Tokyo Citizens Say: Nolympics!

Some unladylike and unabashed criticism of the Olympics from an assemblywoman in former Olympic City contender Tokyo: "The games cost too much money, and they destroy the environment . . . . Maybe there was meaning back in 1964, when the economic effects were positive."

Read the full story below, although try not to be upset that this just gets Chicago a bit closer to *being* the Olympic city. And how, exactly, is resident support tallied? Because no one's stopped by the Ladies' Offices for tea in quite some time.

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Chicago gets bronze, Tokyo off podium in contest for Olympic bid fans
July 07, 2008
(AP) — While the Olympic buzz is all about Beijing, another Asian capital is trying to woo the games back in 2016. But Tokyo, host of the 1964 Summer Olympics, faces a major obstacle: a lukewarm response from its citizens.
Only 59 percent of Tokyo residents support the bid, the lowest among the four finalists. Madrid topped the list with 90 percent public support, followed by Rio de Janeiro (77 percent) and Chicago (74 percent). Public support is one of several factors in selecting an Olympic city.
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is spearheading the bid, and drawing opposition inside city hall. "The games cost too much money, and they destroy the environment," Assemblywoman Yoshiko Fukushi told The Associated Press. "Maybe there was meaning back in 1964, when the economic effects were positive."

For Asian hosts, the Summer Olympics signal their place on the world's economic stage: Japan in 1964, South Korea in 1988 and China in 2008.
The Tokyo Olympics are still widely viewed in Japan as a symbol of the nation's rehabilitation from the destruction of World War II.
Kenzo Yokoyama, who played on Japan's Olympic soccer team in 1964 and 1968, recalled the pride he felt when he rode on the Shinkansen bullet trains, which were built for the 1964 Games.
The Olympic stadium, designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, remains a landmark with its trademark swooping roof. It became a source of pride akin to that in China for the "Bird's Nest" stadium, though the main Beijing Olympics venue is the work of overseas architects.
But times have changed. Japan rose to the heights of the global economy in the 1980s, then sank into a prolonged malaise that has left it a rich but somewhat troubled nation.
Rather than splurging on another Olympics, Fukushi says Tokyo needs to save for the future and prepare for an aging society.
City officials say the games will help revitalize Japan's economy and generate revenue for the city from broadcasting rights, ticket sales, licensing fees for Olympic merchandise and corporate sponsorships. They estimate the city's cost at $48 million for the bid itself and $3.5 billion for venues and infrastructure.
Ichiro Kono, chairman of Tokyo's bid committee, said there is still time to win over the public. The International Olympic Committee will award the 2016 in October 2009.
"We just have to get down to serious business so people will get excited about the games," Ishihara said.
Eriko Imura, a 27-year-old Tokyo resident who designs store-window displays, seems undecided. "There are both positive and negative sides," she said. "If Japan prospers, that's great."
Tokyo came out ahead of the other finalists in three areas: transportation, hotels and security.
Rio de Janeiro, for example, has only 23,000 rooms at three-to-five-star hotels and is proposing to use cruise ships and condominium apartments to make up for the shortage. Tokyo has 109,000 such rooms.
Tokyo officials say their proposal highlights the needs of an urbanized nation, such as protecting the environment, taking care of the elderly and teaching character to youngsters through sports.
Tadao Ando, a star Japanese architect, has been recruited to develop an ecology-conscious design for the 2016 Games, including planting a forest on a garbage dump in Tokyo Bay.
Still, the Asahi newspaper, one of Japan's leading dailies, expressed concern about Tokyo's bid in an editorial last month. The city needs to produce a more thorough plan, the Asahi said, warning that Tokyo could be paralyzed by massive traffic jams.
Moreover, Tokyo's finances are already in dire straits after a $380 million bailout of a mismanaged city bank.
"If the city comes up with an unrealistic plan that will weigh on the city's finances, the people of this nation and the city will surely reject the plan," the Asahi said.

