"Your games - our games - fair games"
When: Friday, 10 May 2013, 15.45-17.15
Where: NH Eurobuilding Hotel, Calle Padre Damián 23, Madrid (Room "Dublin")
Moderator: Jaqueline Cremers, EGP Secretary General
Participation: that is what the Olympic games are all about. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic games will be highly innovative expression of the spirit of modern Russia, and will bring sustainable positive change to the whole country, according to the online introduction. However, environmental degradation is taken place. Landowners have been displaced. Many people have been displaced from their land, from their gardens and houses for the Olympic buildings. They have been evicted for ridiculous compensation, or in some cases forcibly relocated.
Even before the games have started they hold a new record. They will be the most expensive Olympic Games the world has ever seen. At least 25% of the costs are due to corruption - very dirty business.
There is also the geopolitical side to the games, with Chechnya and Dagestan are just around the corner. Because of this, security needs will be high. There will probably be very limited opportunities for the public to participate in the whole event. Anyone who looks caucasian will be under suspicion - particularly the indigenous population, but also construction workers who built the site. Those who are classified as public risks will not only excluded from public events - they could be forbidden to leave their houses. The opposite of the idea of a free and open games.
