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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
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The Undisputed Truth

Viewing Posts Tagged "gentrification"   View All

SURPRISE! You're homeless!


April 01, 2008 | Tags: Beijing Olympics, gentrification, displacement, Tibet

I urge every one of you to read the following article by Erica Bulman, AP Sports Writer, that appeared on USA Today. Seriously.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2007-06-05-3431055449_x.htm

The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions in Geneva reported that a whopping 1.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their residences in order to make room for structures that will be a part of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. That’s nearly three times the population of the District of Columbia. That means every single citizen of D.C., multiplied by three, is suddenly homeless. With little to no advance warning and compensation from the government severely lacking.

What the fuck kind of Olympics is this?

Mind you, this is no new thing. The 1988 games in Seoul displaced over 700,000 people. And the motives for this as far as the government is concerned are rather obvious. The Olympics generates a tremendous amount of tourism to that area, and what do tourists have? Money.

C.R.E.A.M., bitches! Dollar-dollar-yuan, y’all.

……………

It’s so cliché, but damn if money really isn’t the root of all evil. Sure, good deeds can be done with money, but in the human nature which is so magnificently summarized by Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” phrase, why do good deeds for others when you could do good deeds for yourself? Seems like genetically we’re all a bunch of selfish bastards at times, huh? I’ll admit, we all have our moments. Myself included (*looks at my Coach bag sitting next to me*). But this…this is taking things a bit too far.

China, of course, is denying the accusations. They claim only 6,000 and some change have relocated, and all have received monetary compensation for doing so. And not one of them was forced to do so. Hm.

But how do you believe that statement when the Chinese Communist Party has been torturing and killing Tibetan monks? Monks! Not to mention the forced sterilization of Tibetan women with no anesthetic aside from aspirin.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/my-tibet-secret-report-from-the-roof-of-the-world-802630.html

Of course there are the people who will read this, and then just forget about it an hour or so later since it’s not happening right in front of their faces. To those, I say, remember the Olympic games in Atlanta in 1996? 30,000 displaced, public housing units demolished, and homelessness criminalized. And yeah, I’m talking about the ATL, shawty. Atlanta fucking Georgia.

So that’s what it has come to? The Olympics turning into an excuse to speed up the gentrification process in large cities across the globe? Surely there has to be a better way to host the Olympics. And an even better question is why none of the Western, oh-so-righteous democratic governments such as our own are taking a stand against this. Hell, we can’t even get Cuban cigars in America because of their ties to the Red, but we won’t help out monks that the same type of regime that we claim to despise so much is torturing?

Nobody said America wasn’t hypocritical though. Hello there, Saudi Arabia! We haven’t forgotten about you. How you been? Still chopping off hands and holding public beheadings? Aw, it’s all good, just keep the oil coming!

I’m straying from my point. The “glory” and “unity” of the Olympics is really hard to notice when atrocities are being committed in the name of the games. 1.5 million. Not to mention the culture of the city that is lost when that many homes are demolished. Insane. Spread the word.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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