The London Olympics are already achieving the number one aim of the politicians who brought them here, which is making our politicians feel very important indeed.
The media is quite frenetic in its efforts to make us all believe we should be terrifically proud of the fact we are hosting the Olympics, as though there were something unique in this achievement. If we can’t competently do something that Greece, Spain and China have done in recent years, that would be remarkable. Of course the Games will be on the whole well delivered, sufficient for the media and politicians to declare it an ecstatic success. Some of the sporting moments will be sublime, as ever.
But did it have to be in London? We won’t know the total cost of the Games for months, but it will cost the taxpayer at least £9 billion and I suspect a lot more. I also suspect the GDP figures will, in the event, show that the massive net fall in visitor numbers has hurt the already shrinking economy further.
But to take the most optimistic figure, holding the Olympics in London has cost every person in the country an average of £150 per head in extra taxes. That is £600 for a family of four. Actually it is in the end going to be well over £2,000, as of course the money has been borrowed on the never never, and taxpayers are going to be paying it off their whole lives, along with the sum ten times higher they are already paying direct into the pockets of the bankers through their taxes.
The very rich, of course, don’t pay much tax, so they are not worried.
But to take just the figure of £600 extra taxes for a family of four, the lowest possible amount, and not including the interest. Is having the Olympics here really worth paying out £600 for? If Tony Blair had approached the head of the family and said “We are going to have the Olympics in London, but it’s going to cost you £600, would the answer have been from most ordinary people: “Yes, great idea, this is that important to us”?
People are not disconcerted because they don’t see that they have to pay. There is no special Olympics tax, and they pay their taxes in a variety of ways, and individuals are not the sole source of taxation. But this is nonetheless real money taken from the people in pursuit of the hubris of politicians.
I love sport. I hate the corruption of the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and the rest; I hate the vicious corporatism and militarisation of our capital and absurd elitism of the transport lanes; the sport itself I love. But with the economy contracting, and the NHS being farmed out for profit, is it really worth £600 for a family – and many families are really struggling in a heartbreaking way – is it worth the money to have the Olympics here rather than in Paris?
Of course it isn’t. I think many of us will feel an extra pleasure watching the Opening ceremony because it is British. Patriotic pride will surge. It is not wrong to enjoy the spectacle tonight on TV. The corporate well connected and ruling classes will enjoy it in the stadium.
But after you have watched it on TV, ask yourself this question. How much more did you enjoy it than enjoy watching the Beijing ceremony, and was that margin of extra enjoyment something that everybody in the room would have paid out £150 for?
Because they just did.
Nuid was correct in her observation. And, as a previous Irish commentator of excellence, Dreoilin, rightly pointed out, there was a time when in the UK, the Irish were regarded with similar levels of disparagement as blacks. You just have to glance at the newspapers circa 1900. The target for scapegoating just moves on, depending on what is politically useful. Irish people in the UK faced enormous levels of institutional and personal discrimination.
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In Scotland, the Irish contribution is very prominently foregrounded – and rightly so. There is no dearth of celebration of things Irish (great fun is had by all). The Irish contribution to London, Liverpool, Glasgow and many other places in the UK was, and is, enormous. It is right that African-Caribbean culture is celebrated too. I see no dichotomy and no need for resentment of any such celebrations. Think of the superb music festival, ‘Celtic Connections’ – they have a great approach.
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The Beatles was basically an Irish band, playing in an African-American musical genre, inflected with elements from English Music Hall, who became influenced by Indian music. They were the most popular group in the world. I think that says it all.
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To Saint George (oh, but he was a Palestinian!):
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHh6iKy2OAg
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CheebaCow, thanks for the hip hop links – some of those links were superb and very powerful!! Much appreciated. It’s all One, man, it’s all One.
Celtic Connections – I’d strongly recommend it:
http://www.celticconnections.com/
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We are all human beans, all 57 varieties.
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Indeed, Mary, we are! Well put. Under the X-ray machine, we are scatterings of light, children of the stars :))
‘The target for scapegoating just moves on, depending on what is politically useful.’
There you go again Suhayl, identifying any expression of immigration restrictionist sentiment here with ‘scapegoating’ and the machinations of our political masters.Truly priceless.
Thanks for the supportive messages.
