must surely have chosen to ignore the UK's unique history of infrastructure and stadia construction fiascos. The newly refurbished Wembley Stadium was originally set to cost under £400 million. The official overall cost of £757 million did not include the overruns and compensation compromises on the building works of £352 million. It opened two years late. The Millennium Dome, originally estimated to cost the National Lottery £399 million, came in at least twice over budget and only just made the New Year's Eve opening for which it was built.
During a debate on the economic and social benefits of the Olympics in the upper house, Lord James, a Tory peer, said that big business, including McDonald's, BT, and British Airways, had run rings round the Government when negotiating sponsorship deals for the Dome. The Dome organisers had negotiated flawed contracts with major sponsors and had ended up receiving a fraction of the money they expected.
The overrun on the Dome all occurred on the management costs and the running of the Dome and its ancillary services […]. It resulted eventually in what amounts to an £811 million learning curve for the Government, which I sincerely hope they will be marking and using extensively in the lessons for the Olympics.
2008 – coverage of Westfield construction for Olympics 2012,
London Tonight, itv local,
So the IOC must have thought it was worth a shot, statistically, that this time it would all go smoothly. But then they have nothing to lose.
ONE FOR THE MONEY, TWO FOR THE SHOW
As with the Poll Tax the media response to the Olympics has tended to concentrate on the costs and its implications for taxpayers, rather than the social injustices. The total Olympic budget is £9.3 billion, an increase of £5.9 billion from the original budget of £3.4 billion. When Tessa Jowell, the then culture secretary (now Minister for the Olympics), admitted in the House of Commons that the initial budget had not included the 17.5 percent cost of VAT on the construction of the venues and infrastructure, there were cries of incompetence. Nowhere was it remarked upon that nearly every bid is undervalued, not through incompetence but as a strategy. For London taxpayers, the Olympics are indeed a big story. Financing is split between the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG). The ODA will 'build the theatre' – the infrastructure, venues, land remediation, and so on – and will be funded jointly by the public sector (64 percent), London taxpayers (13 percent), and the lottery (23 percent). The LOCOG, meanwhile, will 'put on the show' – everything from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. This expenditure will be funded by the private sector out of ticket and merchandising sales, TV rights, and sponsorship. All the real costs and risk are therefore taken on by the public sector.
Sydney 2000 ended up costing over twice the pre-bid figures, according to the auditor-general of New South Wales. In Athens, total costs will be at least four times as high as the bid committee's initial budget. The IOC insists that host nations cover any cost overruns. Basically, the public would never accept the Olympics if it knew the real cost.
THE PROMISES
The media were equally uncritical of the promised regeneration of East London, regurgitating the public relations press releases without seeming to question the 'empty land' myth or whether regeneration through sporting facilities is genuinely worthwhile.
A common feature of regeneration schemes is verbal promises given by people who are clearly unable to deliver those promises. Lord Coe, director of the London Olympics, promised a successful bid would bring: '9,000 new homes, many affordable for local people' and new shops, offices, community and health facilities, plus world class sporting facilites in a new park. Local businesses are likely to benefit from the influx of new visitors and from potentially winning contracts to service the Games.[5]
Affordable housing sounds good, but a recent, high profile scheme for subsidised 'low-cost' rent-and-buy housing in the East End requires applicants to have an annual income of at least £28,758 (£32, 644 for couples).[6]
The Olympics are very likely to have the opposite effect and make housing unaffordable for local people. In the run-up to the Sydney Olympics 2000, rent escalated and intensified evictions in the neighbourhoods alongside the Olympic development. In Barcelona, the 1992 Games were partly responsible for massive increases in costs of living in the city: between 1986 and 1992 the market price of housing grew by an average of 260 percent.
While the number of affordable new homes promised tends to come down over time, so the projected jobs figure seems to go onwards and upwards. A 2002 survey by engineering consultants Ove Arup calculated that
The Olympics will lead to the creation of 3,000 jobs and 4,000 new affordable homes for people in East London.
By 2007, London's Employment and Skills Taskforce and the London Development Agency (LDA) were talking of the Olympics creating up to 50,000 new jobs in the Lower Lea Valley.
Dee Doocey, chair of the Committee for Economic Development, Culture, Sport, and Tourism, the leading committee on the London Assembly for scrutinising the Olympics, said locals could miss out unless language and construction skills were 'urgently' improved in the East London boroughs. As she said on her own website:
The last thing we need is another Docklands, where many of the newly created jobs did not benefit local people.
News item, commenting on London Olympics, 2012
Responding, the LDA pledged to make it a 'priority' to ensure locals in the five Olympic Boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, and Waltham Forest benefit from the new opportunities. Of the 720,000 people of working age living there, a quarter have no qualifications and, of these, over 60 percent are unemployed. Commenting on the announcement of a new 'Living Wage' for London of £7.20 an hour, Doocey, said:
The Mayor and Seb Coe signed an 'Ethical contract' with London Citizens before winning the Olympics, promising a Living Wage for everyone involved. Yet to date, no Living Wage has been included in the contracts allocated and Seb Coe told the London Assembly that 'any of the issues about a living wage is a consideration, not a condition'. This is of great concern because LOCOG will be letting contracts for all the traditionally low paid jobs such as catering and cleaning.
As for local businesses exploiting the games, as Coe had suggested, it is more likely that existing businesses will be endangered. The director of H. Forman & Son, the UK's oldest established salmon curer and one of the Lea Valley's biggest and oldest companies, recently took to bringing a large aerial photograph of the proposed Olympic site to meetings, in order to show that far from being empty the Marshgate Lane area of Stratford includes 350 businesses with 15,000 employees. According to plans, these premises would be bulldozed to make way for the games.
The Institute for Practitioners in Advertising describe the marketing prohibitions defined in the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill, which sets up the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) as 'so extreme that it could technically lead to pubs being prosecuted for using chalkboards to flag up [TV] coverage of the Games'.[7] Protected Olympic trademarks include use of the words 'Olympic', 'Olympiad', and 'Olympian', '2012', 'London 2012', 'games', 'medals', 'gold', 'silver', 'bronze', 'sponsor', 'summer'; insignia such as the 2012 Games logo (and mascots), the Olympic rings, Team GB, the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association logos, London's bid logo; derivatives of London2012.com; and the Olympic motto 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' (Faster, Higher, Stronger).[8] Ludicrously, 31 small firms throughout London reflecting the Greek diaspora will be forced to change their company names and shop fronts as a result of trademark conditions.
The companies likely to benefit are Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Visa, which have bought exclusive worldwide marketing rights via the Olympic Partner Programme. The BBC states that the IOC have made £790 million marketing revenue over the last four years from corporate sponsorship (35 percent of total), while LOCOG estimates that £580 million, or 40 percent of its operating budget, will come from this source.
The International Olympic Committee specifies the need for an integrated park. The IOC also demands that athletes should be accommodated in a village and not be required to walk for more than twenty minutes. The Olympic Park has been presented as '1500 landscaped acres' representing 'one of the biggest new city centre parks in Europe for 200 years.' This ignores the fact that much of the Lower Lea Valley, where the park will be built, is an extensive network of waterways with important wildlife habitats on a key migratory route.
Animated representation of changes to East London landscape created by London Olympics 2012
For centuries 'Parkification' has been the instrument of choice for colonising the urban periphery, hinterlands and backwaters, socially cleansing those edgy zones of social marginalism and transgression, displacing the grey economies and polluting industries, taming the wild.
Although it has no formal position on the Olympics, the River Leas Trust, an environmental charity that works to preserve this wild environment, have told the London Olympic bid committee that 'landscaping' the area is inappropriate, particularly in the way represented in the 'artists impression' that the bid supporters are so proud of.
Hackney Marshes, once ancient common lands called Lammas Lands, were bequeathed in the 1890s by the Settlement of St. Mary Eton to the people of Hackney in perpetuity for recreational use as open space. Since that time Hackney Marshes has been home to amateur league football. Most London footballers have played there. Hackney Marshes holds the world record for the highest number (88) of full-sized football pitches in one place. On a typical Sunday, over 100 matches are played by amateur teams competing in several local leagues.
Johnny Walker, Chairman of Hackney and Leyton Sunday Football League, talks about the effects of the London Olympics 2012
Johnny Walker, Chairman of Hackney and Leyton Sunday Football League, talks about the substructure under Hackney Marshes created by WWII, and the effects of changes due to the London Olympics 2012
At a meeting set up by the Hackney Environment Forum on 24 July 2003, Neale Coleman, the London mayor's advisor on the Olympic bid, countered fears that Hackney would lose its open space to stadium and temporary facilities, reassuring the meeting that there was 'no question of permanent or temporary facilities on any part of Hackney Marshes'. Attached to the planning applications is a condition stating that the developing agency must provide exchange land for Common Land and open space taken up by the Olympic developments, a procedure required under the 1981 Acquisition of Land Act.
However, at the end of 2005, the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee were told by Hackney Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Guy Nicholson, that planners were defaulting on this obligation. Since then, a clause has been inserted in the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill to remove this imperative. Anne Woollett, Chair of the Hackney Marsh User Group, states:
The Games cannot make any claims to being 'green' or 'sustainable' while they steal Common Land, public open space and sports pitches for an Olympic car park. The London Development Agency (LDA) have now declared […] that they are not going to provide exchange land for East Marsh. It appears that the LDA have simply lobbied to legislate away their own statutory obligations.
