No Time for the Olympics?

On Monday, February 12th, there will be exactly 1,095 days (three years) remaining until the 2010 Olympics. To mark the occasion, a Vancouver 2010 "countdown clock" will be publicly unveiled in front of the art gallery (Hornby and Georgia) at noon. This looks to be the event of the month.

There's a countdown clock press conference to be held at 11:15 at the Fairmont Hotel. Slated to speak are Stephen Urquhart, president of Omega Clocks ("the official Olympic clockmaker"), Peter Huerzeler of Swiss Timing and John Furlong, a Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) CEO. Apparently, they will be speaking about how thrilling this new clock is. According to a press release, the clock will be emblazoned with "Canadian and West Coast themes." Cringe.

Media accreditation is required to record and/or film the "event," and I've already missed the deadline. Although an hour-long propaganda-filled press conference about a clock doesn't sound like the most thrilling way to spend lunch hour, I'm going to go to this. Something interesting has to happen. The journalists forced to cover this have to amuse themselves somehow, right?

Also of note: A group calling themselves the Anti-Olympic Coalition have promised to protest the clock unveiling. The group is comprised of members of No One is Illegal, the Anti-Poverty Committee and the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association (DERA) among others. It's a little hard to read their poster in the photo above, but their main beefs (?) appear to be how the city is dealing with homelessness and poverty in the lead up to the Games, environmental destruction as a result of pre-Games construction and something about Squamish that is illegible as the poster wraps around a pole. This image comes courtesy of Sillygwailo and was found on a Vancouver Olympics Protest flickr page.

My curiosity is piqued. I want to see what else the Anti-Olympic Coalition is up to.

Oh, I should also mention that the Honourable David Emerson, the Honourable Gordon Campbell and Sam Sullivan will be speaking in reverent tones about the clock at the unveiling. A number of Olympic athletes will be traveling in tow, including skeleton Silver Medalist Jeff Pain. If I had to participate in an Olympic Games, I think I would choose skeleton as my sport of choice too.