I laughed at curling at first, but after watching it, it's quite interesting. Lots of strategy involved and it's a battle of accuracy. I'm a fan of it now, but I still laugh at it too. Watching Britain play Canada and it's great. The Brits are pretty good. I smell another medal opportunity Pippa.

And everyone hates the taste of sour grapes.

I didn't know what curling was... But I was watching a little of it today and I found it quite interesting.

Yes quite enjoying the curling Great Britain?s men?s team lost to the hosts Canada yesterday, but secured a vital 4-2 Victory against the USA today, Great Britain men have 2 remaining Group matches against Germany and Norway on Tuesday so I will be glued watching that, our Girls lost 10-6 to the Swiss leaving any chances of qualifying for the semi finals unlikely, they will have to win their remaining matches and to my calculations rely on other match results falling in their favour...


My Uncle?s George and Gary and Auntie Gwen are attending the Vancouver Olympics with relatives from Sault Ste. Marie, apparently the British press are something of a pantomime villain in Canada at the moment after criticising the organisation of the games , I read that the Daily Mail has reported that they think Vancouver's organisation surrounding pratice sessions on the luge is to blame for the pre-Games death of the Georgian slider , which is quite a headline to say the least, how the Mail comes to that conclusion is flaky to say the least, citing Canada?s aggressive push for medals and inhospitality towards visiting athletes also preventing adequate numbers of practice runs while hogging the track for they own teams, whether there is any truth in this a matter of opinion,

Uncle George says it is all ?handbags? ...and the Canadian?s know full well the British Press are a pain in the ar*e...one British Red top christened the Vancouver Games the ?Calamity Games? which has caused outrage..

I know George and co are having a great time and everyone is very friendly...One funny fact is there are more BBC journalists in Vancouver that British Competitors which gives some indication of how bonkers we are ..

Bonkers indeed!! kidding. The women did put up a challenge against the US in curling having led through alot of the match only to fall short after a Eve Muirhead(I love her hair btw, the thick black streak is beautiful) shot went just wide.

USA shook up “the contenders” as they upset favourites Canada 5-3 in men's ice hockey. The best result everyone is calling since USA's upset in 1980(aka Miracle on Ice). So Canada lost to USA and Russia lost to Jaromir Jagr's Czech Rep. No one knows who the favourite is now, but I guess USA would have to be the favourites because they're the only ones who won every game, in spectacular fashion I might add with Detroit Red Wing's defenceman!? Brian Rafalski on a scoring tear with 7 goals this tournament, last 4 US goals leading up to the Canada matchup.

Quote:The games are actually being hosted by the four first nations groups on which the land the games are taking place on.

Quote:
Um, no, they aren't. The blessing during the opening ceremony was a formality, nothing more. It's a well-known fact that the First Nations tribes have, since day one, been protesting the games; the Olympics bring nothing but problems for them.

Read this article.

Also important to note (from the same website):

"It appears as if Natives support the Olympics due to the exploitation of Native culture, as well as the efforts of Native collaborators (such as the 4 Host First Nations, which is made up of Indian Act band councils). These Native artists, business & political groups are either ignorant about what the Olympics are really about, or just plain greedy. It should be remembered that the band councils were imposed by the government as a means to control & assimilate Native peoples. They lack popular support and only exist because of government funding."

The 4 Host First Nations are a government entity in and of themselves. They do not represent the Indigenous peoples of that area.

poor sven kramer and his ciach who led him into the wrong side >.> (skating for people who dont know)

Kayoko must be on cloud nine after Kim Yu-Na?s (South Korea) claims Olympic gold after a perfectly executed free skate programme ...Wow Kim radiates a hypnotic beauty....

As for boycotting the games.... this is Martin Lukacs?s personal opinion and should not be presented as factual, after all he has no authority from anyone other than Martin Lukacs to represent the opinions of Canada Native Peoples in the first place..Martin is a political activist and how much weight one attaches to his beliefs needs to reflect this fact..

Quote:
He actually cited several Native sources to support his opinion. Furthermore, the REALITY of how First Nations peoples are treated in Canada is NOT an opinion- it is a FACT; the poverty and health issues aren't things he made up to support his own political agenda, they're well known, factual problems that have a huge impact on the daily lives of First Nations peoples.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/sui_nati.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/11/24/child-poverty.html

http://www.ofifc.org/ofifchome/page/notes.htm

And despite what the government has promised in regard to relieving these poverty related issues, there is NO effective government function in place to handle them. At all. The First Nations peoples have been abandoned by the Canadian system (which is not to imply that it was ever taking care of them). So, for heavens' sake, please do your research before making such senseless statements.

Also, www.no2010.com is not Martin Lucak's site; he simply wrote an article for it. The website is hosted by an organization known as Olympic Resistance which includes everything from anti-poverty & housing groups to environmental activists to First Nations people sick with the exploitation of their culture and land resources.

If you need an actual First Nations person to exemplify how much these people do NOT want the Olympics games to take place on their land, the first person I would bring to attention would be Harriet Nahanee, a Pacheedaht elder who fought against the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion at the Eagleridge bluffs (an extremely sacred place for those First Nations people that has since been demolished in order to accommodate that expansion) and was sentenced to two weeks in prison despite showing symptoms of illness. Shortly after, she was hospitalized, and died of pneumonia. She was a representative of her people, so again, I ask you to do your research before making inferences about what the situation over there is. Keep in mind that British Columbia is composed heavily of unceded Native territory, which by Canada's own governing process makes it illegally occupied territory; the First Nations peoples are fully aware of this and I haven't heard of one (aside from the 4 Host First Nations, which as I stated are representatives of the government, NOT the Native peoples of that land) that has given permission for these games to take place; not that the Canadian government ever asked.

The Olympics are a practiced facade- they know how to make it seem like they have all the support, but if you actually knew of the costs it requires to actually host an Olympic event (and I'm not even talking monetary) I would hope you'd think again about why you support them. Consider the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where over 300 student protesters fighting the Olympics were literally massacred days before the games started- a story that has never been given mainstream media attention. Consider that host cities for the games are known to suffer immensely negative economic impact; in Atlanta in 1996, over 30,000 impoverished citizens were displaced by the games, which is a low number compared with Seoul's 750,000 in 1988, which is yet minimal compared to Beijing's recent 2008 Summer games, which displaced 1.5 MILLION people. Vancouver's Winter Olympics aren't even done yet and homelessness has already risen dramatically; when Canada won the bid in 2003, homelessness was at 1,000- that number was bumped up to 2,500 in the lead-up to the Olympics and may be as high as 6,000 by the end of 2010. These are not opinions, these are proven statistics, so please consider them in your understanding of the Olympic games and how far you want to go in supporting them.

Well my family is having a great time in Vancouver? just a very small minority of detractors waving a few placards?..

What?s the view like from California?..guess you?ll have to accept Martin Lukacs?s political opinion ..did you donate??.Martin likes gullible? ?.

Olympic Resistance is just another clueless political organization heading nowhere ?what have they achieved?.nothing ?..zilch ?.your statistics have no factual basis, just numbers ? I pour over government statistics daily at University ?. econometrics, statistical background, hypothesis testing, maximum likelihood estimation, and guess what ..all adds up to the same conclusion hundreds of millions of people glued to their TV?s the world over enjoying the Olympic ideal and occasion, Canada has put on a fantastic spectacle and has served The First Nations peoples proud ?you think for one minute I am going to take a political leach like Martin Lukacs on his word ?no you brought that nonsense?