Many are suspicious that when the car park is no longer needed it will be built on.
Video of Manor Gardens allotments, before London Olymics 2012 construction
Hidden away on the Olympic site is Manor Gardens Allotments. Founded by philanthropic aristocrat Major Arthur Villiers before WW1, the allotments have been feeding over 150 local East End families ever since. The LDA wants the site levelled and transformed into the central concrete walkway down the spine of the Olympic Park. Apparently, saving this unique and rare place by going around or over the allotments for a few weeks was not an option for security reasons.
Manor Garden's former allotment holders describe the cultural, aesthetic, and ecological beauty of Manor Gardens which was wiped out for London Olympics 2012 construction
After being evicted from Manor Gardens, due to London Olympics 2012, the allotment holders were given new allotments with poor soil and terrible drainage.
After almost two years of meetings with the LDA, the Manor Gardening Society have had enough of broken promises and delays and on 27 April 2007 they issued Judicial Review proceedings against them. Phil Michaels, head of legal at Friends of the Earth's Rights and Justice Centre, who represent the allotment holders said:
This is an important case about broken promises and local communities. The LDA made clear and consistent promises to the community that their allotments would be relocated so that they could stay together. They have now decided to break that promise. If the authorities are not willing to honour their promises then the Court has to step in.[9]
Allotment holders talk about their frustration with the empty talk about sustainability, their legal action against their eviction, and how they were cut out of the conversation about London Olympics 2012
The IOC refers to respect for the environment as the 'third pillar of Olympianism'. The Sydney Bid Committee failed to note that Homebush Bay, the Olympic site, was heavily contaminated with dangerously high levels of dioxin, asbestos, heavy metals, and phthalates. The New South Wales government commissioned four scientific analyses and remediation plans for the site between 1990 and 1992 but took no action to avoid jeopardising the bid. When exposed, Olympic organisers accused environmentalists of being 'unpatriotic and 'un-Australian'.[10]
REGENERATION: THE REALITIES
David Higgins, Chief Executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), states:
"The Apperition of the Blue Wall" graffitti commenting on the walled off construction zone
The blue wall made large sections of East London inaccessible.
Our challenge is to successfully manage both the requirements of the Games and the long term regeneration of East London. Achieving both of these will bring fantastic opportunities for the whole of the UK.
In the past 20 years, there has been wave after wave of 'regeneration' in East London, each scheme spending huge amounts of public money. While claiming to be solving the same basic problems associated with poverty and 'social exclusion', the schemes seem never to have achieved their stated aims. Primarily, because their real aim has been to promote gentrification. During the Thatcher era, it was to be via the 'trickle down effect'; now, gentrification is justified as being about 'mixed-tenure' and 'social diversity'. But whichever prism you chose to view it through, the fact is that regeneration is simply the process of privatisation of housing and public space.
Art on the blue wall around contruction of London Olympics 2012
Lord Coe has explicitly stated his aim to 'put London in the same bracket as the Barcelona games'. An ominous comparison. David Mackay, one of the leading architects of the Barcelona Olympics, whose firm MBM Arquitectes built the beach and the Olympic village, has said:
For Barcelona, [the Olympics] were a pretext, an excuse to improve the city.
Mackay calls the London Olympic plan a 'missed opportunity', a 'thing that has arrived from out of this world and been plonked down in the Lea Valley', anarchitectural theme city […] concentrated on iconic buildings rather than the recovery of the Valley.
Blue Wall, London Olympics 2012
London will build a new Olympic stadium, a velopark – a set of cycling arenas (in fact London mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed in February 2005 that the proposed £22 million velodrome and velo-park would be built with or without a successful Olympic bid) – and new athletics, aquatics and hockey centres. Mackay is critical of all these. The master plan, he told the Evening Standard, shows;over-construction. … It's all concentrated according to the best desires of the International Olympic Committee, who want everything for their three week pageant. They've gone too far. It's not for Londoners.
Blue wall, London Olypics 2012
Genuine regeneration benefits local residents; when 'regeneration' means displacement it is little more than a land grab. In Barcelona, the construction of the Poblenou Olympic Village displaced a working class neighbourhood. In Atlanta, the Olympics provided the opportunity to convert Techwood/Clark Howell public housing, the oldest in the US, into mixed use development and to displace low-income residents (mainly African American) from the downtown area. In total, about 450 public housing units were lost. The estates were situated on prime real estate, near the Georgia Institute of Technology and opposite the corporate HQ of Coca-Cola.[11]
In Beijing, it is thought that around 1.4 million people have been forcibly moved, some illegally. The number of traditional hutong neighbourhoods, made up of courtyard houses, has been reduced from 6.5 thousand to 500 as a result of clearances for the 2008 games.
Evidence suggests that new sports facilities have an extremely small (and perhaps even negative) effect on overall economic activity and employment in a given area.[12] Stadia rarely earn anything approaching a reasonable return on investment and sports facilities attract neither tourists nor new industry. One legacy of the London Olympics might be high maintenance facilities and a huge debt. After all, Montreal took 30 years to pay off the debt it incurred building their Olympic site.
Manor Gardens allotment holders speak about the Legacy of the London Olympics 2012
According to the British Olympic Association, the London Games 'will drive many of our youngsters to take part in sport and pursue dreams of becoming an Olympian.' Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, is planning a Youth Olympics for 14-18 year olds in 2010.
But behind Rogge's dream is another myth-busting admission: the Olympics is not about sport but about watching television. Since the average age of the television audience for the track and field events is over 40, it is difficult not to see the Youth Olympics primarily as an attempt to attract a more youthful sector. For all but the relatively miniscule number of people in the stadium, the Olympics is a televised event. In Australia, a very outdoor society, it was television viewing figures rather than sports activities that increased after the Sydney Olympics.
Sunday League players at Hackney Marshes discuss the effects on their community stemming from loosing their piches to the London 2012 Olympics
OLYMPIC IDEALS AND URBAN PLANNING
The planning applications for the Olympic Park were submitted by the ODA to the ODA Planning Decisions Team (PDT) on 5 February 2007. The 15-volume, 10,000 page document included plans for 2.5 km2 of new sporting venues, highways, bridges, river works, utilities, parks, and open spaces. Plans for the park show it will be very densely built.
Map of proposed Olympics 2012 construction
The application was subject to a statutory 28 days consultation period, later extended to six weeks, to allow members of the public to give their comments. There were many objections lodged, a major one being about the inadequate time for public consultation and woeful access to the application documents. The time period given to digest, consider, and prepare responses to one of Europe's biggest ever planning applications was completely unrealistic, and further exasperated by the lack of access to documents, either online, in public libraries, or even at the ODA offices themselves. The complete set of planning documents available from the ODA in hard copy costs £500. DVDs were provided free-of-charge to representatives and those in the ODA/LDA, but were not available to local community groups.
It is difficult to see how the ODA has complied with The European Environmental Impact Assessment Directive which applies to these applications.[13] The directive provides that, the public concerned shall be given early and effective opportunities to participate in the environmental decision-making procedures referred to;[14] and that, reasonable time-frames for the different phases shall be provided, allowing sufficient time for informing the public and for the public concerned to prepare and participate effectively in environmental decision-making subject to this article.'[15]
Complaints about the absence of meaningful consultation, a lack or withholding of information, and manipulation of facts, are commonly directed at regeneration projects. As one resident says:
I was looking at an exhibition about the Olympic site and thought… Hang on! That's where I live!
End of an era in East London, before the construction of the Olympic Stadiums
Glass towers in construction, London Olympics 2012
Laing O'Rourke, in partnership with Mace Ltd. (project management) and environmental evaluation company CH2M Hill (together called the CLM consortium), won the contract to manage construction of the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium and the Athletes' Village. Happily, the CLM consortium has worked on five previous Olympic Games: Torino 2006, Athens 2004, Salt Lake City 2002, Sydney 2000, and Atlanta 1996.[16] The awarding of the management contract to CLM caused some controversy within both the industry and Parliament on the grounds that construction tycoon Ray O'Rourke had given a substantial donation to 'Tony Blair's 2012 bid team' and substantial help in kind.[17]
Cranes in the skyline of Olympic construction 2012
The real winners are the IOC themselves, however. In the Athens games, they made a billion dollars in TV rights alone. The IOC enjoys tax-free status despite not being a charity, a religion, or a non-profit organisation. And to be on the safe side, its members enjoy diplomatic immunity.
The losers are often the most vulnerable members of society. In Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless documented the arrest of 9,000 homeless people in a policy of 'arrests and relocation' during the year before the Olympics. In Athens, 140 Roma from the Marousi community were forcibly evicted. The Clays Lane estate in East London, Europe's second largest purpose built housing cooperative, was set up in the early 1980s to address the lack of housing for young single people in the area. It was initially funded by organisations including Newham Council and the University of East London. The site is large enough to house approximately 450 people. Now, the residents have been displaced under a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) issued by the London Development Agency (LDA) to make way for the development of the Olympic Village.
Clay Lane Community Centre, once a vibrant cooperative, dispersed by Olympic Park construction.
Also among the losers will be those deprived of funding by the Olympic budget. The Lottery (which, given the miniscule chance of winning, is basically a tax on the daft) will lose £112.5 million to help pay for the Olympics. This amount would otherwise have gone to 'good causes'. The Arts Council of Great Britain recently slashed the 'Grants for the Arts' scheme funding by a third, from £83 million to £54 million, the first Olympic raid on the Arts Lottery fund. This money would have gone to around 5,000 arts projects.
