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Poverty Olympics prosper on $6 budget
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by Rob Peters | February 4, 2008 at 10:34 am
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The Poverty Olympics, a satirical event meant to bring awareness to Vancouver's poverty issues, took place Sunday afternoon in front of Carnegie Theatre on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
While the 2010 Winter Olympics has a budget of about $6-billion, the poverty-focussed counterpart cost six bucks, according to organizers. Mascots included a giant rat and cockroach.
VANCOUVER - Poverty-line high jump, long-jumping over a bedbug-infested mattress and welfare hurdles won't be official sports at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.But on Sunday, the categories took centre stage at the first Poverty Olympics.
The "games" were staged by several anti-poverty groups in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside and drew a standing-room crowd to a neighbourhood community centre.
Part community theatre, part social activism, organizers say they were meant to raise awareness of the hardship, challenges and substandard living conditions many residents in the area deal with regularly while governments fund the Winter Olympics.
Resident Laurel Dykstra brought her twin six-year-old girls to the event, which was a mix of many community members and a swarm of media.
"I think this is a hilarious and excellent representation of what this Olympic extravaganza is going to mean for the people who live here [in the Downtown Eastside]," she said. "It's a whole lot of money spent on things that aren't going to be relevant for our lives."
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sillygwailo
Burnaby (Burnaby Heights / Willingdon Heights / West Central Valley), British Columbia, Canada
dlobo
Washington, District Of Columbia, United States
Rob Peters
Vancouver, Canada
E Wayne
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 11:01 on February 4th, 2008
Rob Peters, good deal, I like this kind of thing.
at 12:12 on February 4th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. I too like this sort of thing as well, I certainly hope tax has been paid on that $6.00 budget, we certainly would not like to rile Revenue Canada
at 15:00 on February 4th, 2008
Here is the organizer's press release:
For immediate release
February 4, 2008
Poverty Olympics highlight deep poverty in rich Canada
(VANCOUVER, CANADA) As an overflowing crowd cheered loudly, Itchy the Bedbug, Chewy the Rat, and Creepy the Cockroach were unveiled as the official mascots of the 2008 First Annual Poverty Olympics. The event took place yesterday in Vancouver's Carnegie Community Centre, only blocks away from the media centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"People think of Canada as a rich and beautiful country," said Jean Swanson, one of the events' organizers. "But we want the world to know that our neighbourhood has the same HIV rate as Botswana. Our province has the highest child poverty rate in Canada (21%), and thousands of homeless people have to search through garbage for food and things to sell."
"We also want them to know," said Alan James, another organizer, "that all of this poverty and homelessness is completely unnecessary. Our province had a surplus of $4 billion last year, and the federal government had a surplus of $14 billion."
The event began with a torch parade from the office of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Inside the community centre, a giant End Poverty Torch made by Downtown Eastside artists was unveiled. A banner with the five Olympic rings portrayed as handcuffs, read, "End poverty. It's not a game." Volunteers from the Carnegie Action Project sang an end poverty anthem to the tune of "Oh Canada," the official national anthem.
Events included the long jump over a bed-bug-infested mattress, the welfare (social assistance) hurdles, the poverty line high jump, and curling for housing rights (with jello).
To meet commitments made before winning the Olympic bid, Swanson said the government should build 3200 units of new affordable housing, increase social assistance rates by 50 per cent, and end arbitrary barriers that are keeping people in dire need from accessing assistance.
Groups sponsoring the event include Raise the Rates, the Carnegie Community Action Project, British Columbia Persons with AIDs Society,and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
Organizers vowed to hold a second and third Poverty Olympics unless governments act to end homelessness and reduce poverty before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
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For more information and resources, check http://povertyolympics.ca and http://www.raisetherates.org
or
Contact: Wendy Pedersen, 604 839-0379
Jean Swanson, 604 729-2380
Trish Garner, 604 879-0912
Alan_James@shaw.ca
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Alan C. James, volunteer
Raise the Rates Coalition
British Columbia, Canada
http://povertyolympics.ca/