Report back from the Kingston Fauxlympics

dawn — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:36:38 +0000

Olympics awareness week raises questions about colonialism, corporations

The Fauxlympics was a part of Kingston Resist 2010's Olympics Awareness Week. It was neighbourhood event in downtown's Skeleton Park that used games to teach children and parents about the 2010 Olympics.

To start we walked around the park with a burning torch collecting kids to play. Our first game was a multiple choice game, where the kids ran towards an adult holding an A, B, C, or D sign.

There were questions about the Indigenous land the Olympics were on, the environmental destruction in BC, the various tools of repression, and Olympic history.

After the question, "How much of BC is legally Native land? 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or almost all?", was answered "almost all", we heard a parent loudly proclaim, "I didn't know that!". Well, now you do, and the next step is to do something about it.

We held a sea to sky highway relay race where trees were mowed down, mountains were removed and a road was rolled out. The corporate sponsor punching bag was popular and the tug of war, with corporate interests vs people had the most participants. The kids who represented the 'people' were able to over-come the adult organizers who represented the 'corporate sponsors' by their superior numbers and determination.

The last event, the Capture the Torch, had a torch-bearer protected by 'riot-police' with garbage can shields and foam tube truncheons. It was a fun cat-and-mouse kind of game that proved, unless you are a well co-ordinated crew, even a few 8 -year olds can successfully hold you off - so plan accordingly.

Hot chocolate, free apples and candy prizes were appreciated by all.

In this writer's opinion, north Kingston is ripe for radical organizing, and people are desperate for events for kids.

Matt Silburn

Report back from the Kingston Fauxlympics