And on the cultural front, CheebaCow, here’s an interesting book I found, ‘Hip Hop Desis: South Asian Americans, Blackness and a Global Consciousness’, by Nitasha Tamar Sharma, Duke Uni Press, USA.
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http://www.readperiodicals.com/201109/2426300171.html
‘Children of the Stars’ – I like that Suhayl – I remember astronauts reported bright lights flashing in their eyes as they left the protection of earth. It was cosmic rays from deep space passing through the vitreous humour, the liquid in their eyes. How utterly naked we are.
OldMark:
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> There you go again Suhayl, identifying any expression of immigration restrictionist
> sentiment here with ‘scapegoating’ and the machinations of our political masters.
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I think you’ve misunderstood what Suhayl said (and indeed also what I said, much the same, at 4 Aug, 2012 – 8:38 pm). If you don’t believe that the media amplify the enemy-of-the-day, or that the government at a particular time find it politically useful to have one, then you are close to stating that you don’t believe there’s any such thing as propaganda. An officially appointed enemy is usually had for reasons of foreign policy, and it isn’t particularly connected to the immigration debate. (When another “possible terrorist plot” is found in North London, it is not at all to encourage British subjects to unite against immigration. It is to encourage the idea that Muslim extremists need to be dealt with using American violence abroad, in Afghanistan, Somalia and Pakistan, and that British subjects would be sensible to let anti-terror legislation pass for their necessary protection).
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Mark Curtis is probably recommended a fair bit on this board, but for good reason – his work connects plenty with this topic. And Chomsky & Herman, too, given their substantial work on the media.
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Anyway, if we’ve learnt anything from the 600-odd posts on this board, it is that people on the broad left disagree plenty on the way forward. Please let’s all tread gently, and double-check posts for diplomacy before sending them out!
Almost a billion go hungry worldwide.
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As global starvation spreads, charities warn that the total number of severely malnourished children is also rising.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/almost-a-billion-go-hungry-worldwide-8007759.html
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Is agent Cameron’s forthcoming UK hunger summit anything more than an Olympic PR exercise?
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Thanks, Jon and Mark Golding. I didn;t know that about the astronauts’ vitreous humours and cosmic rays – that’s fascinating. What an image – and what a feeling that must’ve been for them!
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If anyone’s interested in reading more about studies of the media, as I’ve sometimes done before, I’d recommend the work of the Glasgow Media Group, headed by the excellent Professor Greg Philo, who, on a personal level, is a very friendly and sagacious Londoner. And a website that has photos of both Noam Chomsky and Princess Anne on its header has got to be interesting! [usual prefixes]:
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glasgowmediagroup.org/
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universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH1884&type=P
I noticed that the Star yacht being sailed by the British team carried the emblem of that honourable usurer and erstwhile Bliar employer J P Morgan Asset Management on its hull. There were two other names including Skandia. I thought that advertising was not allowed at the Limp Ics. The boat did not win btw. The Swedes did.
J P Morgan openly support Ben Ainslie. I would rather not compete than be associated with them and take the poisoned chalice.
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http://www.benainslie.com/partners/view/j.p._morgan_asset_management_title_sponsor
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He was the first torch bearer you will remember. Wonder who decided that.
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This is him winning the J P Morgan Finn Gold Cup. You see Skandia there and also Accenture and G4S!!
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{http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/photos/finn/yandy76782.jpg}
Lord Moynihan, friend of Coe et al, speaks for more sports funding.
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‘There needs to be a “step change” in sports policy so children inspired by Team GB’s gold medals become future star athletes themselves, the head of the British Olympic Association says.
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Lord Moynihan called for more funding of school sports and improved facilities to encourage participation.
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The plea comes amid predictions of government spending cuts when funding is reviewed after the Olympics.
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BBC today {http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19135794}
Gove, like the Little Britain computer, says NO!
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/16/school-sport-funding-cuts
If Cameron is such a good PR man, why doesn’t he promise to reinstate the services he’s cutting when the economy comes full circle and we are prosperous again. The cuts would be easier to swallow. I can only assume he has no intention of reinstating anything. Can anyone older than me shed some light on what happened in the last recession? Were we subjected to the same austerity measures? Were/are promises of reinstatement ever made?
