A chill wind greets the Winter Games
By David Usborne, Friday, 12 February 2010, The Independent
In the basement of a flophouse hotel in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, mischief is hidden in a stack of plain cardboard cartons. Before long, its instigators will unleash it on the Winter Olympics, which begin today; for now, though, the stunt remains top secret. Or nearly. My guide unseals one of the cartons to produce a mysterious blanket, rolled and packaged in cellophane. He hands it over with a conspiratorial smile. “Keep it,” he says. The blanket, apparently official merchandise, is embossed with the five rings and Inuit figure that represent the Games, which kick off tonight with a lavish opening ceremony a few blocks from this clandestine cellar. It even features a sticker with a personal message from the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But there is something – I am honour bound not to reveal what – a little subversive about these blankets. They are not meant to flatter Mr Harper, a conservative, or celebrate any of his social policies, but rather the reverse.