Protesters on canal boats in East London, Olympics 2012
In March 2004, a cross-party committee of MP's called the earmarking of money for the Olympics 'a straightforward raid' on Lottery funds for projects outside of London. The committee argued that the redirection of funds breached the government's promise not to use Lottery cash to support schemes that should be funded through general taxation. It will be communities in East London and other deprived areas of the country who will suddenly find it harder to secure funding.
Protesters tour Olympic construction sight on canal boats in East London, Olympics 2012
NATIONAL MEGA PROJECTS
The postwar Olympic games are less sporting events than mega development projects. For every host city, the Olympics is an instrument for major urban restructuring on a scale that would otherwise be beyond the planners' wildest hopes and dreams. The glow from the Olympic torch shines so bright it bleaches out the flickering flames of protest.
Construction behind the blue wall, London Olympics 2012 construction
The governments of all host nations exploit the Games for self-aggrandisement. From Berlin 1936 to Beijing 2008, regimes have used the opening ceremonies to parade the Games as the fruit and embodiment of their ideology. The 1973 games in Munich, for example, saw politics return to German sport as Cold War tensions came to a head.[18] The American-led boycott of Moscow 1980 was another recognition of the ideological instrumentalisation of the Games, as was the retaliatory boycott of Los Angeles 1984 by the Soviet Union and 13 Communist allies. In the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China wants to take the Olympic Torch through Taiwan and Tibet.
One can only fantasise about the cultural kitschifaction that will feature in the London opening ceremony. In the Expo 2000 UK pavilion, Battersea Power Station, an icon for degeneration, was featured heavily – so don't expect irony.
Stratford and Westfield, London Olympics 2012
Of course, Britain's major cultural legacy is its colonial past, currently unravelling most visibly in Iraq. Colonialism and regeneration have much in common. After all, one of the classic tricks of British colonialism was to present the land being taken over as 'empty'. Colonialism also likes to rename. Or, as it is called today, 're-brand'. The idea is to re-appropriate culturally what has been taken physically. The branders can either sweep away all that existed before by calling it 'My-Land'. Or enlist the past, one as distant, romantic, and mythical as possible, to present as natural what in fact is an irreversible lurch in the opposite direction. To cite the deputy Chairman of the Interbrand Group, Tom Blackett:
Glass towers still looking out of place during construction London Olympics, 2012
The development that will take place in preparation for the 2012 Olympics will change profoundly the character of the old East End; much of the squalor and dereliction will be swept away, and even areas developed by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority will be transformed. […] The vast site [ …] will acquire an entirely new image, and with that it needs a new name. But it has to be a name that will last, a name that will capture the glory of the 2012 Olympics and help signify the rebirth of the area. 'Lammas Lands' would honour the spirit of the past; it is a name that is synonymous with recreation and the public good, and carries with it a long tradition of sport in East London.
Cranes behind the blue wall, London Olympics 2012 construction
Why not call it the 'East End of History'?
As people who deliberately kick the hornets' nest over love to say: 'We are where we are.' Sure, the London Olympics will go ahead, maybe not on time or on budget, but they will at least manage to destroy all that is currently there by turning it into Europe's biggest building site. But the Olympic circus must stop. London must be the last nomadic Olympics. After 2012, the Games should stay in one place: perhaps Athens, Los Angeles or Atlanta (who cares?). The complex, not the IOC, should have ambassadorial status and be insulated from the host country. The athletes should represent themselves, not a country. We should see the world's diversity through faces, not flags.
Olympic Stadiums, 2012
Competitive sport at this level is too specialist for it to be participatory for a wider public and it is a myth that the centralisation of specialist facilities does anything to help wider participation in sport. It would be better for the athletes if good, fixed facilities were established instead of the wasteful and destructive cycle of makeshift and make do. The money saved could be better invested in spreading around the world accessible local sporting facilities at a community level. That would be a true Olympic legacy.
Locals protest London Olympic games 2012
But more importantly, it is clearly unacceptable for a self-elected, unaccountable body like the International Olympics Committee to decide the fate of our cities. It is not about sport but a process whereby business interests lobby and encourage democratically elected local governments to commit limitless public money and dedicate urban priorities to hosting the Games. The IOC, through the issuing of exclusive rights and franchises, and by ruthless brand protection, in turn invigorates and gives free reign to those business interests. The momentum created by the need to 'put on a good show' irrevocably distorts and rearranges our cities according to private concerns. In the national interest, extraordinary powers are exercised to overcome democratic structures, opposition, and planning constraints. For the East End, it is not looking good. The area will slowly get turned into a matrix of gated housing and shopping complexes, clustered in a tamed, risk-averse landscaping linked by high security jogging friendly 'green' pathways.
As they say in Cockney rhyming slang: then we're 'McDonald Ducked'.
The best source of info and updates on the London Olympics is Games Monitor, http://gamesmonitor.org.uk
[1] Guardian Unlimited, 8 March 2007.
[2] The Guardian, 8 March 2007.
[3]The Independent, 08 March 2007.
[4] Sarah Glynn, 'Playing the ethnic card – politics and ghettoisation in London's East End', online papers archived by the Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, 2006, http://linkme2.net/ce
[5] East End Life, 15-21 November 2004.
[6] '2006 Multi-Storey Housing', in: Review of Architecture, vol. 3, 2006, p. 302.
[7] A. Fraser, BBC Sport, 16 August, 2005.
[8] BBC Sport, 16 August, 2005.
[9] Manor Gardens Press Release, 28 April 2007.
[10] Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Progressive Planning Magazine, Fall 2004.
[11] Peter Phibbs, Progressive Planning Magazine, Fall 2004.
[12] See: Roger G. Noll and Andrew Zimbalist, Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums, Brookings Institution Press, 1997.
[13] Directive 85/337/EEC as amended.
[14] Ibid, 6(4).
[16] Contract Journal, 30 August, 2006
[17] Evening Standard, 3 September 2006, in the run up to the IOC's decision.
[18] On the ideological mise en scène of the Munich Games in 1973, see: Uta Andrea Balbier, 'Zu Gast bei Freunden. How the Federal Republic of Germany Learned to Take Sport Seriously', in: Mittelweg 36, 2, 2006. English translation published by Eurozine : http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-06-09-balbie…
This is an edited version of an article that appeared first on the Eurozine website entitled 'Fish 'n' Freedom Fries' : http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-25-saunde…
Mark Saunders is a documentary film maker living in London. His films and photography are available at http://www.spectacle.co.uk
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Posted in Olympics 2012	| Tagged 1981 Acquisition of land act, 2012 Games, 2012 London, 2012 London Olympics, 2012 Olympics, arts funding, athletes village, Atlanta 1996, Beijing 2008, Berlin 1936, blue wall, CH2M Hill, CLM consortium, Coca Cola, common land, contaminated soil, contamination, debt, displacement, displacement of local people, East End, East London, East London Olympics, eviction, Friends of the Earth's Rights and Justice Centre, games, gentrification, Green, hackney, Hackney and Leyton sunday league, hackney council, hackney marshes, hinterland, Housing, infrustructure, Lake Placid 1932, Lake Placid 1980, Lammas Lands, Land grab, Lee valley regional park authority, living wage, LOCOG, London 2012, London Games, London Olympic Games, London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill, London Olympics, London Olympics 2012, London organising committee for the olympic games, Los Angeles 1932, Los Angeles 1984, low cost housing, Lower Lea Valley, Major Arther Williers, Manor Gardens Allotments, minister for the olympics, Moscow 1980, national lottery, New Lammas lands defence committee, ODA, Old East End, Olympic debt, Olympic Delivery Authority, olympic games, Olympic Legacy, Olympic Park, Olympic Park Legacy Company, Olympic partner programme, olympic stadium, olympic torch, Olympics, Olympics 2012, Olympics budget, Olympics Organising Committee, parkification, Poverty, Poverty and Social Exclusion, Privatisation, privatisation of public space, public debt, public space, Regeneration, regeneration of east London, rent hike, River Leas Trust, Salt Lake City 2002, social diversity, sports facilities, Squaw Valley 1960, St. Louis 1904, Sustainability, the lottery, the millenium dome, unaffordable housing, urban periphery, Urban Planning, urban regneneration, visa, Wembley Stadium	| Leave a reply
Memories of Battersea: Nick
Posted on July 11, 2018 by Morgan Lewis
Memories of Battersea is an oral history video project run by Spectacle and part funded by the Wandsworth Grant Fund. The project gives young adults from Battersea the opportunity to be trained in film-making while producing short films about their neighbourhood, collecting memories from elder Battersea residents, bridging intergenerational gaps and engaging with the history of their borough.
In this video, Spectacle met Nick Wood, the eclectic architect who designed and built the Carey Gardens estate in the early 70s in SW8 Battersea in Wandsworth.
Nick Wood, the GLC architect of Carey Gardens estate
Throughout his successful career at the London County Council and the Greater London Council, Nick aimed to create "council estates that didn't look like council estates", designing buildings that could provide an enjoyable living environment for its residents. Nick applied Sir Leslie Martin's theories on land use to design Carey Gardens estate and his model proved that it was possible to achieve high density with low-rise buildings. During this time period, this was seen as revolutionary seeing as high-rise blocks were seen as more fashionable but cost more to build.
The Carey Gardens estate model, designed by Nick Wood
This Memories of Battersea episode gives an insight into the history of social housing, focusing on the effort of building new homes for the Battersea community after the devastation of World War II. Nick also walks through his theory use and intentions on building Carey Gardens as he sits down with an aerial map of the estate. He also mentions the Carey Gardens Co-operative, the tenant management organisation that plans events and coastal trips for the residents, proving how good urban housing design creates vibrant and happy resident communities.
Watch the full film here.
Visit Spectacle's Memories of Battersea channel on Vimeo to watch other episodes featuring Battersea residents' stories.
