2010 Olympics Business News for the Vancouver and Whistler regions of British Columbia. Plus, Alberta, the rest of Canada, Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana & California

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Hypocrisy of the Olympics

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, home of the 2010 Olympics is literally imploding, but still Olympics organizations and local news media refuse to connect the dots.

People in Vancouver are now so desperate that there has been an astounding 33 bank robberies in the first month of 2008 alone. In all of the 2007, there were only 185.

British Columbia's provincial government recently announced taxes would rise dramatically over the next few years, but they fooled taxpayers into thinking it has something to do with launching "green" environmental objectives.

Marginalized people in Vancouver are being evicted from their meager homes at unprecedented rates in an effort to make room for 2010 Olympics workers and volunteers.

In a too hasty and reckless effort to clean up the region after local news media, law enforcement, and politicians ignored the drug culture in Vancouver for decades, there were 6 street hits of gangsters in the first six weeks of 2008. Innocent people are being killed in the crossfire.

Local news media, who control ALL the major newspapers, and television stations in the region, recently spent an entire week hyping the 2010 Olympics on the two year pre-celebration anniversary, but failed to adequately address issues related to the downside of hosting the Games. They did it in a shameless effort to conscript 2010 Olympics volunteers.

Dan Rather, reporter with HDTV, and legendary ex-news anchor of 60 Minutes, came to town to expose the social crime of how Vancouver neglects mentally ill and drug addicted citizens. Instead of welcoming him in a responsible manner, local news media portrayed him as an ambulance chaser desperate to report any type of story.



What We Know About the 2010 Olympics … in 2008

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We know the Olympics are coming - whether you are prepared or not.

We know incredible promotional opportunities exist for a wide variety of companies in Olympics host regions - whether you are big or small.

We know you do not have to deal directly with Olympic organizations like VANOC to take advantage of the spotlight shining on our region.

We know VANOC has stated emphatically that they do not want to deal directly with small companies, and that they recommend small companies align with each other to form a syndicate.

We know VANOC recommends that small companies subcontract their products and services to large companies that have won 2010 contracts.

We know many companies awarded Olympics contracts have a very hard time delivering as promised, and that many of them eventually panic and will do, or pay anything to protect their company and reputation.

We know VANOC is incredibly secretive and that no one knows what they are doing, many times not even them.

We know some companies began to leverage 2010 Olympic momentum from the moment the bid was won, and we know some of these companies, like local mainstream newspaper and television companies have already generated incredible revenue in the process.

We know there are billions of dollars to be made, and that larger companies work hard to keep smaller competitors out of the Games.

We know you will pay for 2010 - whether you want to or not.

We know everything you see happening in Vancouver regarding homelessness, skyrocketing house prices and taxes, construction and traffic confusion, etc., happens in all Olympics regions, and that it is preventable when responsible politicians and local mainstream news media put short term greed aside and act responsibly in a timely manner.

We know Olympics sponsors make billions of dollars through their association with the Games. For example NBC proudly reports that they placed advertising in front of 4 billion people worldwide during the Athens Games, and in front of 3 billion each in both Salt Lake City and Turin.

We know small companies in Olympics host regions will find it extremely hard if not impossible to create a profitable Olympics strategy without access to accurate historical knowledge and professional advice.

We know local mainstream news media will not provide accurate information in a timely manner because if they do, it will negatively impact their bottom line.

We know local newspapers and television have a vested interest in telling you primarily what Olympics organizations want you to hear, not what you need to hear.

We know The Vancouver Sun is an official paid Olympics booster.

We know newspapers like the Vancouver Sun, and their parent, CanWest Global, make a fortune selling advertising to real estate companies.

We know to date, real estate and construction companies have generated more profit than all other industries regarding 2010.

We know the BC real estate industry is notoriously untrustworthy.

We know mainstream news media aligns with and protects their big advertisers.

We know if you rely exclusively on traditional mainstream newspapers and television to get your news, you are misinformed.

