London Olympics "Huge Target"

The 2012 London Olympics will be a huge terrorist target, according to Scotland Yard chief Sir Ian Blair.

His comments came hot on the heels of reports that counter-terrorist officials have stated that Britain is now the prime target for a resurgent, and more structured, al Qaeda.

Sir Ian said:

"There can be no doubt that the 2012 Games -- if the current threat scenario stays the same -- will be a huge target, and we have to understand that and work on that basis."

Preparations are already well underway, with a team of officers working full-time on security.

The day after London was awarded the Olympics on the 6th of July 2006, four British Islamist suicide bombers blew themselves up on London's transport network, killing 52 people.

Jack Lemley Quits London Olympics

Jack Lemley, the US businessman who is chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority responsible for the London 2012 Olympics, has quit his post.

This is a blow to the Games, as he had promised to see through London's preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

The Olympic Delivery Authority was set up by the Government to build the venues and infrastructure necessary for the Games.

It is assumed that the Olympics organisers are "pissed off" with Lemley's decision to quit. It is not clear as to why he has suddenly decided to go. However, it is well known that plans for the development of the Olympic stadium have been dogged by bitter rows between Richard Caborn, the sports minister, and Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London.

Livingstone insists the stadium should be a temporary 80,000 seat arena which can be scaled back to a 25,000 seat athletics ground after the Games, whilst Caborn wants the stadium to be converted into a football stadium which could be used by West Ham.

Lemley had a four year contract (2006-2010). He cites business reasons, and the need to concentrate on his US construction interests for his decision.

Quote:

"I am keen to return to the helm of my international construction consulting firm in America, which is increasingly busy with major contracts. I have every confidence that London will stage a superb Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and leave a legacy that the country can be proud of."

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said:

"Jack has played a significant role in getting us to this point and helping ensure that Games and legacy are planned together. I am grateful to him for all he has done and wish him well in the future."

The search is now on for a replacement.

Successful Dress Rehearsal

China is attending the world gymnastics championships in Aarhus, Denmark. It's goal, apart from winning, is to show that it is the leading Olympic nation as it readies itself for the Beijing Olympics 2008.

The Chinese male team got off to a flying start yesterday and won the team title, beating Russia, Japan and the USA.

Yang Wei said:

"This world championships was good practice for the Olympics and we feel we are now well prepared to take gold.

Now that we have established a good team, we don't want to stop here."

The women compete today.

Art and Culture

The second wave of culture and art consultants, for designing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, was announced at a ceremony in Beijing yesterday.

The guest list at the ceremony included; the Honorary President of the Chinese Olympic Committee and IOC member He Zhenliang, composer and educator Wu Zuqiang, and Academy Award winning filmmaker Ang Lee.

BOCOG President Liu Qi extended his congratulations to the new members of the consultant team, and expressed hopes that every consultant will provide valuable suggestions and advice to the organising team.

London Olympics Upset Muslims

As the old saying goes, you can never please everyone. The organisers of the London 2012 Olympics are discovering the veracity of this saying, as it has just been pointed out to them that the 2012 Games will clash with Ramadan, the most holy month in the Islamic calendar.

Some Muslims claim that this will mean that Muslim athletes will be at a disadvantage, as they fast from sunrise to sunset for the entire duration of the Games.

In 2012, Ramadan takes place from July 21 to August 20, while the Olympics run from July 27 to August 12.

Around 3,000 Muslim competitors are expected to be affected.

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, said:

"They would not have organised this at Christmas. It is equally stupid to organise it at Ramadan.

It shows a complete lack of awareness and sensitivity.

This is going to disadvantage the athletes and alienate the Asian communities by saying they don't matter.

It's not only going to affect the participants it's going to affect all the people who want to watch the Games.

They won't want to travel during Ramadan and they won't want to watch sport. It's a spiritual time."

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam on the Muslim Council of Great Britain, rather wisely pointed out there will doubtless be a sensible solution:

"I'm sure the athletes will seek advice from their scholars.

They are obviously going to be at a disadvantage because other competitors will be drinking and keeping up their energy levels.

But they are athletes and I am sure they will train their bodies to cope with this.

A Muslim might feel it would have been nice to avoid this month but life doesn't stop for Muslims during Ramadan even though they are fasting.

The best thing for a Muslim is to continue his or her life as normal. This is the real test."

Muslim countries, such as Turkey, are calling for the date to be changed.

Joanna Manning Cooper, spokeswoman for London 2012, said:

"We are working with the Muslim Council of Great Britain to find ways to accommodate Ramadan during the London Games."