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Posted in Memories of Battersea	| Tagged Architect, Architectural history, architecture, battersea, carey gardens, community housing, council estates, GLC, Greater London Council, high-rise, housing organisation, Land Use, landscape, LCC, london borough of Wandsworth, London County Council, Memories of Battersea, Nicholas Wood, oral history, projectile house, public housing, public space, Sir Leslie Martin, Social housing, SW8, Thatcher, Urban Planning, utopian housing, Wandsworth, war, world war 2, WWII	| Leave a reply
Peckham Rye Station neglected by Network Rail
Posted on September 30, 2014 by Leila Collins
Network Rail's redevelopment plans for Peckham Rye Station are more about profit and less about what they actually should be: renovation. The pictures linked below, of the bad condition of Peckham Rye, are a clear example of how Network Rail do not take care of buildings and facilities they own and their customers that use them. These puddles, and sometimes floodings are the direct result of the lack of maintenance, bad drainage and no roof to protect commuters from the rain. Network Rail has decided, in the name of profit, to bring big chains to the area and by doing so, kick out local businesses and communities, rather than simply tidy and refurbish their property, as the Peckham locals have requested.
Watch the trailer of our short film on Network Rail's development plans, "Bleacher on the Rye"
Visit our Peckham page for more blogs and information
Click Bleacher on the Rye to purchase our short movie on Network Rail's redevelopment plans
Posted in Peckham	| Tagged Benedict O'Looney, Bleacher on the Rye, Blenheim Court, Blenheim Grove, Bussey Building, co-design, Co-Imagine, community group, Community-built model, Complete Fabrication, displacement, Dovedale Court, gentrification, Holly Grove, local people, local residents, Network Rail, Peckham, peckham rye, peckham rye development, Peckham Rye Station, Peckham Society, Peckham Vision, Privatisation, public space, Redevelopment, Regeneration, Rye Lane Station, southwark, Southwark Council, Southwark Notes, Station Gateway, Station Grove, Station Way, Urbanism	| Leave a reply
Bleacher on the Rye trailer released
Posted on August 5, 2014 by Charlotte England
Following several successful screenings, we have released a trailer for our new film Bleacher on the Rye, about the proposed redevelopment of Peckham Rye Station.
The residents of Peckham Rye claim they asked for a clean up of the station and surrounding area, described by community group Peckham Vision as a complex site with "commercial buildings nestled amongst railway buildings, viaducts and arches". Instead the proposed redevelopment would gut the area to make way for a shopping centre and new residential blocks.
The film articulates the concerns of residents and local business people, who oppose the redevelopment, which one man describes as a "bleaching". "They want a new set of people here," he says.
Spectacle has been observing and documenting the 'regeneration' of London over the past 20 years, which has largely resulted in the displacement of local people, the break up of communities, the creation of gated communities and privatisation of public space.
Please contact us if you would like to organise a screening of this film.
Posted in Peckham	| Tagged Bleacher on the Rye, community break up, community group, displacement, film screening, gated communities, gentrification, local people, local residents, Network Rail, Peckham, peckham rye, peckham rye development, Peckham Vision, Privatisation, public space, Redevelopment, Regeneration, southwark, Southwark Council, Urbanism	| Leave a reply
The Delhi Eye – A Symbol of Innocence and Inexperience?
Posted on October 15, 2010 by Ese
With the Commonwealth Games slipping into their final days in Delhi, other construction efforts are rushing for completion in a similar manner. Located away from central Delhi, in Kalindi Kunj gardens on the banks of the Yamuna River, the 45m wheel aspires to evoke comparisons with its more famous London counterpart. However, like much of the city, it remains unfinished and unused, with it's location unknown to most locals and with the RP20 entrance fee to the gardens likely to prevent it being enjoyed by all levels of society.
It does boast one feature that the London Eye doesn't – a VIP pod equipped (as rumour has it) with a minibar and a television. In case the view from the top proves underwhelming.
Posted in Olympics 2012	| Tagged amateur sport, athletics, Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi, Delhi 2010, Kalindi Kunj, London Eye, mega events, mega sporting events, New Delhi, olympic stadium, public access, public space, Regeneration, Sport, sports, stadia, The Delhi Eye, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Urbanism, Yamuna River	| Leave a reply
Battersea Power Station-Privatising the river front
Posted on December 5, 2009 by BabyLonDon
BATTERSEA POWER STATION and Berkeley Homes are blocking the river access. REO, current owners of Battersea Power Station, are planning to do nothing on the site until after 2012 and not completing construction until 2020. That is their planned schedule, of course there could be delays and it could slip into the mid or late 20s. Meanwhile Londoners are excluded from using the river front.
REO like to claim they are concerned to benefit local people and Londoners in general but actually do nothing to back this up. A quick and relatively cheap benefit REO could implement NOW to demonstrate their good intentions would be to open up access to the river.
The Thames Path, part of the National Trail, is unique, it's the only long distance path to follow a river for most of its length. It should be possible to walk the entire length of the River Thames through the city centre.
Thames Path (section 14)
Currently the Thames Path on the south bank going east runs along the embankment of Battersea Park, extends to a new pedestrian bridge that goes under Chelsea Bridge towards the Power Station.
There is then a short riverside path running in front of the new Berkeley Homes flats that ends in a gate saying: "Private Property: No public Access Beyond this point. Site access only" and "Danger Construction Site"
Is this really "private property"?
There is no obvious reason why Berkeley Homes should be able to privatise this river front access for their exclusive use. Is it legal? There is no sign of any construction work being done beyond these gates. It cannot be because the Power Station is unsafe as REO, current owners of the site, have recently agreed to build a marquee inside the roofless turbine hall between the four chimneys for lucrative income generating public events.
View of Berkeley Home's office from the north bank. Why is this blocking the "Thames Path"?
The path could easily extend east in front of the power station and connect with the Thames Path at Kirtling St and Tideway Walk.
The only real obstacle is the Cringle Street Refuse Transfer Station. However at other points on the Thames were there are such riverside waste transfer stations the path continues inside a protective cage. On REO's own model (below) they showed the path going out onto a jetty over the river. The grey jetty already exists only the white jetty extensions at either end are needed to make the Thames Path continuous and by pass the Refuse Transfer Station.
REO's model showing extended jetty running in front of Waste Transfer Station
REO's own plans shows a riverside footbridge going around the waste transfer plant. A small extension of the jetty ( in white) provides a path that bypasses the Waste transfer plant.
There is no reason the Thames Path could not be opened up NOW, cheaply and immediately. If you want to let REO know how you feel about them blocking the Thames Path you can fill in their questionnaire.
Visit Spectacle's on-going Battersea Power Station Project
Watch a video trailer here: Battersea Power Station – The Story So Far
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If you live in the neighbourhood and would like to get involved, contact us here putting Battersea Power Station in your message.
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If you would like to object to the planning applications for Battersea Power Station you have until January 31st 2010 click here for more details.
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Posted in Battersea Power Station	| Tagged battersea, battersea park, Battersea Power Station, Berkeley Homes, Chelsea Bridge, Community development, Planning, privatisation of public space, privatization of public space, public access, public space, Real Estate Opportunities, Regeneration, REO, river front development, Thames Path, Urbanism	| 1 Reply
Do you have any ideas for Battersea Power Station?
Do you have ideas for how Battersea power station could be used NOW or in the FUTURE?
REO, the current owners of Battersea Power Station, make vague promises about community use and access to the site but all their plans are projected way into the future. REO's schedule is "planning" until 2012 and building only set to finish in 2020- nearly 40 years after the power station was decommissioned.
Do you have any ideas for immediate use?
How about something for the kids like a giant adventure playground?
A river bus hub for river buses that acccept oyster cards?
The building is so huge, many times the size of its little and uglier sister the Tate Modern, it can probably accommodate all your ideas.
REO insist on only considering grandiose money making schemes on the site. They clearly plan to do nothing until 2012 and then only if they get their tube extension. This "all or nothing" approach flies in the face of current economic realities and other successful models of re-using industrial buildings based on either gradual and organic development or imaginative re-use of the spaces.
Do you have any ideas for how to use such a big building?
A museum of power technology; steam, water, wind, coal?
A Museum of the Thames? It could contain many boats, it has a river front. It has a great views from the chimneys.
An extension of the Science or Natural History Museums for all their bigger exhibits?
A Museum of Flight. Battersea has connections with aviation e.g.1900s Battersea Balloon Works.
Most of REO's plans are for building around the site.Their ideas for the power station are banal, a conference centre (yawn), hotel and shopping (novel) and, would you believe, flats. If there was ever a building inappropriate for residential use it is Battersea Power Station. Their plans necessitate vandalising the magnificent brick facades by punching through windows in order to maximise income generating floor space. Light wells would be the more appropriate, architecturally sensitive but less profitable option.
Do you have any ideas that do not mean destroying the architectural value of the building?
REO make much of the "green spaces" ( the little bits between what they plan to build around the power station) but are less keen to make clear most are private spaces. Do you have ideas for the site that do not require surrounding and obscuring the Power Station with dense ugly office buildings?
Do you have any ideas how to use the current open spaces around the power station?
Doing nothing until 2020 demonstrates a bankruptcy of ideas by REO. If REO cannot think of, or at least allow, any uses that benefit Londoners and the local community then they are unsuitable custodians of a national treasure and should hand over the site to public ownership.
Posted in Battersea Power Station, planA	| Tagged architecture, battersea park, Battersea Power Station, community, Community development, Planning, Planning Practices, plans, private space, public space, Regeneration, riverfront development, Thames Path, Urban Planning, Urbanism	| 1 Reply