We know Olympics organizations are not transparent, and that they work in partnership with local mainstream news media to hide information that our community needs in order to make intelligent decisions.

We know obscenely rising house prices mean obscenely rising taxes.

We know artificially inflated house prices eventually drop, but taxes don't.

We know without funding from sponsors like RBC, HBC, and Rona, the Olympics would not exist, and most of us are grateful for their investment.

We know someone has to pay for 2010 overruns, and it is never sponsors like RBC, HBC, or Rona - sposnors that will make an Olympic fortune.

We know amateur sport shapes a person's character.

We know amateur sport can be beneficial to an entire community in a physical, spiritual, metaphysical, and economic manner.

We know Olympics sport is no longer amateur sport.

We know Olympics sport is NOT always managed properly and it does NOT benefit the community or amateur athletes proportionately.

We know that amateur Canadian athletes training for the Olympics desperately need financial support.

We know that regardless of how much large Olympics sponsors like RBC, HBC, Rona, and others boast, or what they imply, it is obvious they do not provide enough funds for athletes in the Olympics program.

We know that Olympics organizations and their sponsors primarily provide support to elite athletes and those with high promise to win gold medals. The rest are painfully under-funded.

We know that Olympics sponsors are governed by their shareholders, and that shareholders are primarily concerned about making a profit.

We know the bridge to Olympics success for most small companies is via sports related relationships with amateur athletes.

We know small companies have access to funds desperately needed by struggling Olympics athletes.

We know amateur Olympics athletes can provide the exposure a small local company needs in order to raise their visibility locally, nationally, and internationally.

We know Olympics organizations jealously guard their relationships with amateur Olympics athletes, and that before the internet it was not possible for average small companies to create and cost effectively manage relationships with prospective Olympics champions.

We know Olympics organizations are very intimidating, and that they only deal with large companies capable of providing multimillions of dollars in capital funding or "value in kind" trades.

We know the internet has leveled the field in a number of industries, like the music business for example, and that it provides many opportunities for small companies willing to think differently.

We know the internet is a powerful promotion tool capable of easily reaching around the world through social media and citizen journalism strategies.

We know the world is watching Vancouver, and in many cases they are doing it with a very critical eye.

We know the bad news coming from our region related to the Olympics is already having a negative effect on small local businesses and residents.

We know local mainstream news media made a fortune by manufacturing Olympic hype in the first few years after winning the bid, and that they are now going to extraordinary lengths to overcompensate and convince us that they are neutral, and that they did nothing to harm our community.

We know the Vancouver Sun generated incredible revenue selling full page, double spread, color advertising to real estate marketers like Bob Rennie who used the hype of the Olympics to drive property values up to obscene levels.

We know local mainstream news media did not balance real estate advertising with responsible editorial in a timely manner in the very critical period right after the 2010 Olympics Bid was awarded to Vancouver.

We know Vancouver's outrageous real estate prices are not sustainable, and people who overpaid will not realize the return on their investment in a cost effective, timely manner. We also know this cycle occurs in almost all Olympic regions in the free world.

We know speculators made a fortune in Vancouver after the 2010 Bid was won by flipping property at an unprecedented rate.

We know taxes rise in lockstep when property values are artificially inflated, and we know taxes will never decrease when property values level off or fall as they started to do in late 2007.

We know homes are not selling at the rate they were a year ago.

We know "paper millionaire" does not increase your real net worth unless you sell your property and move out of the region.

We know residential property taxes started to rise dramatically as early as 2006 and will continue to do so for at least the next decade in order to pay for the 2010 Olympics.

We know business taxes will also start to rise after the Games leave town and after the promise of foreign companies investing in our region during the peak of Olympics frenzy dissipates.

We know The Vancouver Sun is a paid Olympics booster, and that as of June 2007, their legal obligation and allegiance lies more with the IOC than with our community.

We know it is unethical for a newspaper to partner with Olympics organizations, and that in other industries this type of partnership would be considered illegal under antitrust statutes.

