So, the Olympics are cool, and for once we finally have some decent coverage. CTV (the non-government owned Canadian National Network) is running the coverage, and its really good. They have multiple networks (which they run/own) broadcasting multiple events, different feeds, etc. There's a wide variety of events shown, and rightly so, being a Winter Olympics in Canada.

Although the amount of negative press/coverage that is out there about the Olympics is pretty funny. Granted, some of the sources for this negative press are suspect, but yeah, its still there. The ones that really get me are the following:

1. The brand of "Worst Olympics Ever" due to the death of the Georgian Athlete and the hydraulic failure of the indoor cauldron during the opening ceremonies. Well. I won't disagree or downplay the tragedy of the training accident. That was pretty brutal. What was more brutal was the media's coverage of it, with many outlets showing the last moments of this poor athlete as his head bounced off the steel beam at 90 mph. That sickening "boing" noise stayed with me for a few days. This is what I don't understand: they show someone colliding with a steel beam at 90 MPH continuously, and then they'll freak the minute there's verbal profanity or the slightest bit of partial nudity. I suppose if it makes news, the rules don't matter. The hydraulic failure of the cauldron goes into the "shit happens" column of the potential things that could have gone wrong. I would like to see a full list of "Olympic Glitches" that have occurred in the recent Olympics, and then compare notes with Vancouver.

But anyways, in terms of "Worst Olympics Ever", the current ones have a LONG way to go. There's a few memorable Olympics that stand out in my mind as markedly worst. Munich with the eleven athletes murdered and Atlanta with the terrorist attack. Realistically, this isn't the first Luge-related death at an Olympics either. But whatever, this is looking more like a "Oh, the Olympics aren't in the USA, therefore its crap" syndrome of the US-based media.

Heaven help us if we show the slightest iota of national pride.. lol.

2. The major outcry about the "lack of winter" in Vancouver. Holy hell. Vancouver doesn't "see" winter half the time. I think this is being blown out of proportion, especially with the trucking/shipping of snow into Cypress Mountain. Talk to anyone that is an avid skier that gets around in BC. They'll laugh and say: "Cypress has a two-week season some years". Hmm... it seems like the choice of venues is to blame here. Why isn't the freestyle isn't happening at a venue that's guaranteed snow.. like Whistler? Oh well, bad planning.

3. The protests. Wow. People protesting things like tarsands oil at the Olympics. Talk about complaining about the wrong thing at the wrong place. Yes. The tarsands are environmentally bad. That's a point I won't even remotely consider arguing against. However, I think the people that continually call for the reduction/stoppage of oilsands production in Northern Alberta simply do not understand the simple economics of the situation.

You stop the oilsands, Alberta goes broke as a province. Its THAT simple. Period. What people do not understand, especially the environmentalists that are too concerned about digging up skewed facts that just strengthen their argument, rather than understanding all sides of the situation, is that the majority of Alberta's Provincial Revenues, the actual money that runs the province, are oilsands royalties. Not to mention that a large amount of Albertans work in the oilsands, oilpatch and related services/industries whose livelihoods would be instantly crushed. Pair that, with the reduction of social programs and rampant government cutbacks, and suddenly every Albertan gets affected. The only "have" province, supporting all the others through transfer payments is on the verge of being a "have not" province.

Still not convinced? Well, lets look at the numbers. The government's revenues are directly tied to the price of oil and the US/CAN dollar conversion rate. High price of oil, and low Canadian Dollar, suddenly you have ridiculous revenues. Its to the point where they've actually calculated the revenue loss per $0.001 gain in conversion rate vs the US dollar at $225 million. Before the economic downturn in the US began, there was a point where the government, essentially run by blindfolded monkeys, had multi-billion dollar surpluses. Let me put this in perspective. A province/state of just over 3 million people had something in the order of an 8 billion dollar budget surplus. For the majority of the downturn, while jobs were being cut left right and centre everywhere BUT Alberta, we were in a worker shortage. You could not find workers to work at McDonalds. People working at Tim Hortons in Ft MacMurray (Oilpatch) were reported of making upwards of $30/hour. Then.. oil started to drop, Canadian Dollar started gaining relative strength. Suddenly, the revenue stream dried up, and we started to feel the effects of the recession. Oilpatch layoffs, Gov't cutbacks, and retail jobs/stores dissappearing are common place. Going from multi-billion dollar surpluses, now the provincial gov't is going to run a multi-billion dollar deficit. Nice.

Now, I won't downplay, nor argue the environmental impact of the tarsands. The University that I work at essentially has a whole Faculty (more or less) funded by oil companies attempting to reduce the environmental impact of the oil processing. Nobody's arguing the fact that there's positive change that needs to occur.

But you know, apparently that's not good enough for the protesters, the majority of which most likely have no ties to Alberta whatsoever. Environmentalism at the cost of the livelihoods of many and the well being of 3.5 million plus people is apparently acceptable for these people. Good to know someone values the life of a duck moreso than my well being.

I have no problem with people expressing their views, in fact, I encourage it. I just wish people would think more about a situation as a whole, rather than taking narrow minded, one dimensional views. Oh well. Environmentalism seems to be just another way to be selfish.

(Edited for my horrible late night grammar. Damn you Candidacy Documentation!)