I have this vision of a 13 year-old Gove, always last to be picked for the football, swearing vengeange on those with the temerity to be better at sports than him. “I’ll get my revenge…” 🙂
Moynihan Doing nicely and well up in the establishment. Not bad for a titch. (I know.. heightist remark!)
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http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/colin-moynihan/27082
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From the wikipedia entry I see he assisted in giving us water privatisation. Now nice of him.
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{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Moynihan,_4th_Baron_Moynihan}
Rowan Companies Inc 🙁
Moderator Jon – I wouldn’t disagree with the arguments of Mark Curtis et al about elite propaganda and its often pernicious effects (which post 9/11 have often led to the unjustified scapegoating of some muslim countries, and of muslim immigrants more generally).
However when you look at propagandising about immigration to the UK, I think you’ll find that the elites, insofar as they speak with one voice, are rather closer to the Suhayl/Technicolour world view than then are to mine.
For example-
http://www.iod.com/MainWebsite/Resources/Document/policy_paper_immigration_business_perspective.pdf
‘Moynihan Doing nicely and well up in the establishment. Not bad for a titch. (I know.. heightist remark!.)
Heightist but true- he was the Lewisham East MP back in the 80s and in the ’83 campaign friends of mine were doorstepped by him and noticed what a short arse he was. The same friends also noted the distinctly unproletarian manner of one of his opponents in the ’83 election- Polly Toynbee, who stood against Moynihan in that seat for the SDP.
Anyway, the 4th Baron ‘titch’ Moynihan has led a far more pedestrian life than the 3rd Baron ‘shagger’ Moynihan-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6604750/Lord-Moynihan.html
OldMark – thanks for the paper.
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Yes, I am aware that elites are pro-immigration – I tried to reflect that in my point. That was why I felt it was a mistake to refer to the elite practice of artificially inflating the Muslim/Irish/whatever threat as anti-immigration, since that – in my humble view – is not the purpose of such propaganda. And the capitalists are happy to welcome economic migrants if the net effect is a stifling of wage levels.
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I suppose an interesting question is how much anti-immigration sentiment is +caused+ by anti-terror propaganda? If there is a link there – and I am only speculating – then the capitalists would appear to be jostling amongst themselves for a compromise. Some wish to inflate the terror threat for political purposes, but that may push wage levels up if the result is that migrants leave the country (they feel unwelcome) or are unable to enter (as border controls are increased).
Don’t the London Limpicz remind you of the good old cold war days of Communism ?
One type of beer, one type of credit card, one type of sports shoe, one type of soft drink, one type of chocolate,join the queue, the army’ll let you in and out through check points ? It’s actually not fair on the old commie countries. I remember being stuck in East Berlin for an evening and enjoying the food and drink in some of their Bierkeller. There were at least 3 different beers on tap.
Circuses and bread alright, but absolutely no choice.
Extreme capitalism is just not free market!
and to top it all the one and only credit card accepted wasn’t working.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9437760/London-2012-Visa-blames-Wembley-for-Olympics-card-chaos.html
As I wrote earlier in this thread, the main discourse within the MSM/ political elites which are part of the dominant power groupings (and thus filtering down to the street) seems to occur b/w global capitalist forces (eg. IMF, Condem-Nulab) and xenophobic chauvinist forces (eg. the Front National in France et al) – as we see foregrounded in some Eastern European states. Unless a broader, more informed view/activism is taken/aired/deployed/developed, this dynamic will continue and – as I have written before – serves on a number of fronts as a WMD – a Weapon of Mass Distraction. It is indeed in the interests of the former to facilitate and abet the construction of the latter. It used to be called false consciousness.
If Matt Ralls President and CEO of Rowan Companies Inc takes a salary of over $5m I should think Moynihan as a non executive director is doing OK too. Wonder what Moynihan’s attraction was to get him the non exec directorship. Perhaps the Texans like Lords.
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http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=NYSE:RDC#
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All the usual connections here.
{http://www.rowancompanies.com/fw/main/Board-of-Directors-80.html}
Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration
Founded 1923
Headquarters Houston, Texas, USA
Key people Matt Ralls, President and CEO
Revenue US$1.7 billion (2009)
Operating income US$501 million (2009)
Net income US$368 million (2009)
Employees 4,846 (2009)
And the first step in doing that, in developing actual consciousness and in exploring alternative possibilities, is to analyse and deconstruct a number of myths.