We know land developers generated unprecedented revenue in the first few years after the bid was won while they worked in collusion with local news media to artificially inflate property values, which make it impossible for average people to live in and do business in Vancouver.

We know Olympic regions cultivate a very unique amalgamation of monopoly and oligopoly, which we refer to as a mongopoly.

We know many families and businesses were recently driven out of Vancouver because they can no longer afford to live or do business here.

We know Vancouver schools have closed and are continuing to close because so many people have already left the city due to an extraordinarily high cost of living and doing business.

We know taxes rise astronomically every year with no end in sight.

We know the highway network servicing the Lower Mainland is so poorly planned and archaic that even if you can afford the suburbs it is extremely difficult to commute throughout Vancouver and surrounding areas.

We know public transportation is so poorly developed that taking trains or buses to and from work is ridiculously time consuming and expensive.

We know Vancouver was so poorly planned that there are very few jobs downtown and that people are actually forced to reverse commute to outlying areas to find work.

We know Vancouver has the lowest job pay rates and most expensive house prices in all of Canada.

We know all Canadian taxpayers will pay higher Olympics related taxes so Vancouver developers and news media companies can increase their profits.

We know local news media companies keep information from us that our community needs in order to make intelligent decisions regarding 2010.

We know VANOC works for the IOC and not our community.

We know VANOC denies they are over budget.

We know 2010 is grossly over budget.

We know BC's auditor general reports VANOC is over budget.

We know someone is lying regarding overrun costs.

We know VANOC lures average people to volunteer with very slick and professional "opportunity of a lifetime" pitches, and that they promote it with the same vigor used on multinational companies that invest tens of million of dollars.

We know if you listen to either pitch, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. It's only when you look at the payoff for average people that you realize it's a one way street, and you're walking against traffic.

We know intelligent Volunteers are a cherished lifeblood of society.

We know Olympics organizations like VANOC target the naive.

We know in past Olympics regions organizations like VANOC used deceptive tactics to unfairly lure Volunteers.

We know Olympics organizations have conscripted Volunteers from prisons and welfare lists, but due to terrorism concerns it is now too risky.

We know in past Olympics regions that Volunteers felt so mistreated and frustrated that they quit in overwhelming numbers before they made it through their entire run - Turin 2006 included.

We know Olympics organizations blame Volunteers for the high churn rate and do not take responsibility for their management actions.

We know a large part of the very aggressive Olympics Volunteer screening process is designed to weed out people who volunteer with the intent of sabotaging the Games.

We know drug screening is sometimes part of the Olympics hiring process, and if it were applied to the Volunteer program in Vancouver it could create a serious challenge.

We know in recent past Olympics regions organizations like VANOC had to find three times more volunteers than they said they needed, which means their churn rate was 3:1. At Sydney's 2000 Games, which Olympics organizations boast as being the "Best Games Ever," the churn rate peaked at an astounding 4:1 ratio.

We know news media like The Vancouver Sun are paid well by Olympics organizations like VANOC and the IOC to entice Volunteers.

We know the Olympics Volunteer program is shrouded in secrecy.

We know Olympics Volunteers are purposely misled and that they quit at unprecedented rates due to frustration.

We know Olympics Volunteers are often so disillusioned by their "once in a lifetime" Olympics experience that many never return to or volunteer afterwards for humanitarian agencies like the heart and stroke or cancer foundations. They become permanently jaded.

We know PAID VANOC employees will have part of their wages held back until they complete the entire run. If they quit prematurely, they will not be paid. The system is designed to keep disgruntled employees on the job until the Games are over. They trap workers like this in all Olympics regions, except China of course, where the punishment will likely be much more severe.

We know that 41 construction workers died building Olympics infrastructure in Athens, but we will never know how many will die in China building Beijing 2008.

We know culture is promoted very aggressively by Olympics organizations, and that the IOC put the "cult" into Olympics culture.

