If there are two things we should be able to rely on as great equalisers, it’s music and sports. With the Paris Olympics we’ve been able to take a (very short) break from the shitshow that’s going on around the world. Still nice to see all this camaraderie and healthy competition between nations.
In the past century, the Summer Olympics have gone on with the exception of 1940 and 1944 for obvious reasons. In 1948, London was called upon at the last minute to host as we saw that the world was ready to get back into the spirit of competition despite some of the darkest years in history.
In 2012 that honour was London’s again and what a games it was. The city felt so energised.
Years of preparation and endless reports of overspending culminated in one of the most successful games in history, not just for British athletes but for viewers around the world too.
You always wonder how these things are going to go with a number of past games setting their host cities’ economies back years. Athens, Rio and Beijing come to mind. Sure, China doesn’t really care if it has a few billion quid worth of stadiums not being used.
We worried the capital, like other cities, wouldn’t adapt after the Games — but things turned around
Athens went bankrupt in no small part due to the Games. Many of Rio’s arenas and stadiums are no longer fit for use, loads of prefab houses abandoned around the Olympic village.
A lot of us were worried London wouldn’t adapt after the Games and for a year or so it looked like that was going to be the case, but things turned around. West Ham took over the athletics stadium, other arenas have been repurposed, the park is as popular as ever and even the village was refitted into thousands of much-needed apartments. It seems that from now onwards the host cities will be looking at sustainability and practicality over spending going forward, which is great to see.
Promote the culture of your city and people while also celebrating the spirit of healthy competition, different cultures and unity. I think that’s what London did so well. Not only was it one of the most attended Games in history, all the doubts and worries many of us were perhaps feeling in the lead up to the event disappeared as soon as it started. It really felt like the whole country managed to come together in probably the last great unifying event we’ve had as a nation. That doesn’t mean it has to be the last one ever though.
Now look… I have no words for what we’ve been seeing happen this past week. And I’m rarely speechless but I’ll try to say something. Certain publications and politicians have been sowing hatred against minorities for years.
One minute “they’re taking all our jobs”, the next “they’re lazy and don’t work”. Which is it?! Those sort of headlines feed the anger and it’s now culminating in this heinous rioting and acts of terrorism the far-Right are enacting.
I understand the despair people in these towns are feeling, I understand that they feel forgotten. But to be clear — this is not the fault of people of colour, it’s not the fault of immigrants. You’ve been made to feel like it is by people with far more power than you and I and they’re the ones we simply can’t let off the hook.
As the formative dance track Jack’s House says, once you enter my house, it then becomes our house. The only way we are going to get through this is with unity.
Through chaos, perhaps there’s an opportunity for the birth of greatness. Acid house was born at a time when the youth were desperate, when riots were happening up and down the country. House music, that we all enjoy every day, was born out of oppression of black and queer communities.
All hope is not lost here. Hatred never wins. Eventually love will pull through. Whether it’s literal or a metaphor, we will dance together again.
Track of the week: Promised Land — Joe Smooth
