Harmony And Unity Of Purpose.

Roberto Matta 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta

             

It's been great fun watching the various events at the Olympic Stadium, in Stratford East London over the last three days.

The athletics has been exciting, especially the Hepthalon, with my favourite athlete, the wonderful, Jessica Ennis.

The bike events have also been extremely exciting, the individual time trials and the team pursuit plus the sprints have all been excellent.

Another event which has been fascinating to watch were the gymnastics, it was wonderful to see the strength and technique of the competitors.

The floor gymnastics are wonderful to watch, I can't believe how high they can jump from standing to do amazing acrobatics while they are in the air.

Some of the other events that caught my attention were the vault, which they approach at an amazing speed in order to leap on it to perform more amazing acrobatics.

As well as the horse, the rings, the parallel bars and the uneven bars are all well worth watching, especially for the strength and technique of all the competitors.

It has been enjoyable to watch so many great competitors, and to see how friendly and supportive they are with each other.

Really brilliant to see such fierce competition taking place amid such harmony and unity of purpose.

On the news I just heard that the coalition government in England, of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats has begun to be very strained.

Apparently promises made to the Liberal Democrats to get them to support the Conservatives in forming the present government have been broken.

The coalition partners do not seem to be either in harmony nor do they appear to have a unity of purpose like the Olympic competitors.

Here in the Netherlands the coalition government was forced to resign because of a lack of harmony and unity.

So there will be new elections here in September, maybe England will also have to face new elections; maybe they will also get rid of their opportunistic coalition government.

An Olympic Jamboree

 Oscar Dominguez.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Dom%C3%ADnguez

On the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio 5 live, this morning I heard some shocking facts about the negative effects the Olympics is having in East London where the games are taking place.

Currently there are 40 percent of children who are living in poverty in the Borough of Newham, East London.

Rent, rates have just been increased by 40 percent because house prices and rents have gone up due to the Olympic Games.

This is has been directly caused due to the high rents that the large high-street branches are paying in the new shopping centre.

Residents are not adequately informed of a variety of events, such as anti aircraft missiles being placed on the roof of several high-rise flats on housing estates around Stratford, east London where the Olympics are taking place.

They were also not informed that there would be a rehearsal of the fireworks display which will be part of the opening ceremony on Friday, nor were they asked to see the fireworks.

The combination of having these missiles on their roofs against their will, and hearing what they thought was gunfire and explosives, after midnight was dreadful.

Children were woken up screaming in terror, because nobody knew what was going on, for all they knew it was a terrorist attack.

Many shops in High Street in Stratford closed and are already boarded up; this is due to the effects of the large new shopping centre right next to the Olympic stadium.

Victoria spoke to many residents of Stratford, some of them businesspeople who have been experiencing major problems.

Many companies were based on the land where they wanted to build the Olympic stadium and other venues.

Companies, who had long leases and low rents, were made to move on to another site called Fish Island where they are now facing huge logistical problems.

Due to the Olympic Games the companies cannot guarantee their customers that they will be able to gain access to the industrial estate.

Some companies, such as building firms and a large printing company are facing a bleak future which may force them out of business.

On the high street a cafe is losing £500 every day because of the shopping centre, which is full of High Street shops.

When London won the Olympic bid in 2005, there was a lot of talk about this event regenerating the East End of London as well as leaving a legacy.

There doesn't seem to be very much evidence of a long-lasting regeneration nor the legacy for the area which can be used by local working-class residents.

So far I've just heard about the logistic nightmare traffic around the city, the fact that local cab drivers are not allowed to look for customers near the Olympic venues.

Local shops have lost their business to the new Westfield shopping centre, an enormous McDonalds will make sure obesity and diabetes gets even worse.

At the disaster of the recruitment of security staff by an international security company, G4S has cost many working-class people their prospect of employment.

An Olympic money making jamboree for the Olympic Committee and the multinational sponsor companies.