We know respected, high-ranking IOC executives have warned the public about Olympics culture and mismanagement, but like cancer, people in host regions never believe it will affect them until it is too late.

We know people in current Olympics host regions always think they are smarter or more aware than people in past Olympics regions.

We know Olympics Volunteers are forced to endure inordinate amounts of time on Wal-Mart style "culture" training.

We know culture training is a form of corporate brainwashing.

We know some Olympic executives have to be deprogrammed when they leave the employ of Olympics organizations so they can fit back into normal business society.

We know some high-ranking VANOC executives have already left or were fired under very mysterious circumstances.

We know Vancouver is a cesspool of political and law enforcement corruption complete with illegal activity and cover-ups.

We know, per capita, Vancouver boasts more millionaires than anywhere in Canada.

We know Vancouver also has the poorest people in all of Canada.

We know average people are being driven out of Vancouver due to high costs.

We know young people will never be able to afford a home in Vancouver.

We know it will get worse before, or more accurately, "if" it gets better.

We know there will be more homeless people in BC during the 2010 Games than there will be athletes. In fact as of December 2007, it is estimated there are already 10,000 homeless in our BC province of 4.4 million. In 2005, the number of homeless was only about 2,200.

We know the scenery surrounding Vancouver is beautiful, but there are not even remotely enough well paying jobs to support the extremely high cost of living caused by 2010 Olympics hype.

We know when the 2010 Olympic Bid was won homelessness increased dramatically in a few short years, and we know it happens like this in almost all Olympics regions. We also know politicians and local news media knew this would happen, but they did nothing to prevent the carnage, in fact, they made it worse in their scramble to improve their political position and net worth.

We know Vancouverites vote for politicians out of desperation and pity, and not due to competence.

We know the Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, was arrested, charged and convicted of drinking and driving while he was in office, and unbelievably was voted back for a second term.

We know BC has the highest rate of drinking and driving in Canada.

We know Vancouver ignores the mentally ill and destitute and forces them to live in third world squalor on the street, and that until 2010 came along, and because most Vancouver residents were struggling with their own economic issues, they didn't care.

We know that for ten plus years BC was considered a "have-not" province, and in all likelihood will be awarded this crown once more due to oppressive taxes driven up by the 2010 Olympics.

We know that the last three Olympics regions never benefited even remotely in the manner they expected after hosting their Games.

We know the primary reason Vancouver residents now care about the homeless and mentally ill is because the world is watching, and journalists like Dan Rather are complaining and making us look like fools.

We know journalists like Dan Rather intimidate local news companies, because journalists like Rather report information local news media hide.

We know the 2010 Olympics is nothing like Expo 86, but that local news media try to convince us it is the same. It is only the same respective of the number of marginalized people it displaces.

We know local news media ignored the plight of Vancouver's poor until blogs like this forced them to report more accurately about what has been swept under the rug for more than twenty years.

We know blogs like OlyBLOG.com and social media sites like Facebook give tremendous power to small companies.

We know Vancouver has more car thefts, house burglaries, and per capita crimes causing bodily harm than any other city in Canada.

We know Vancouver politicians talk about the homeless, but they do little to fix the nightmare unless their back is against the wall and they risk embarrassment.

We know local mainstream news media ignored the overbearing crime rate in Vancouver until the Olympics came along.

We know local mainstream news media now manufacture fear in the community in order to justify spending more on the law enforcement needed to manage Olympics crowds and threats related to terrorism.

We know Vancouver has been a perilous city for a long time, but that local news media have fooled residents and tourists into thinking Vancouver is the most livable city in the world.

We know small business owners hesitate to put pressure on local news media to publish the truth because desperate and struggling small business owners hope and pray that local news media will feature them in an article at some future date.

We know small business owners feel guilty about ignoring their community, but until the internet came along they felt like they had no cost effective options.

We know residents do not want the 2010 Olympics to continue to negatively impact our region.

We know many Vancouver residents are already reaching around the world via the internet to tell family, friends, and colleagues about our very serious 2010 Olympics challenges.

