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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy I Won't Be Watching The Olympics
By Sergei L. Loiko
February 6, 2014, 5:00 p.m.
SOCHI, Russia Half a mile away, thousands of people waved flags, held balloons and cheered Thursday as the Olympic torch passed by. Nina Toromonyan stood in the gray rubble that remains of her home and cried.
She recalled her elation in 2007 when her city was selected to host this year's Olympic Winter Games. She imagined that wonderful things were coming. She didn't think that riot police would throw 13 family members out of their three-story home to make way for a new highway two miles away. The compensation they received wasn't enough to reestablish themselves, she said.
"There is nothing I hate so much as these Olympic Games, which made me and my family a miserable bunch of bums," said the small, frail 63-year-old.
Yuri Maryan, head of Sochi's nongovernmental anti-corruption coalition, said dozens of people suffered similar fates in the years leading to the Olympics, which open Friday. Legislation known as Law 301 allowed the seizure and demolition of privately owned plots of land and buildings in preparation for the Games. It never took into account the consequences for people living in Sochi, he said.
"It was a very Soviet way of doing things: anything for a noble purpose," Maryan said. "Given the ample corruption around this theme, the project became a disaster for many families."
Toromonyan said the police showed up Oct. 23 wearing black masks and armed with Kalashnikovs and clubs. They pushed and kicked everybody out of the house at gunpoint.
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http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-sochi-dark-side-20140207,0,1802689.story#ixzz2seUpzZRM
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)compete there. The world needs to know the hate and suffering that is going on there amid the games.
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)mostly cause sports bore me.
I usually watch the opening ceremonies, but I'm not feeling it this time.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)If it was the Summer Olympics, I would be watching it.
William769
(55,145 posts)JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Did see some footage of a guy on the luge who fell off his sled but got back on and finished race unhurt. A friend posted it on facebook. I imagine that's how I'll see any of it. Interesting, amazing things will happen and those will get posted on the internet.
Other than that, I won't see the Olympics.
Julie
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)The only winter sport I care about is snowboarding...and that's something I do, not something I watch.
Well, that and I don't watch television! And can't be bothered to find an online stream...
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)All of this to sell soda pop and cereal.