2009 Poverty Olympics provides hilarious and serious preview of what international media will see when they come to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics
About 400 people from Vancouver, Canada’s poorest neighbourhood took advantage of the one year countdown to the 2010 Olympic Games with a message about poverty in Canada.
People in Canada live in shocking poverty, Wendy Pedersen told the crowd gathered for the Poverty Olympics. Her community, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, has an HIV rate the same as Botswana’s. Street homelessness increased 373% between 2002 and 2008, and British Columbia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for 5 years in a row (21%).
Pedersen said the government could have ended poverty and homelessness with the $6 billion they are wasting on the Olympics.
The rest of the Poverty Olympics was a humorous and blunt satire of the real Olympics, with a Torch relay, opening and closing ceremonies and “games.” One game was Sweeping Poverty Aside (curling) which featured Team Vanoc against Team Poverty. Team Vanoc (Vancouver Olympic Committee) swept away objects on the ice with “bailout” brooms, while blocking Team Poverty with sand on the ice and an actual rope labeled rent increases and evictions.
The Poverty Olympic Mascots, Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy the Rat, danced through the opening ceremonies singing Money makes the World Go Round and flinging fake money labeled “Olympics 2010, blank cheque” throughout the audience.
The Poverty Olympics was endorsed by Raise the Rates, Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, BC Persons with Aids Society, Power to Women, and Streams of Justice.
Background Information:
Poverty Olympics 2009 Photo Collections:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157613563671223/
For more information on poverty in Canada go to http://povertyolympics.ca or http://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com or http://www.raisetherates.org
For leads on the homelessness and poverty situation in Canada or on how to attend the 2010 Poverty Olympics, to be held during the Vancouver Olympics in February, 2010, call Jean Swanson at 604 729-2380 .
Media Links:
Wall Street Journal - February 10, 2009
Game Changer: Recession Recasts Olympic Spending
Vancouver Sun - February 9, 2009
'Poverty Olympics' ridicule Games
Globe and Mail, Canada - February 9, 2009
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
The Georgia Straight - February 9, 2009
Organizer expects Poverty Olympics to run alongside 2010 Games
News 1130 - Febraray 9, 2009
Metro Daily News - February 9, 2009
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Wendy Pedersen
Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP)
604 839-0379