We know if small business owners in Vancouver learn to leverage the internet it will tip the scale and provide them with genuine bargaining power against 2010 Olympics organizations.

We know anti-Olympic related protest will become more violent as 2010 approaches.

We know anti-Olympics protest is very costly to taxpayers and businesses.

We know more illegal drugs are grown, produced, and traded in British Columbia than anywhere else in North America, and that until the Olympics came along local news media, politicians and law enforcement not only ignored it, but in some cases, romanticized and implied Vansterdam was good for our economy.

We know organized crime manages the drug industry, and that they are firmly entrenched and not about to give up their turf without a bloody, bloody fight.

We know innocent Vancouver residents are being murdered in the crossfire.

We know politicians are panicking to clean up the mess they helped create - before 2010 arrives.

We know the recent drug related shootings in restaurants and on Vancouver streets are in large part a direct result of law enforcement putting increased and severe pressure on gangs and their leaders.

We know Olympics sponsors like RBC, HBC, and Rona are generating incredible revenue through their association with 2010, and that small business owners and residents are paying for it.

We know that when the Games are mismanaged, many of the issues listed here occur in all Olympics regions in the free world, but that local news media, politicians, and law enforcement would like residents to believe that none of these issues could be foreseen, and consequently prevented by adopting better and more contemporary Olympics business practices.

We know that Olympics organizations, politicians, and local media purposely infuse false complexity into Games preparations in order to hide their greed and shortcomings. It's not as hard as they make it seem. It it were, regions like Lillehammer or Los Angeles wouldn't be so successful. Not all Olympics events cause the Host residents so much grief.

We know Olympics organizations want Vancouverites to think they are special.

We know Olympic organizations pay universities well for a variety of services.

We know VANOC has convinced local universities to shut down during the Olympics so they can conscript students as Volunteers.

We know that when Vancouver region university students graduating in 2010 realize how the Olympics will negatively impact their last semester they will react swiftly.

We know university students know Facebook and YouTube better than anyone.

We know Olympics sponsors would not get onboard if they knew they had to act responsibly towards our community, so they also pretend these issues do not exist, and they hope residents will not connect them to the carnage.

We know the internet allows anyone to think local and act global.

We know local/global leverage scares Olympics organizations and their sponsors.

We know the IOC remains secretive because they do not want residents to know the Olympics business model is outdated, poorly designed, and often mismanaged.

We know VANOC feels guilty, because they never, adequately address these issues.

We know past residents in Host regions were held hostage by Olympics organizations because residents had no way to cost effectively speak out and voice their concerns.

We know the internet can put incredible pressure on Olympics sponsors to respect our community, and if local news media refuse to protect us, we can now easily and economically reach around the world to show everyone through Facebook and YouTube what is happening in Vancouver.

We know when smart Vancouver and Whistler residents finally understand how hurtful the outdated Olympics business model is to our community, they will not want to contribute to the carnage, and will refuse to volunteer.

We know many Olympics Volunteers quit after only one day on the job.

We know it costs Olympics Volunteers a few thousand dollars each when they take into account; time off work for training and the multiple weeks of service at their assigned posts, transportation to their volunteer positions, the high cost of poor quality food, and also overpriced commune-like accommodations when Volunteers realize it is too hard to travel in a chaotic, security oppressed, and anti-terrorist Olympics region. Olympic organizations do not make it clear enough up front how challenging and expensive it really is and that these expenses are the responsibility of each Volunteer.

We know Olympics organizations like VANOC raid employees from local businesses and leave many small companies without enough employees to operate, which means they sometimes have to shut down their businesses for the entire run of the Games, and do so without notice.

We know anti-terrorist issues erupt at the last minute, which causes the military to force businesses to close in the vicinity of Olympics facilities or on major routes, sometimes for the entire run of the Games.

We know business owners are never compensated when they are forced to close, whether it is due to terrorist threat or the building of Olympics related facilities and infrastructure. Businesses on Cambie are perfect examples.

