I just got back from the Nathan Philip Square where my friends and I waited 1.5 hours for the Olympic torch to arrive. Although I have nothing against the games, I find it interesting and odd how little I really care. Yes, we have the games where a bunch of people compete and countries win medals and people break records. So what? I mean, other than “comparing sizes”, what else is this good for. Okay, it’s an entertainment event, which is completely fine by me. In fact, it’s an awesome event after all, it’s fun to watch when it happens. It keeps many athletes busy and keeps a lot of people employed (or just busy). It keeps nations inspired!

Is there more to Olympic Games than an event that draws crows and cheers people up, gives them a reason to be happy for a bit, gives them a reason to feel proud about their athletes and their country? Well yes, of course there is! it’s an event where a ton of companies can put up their advertising on everything that stands and moves! Tonight, while freezing in the cold for 1.5 hours because the torch was … *drum rolls* … stuck in traffic, I probably heard “RBC” and “Coca-Cola” more often than I heard “Canada” or “friendship” or “unity”, and all words that in my mind the games should be all about.

While waiting in line I got a free Coke and some other useless promotional junk that will end up in the dumpster tomorrow morning. Is all this necessary? I definitely saw people who were running around in search for that free coke as if it was a hockey gold medal. There were people getting canadian flags (with Coca-Cola label about 5 times bigger than the flag itself). I had people ask me where I got a coke bottle that was flashing colors as if it was really “all that cool”. [I really just got the bottle cuz I was curios].

Maybe it’s sad and people might say I am cynical, but in reality I am much less interested in games than I am in the mechanism that creates them. Tonight I didn’t care if I saw the guy with the torch, but when “I Gotta Feeling” started playing on the square, I was really curios to know if it was the city who was paying the artist to play the song, or it was the artist’s producer paying the city.

It is late and I don’t want to keep writing right now. In summary, the human kind always needed an equivalent of olympic games. I am not much of a historian, but to name a few there were gladiators, witch hunts, executions, … tv! …etc. We people need entertainment to feel up our free time. I just don’t like spending all my free time on those things. There are certainly some that I like, but even those are only good when they are rare! Isn’t there something actually meaningful for us to work on?