Producer and distributor enjoy several years of goodwill in the Hindi film industry. In the last couple of years, his company Bholenath Movies has produced notable films like the Akshay Kumar starrer 'Khatta Meetha' and 'Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi' starring Vir Das, Rishi Kapoor, and Paresh Rawal. He is also one of the leading distributors and has distributed blockbusters like 'aDabangg' in the Gujarat territory.
Though he shares a very good rapport with most people in the industry, he had to go through an unpleasant experience a couple of years back when he was making 'Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi'.
It has been a couple of years since Bharat Patel has been trying to get in touch Sunny and his team for the reimbursement of the amount paid to her but Sunny has been non-responsive as before. He wonders who will protect the interests of the producers when they face such harassment in the hands of such unprofessional actors.


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text:
(mainly or initiated by) women
Kuwaiti women struggle for suffrage (Blue Revolution), 2002–2005
Colour Revolutions (2000s)
Time period notes:
The start date is not clear for this campaign because there had been a movement for women's suffrage since Kuwait's independence in 1961. It is not clear when the nonviolent action campaign specifically began.
May 17,
Suffrage for women of Kuwait
017. Mock elections ›Mock ballots were staged so that women could vote for real candidates
047. Assemblies of protest or support›in front of Parliament building
Additional methods (Timing Unknown):
170. Nonviolent invasion›of polling places
Approximately 7 months
women's groups and male sympathizers
Kuwaiti Women's Cultural and Social Society
Lulwa Qattami, Kuwait's leading feminist and head of the Women's Cultural and Social Society of Kuwait
Islamic Constitutionalist Movement - A group of Muslim fundamentalists supporting women's suffrage, a free press, modernization and Western influence
Kuwaiti Islamist Ummah Party
The emir, Sheik Jaber Ahmed Sabah, and the Prime Minister, Crown Prince Saad Sabah decreed that Kuwaiti women should have the right to vote.
Additional notes on joining/exiting order:
Joining order of other groups not known
Kuwaiti Parliament
An anti-women rights campaign was started in 2005 and held a few rallies.
The Bill was passed by 37 MPs, with 21 voting against it and one abstaining.
The country of Kuwait acquired independence from the United Kingdom in 1961. With the country feeling a sense of liberation, the women in particular seized the moment to seek further liberation. As an act of defiance, many women burned their robes. In doing so, they rejected notions of female dress and began to adopt a more Western wardrobe. A year later, a significant obstacle to their campaign appeared; the Kuwaiti parliament passed new election laws in 1962 that limited the electorate to a select few. Precisely, only men over the age of 21 whose families lived in Kuwait prior to 1920 were eligible to vote. Additionally, the election laws stipulated that members of the police and military could not vote. The result of the laws was a very exclusive electorate that excluded all groups of women from participation in the political process.
In an attempt to organize, women from the first graduating classes at Kuwaiti universities decided to form the Women's Cultural and Social Society (WCSS) in 1963. The WCSS, as the first women's organization, strove to raise awareness about women's rights issues and promote the advancement of Kuwaiti women in particular. Thanks in part to the presence of the WCSS and in part to Western influence, women in Kuwait had relatively more freedoms, perhaps most importantly the access to higher education, than in neighboring countries.
In an ostensibly Westernized society, Kuwaiti women remained persistent in their campaign for more rights, particularly the right to suffrage. In 1973, Kuwait's all-male parliament reviewed a bill that intended to grant women the right to vote and run for elected office. With much pressure from the conservative, Islamic populations, the bill was rejected and never really had a chance to be passed. This theme of rejection would become a trend in the years that followed.
In 1982, the women of Kuwait secured a victory when Kuwait became the first Arab country in the Persian Gulf to legalize abortion. The same night that the announcement was made, several women marched in demand of suffrage. A week before the legalization of abortion, the all-male parliament had once again rejected a bill that would have granted Kuwaiti women suffrage. A female member of the faculty at a Kuwaiti university dismissed parliament's action as "an unreligious verdict to bury women alive."
Later, in 1984, the suffrage movement appeared to be gaining momentum. The emir of Kuwait, Jaber Sabah, and the Prime Minister, Crown Prince Saad Sabah both publicly voiced support for a women's suffrage bill. At this point in Kuwait's history, women made up 52% of the Kuwaiti population, and thus, would have a slight majority in the electorate. Though victory seemed more feasible, Lulwa Qattami of the WCSS recognized the strength of the opposition. Qattami, the leader of the WCSS, acknowledged "They are very organized…We as liberal women are not so organized." Qattami and others called for suffrage again in 1985 and a poll by Kuwait University suggested that 58% of the eligible men opposed suffrage for Kuwaiti women and only 27% supported it. The Kuwaiti parliament rejected a similar bill the following year, in 1986. Consequently, the highest position in government accessible to Kuwaiti women was assistant secretary.
During the 1980s, Kuwait began to experience some diplomatic problems with other countries in the Middle East. Kuwait decided to help fund Iraq's war with Iran and refused to absorb the resulting Iraqi debt. In retaliation, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990 and occupied Kuwait until 1991. Though many women feared that the Iraqi occupation would be a hindrance to their campaign for suffrage, some historians argue that the occupation did much to gather support for the campaign. Throughout the occupation, women played vital roles as hospital volunteers and others were more active in the resistance and smuggled food and weapons across checkpoints. Following Iraq's exit from Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government made several promises to the women of Kuwait, assuring them that they would be recognized for their efforts with greater participation in the political process. Accordingly, the government appointed Nabila al-Mulla as the first female ambassador in the Persian Gulf in 1993. Suffrage, however, was still extended.
The WCSS continued to develop support for the suffrage movement and at times support came from unlikely areas of the population. After the occupation, a group of male Islamic fundamentalists announced their support for the campaign and other Western influences. The group, which called itself the Islamic Constitutionalist Movement, was born during the Iraqi occupation and assumed a role similar to those played by the Kuwaiti women. In May of 1999, the emir issued a decree granting women the right to vote and run for elected office. Under the constitution, however, parliament could overrule the emir and it did, rejecting the suffrage bill.
Following the parliament's decision to overrule the emir, the campaign began to take more risks and demonstrate more. The movement first experimented with more risky nonviolent action in 1996 when 500 women stopped working for an hour to demand suffrage. In 2002, several women held a demonstration near two voter registration centers in Kuwait. The demonstrators waved banners outside the two centers, but were eventually asked to leave. Kuwaiti women continued to be aggressive in 2003. There were reports of demonstrations involving over 1,000 women in a country with a total population of 2 million. The campaign also unsuccessfully sued both the minister of the interior and the speaker of parliament. During the elections of 2003, women established mock ballots that allowed hundreds of women to cast symbolic votes for real candidates.
Building on the energy of previous years, the campaign really captured the attention of the entire nation in 2005. So much so that a nonviolent anti-women's rights campaign came into existence in Kuwait. Mostly consisting of staunch Islamists, the campaign organized rallies and criticized foreign influence. The women's campaign, however, also received some new support in 2005 from the Kuwaiti Islamist Ummah Party, which became the first Sunni Muslim group in the Persian Gulf region to publicly support women's suffrage.
In March, 1,000 demonstrators gathered peacefully outside of the Kuwaiti parliament to reinforce their demand for suffrage. A small group of male anti-suffrage protesters made their presence felt at the demonstration, but were largely overshadowed by the pro-suffrage group. Many of the women involved in the demonstration wore pale blue to represent the struggle for suffrage. On May 17, after relentless resistance from conservatives, the Kuwaiti parliament passed a bill, granting the women the right to vote and run for elected office. The final vote in parliament saw 37 votes in favor and 21 votes against.
Associated Press. "Women voting nixed" Houston Chronicle 20 April 1986
----. "Arab Kuwait votes to permit abortion" Star-News 28 January 1982
----."Islamic Fundamentalists push for more democracy in Kuwait" Sun-Sentinel 4 April 1991
BBC News. "Kuwait hastens women's vote bill" BBC News 7 March 2005
----."Kuwaiti women in voting rights protest" BBC News 17 February 2002
Deutsche Press-Agentur. "ROUNDUP: Hundreds gather to rally for women's rights in Kuwait" Deutsche Press-Agentur 7 March 2005
Elias, Diana. "Kuwait parliament rejects women's suffrage by slim margin" Chicago Tribune 1 December 1999
Jehl, Douglas. "News Focus: Persian Gulf Politics - In Kuwait, a split over suffrage Islamic tradition hinders effort to give women right to vote" Austin American-Statesman 20 December 2000
Kuwait Times. "Islamists decry women's rights" Kuwait Times 3 March 2005
Myers, Linnet. ""We want the big freedom` - With newfound voice, Kuwaiti women demand suffrage" Chicago Tribune 18 March 1991
Onis, Juan de. "Vast oil wealth revolutionizes life" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 27 May 1974
Ottaway, David B. "Many Women Sharply Opposed" Washington Post 14 April 1984
Reeves, Phil. "Hardliners defeat votes for Kuwait's women" The Independent (England) 24 November 1999
Reuters. "Kuwaiti Women Seeking The Right to Vote" New York Times 18 February 1985
Schneider, Howard. "Kuwaiti women remain outside looking in- Denial of vote reveals limits liberalism" Washington Post 12 December 1999
Shehadi, Philip. "Kuwaiti women break sternness of moslem laws" Sun-Sentinel 22 December 1988
Topping, Audrey. "Kuwait women are liberated" Morning Journal 20 January 1975
Walter, Natasha. "G2:Electoral shock: There is one country left in the world where women are specifically denied the vote." The Guardian 29 September 2003
Edited by Max Rennebohm
Julio Alicea 16/02/2011