We know businesses owners sleep on their premises throughout the entire run of the Games in order to protect their property because it is impossible to hire private security.

We know thousands of people clashed in very violent protest on the streets in Athens during the Olympics in 2004, but that news media failed to report it in a responsible timely manner.

We know, that except in very rare one-time situations manufactured for news media, Volunteers are never given FREE tickets to the Olympic events they actually want to attend.

We know, that except in very rare one-time situations manufactured for news media, Volunteers are never provided an opportunity to PURCHASE good tickets to Olympic events they want to attend.

We know that without Volunteers, Olympics organizations will have to ask sponsors like RBC, HBC, and Rona to provide more funds to manage the Games. Unfortunately, we know sponsors very rarely, if ever, give more to help struggling regions. So instead, VANOC will go to the government for more tax money at the eleventh hour - which is exactly what happened at the last three Olympic Games.

We know our governments will never allow Canada, BC, or Vancouver/Whistler to be embarrassed on a world stage, so consequently they will give VANOC more tax money regardless of the amount requested.

We know sponsors like RBC, HBC, and Rona make a fortune as a result of their association with the Games, but that they are hesitant to invest more funds into the program because it raises the ire of their shareholders.

We know when shareholders see dividends drop, they sell their shares. When they dump their shares the value of the stock decreases.

We know that aware and informed people do not consider it as prestigious as it was in the past to be recognized as an Olympics sponsor.

We know it is not as cool as it used to be to walk around with an Olympics logo on your t-shirt, nor is it safe, especially in the Host country.

We know many large corporations cannot be trusted. Conrad Black and partner David Radler, former owners and publishers of the Vancouver Sun respectively, are perfect recent examples.

We know local residents pay the greatest price for the Olympics, but they do not benefit in the manner they were led to believe during the bid.

We know it is unethical, and in some cases, immoral, and maybe even illegal to hide Olympics related information from residents and Volunteers.

We know Vancouver residents are smart enough to figure all this out before it is too late. Actually, we don't know. The best we can do is hope.

We know international magazines mistakenly report that Vancouver is the most livable city in the world, and we also know many Vancouver citizens strenuously disagree, especially those forced to leave due to high taxes, inflated property values, and low paying jobs, which we happen to have more of per capita than anywhere else in Canada.

We know federal and provincial governments, which are Olympic partners, will not move proactively unless they are embarrassed on the world stage.

We know municipal governments, which are also Olympic partners, get stuck in the middle due to lack of political sophistication, naivety - and of course, personal greed.

We know Carole Taylor does not want to be the Vancouver mayor during the 2010 Games partially because it would be a nightmare to adopt the mess current mayor Sam Sullivan helped create. Considering she's currently British Columbia's Finance Minister, she knows how to add, and 2010 does not add up.

We know Vancouver's homeless, drug, and crime issues already embarrass the federal government, and that is why we have so much turmoil in our community. They are trying to fix everything in a rush.

We know getting anything done in a rush is extremely expensive.

We know social media, citizen journalism, crowd sourcing, and blogs will evolve to maturity just as the 2010 Olympics go live.

We know YouTube and Facebook are powerful tools anyone can leverage.

We know if they play their cards right, for the first time in history, Vancouver's 2010 Olympics Host region residents will wield more control over the Olympics than the IOC, their partners, and sponsors combined.

We know that residents with a global voice in a Host region scare Olympics organizations more than anything except terrorism. The IOC has decades of experience easily managing protest, as evidenced at Eagleridge Bluffs, or regarding the violent protest respective of the homeless on the Downtown Eastside, but they cannot handle the truth when it's broadcast on YouTube and Facebook.

We know if you have to pay for 2010, you should benefit too.

We know you can do it if you think differently.

"We know" means, we have documented evidence to back up the statements in this article. If you doubt anything we state here, please email us and we'd be glad to elaborate.

Talk to us before you talk to them ...
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