To the Editor:
The Occupy movement is missing its greatest chance to protest and have most of us agree.
Unfortunately, the trans-national movement is so entranced with its own self-importance that nobody camping in various parks and public spaces can articulate anything beyond some fatuous drivel about representing the 99 per cent of the people.
Should any of the so-called protesters take their heads out of their own bums long enough to look around they would discover, right in front of them, the true irony of the moment - socialism for the rich.
The phrase, used by politicians, preachers and professors, has a long history, ignored by mainstream media and corporate tycoons. The simplest definition was given by Michael Real of Royal Roads University in an essay concerning the Vancouver Olympic Games. He wrote:" In North America, sports and sports media have become huge industries with professional franchises, players and broadcasters enjoying vast incomes - sports franchises move or threaten to move from city to city and, through the competitive effect can demand that cities build $500 million facilities with taxpayers' money to house the privately-owned teams, a form of socialism for the rich."
And so we come to Edmonton (Calgary will likely soon follow when the lease is up on the Saddledome in 2014) and the city's commitment to build a downtown arena for the Edmonton Oilers. The process of selling this socialism to the people will be couched in terms of community and downtown revitalization. The latter at least is true, as anyone who's been in downtown Edmonton lately can attest. But whose community is being served?
From the Occupy Wall Street to the Occupy A Public Park and Have a Party, the true sin of untrammeled capitalism is staring all of them in the face.
They can't see it. They can only see their own puny arguments about whatever it is they can whine about with impunity. Homelessness is a good one. So is the obscene amount of money "earned" by the fat cats they claim to abhor. So, too, the more-than-obscene gap between the have-nots and the have-everything - not the top one per cent, but the top one per cent of that one per cent.
This is worthy of mention because if one looks at the global economy, I'm in the top one per cent. Sadly, in order to achieve that lofty status one must factor in the annual salary of a few million sub-Saharan Africans who are in the process of starving to death. So those kinds of statistics are skewed.
What isn't skewed is the blatant bullying by professional sports teams and their wealthy owners to have you, me, and all those Occupy protesters pay for their toys.
The Occupy movement is largely silent. I refuse to be, although I have little stake in the outcome, having foregone the dubious pleasure of going to a hockey game in favour of the comfort of my own chesterfield and a drink not served in a plastic cup. That didn't stop me from writing about it last year, when there were musings about the federal government subsiding sports palaces for privately-owned teams. (The only ones who could make a good argument for tax dollars are the three CFL teams owned by their communities: the Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.)
All the others, including all the Canadian NHL teams are owned by private concerns, from the conglomerates that own the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs, to Daryl Katz who owns the Oilers and Eugene Melnyk, the Ottawa Senators.
There is no public reason for their fortunes to be enhanced and the pleasures and business tax write-offs of corporate luxury box owners to be encouraged through the use of my tax dollars.
Here is a real chance for the unfocused to make a difference - protest providing luxury for the rich.
This isn't the first time such socialism - in the face of which true socialists, those committed to the common weal shudder - has been foisted on the 99 per cent.
The most damning definition comes from journalist John Pilger in his 2009 acceptance speech of Australia's top human rights award: "Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor... This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food."
The Occupiers want something to protest? Here's a target. No need to thank me, just clean up after yourselves.
Catherine Ford, Troy Media Corporation.