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


CATCH REPORT - THE SIXTY SLAYERS AND PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON CONCUR PARADISE.
Weights of Fish: 3x60lb/2x50lb/5x40lb/13x30lb/17x20lb. Another good week just a little light on the total weight but still some cracking fish in the catch including 3x60's and three out of the four landing one of those, also all of the group landed a P.B's.
Group Name: The sixty slayers and Puff the magic Dragon Concur Paradise.
Weather Conditions: Heavy rain early in the week then clear and hot up to the weekend.


A practical overview of social media basics for elected officials, especially those who are joining council for the first time. For many, social media can feel like the Wild West. We will tackle those fears head on by providing tools and strategies to better engage with residents and manage tough conversations.
With more than 80% of Ontario municipalities using social media, there are dozens of different approaches to communicating online. We'll use real-life examples to explore different models of managing social media and dive into the latest trends used by municipal social media leaders.
Social media is both powerful and dangerous in times of crisis. It allows you to share accurate updates, but it can just as easily create confusion and add to the chaos. The key is to include social media in your crisis communications plan so that you're not scrambling to create content in a high-pressure situation. We will draw on real-life examples to guide you through social media use during a crisis.
Even the most minor issue can become unmanageable when false claims and misinformation are spread through a local Facebook group. Almost every issues management scenario now includes a social media component. This webinar will help you learn how to navigate angry online groups with practical advice to maintain a positive reputation and come out ahead.
October 9: You vs. Social Media - 12 - 1 p.m.
Think about how many different social network platforms there are and how many you are on, your municipality is on and every member of Council is on. With so much communication being done through social networks, what are the legal obligations that arise from the use of these sites, both for the site itself and more importantly to you, the user? Influence for good, and the right (legal) way and hear some true-life examples of where things have and could go wrong.
November 6: Creating Compelling Content - 12 - 1 p.m.
With thousands of social media posts issued every second, competition for your audience's attention is fierce. We'll draw on plenty of real-life examples to illustrate the type of content that is shared versus posts that fall flat. This session will include tips on writing for social media, the importance of plain language, taking good photos and videos, and how to navigate live streaming.


Nothing can separate us from God's love. What a comforting truth!
N o t h i n g. Praise The Lord!
26 in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils, in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness.
How thou didst drive drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.