Britain and the world is not Muslim, it is not for the world to change it's plans to suit Islam or any other religion.

The Frugal Olympics

With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing being less than two years away, and costs mounting, the organisers are looking for ways to exert greater cost control.

The Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) held a seminar on Monday to further emphasise the principle of "frugal Olympics", as laid down by the central government.

The committee's executive vice-president, Liu Jingming, said that they will invite experts to review the budgets in order to look for cost savings and to prevent corruption.

Burger Off!

Proving yet again that the Olympics is about money and sponsorship, not about sport, the British Olympic Organising Committee have landed themselves in an embarrassing situation with regard to one of the sponsors (McDonald's) for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Green Party is demanding to know how McDonald's, the burger chain, fits in with promises to promote locally grown food. It should also be noted that the British government is currently conducting a very assertive healthy eating/anti obesity campaign in the UK, as such some people could argue that to associate itself with a promoter of fast food is a tad hypocritical.

The London organising committee, needless to say, are insisting that McDonald's would not have any exclusive control over catering and would be just one of a range of outlets supplying food.

Rather laughably McDonald's is the "official restaurant" (how on earth can anyone describe McDonald's as a restaurant?) of the Games, as a result of a long-term deal with the International Olympic Committee.

Money first, health and sport second!

A Stonking Investment

In what can only be described as a "stonkingly large" investment, China has stated that it will invest $59.5BN in Beijing infrastructure during the 2006-2010 period.

The money will be spent on 2,400 construction and upgrading projects. The projects to ease city traffic, improve energy and water supply and improve the city environment will be completed before start of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Beijing plans to have a state of the art international air service hub by 2008, which will be able to process 60 million passengers a year.

Beijing will also expand parking lots, and ensure that there will be a parking place for each motor vehicle in the coming five years. Beijing now has approximately 2.8 million motor vehicles but only 1.4-1.5 million parking places.

The Taiyanggong gas-firing thermal power plant will have been built by 2008, and heating pipes laid for the Olympic gymnasiums and surrounding areas. Electricity transmission projects for the areas will be completed, and construction will be speeded up on the Beijing section of the south-to-north water diversion program.

Beijing also intends to clean up rivers and lakes, and to improve the water quality.

Ambitious plans indeed.

Can the environment and the econmy afford them?

Auditors To Check The Books

The Department of Canadian Heritage is hiring an auditor to check the 2010 Winter Olympics organising committee's (VANOC) books.

The audit is aimed at providing the department's Olympic secretariat with the assurance that VANOC, has adequate and effective management controls, risk-management frameworks and overall governance structures.

It also wants to ensure that money provided was used for the intended purpose, and recommend improvements in the way the committee and the department manage the venture.

In August, Partnerships B.C., part of the Ministry of Economic Development that oversees the Olympics, released a due diligence report that queried VANOC's approach to budgeting and recommended changes.

However, the head of the Vancouver Olympic Organising Committee says there's nothing unusual in Ottawa's plan to look at spending for 2010 Olympic preparations.

John Furlong, the committee's CEO, said such reviews are expected and done regularly by Ottawa and the B.C. government.

He says the audit will only look at how the federal government's part of the Olympic construction budget is being spent.

Nonetheless the federal government recently added another $55M towards Games venue construction, with a warning that it would be the last contribution.

Maybe they are worried about how the money is being spent?

Football Nationalism

Plans by Olympic chiefs to push ahead with a British soccer team for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics may well fall into disarray, as both Scotland and Wales kick up a fuss over losing their national identities on the field.

The Football Associations of Wales and Scotland boycotted a British Olympics Association meeting last week. In their absence, it was agreed to enter a British women's team in 2008 and men's and women's in 2012.

The Welsh and Scottish FAs are worried that it may set a precedent for all-British teams in the World Cup and European Championship.

Welsh Culture Minister Alun Pugh said:

"I would be concerned at any steps that could lead to the eventual abolition of the FAW as a national association and having a British team participating in football World Cups and European Championships."

Does it really matter?

Carry on Cruising

The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Winter Olympics have managed to upset the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who were a tad dismissive of VOC's suggestion for journalistic accommodation for the Winter Games 2010.

VANOC suggested that a cruise ship village in Squamish, at the head of Howe Sound, 54 kilometres from Whistler, be used to accommodate some of the 10,000 media representatives who are expected at the Winter Games.

The plan was dismissed by the IOC as being "inappropriate."