The Olympics Scam

[The London Review of Books]
Iain Sinclair
"When did it start, this intimate liaison between developers and government, to reconstruct the body of London, to their mutual advantage? ... The scam of scams was always the Olympics: Berlin in 1936 to Beijing in 2008. Engines of regeneration. Orgies of lachrymose nationalism. War by other means. Warrior-athletes watched, from behind dark glasses, by men in suits and uniforms. The pharmaceutical frontline. Rogue Californian chemists running their eye-popping, vein-clustered, vest-stripping robots against degendered state laboratory freaks. Bearded ladies and teenage girls who never have periods. Medals returned by disgraced drug cheats to be passed on to others who weren’t caught, that time. The Millennium Dome fiasco was a low-rent rehearsal. The holy grail for blue-sky thinkers was the sport-transcends-politics Olympiad, the five-hooped golden handcuffs, the smoke rings behind which deals could be done for casinos and malls: with corporate sponsorship, flag-waving and infinitely elastic budgets (any challenge an act of naysaying treason)."

Boycott bid could hurt Chicago Olympics

[From Crain's Chicago Business]
By: Greg Hinz April 07, 2008

(Crain's) — Leaders of Chicago’s effort to lure the 2016 Olympics are keeping a close — and increasingly nervous — watch on the rapidly growing movement to have the U.S. boycott the opening ceremonies of this summer’s Olympics in Beijing, in protest of the recent Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York on Monday publicly urged President George W. Bush to avoid traveling to the Chinese capital for opening ceremonies, “absent major changes by the Chinese government.”
Such a move would be lesser version of the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, which in turn sparked the Russian boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“A country’s real power is not defined by the strength of its economy or its military might, much less by how many gold medals it wins,” Ms. Clinton said in a statement. “A nation’s true greatness is to be judged by how it respects and protects fundamental and universal human values.”

The Clinton statement also takes the Chinese government to task for allegedly failing to use its leverage with the government of Sudan to halt genocide in that country’s Darfur region.

Ms. Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Chicago, has made more general comments on the Chinese Olympics, and by midday Monday his campaign had no further comment.
But an abrupt American move on China could do serious harm to Chicago’s prospects, depending on who else participates, according to Chicago sports consultant Mark Ganis.

“If we lead this (boycott) effort, it will hurt us” by driving some decision makers away from Chicago and toward other competing cities, Mr. Ganis said in a phone interview. “If we follow a broad movement, it won’t have much impact on Chicago’s prospects.”

What liberal European countries do is particularly important, Mr. Ganis added. The International Olympic Committee, which is scheduled to award the 2016 games next year, is “very Eurocentric,” Mr. Ganis said. “If we follow their lead, it will have no impact.”

Some European leaders have been discussing a boycott of the opening ceremonies, but none as yet have made that decision. In particular, leaders from the United Kingdom have said they will be in Beijing. London is scheduled to host the 2012 games.
“It’s not appropriate for us to comment on political matters in China or any other country,” said a spokesman for Chicago 2016, the city’s Olympics bid agency. “The Olympics is about sports.”

Should Chicago be named to a “short list” of three or four finalists for the 2016 games later this year, local officials, including Chicago 2016 Chairman and CEO Patrick Ryan, will be in Beijing “to learn firsthand about how to run Olympic games,” the spokesman said.

A Dispatch From the Shipping Advisory Council

The Ladies have been duly warned that supplies of the first of the Travel Publications Series, Visit Our Backyard, have grown dangerously low. No more, in fact, can be found anywhere: not under the Victrola, behind the divan, or stacked between the spare tea-sets in the parlor.

Please refrain from ordering this item, but content yourself instead with the second in our Publications Series, Visit Thurber on the Couch.

News and Notes from Around the Globe

We're pleased to announce a sighting of the first in our travel publications series, Visit Our Backyard, in a recent edition of Time Out Chicago.

The Ladies appreciate the interest this publication has taken in our genuine desire to preserve the wonder and beauty that Chicago has to offer, currently under dangerous attack by the Olympic Organizing Committee. We wholeheartedly applaud them for taking a stand against this destructive force, intent on diverting our necessary, hard-earned resources.

Visit Thurber on the Couch

The Lady Dissident Chicago Travel Auxiliary is pleased to announce the second in our publications series, Visit Thurber on the Couch.

Our Publications Series Continues!

Dear Concerned Travelers,

We've completed, but thus far failed to document, the latest in our ever-doubling series of publications.

The poster contains these lovely features: tabby cat (1); piece of cake (1); stripes (49); text (1); several small flowers (indeterminate); and couch (1).

Look for it in a coffeeshop, record store, print shop or friend's house near you!