Homelessness and the Olympics. Cause and effect?

I found an article that is relevant to both this weeks lecture on homelessness, and the overall theme of state control, colonialism, and imperialism.



According to network member and blogger Gord Hill: "The Olympics have a long history of association with fascists, colonialists and authoritarian regimes ... Since the 1980s they've displaced over three million people and contributed to massive increases in homelessness, as we've seen in Vancouver."



Check it out, let me know what you think...

http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Louder+madder+more+prepared+Here+come+protesters/2466810/story.html

Cowboys and Indians

Cowboys and Indians

        In my grade ten history class, I was required to learn about the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Our class decided to focus on the Mohawks, who were known as the warriors. The textbook told stories of the Mohawks fighting neighbouring bands and even fighting their own people at times. The picture the textbook painted was simple: the Mohawks were a “savage”, violent group of people who could not control themselves. Of course, what the textbook left out was the fact that much of this “savage” behaviour was due to the onset of European colonialism. The reasoning behind the violent dispute is not important, however. As a nation, we turn a blind eye to the truths of our past, and instead focus on the story we are taught as a child; the white people came to save the “primitive”, indigenous population from themselves.

        Michael Yellow Bird describes such stories as the one above as a master narrative (2004). Yellow Bird explains that such stories depict Indians as “savages”, who cannot control their behaviour. This story also emphasizes the Cowboy’s defeat over the Indians in past battles. In the United States Army for example, the term “Indian Country” is used to describe hostile territory (Silliman, 2008). The use of this term by the
American Army is used to describe “hostile, unpacified territories in active war zones” (Silliman, 2008). One could ask why the American Army uses such a degrading term like “Indian Country” to explain war tactics, in areas such as Vietnam and Iraq which do not have a substantial Native American Population. Silliman suggests that through the story of Cowboys and Indians, American soldiers and the general population alike have come to understand any enemy as the Indian, whom they must conquer and defeat (Silliman, 2008). By using this term to describe hostile enemy ground, “Indian Country” suggests that Native Americans remain the American enemy. As Yellow Bird (2004) illustrated with the Cowboys and Indians childhood “toys of genocide”, children are taught from a young age that the cowboys are superior to the Indians, identifying themselves as the cowboy who always survives, defeating the Indian.