London 2012 sponsors fuel obesity epidemic

McDonald’s Official Olympic Restaurant promo Coca-Cola

Obesity Games Infographic

Yesterday the Zil Lanes in London came into force. The result the predicted gridlock.

• The grind begins: Day one of Olympic ‘Games Lanes’ and motorists are caught in huge tailbacks despite just a quarter of VIP routes being operational

Tomorrow the Games officially open.

The UK is facing an epidemic of childhood obesity.

• Seven-year-olds are eating on average half a kilo of sugary food a day
• one in three children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school

What message does it send out when two of the main sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics are Coca-Cola and McDonald’s?

Independent caterers at Olympic venues are forced to have their stands look like fast food outlets, have Coca-Cola plastered everywhere and McDonald’s dictates what may and may not be on the menu!

• Olympic Food Branding

Today I noticed bus shelters plastered with posters informing those waiting for a bus or passing by that McDonald’s is the Official Restaurant for the London 2012 Olympics.

Is this some kind of sick joke? What message does it send on quality food in London?

Stuff yourself with junk food, slurp a Coke and you will be given an official Coca-Cola glass and an official Coca-Cola wristband.

Is this meant to make some fat kid stuffing his face with a Big Mac and slurping on a Coke athletic?

The government claims the London 2012 Olympics will leave a sporting legacy.

The closest we will see to that sporting legacy is fat kids sporting a Coca-Cola wristband.

Does Heathrow have big signs saying Welcome to Airstrip One, with Big Bother looking down?

The sponsorship from these companies amounts to less than 10% of the cost of mounting the London 2012 Games, and yet it has given them a global platform from which to promote their junk food and sweetened syrup.

McDonald’s has been allowed to build what they claim is the world’s biggest fast food restaurant within the Olympic Park, Coca-Cola expects to sell 23 million drinks.

It is the public who are providing the majority of the £1.4 billion cost of the Games not the sponsors, and yet is is the public who are being screwed, it is the public who are picking up the bill for an epidemic of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. Such is the obscenity of corporate sponsorship of the London 2012 Games.

The Children’s Food Campaign has issued a damning report titled The Obesity Games.

Checkout the Obesity Games Infographic.

• London 2012: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadbury given ‘unrivalled platform’ to promote unhealthy brands at Olympics
• Olympics attacked for fast food and fizzy drink links
• How to safeguard your investment in saturated fat
• Fructose sweet white and deadly
• The Men Who Made Us Fat (1 of 3)
• The Men Who Made Us Fat (2 of 3)
• The Men Who Made Us Fat (3 of 3)

Obscene tax breaks for Olympic sponsors

coca-cola is bad for your health

London 2012: Official food McDonald’s. Official drink Coca-Cola. Official chocolate Cadbury’s. Official diseases obesity and type 2 diabetes.

McDonald’s do not just serve junk food, they dodge UK tax.

• How to safeguard your investment in saturated fat

Adidas do not just source their consumer junk from sweatshops, they dodge UK tax.

• Adidas worker exploitation for London 2012 Olympics

Coca-Cola do not just serve sweet sugary syrup laced with high fructose corn syrup, pollute drinking water in India, engage in human rights abuses in Latin America, they dodge UK tax.

• Fructose sweet white and deadly
• Belching Out the Devil

What do all three have in common apart from dodging UK tax?

All three are high profile sponsors of the unwanted London 2012 Olympic Games.

Imagine seeing the headline of this article on the front of your paper in the final countdown to the Olympic opening ceremony. As the eyes of the world focus on London, this is the perfect opportunity to expose the greed of the corporate sponsors who will be dodging tax during the games.

The UK’s winning Olympic bid included huge tax breaks for sponsors. As a result, massive multi-nationals like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Adidas stand to make a tax-free fortune. The UK could be losing tens of millions in this tax swindle.

Public pressure has forced McDonald’s to forego their tax windfall. Whether they can be believed or trusted is another matter and it is no excuse to now eat at McDonald’s.

Now it is the turn of Coca-Cola. They’ll be supersizing their profits at the Olympics, expecting to sell 23 million drinks. There are many reasons not to drink Coke, obesity and type 2 diabetes to name but two, but let us also make sure that they’re paying their tax.

If signatures on a petition can scare McDonald’s, let’s now turn the heat on Coke. Please sign the petition calling on Coca-Cola to pay their tax and ask your friends to do the same:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/olympic-tax-dodging

The petition will be handed in at Coke’s London headquarters this Friday.

