Podcast 5: 「反オリンピック」デモ “No Olympics Anywhere!” protest

元の記事：https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/olympics-tokyo-protest-fukushima/

TITLE: In Tokyo, international activists demand 需要（じゅよう）する “no olympics anywhere”

DATE: July 26 2019

Summary 記事のまとめ

At a press conference in July 2019 Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, announced the one-year countdown to the 2020 Olympics. Surrounded by Japan’s political elite, Bach said, “In these fractured times, the Olympic Games are the only thing that brings the world together in healthy competition.”

“You will see a great economic impact…the Games “will contribute 300 billion US dollars [to the Japanese economy] by 2030.”

Prime Minister Abe called the 2020 Olympics the “Recovery Games,” – recovering from the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima – but conspicuously, none of the many speakers said the words “nuclear” or “meltdown” when discussing why “recovery” was needed.

Outside the building, a demonstration told another story…Activists from Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and PyeongChang (in South Korea) (all these cities are former and future Olympic hosts)….protested with drums, a trumpet, and an eardrum-bursting sound system. They chanted, “No Olympics Anywhere!”

They are raising their voices against the debt, displacement, and militarization of the Olympic Games.

Later that day, hundreds of activists came together in Shinjuku—an area of Tokyo synonymous with glitzy consumerism—for a raucous demonstration that filled the streets with drums and chants…then…around a thousand protesters stomped through the neon-lit scrum of shoppers, many of whom waved and chanted in support. Others averted their glance.

This coming together of people from different countries marks a new chapter in the movement against the harm too often caused by the Olympic Games.

Hey Saimon what do you think?　私に勝手な一コメントいわせていただければ・・・

I think the Olympics is just designed to make money for rich people – the construction companies, advertisers and sponsors get rich. Most athletes make very little money, the people who live in the Olympic city have no say in how their city is used, and we spectators see the advertising and buy the products

Sport is supposed to be healthy, but Coca-cola is a very big Olympic sponsor even tho it is very bad for our health.

In my internet searches for this episode I found a book “Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games” – Disaster Capitalism is 惨事便乗型資本主義, so Celebration Capitalism is お祝い資本主義…”public-private partnerships in which the public pays and the private profits”

And of course now we have to think about Covid-19….My opinion is that we should concentrate on keeping people safe and healthy, whereas I think the Olympics is about making profit…