IOC press commission chairman, Kevan Gosper, said:

"Let's say the idea was firmly and politely rejected. Whilst a cruise ship may be suitable for tourists and corporates, we don't think it was an appropriate option for as important a working group as the press."

VANOC are reportedly going to try to persuade the IOC to change their mind.

China Curtails Media Freedoms

China, earlier this week in Beijing, unveiled its plans for the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Liu Qi, mayor of Beijing and president of the organising Committee BOCOG, and Sun Weijia, Olympics Press Chief revealed that China would ban material about human rights violations.

A list of banned items was also produced, which may not be brought into China, including "print products and CD-ROMs which are harmful to China's politics, economy and culture."

Needless to say, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) press commission chief, Kevan Gosper, has asked journalists "to respect the conditions and rules" in place in China.

Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign said:

"The IOC's infamous pledge that giving the Games to China would improve the human rights situation there in the run up to the 2008 Games is in ruins.

In 2002 Jacques Rogge said he would act if China failed to protect rights to his satisfaction in the run up to the Games. Instead, Mr Gosper's latest statement suggests the IOC is colluding with China in preventing journalists from covering China's ongoing and serious human rights violations in China and Tibet, a key component of the overall coverage of the Beijing 2008 Games.

It is particularly damaging that the IOC should encourage journalists to censor themselves precisely at the time when China is cracking down on the ability of domestic and foreign journalists to report sensitive news in China."

The Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing has received reports of 72 incidents of harassment of journalists from 15 countries, over the last year.

Notwithstanding the above, it is safe to assume that the IOC will not act to destabilise the 2008 Games, so long as they get the sponsorship deals.

Olympic Expulsions

It is reported that China intends to expel migrant workers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Needless to say, the Chinese authorities have denied this report and have "spun" the denial by saying that Beijing is looking into how to keep the "mentally ill" from "damaging the public interest" during the games.

That's an interesting way of denying the story.

This story comes amidst promises from China that hosting the Olympics will improve respect for human rights.

The Beijing Morning Post raised the expulsion issue earlier this month, by saying that many of the 1 million migrant workers in Beijing from other parts of China would be expelled before the games.

Zhou Jidong, head of Beijing's legal department, denied it and said in relation to the mentally ill issue:

"We are now studying the issue.

The city government plans to ask the municipal (council) to make a law about psychiatric health regulations aimed at providing mental health treatment and preventing mentally ill people from damaging the public interest."

The IOC will of course not intervene in this, as long as they make a good living from the sponsorship deals that the Olympics brings in.

Amnesty Question China's Human Rights

Amnesty International claim that China's human rights record, in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has deteriorated.

Amnesty allege that thousands of people are being executed after unfair trials.

Amnesty have sent their findings to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and said that Chinese authorities would have to act quickly if they were to fulfill their pledges to improve human rights.

Catherine Baber, of Amnesty, said:

"The serious human rights abuses that continue to be reported every day across the country fly in the face of the promises the Chinese government made when it was bidding for the Olympics.

Gleaming stadiums and spectacular parades will be worthless if journalists and human rights activists cannot speak out freely, if people are still being tortured in prison or if the government continues its secrecy about the thousands of people executed."

There has been a renewed crackdown on journalists and Internet users in the past year, according to Amnesty. Amnesty are of the opinion that the promises made for media freedom are false.

Amnesty also said that activists, including those working with residents forcibly evicted from buildings on Olympic construction sites, have been harassed and imprisoned.

Corinna-Barbara Francis, a China researcher for Amnesty International said:

"We try to remain optimistic but right now we are concerned as we are not seeing the progress we had hoped for.

China is a growing world power. They are more in the spotlight.

But we have certainly been disappointed given the expectations we had and the promises made by the Chinese authorities."

I guarantee that no matter what Amnesty say, the IOC will go ahead with the games in China; far too much money is at stake, for issues such as freedom to get in the way.

Living Wage

What constitutes a living wage?

The campaigners for a Living Wage say that it is £7.05 per hour, and claim that the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) have reneged on a deal with the London Citizens Alliance to offer that rate (or the equivalent) during the London Olympics 2012.

ODA claim that it has stood by the deal in which it promised to encourage contractors to pay a living wage.

The ODA agreement said:

"We recognise the contribution that the London living wage can play in enabling us to deliver our regenerative aspirations.

We will monitor whether this is delivered."

The campaigners for a "living wage" will stage a protest outside of the London Chamber of Commerce in the City.