Vacumn advance can adjustment screw, info please.
From what I've heard it doesn't change the amount of advance, just the rate. Is this so? Also which direction of adjustment does what? Thanks.
That's a great article, thank you!
The inside allen screw adjustment changes the rate of advance, or how sensitive the diaphragm responds to the vacuum. Been a long time, but I think if you turn the screw in or clockwise, it reacts faster, is more sensitive, advances sooner. The reverse would happen in the counter-clockwise direction. Someone can correct me if I got that wrong.
I have had some ford vacuum advance cans that you could screw off the end and replace the spring and the stop thus adjusting the rate and the total amount, pre-load was set with a spacer under the spring.
The advance seems to come in real quick on our 70 slant, causing it to ping. I watched it with a light. I'm hoping it has some adjustment available counter clockwise to slow it down a bit. Appreciate all your comments.
Just a heads-up. Not all vacuum advances are adjustable.
Look at the number on the arm also you might have a high one that was changed at some point. Know the distrib number I can look it up.
Single point or electronics are "usually" adjustable. Most dual points are not.
If a 3/32 allen fits in it is adjustable. Mike you can do the older dual points with springs and shims silly!
Another issue- the new repo BB vacuum advances do not indicate the amount of advance. My original on a 383 indicates "10.5" which is higher than most. Am reluctant to purchase these because of that. What do you boys think?
Thanks, if adjusting it doesn't help me I'll pull the dist and get the number. I do recall seeing a tag on it.
Probably a remanufactured unit then, one of the problems with them they set a curve so it works on a lot of applications, some good some bad. Never come with a number for obvious reasons.
You can figure the number out real easy, just set it loose, install it, evacuate the chamber and read the timing change. Badabing.
If you screw it in until it is really,really slow, on mine, it began to limit the amount.
You can modify the total by filing the stops. I run as much as possible because she needs the timing at cruise rpm to make the gas-mileage.
A slanty pinging? How much initial? What elevation are you at? What stall and gears?
Have you tried Trading away some initial, then bringing the mechanical in faster to compensate.
I'm at 6 initial. All stock slant. 3.23 gear. 12 and 22 on the valves. I'm pretty much at sea level. This all seemed to start when I swapped over to electronic. I really need to investigate the used dist. to see where everything's at, starting with the V-can. Appreciate your input.
If it was a rebuild from the poarts store it can be anywhere. They are made to fit a whole span of years and applicationws.
you can swap out the can, its 2 screws and a optional clip.
If you can't use the old vac. advance, try the Crane 99619-1 vac timing limiting plate. It was made for the Delco dist. but it should fit. I have a rebuilt vac unit that was rebuilt but the diaphragm wouldn't seal. But I can't locate it to verify the fit.
You could make a stop held by the mounting screw to limit the travel of the plunger.


text:
Q: Aperiodicity of Markov chain If a markov chain which has many states but only one state has a self-loop edge, then does it mean that the markov chain is aperiodic? Or every state in the markov chain has to have self-loop?
For instance, in the following markov-chain, only state 2 has a self-loop edge, would this edge make the markov-chain aperiodic? :

A: Yes, the Markov chain you gave is aperiodic. To see this, you can try proving that whenever the underlying graph is strongly connected (or, in other words, the MC is irreducible) and contains at least one self-loop, then the Markov chain is aperiodic.

A: The definition of aperiodic is that every state is aperiodic, meaning that $\gcd\{t: \ P(X_t=s | X_0=s)>0\}=1$ for all states $s$. You can easily verify this to be the case for your Markov chain with one state and a self-loop.

A: The Markov chain is irreducible, aperiodic. To see this, note $ 1 \leadsto 3 $ as $ p_{1,3} = 0.4 > 0 $, $ 3 \leadsto 2 $ as $ p_{3,2} = 0.1 > 0 $, $ 2 \leadsto 4 $ as $ p_{2,4} = 0.87 > 0 $, $ 4 \leadsto 5 $ as $ p_{4,5} = 0.75 > 0 $, $ 5 \leadsto 6 $ as $ p_{5,6} = 0.5 > 0 $, $ 6 \leadsto 7 $ as $ p_{6,7} = 0.3 > 0 $ and finally $ 7 \leadsto 1 $ as $ p_{7,1} = 1 > 0 $.
Since periodicity is a class property, enough to show any state has period $1$. Note $ p_{2,2} = 0.1 > 0 $, so the period of $ 2 $ must be $1$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Lauren TV Podcast #3 is up and ready for your viewing pleasure. We chat this week about Gynecologists costumes, 1st Dates, & Nudes.
Hey dolls, Lauren TV Podcast #3 is up and ready for your viewing pleasure. We chat this week about Gynecologists costumes, 1st Dates, & Nudes. Yes I talk about nudes. Join in on the fun and be sure to subscribe to keep up with all my craziness. Also check out my opening song which was produced by my 15 year old nephew, Andy Pacheco aka. Revel Beats.
Thanks for watching. I appreciate you so much. Love!


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text:
Man Says Surgery Needed After Rough Treatment By TSA At O'Hare
By Phil Rogers	• Published August 16, 2017 • Updated on August 16, 2017 at 6:35 pm
David Stavropolous says last March, all he wanted was to make his flight to Dallas.
But Stavropolous says he was stopped at a security checkpoint at O'Hare, and frisked so hard by a TSA agent that he will need surgery in October.
"I see a urologist once or twice a month," he said. "I'm still in pain—I still have issues with bleeding."
In a federal complaint filed Wednesday, Stavropolous detailed how he was stopped after stepping out of a full body scanner by an agent who asked if he had anything in his pockets.
"I pulled out a dollar bill," he said. "I asked if I should go through the scanner one more time and he said no, we'll do a full body patdown."
It was during that patdown, he said, that the agent drove a hand into his groin so hard, twice, that he was immediately hit by waves of pain.
"I turned around and said, you injured me," he said. "I'd like to talk to your supervisor!"
Stavropolous said at first he was threatened with arrest. Then he was told he would have to submit to a strip-search in another area.
"I said if you're going to do a strip search, I refuse," he said. "I'll do it out in the open!"
In the end, he said he was merely subjected to another patdown. But by that point, he had missed his flight.
"I asked at that point, since I was going to miss my flight could I just leave," he said. "But they made me stay to do the additional patdown."
A TSA spokesman declined comment on the suit, but in a statement emphasized the agency's security mission.
"Lack of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations," the statement said. "In DHS's homeland security mission, our trained officers adhere to the Department's mission, uphold our laws while continuing to provide our nation with safety and security."
Attorney Joel Handler, who filed the federal complaint, called the whole episode unnecessary.
"This was a body scan—they knew exeactly what Dave had on him and what he didn't," Handler said. "Go into his groin area? For what?"
NBC 5 Investigates is not naming the agent---because of concerns he had not been given notice of the suit.
Stavropolous says not only did he not make his business trip to Dallas that day in March---he hasn't flown since.
"I'm kind of fearful of going through TSA and having another event like I had," he said. "I wouldn't want to look forward to that!"
NBCAttorneyDallasPHIL ROGERSsupervisor


This section summarizes Memory Management functionality common to all LispWorks 7.1 implementations.
The macro extended-time is useful when timing the Garbage Collector (GC).
Use start-gc-timing, stop-gc-timing and get-gc-timing to time GC operations.
To reduce the size of the whole image, use clean-down.
In 32-bit LispWorks, you can use (clean-down) or the less aggressive (clean-down nil) to reduce the image size when the image is much larger than the amount that is allocated. In 64-bit LispWorks there is no need to do that.
(clean-down t) promotes to generation 3 and tries to reduce the image size, while (clean-down nil) promotes only to generation 2 and does not reduce the image size. Experience suggests that the latter is actually more useful in most circumstances.
In some circumstances it is important to avoid enlarging the size of the image even temporarily. The common situation is when the operating system signals low memory. In this situation you should use reduce-memory instead of clean-down.
Interned symbols (and their symbol names), and packages, are treated in a special way, because they are assumed to have a long life. They are allocated in the generation specified by the variable *symbol-alloc-gen-num*, which has the initial value 2 in 32-bit LispWorks and 3 in 64-bit LispWorks.
Symbols created with make-symbol or gensym start out in generation 0.
Symbols will be garbage collected if they are no longer accessible (regardless of property lists) but note that in 32-bit LispWorks, if the symbols are in generation 2 then you might need to invoke gc-generation explicitly to collect them in a timely manner.
Stacks are allocated directly in generation 2 because they are relatively expensive to promote. Therefore creating many processes will cause generation 2 to grow, even if these processes are short-lived.
The variable *default-stack-group-list-length* controls the number of stacks that are cached for reuse. Increase its value if your application repeatedly makes and discards more than 10 processes.
To call a function on all objects in the image, use sweep-all-objects.
You may want to perform special actions when certain types of object are garbage collected, using the functions add-special-free-action, flag-special-free-action, flag-not-special-free-action and remove-special-free-action.
For example, when an open file stream is garbage collected, the file descriptor must be closed. This operation is performed as a special action.
Users of the Foreign Language Interface may want to specify the allocation of static arrays. The recommended way to do this is to call make-array with :allocation :static. See for example :lisp-array in the LispWorks Foreign Language Interface User Guide and Reference Manual .
Weak arrays and weak hash tables can be used to allow the GC to free objects.
Relevant functions are make-hash-table, set-hash-table-weak, set-array-weak, make-array and copy-to-weak-simple-vector.
For a description of weak vectors see set-array-weak.
This section describes techniques that may improve the performance of your application by reducing the GC's workload.
This is a technique that can be useful when older objects regularly point to newer objects in a lower generation. In such a case, when the lower generation (only) is collected these newer objects will be promoted even if the older objects are not live. All of these objects will not get collected until the higher generation is collected.
This is a general issue with generational garbage collection and, if it causes poor performance in your application, can be addressed along these lines. It is not necessarily a problem in every case where older objects point to newer objects.
For example, suppose you are popping items from a queue represented as a list of conses (or other structures), then you can set the "next" slot of each popped item to nil.
In the code below, if the queue-head cons is promoted to generation n, then all the other conses will also be promoted to generation n eventually, until generation n is collected. This happens even after calls to pop-queue have removed these conses from the queue.