• Ethical Consumer: The Great Olympic Tax Swindle
• McDonald’s: Olympic Tax Exemption Clarification
• Coca-Cola: What does Coca-Cola’s sponsorship bring to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games?

London 2012 Olympics sweatshop misery

For Londoners, the London 2012 Olympics will be a summer of misery. Their misery is as nought to those working in the sweatshops who supply the goods.

Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including Adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions.

A worker at an Adidas Olympics supplier factory in the Philippines, working on minimum wage for 10 years without a pay-rise:

We are forced to take overtime work so at least it supplements our take-home pay. Otherwise, how can I survive with such meagre income, how can I pay rent for the small room where I stay, cope with my daily necessities, and send some money for my family in the province? At the end of the day it is zero balance; there are no savings left for whatever uncertain things may happen to me and my family.

A few examples of the continued systematic and widespread exploitation of workers in sportswear factories:

• Poverty wages were found across the board. In Sri Lanka, some workers have to survive on around £1.78 a day, little above the UN’s official poverty line, and only 25% of the amount needed for a living wage, enabling workers to live in dignity. In the Philippines, 50% of workers were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for pay day loans to get them through the month.
• Workers had legal benefits systematically denied to them by repeated use of short term contracts. Employers used these to avoid paying social insurance including pensions, sick leave and maternity benefits.
• Workers were forced to perform overtime under threat of losing their jobs.
• In all 10 factories there was no recognised union or credible workers’ representatives, meaning workers had no voice on pay and conditions. In China workers were threatened with job losses for distributing leaflets that could ‘hamper employer-employee relationships; and in the Philippines all workers interviewed said that they were scared to join a union as they would lose their jobs.
• Living conditions showed the poverty levels experienced by workers. Chinese workers shared cramped and overcrowded rooms with hot water only available after 23:00, when their shift finished.

Those making the consumer junk, the mascots and toys, fare no better.

A worker at a Chinese sweatshop making London 2012 mascots:

Consumers may feel the Olypmic mascots are fun and cute, they will never think of the hard work, low wages…..we have in the factory.

A few examples of working conditions in two factories in China producing the Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Manderville, and London 2012 pin-badges:

• Poverty pay, in some cases below the legal minimum, where workers were not paid enough to cover their most basic needs, and benefit payments for pensions and medical insurance were not paid in accordance with Chinese law. For example, a worker making an Olympic mascot could be paid as little as £26 a week, while a mascot can retail for around £20. An average living wage is around £225 a month.
• Excessive overtime, sometimes up to 100 hours a month, nearly three times the legal limit in China. Some workers were doing 24-hour shifts, while others were working seven days a week. Overtime was often compulsory.
• Child labour was used in the factory producing pin badges.
• Workers were locked into a five-year contract and had to pay a fine if they tried to leave beforehand. At one factory, workers were not given a contract of employment, and in the other factory, workers did not receive pay-slips. In both factories, workers did not fully understand how their wages and over-time were calculated.
• Workers did not receive health and safety training in both factories, and would tend to forgo wearing protective equipment, when provided, so they could work faster and earn more – to top up their poverty pay.
• Workers were prevented from joining unions in both factories, and it was made clear to them that anyone engaging in trade union activities would be dismissed.
• Evidence of audit fraud – with workers coached on how to answer auditor’s questions, and in some cases bribed to give the correct answers.

An ethical Olympics?

• Fair Games? Next and Adidas workers speak out
• Forced labour claims dent image of London 2012
• Toying with Workers’ Rights
• Twitter shut down account of opponents of London 2012 Olympics

Open letter to Governor Sergio Cabral

“I was ashamed as a Brazilian when I saw such a symbolic shirt being handed to a war criminal. Blair’s appointment will lower Brazil’s reputation in the eyes of the world. He has no standing in his own country, he failed as a negotiator in the Middle East, he lost his job because of the Iraq War and he has the blood of English soldiers on his hands.” — Paulo Coelho

“My feelings are that I think you are rubbish at your job. You don’t care about the British public, armed forces or anyone. My big brother died at the age of 18, and what for? A war over oil and money. I think that you should withdraw all of our soldiers from Iraq. After all, it’s not our war, it’s America’s. We are all hurting badly, but I don’t just blame Gordon’s death on the Iraqis that made the roadside bomb. I blame YOU as well, because it is your fault that our soldiers are over there in the first place.” — Maxine Gentle, whose brother was killed in Iraq

To Governor Sergio Cabral:

You appointed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as consultant to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The question on the lips of most people is why?