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One of these myths is that immigrants lower wages – extensive research has demonstrated the fallaciousness of this idea. The second, is to look at the idea of “overcrowding” in the UK. Again, there is plenty of empty housing – no shortage, in fact – and also lots of space. The whole idea of there being ‘no space’ is based on a sort of cartoon propaganda image of ‘floods’ of people ‘invading’. The third myth is the concept of ‘aboriginality’ and the use of historical events such as the genocide of the population of Tasmania, North America, etc. as absurd, and indeed obscene, parallels with immigration into industrially developed countries. There are other myths peddled by people from the likes of (even, shamefully) Ed Milliband, Rightward, that do not stand up to careful examination, but all the above three, plus the others, have been gone into in some detail in the posts earlier in this thread.
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And lastly, we need to look at the ways in which our ‘rulers’ achieve divide-and-rule by setting one groups of working class people (the vast majority of us are working class, since we own nothing and have to sell our labour to survive) against one another, by instilling fear, by scapegoating, by instrumentalising socio-economic and geo-political factors intrinsic to – essential for – the system which benefits these same elites.
Congratulations to Andy Murray!! He played really well.
Much of this discussion on immigration reminds me of the 1980s. The Labour party had been defeated in the 1979 election. Though we didn’t know it at the time it was the end of the Labour movement in Britain, and the beginning of the end of people power.
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In the 1980s, and out of power, the left divided amongst itself between those who concentrated on economic matters and those who concentrated on individual issues.
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The Thatcherites and subsequent neocons always concentrated on economic matters. It wasn’t difficult for them to win on those issues whilst the left was divided, indeed the very concentration on individual issues by the left played into the hands of the right since the right offered consumerism and free choice etc.
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So anyway. here we are today again.
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I well remember a prominent “leftist” academic of my acquaintance in the early 90s saying, forget about old timers like Arthur Scargill – Sinead O’Connor is the future.
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I think she had a thing about living white males, as well as dead ones too.
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I knew it was gibberish at the time, but there you go. Here we are.
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Marx knew all about this flaw, of course.
Overall I admire you Suhayl but on this topic, lalthough i can see your convinction im not personaly convinced on those points that were listed, and i see other otherwise fine people aren’t either. I dont have so much to argue with, ive the luxury of taking and leaving as is convient, but at best i like to empathise with peoples troubles even when people are (always) to some degree less right than they could be. Its not to support wrongness but to support expression and be able to find and feel a way beyond wrongs. From outside the circle of full agreeance, when i read a summarisation such as ‘false consciousness’ i see a finalistic and simplistic kind of combat rhetoric. Its very natural but reading you on other subjects i watch you soar above the battlefeild : )
Mark Curtis really made me wonder what he is on with his recent “no such thing as balance of nature” documentary. I thought it was rubbish :/
And congratulations, too to Mohamed Farah! He ran superbly, to win the first EVER British 10,000 metre Olympic Gold Medal! Well done, Mo!
Crab, thanks, much appreciated. I empathise with people’s troubles, which are also, to a greater or lesser extent, my troubles (since we all – the vast majority of us) are working class and own nothing and live by our wits and sell our labour.
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Can you find any comment I have ever made, anywhere (here, or anywhere), ever, that does not support free expression?
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Far from soaring high above (though it can be useful to soar occasionally so that one can see the wood, the lie of the land, and not just the occasional tree), most of the time I am down in the dirt along with the rest of us – in that proverbial gutter. And every day I meet people of all creeds and colours and genders and whatever who often are not even able to glance, let alone gaze, at the stars of which we are made.
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I am simply attempting to suggest – to plead, even – that we explore certain ‘received wisdoms’ on we we tend to base our construction of truth, maxims that gain currency simply because they are convenient for the powerful and because they are repeated often enough in the media and thence in everyday interaction but which have very real consequences on the ground – big trouble for people. I am asking that we explore the mechanics of divide-and-rule and the manner in which the ‘mainstream’ (i.e. international war capitalism) feeds off – benefits from – the Far Right and its various tribal narratives.
It’s hard to know which is more ironic. Murray’s win or that of the British Somali.
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I’m sure that at least one of these wins is deserved, proving once again that the Games are not totally fraudulent.