Olympic Park 2012

London’s image has been tainted this week by evenings of rioting and looting in parts of the city. There were other copy cat outbreaks in Manchester, and other cities but focusing on London, these areas did not all have affluent businesses or large name high street stores. Naturally, the analysis of the demonstrations turned to the eighties when parts of the country, such as Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham and London were hit for 6 weeks by unrest, but the roots of those movements are well understood whereas the disturbances here seem less clearly motivated and more opportunistic than idealistic. In any case the whole event, which has cooled off, seemed to be self-harming rather than a cry for change since right now what we need is to build new opportunities and the right environment for a succesful future. Most Brits are of course trying to do that. I’d say that anyone coming to London or any other UK venue for the Olympics should not be put off by what the have seen, and I’m going to try to create some new catergories in the run up to the games to give some advice and ideas about where to go, how to get there etc. and what to see.

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