Whilst in office Tony Blair showed not the slightest interest in sport. Therefore what has he to offer, what is he being paid for, how much is he being paid? Jobs for the boys, you grease my palm and I grease yours?

It cannot be claimed he won the 2012 Games for London as that was down to the hard work of then London Mayor Ken Livingstone and former Olympic athlete Sebastian Coe.

Tony Blair is seen by most people as a war criminal. A man with blood on his hands. The blood of innocent Iraqis, the blood of young British soldiers who have died in an illegal, pointless war. He took his country to war on a pack of lies, against the wishes of his own people. A war that has destabilized the Middle East and made the world a less safe place.

Has the irony escaped you that the day you met with and appointed Blair was the day after he appeared before the Iraq Inquiry and tried to justify his action?

Take a hard look at the pictures of the people on the street as they greeted Blair as he appeared before the Iraq Inquiry.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/02/445546.html

This is the man you have engaged as a consultant.

It was an insult to the team and to Brazilian football fans the world over to hand Blair a Brazil team shirt.

You have tarnished the reputation of Brazil and the Rio Games.

When Paulo Coelho speaks out against the appointment of Blair, he speaks for people across the world, he recognises the shame you have brought upon your own country.

Letter sent via e-mail to Governor Sergio Cabral, governor of Rio de Janeiro, the city in Brazil that will host the 2016 Olympics.

governador@governador.rj.gov.br

Writer Paul Coelho, together with footballer Pele, was part of the winning team that went to Brazil to win the 2016 Olympic Games for Rio. [see Rio 2016]

Also see

Tony Blair as consultant to Rio 2016 Games!

‘Not in my country’

Comments on “Not in my country”

Tony Blair as consultant to Rio 2016 Games!

Rio 2016 press conference

“Tony Blair consultant for Olympic Games 2016 (Rio)? A man responsible for an illegal war? NOT IN MY NAME. Not in my country.” — Paulo Coelho

“Tony Blair deserves Hague, not Rio. Governor Sergio Cabral, please don’t do that. I was in Copenhagen for athletes, not for murderers.” — Paulo Coelho

I have not heard anything so sickening as war criminal and liar Tony Blair being engaged as consultant for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. My first reaction, after wishing to throw up, was what can he offer? He is not exactly known for his interest in sport. Associating his name with the Rio 2016 Games is simply to tarnish still further the reputation of the Olympic Games.

As Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho who was part of Rio team in Copenhagen who obtained the Games for Brazil said, I went to Rio to obtain the Games for athletes, not war criminals.

Two million people took to the streets of London at the start of the Iraq War to say Not in Our Name. As did many more millions around the world. They were ignored. Spineless parliamentarians were bamboozled into backing the war. The cabinet was not properly consulted, no proper discussion took place, some cabinet members have said was kept in the dark.

There were no weapons of mass destruction, there was no threat to the Middle East. A war based on lies and a dodgy dossier. The Middle East has been destabilised, the world is a less safe place.

We are still counting the cost. Apart from those killed in Iraq, a country still torn apart by violence, the Iraq War has created a worldwide problem of Islamic extremism and terrorism, including the July 7/7 Bombings in London.

Would you shake hands with Blair, a man whose hands are dripping with blood?

What are Brazilian politicians thinking of to engage someone with the reputation of Tony Blair? A man who is loathed and detested in his own country. A man who has acted as a corporate whore ever since leaving office. A man who whilst in office showed not the slightest interest in sport.

Blair has earned an estimated £15 million since resigning as British Prime Minister in 2007.

The irony should not be lost that Blair has been hired as consultant the day after he appeared before the Iraq Inquiry.

Are Brazilian politicians trying to make the Rio Games a world laughing stock?

The Iraq War had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction or regime change. It was about the corporate rape and pillage of Iraq. The Olympics has long sold out its ideal, it is now a corporate whore. Maybe it is appropriate then that Blair should be engaged as a consultant, maybe even more appropriate that he been adopted as the mascot to represent corporate greed?

Also see

The rape and pillage of Iraq

Bringing Democracy to the Middle East

Eyewitness Iraq

Making a Killing: The Corporate Invasion of Iraq

Occupation and Resistance in Iraq

Rumsfeld attacked by US troops

911 – a route to war or an excuse for war?

Thank you, President Bush

Protest against Blair at Chilcot Inquiry – Photos

Blair the dictator bulldozed us into war

The Case Against Tony Blair

Iraq inquiry: Short says cabinet misled on war legality

Rio Olympic team hire Tony Blair for advice on staging 2016 games