text:
Blogger Investigated by Police for "White Boy" Tweet Calls Breitbart Readers 'Idiots'
Donna Rachel Edmunds
Left wing blogger Sunny Hundal has taken to Twitter to slur all "Brietbart (sic)" readers as "idiots". The comment seems to have come apropos of nothing, as there have been no other mentions of Breitbart on his time-line in recent days.
Mr Hundal, a fairly prolific user of the social media site, has in the last few hours posted commentary on the London Mayoral elections – accusing Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith of having a "relationship" to his ex-brother in law Imran Khan, and attacking the recent Channel 4 documentary "What British Muslims Really Believe".
But among the political commentary nestles a bizarre tweet reading "As a general point, if you believe what you read on Brietbart (sic) website, you're an idiot."
Also rarely said: while British Muslims are broadly more socially conservative than liberals, same for Sikhs & Hindus (tho likely less so).
— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) April 14, 2016
His relationship with 'Taliban apologist' Imran Khan raises big questions for Zac Goldsmith https://t.co/xKxVK7TV9F pic.twitter.com/BThZuEsJae
As a general point, if you believe what you read on Brietbart website, you're an idiot.
Earlier this year he launched an attack on PEGIDA UK founder Tommy Robinson, calling him a "white boy" who does not have the right to comment on "Sikh history." The outburst followed Mr Robinson's calling him out on an article which blamed the British Empire for enmity between Muslims and Sikhs in Punjab.
Mr Hundal then doubled down on his abusive tone, calling critics of the racial slur "stupid" and telling them to "fuck off" and "take a jump".
His employer, Kingston University refused to chastise Mr Hundal for the comments, saying it upheld freedom of speech.
Mr Hundal himself does not – later that month he forced the cancellation of the British Hindu Temple's Presidents Conference 2016 by inciting activists to issue threats, because the organisers had invited Mr Robinson to speak at the event on British multiculturalism.
Glad the National Council on Hindu Temples realised that inviting a guy who used to head up a neo-Nazi group wasn't good PR for them.
— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) January 28, 2016
Mr. Robinson, who has spent years forging links with the Sikh community in the fight against Islamism, described the attacks as "another nail in the coffin of free speech".
Raheem Kassam, Breitbart London's Editor in Chief said: "Mr Hundal's pedigree speaks for itself. He's a failed blogger, working for a left wing university, who has a history of anti-white racism. I'm very pleased he thinks we are the idiots in this scenario".
Follow Donna Rachel Edmunds on Twitter: Follow @Donna_R_E or e-mail to: dedmunds@breitbart.com
LocalLondon / EuropeSocial JusticeBreitbart LondonIslamTommy Robinson


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With reports that a large number of eggs have again been contaminated with fipronil, British Lion Egg Processors are calling on the Food Standards Agency to launch a programme of random testing of eggs and egg products arriving in the UK.
Initial reports from The Agriculture Ministry of Lower Saxony say that a large number of eggs due to be sold in Germany have been found to be contaminated with fipronil, although the full scope and cause of the contamination remains unclear. The contaminated eggs originate from the Netherlands, the source of the original fipronil outbreak in August 2017.
Andrew Joret, Chairman, British Egg Industry Council, said: "Unfortunately, we are not surprised by these developments as we have been concerned for some time that the initial issues following the product recalls we saw last year have not been thoroughly resolved.
The majority of eggs imported into the UK are destined for processing or the food manufacturing industry.


text:
English II: Talented Bulldog Team Hands RHS Its Second Loss of the Season; Team Hosts No. Andover Friday Night
At the end of the movie The Big Lebowski, the character known only as The Stranger neatly sums up one way to think about how life works: "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
The Revere High football team learned the meaning of that oft-quoted line from the cult movie Friday night at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, as the Patriots, who had gotten the bear in five of their six previous contests this season, came out on the short end of a 38-13 decision to Lynn English.
"Lynn English is a very good football team and you have to give them credit for playing a great game," said RHS head coach Lou Cicatelli. "But we didn't play our best for most of the game."
Cicatelli's particularly cited what he termed his team's poor tackling as the most disappointing aspect of the Patriots' effort.
"We have to do a better job tackling the opposing team," said the coach. "That is something we will have to work at and improve upon if we want to win some more football games this season."
English scored on its first drive of the game, but the contest still was a tight 6-0 affair midway through the second period when the roof fell in on the Pats. English put together another long scoring drive to increase its advantage to 14-0, but Revere seemed poised to strike back with a drive deep into English territory near the end of the half.
However, a Revere penalty for offsides turned a third and three at the English 20 into a third and eight. The Pats' next play got them five yards, but they then were unable to convert on fourth down, turning the ball back over to English.
It seemed as though the half would end on that note, but a broken English play with just seconds left in the half resulted in a 60 yard TD scamper that upped the English advantage to 21-0 at the intermission.
"That last touchdown was a real killer," noted Cicatelli. "We had begun to play better on defense and had moved the ball on offense, but that play changed the entire tenor of the game."
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Growing up, I was always aware that my father was Polish. He always spoke Polish to his friends on the telephone and my friends always told me that he had a strong accent.
I remember spending quite a lot of time at the Polish House in Auckland, especially during the construction of its new premises in the early 1970s and when my dad still did Polish dancing. Once I had entered my teens and became heavily involved in the youth group in our parish, I didn't have much to do with the Polish community in Auckland anymore.
Dad never spoke in detail about his ordeal during Word War II and his journey to New Zealand. When I read The Invited, by Krystyna Skwarko, I understood him a lot better, though I found, and still find, it hard to believe that these people went through such hell to reach their new home. I regret that dad never spoke Polish to me, my brother or sister when we were kids. I began learning the language a few years ago and must admit that I didn't get very far. Also, regrettably, not speaking the language prevented me from visiting my dad's relatives in Poland when I travelled there in 1993. But I sent them a postcard in English to let them know that I was in the country, hoping that one of the younger generation was learning English and could translate it for the family.
I had been led to believe that most young people were learning English but I did not come across many Poles who understood me. I met up with an English couple who were on holiday and they were kind enough to let me accompany them on sightseeing trips, including the salt mines at Wieliczka and white-water rafting on the Dunajec River.
One such trip was to the German concentration camp Auschwitz. I had heard stories, read books and seen TV programmes about the atrocities there, but nothing prepared me for the visit. Walking through the buildings was harrowing.
I still remember seeing the piles of thousands of artificial limbs, spectacles, suitcases, and brushes and combs, and thinking that they had belonged to fellow human beings who had been killed for no good reason. I had tears in my eyes when I walked through the crematorium and saw fresh flowers left in places, presumably by relatives of people who had been killed there. Before my visit, I had been told that the birds don't sing at Auschwitz. And it's true. An page 224eerie silence hangs over the camp and tourists tend to whisper or say nothing as a sign of respect.
I was driven through the countryside from the east of Germany down to Kraków and on to Zakopane. The towns and villages I went through were depressing. It looked as though the war had ended the previous week, instead of 49 years earlier. The buildings were very drab, in grey and khaki colours, and the streets were very rough with no footpaths.
But the countryside was lush and green, and the farmhouses were very well maintained. Many of them had holy shrines built into walls and their gardens were full of beautiful flowers. I was struck by the abundance of extremely tall sunflowers – that's probably when they came to represent something more to me than just pretty flowers.
When I was in Poland, I understood the cultural differences. I felt wealthy compared to most people I met and could afford to buy anything I wanted. I took advantage of the cheap amber that was available at the markets, but I knew that the people on the stalls were trying to make a living to feed and clothe their families. Things American were starting to appear and the young people were getting into its pop music. Everyone I met was very nice and helpful, even though there was a language barrier. The people in the tourist bureau in Zakopane went out of their way to ensure that I made the most of my time there and I was well looked after.
I hope to go back to Poland one day, preferably with my father, to meet my relatives and see how my distant family lives. My father knows that he is privileged to live in New Zealand, but he never forgot his homeland and, I am sure, would dearly love to share that with his "Kiwi" family.