One of the best alternative news sites, especially for Canadians, is Straight Goods, run out of a small Eastern Ontario town by Ish Theilheimer, whom I remember best as a former NDP candidate in the federal Renfrew North riding many years ago.
Straight Goods is a mixture of original stories, columns and links to like-minded columnists and stories. Linda McQuaig is a regular contributor, which alone makes it worth the weekly visit.
This week, McQuaig takes on the Olympics (Olympian hype obscures downsides of hosting games). The piece is definitely worth reading as a reality check against the hysteria that has resulted from the IOC decision to award the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver-Whistler (Maclean's Magazine even has a special "commemorative edition" in honour of Vancouver being awarded the Games for God's sake!). McQuaig notes:
The real downside of hosting the Olympics is simply that a great deal of public money and energy will be invested in creating things like facilities for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions.
It's probably good for a city to have such facilities. But is it better to have them than to have, say, great universities, schools, libraries, parks, museums, hospitals?
With the Campbell government in the process of slashing B.C.'s public sector by 30 per cent - a campaign that will only intensify as deficits grow -- it may well come down to this sort of choice.
But please, read it for yourself. And send Straight Goods a contribution - they deserve it.
Posted by wetcoast at July 10, 2003 04:08 PM