Displacement, AI surveillance – are the Paris 2024 Olympics worth it. People & Power Documentary
French officials have touted the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as an international trials a chance to showcase the country bring new economic opportunities to its communities and even clean up the iconic river sand. But 1000s of people, including migrants have been displaced to make way for the Olympics and concerns are growing over surveillance techniques been deployed to keep the game safe. People in power went to Paris to ask whether the upcoming Olympics are worth the cost.
French President Emmanuel Macron is an enthusiastic champion of this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
No shoe. beekeeper has become false. Only the volume on at reception. This kind of Fahmida that month yet this one says it’s revised. Viva
The President’s positive outlook is shared by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Director Christophe Dubi.
This is what Paris has as a vision half a million people will be able to take part in that unique moment, people will say I was there or I was watching. You know, I can’t wait.
Like other Olympics the 2024 Summer Games are seen as an opportunity to showcase the host city and promote tourism. But the Paris Games are hoping to provide a new blueprint with an Olympics built on the idea that bigger is not necessarily better, we really favor working with with existing venues to host World Championships world cups that are organized every year, when you can go to the same locations you win.
These games are also built as greener, more inclusive, accessible and affordable than previous Olympics theories. 2024 will be more gender balanced, more sustainable. We have really completely change of approach.
Marie salwaar is the International Olympic Committee’s corporate and Sustainable Development Director Barry’s 2024 ambition is to cut by half the carbon emission of the Olympic Games compared to the average of London then 12 And hundreds and 16. This is a very ambitious goal. The motto of the Paris Olympics is games wide open attend to why is the CEO of Paris 2024.
The city’s organizing committee games wide open means being open to the various issues of our society. So it’s how we do deliver those games, being socially responsible, being financially responsible, putting sustainability at the heart of everything we do.
But since the summer games were awarded to Paris, there’s been an expanding movement in France opposing the decision to host yoo hoo lab Kumamoto was actually clear.
Let’s conceptually just set up one the feminine pitch extreme demo on the yog turismo four Okay, so Ratan Hall LOC is an organizer for the anti Olympic group reverb dilemma de ellos.
He also works for med San du monde, a nonprofit that delivers medical and social services well enough to say Showtime.
The banners say words like homeless slums, squats, encampments and are doused with paint in the Olympic colors to call attention to the ways the upcoming games are impacting people living on the street. A growing number of people around the globe see the Olympics as a destructive force, displacing people from their homes and militarizing their communities. In fact, the Olympics have become an increasingly tough sell. People in power set out to investigate whether France can deliver on the promises made and what the outcome could mean for future games.
You have two different versions of what it means to be a modern Olympics. One I’m coming from the International Olympic Committee from on high, and then one from coming from the grassroots from on low and they’re clashing somewhere in the middle. Let’s bring in Jules boykoff. Jules boykoff is a leading expert on the Olympics and a former professional soccer player.
I have a much more critical view today than I did when I was 19 year old running up and down the pitch for the US team. He’s written six books about activism and political movements related to the games between 2013 and 2018. Around a dozen cities just said no to the Olympics when they were given the chance. And in part, that’s because of all the problems that we’ve been seeing when it comes to the Olympics.
boykoff is in Paris ahead of the games. He’s researching the anti Olympic protest movement here. If you look at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, you’ll see all the problems that are endemic in the Olympic Games. You’ve seen the price tag, elevate significantly AI driven surveillance in Olympic venues. You see the gentrification of particular spaces with various communities being priced out moved out I feel like I remember we kind of went to left a little bit there was like buildings being built up there that I thought was also Olympic Village and we’re seeing these Olympic with all this stuff. That’s even over there. Yeah, there to ever seen ever seen. Wow.
Natsuko Sasaki is part of the no Olympics movement. Sasaki lives in Paris. She has been organizing against these games by taking visitors on what she calls the toxic tour. This area near the Athletes Village is home to a large immigrant population.
People living in this house absolutely unhappy.
Residents here say the Olympics have brought years of pollution and noise. A new freeway was built cutting through the neighborhood and some low income housing was torn down.
This is just so much further along in terms of the construction. I was here in May 2022. In this area look totally different. Yeah, lots changed.
This area will soon be the temporary home of more than 14,002 Olympic athletes, 8000 Paralympians and their coaches and staff.
You can see here actually formed Gabbar, Gong grass and Winter Gardens. And after the games, it’s where we said clearly middle class family.
Sasaki worries about the transformation of the neighborhood. Oftentimes, the area around a former Olympic village becomes unrecognizable and unaffordable to its previous residents.
The objective is to build a new neighborhood, which is MCs, which will have offices, they will have businesses and also housing schools, public buildings, more than 2800 homes after the games. So that’s a legacy in an area where it’s much needed. All these housing will be mostly actually for for social housing, or people coming with, you know, average incomes.
The question here is how many how many social housing be very flexible on that case?
And for those who are already struggling? Advocates say the games are the reason why newcomers to Paris are being forced out.
Whoo. This is an empirical cinco smartphone OPG 2018 Digital epic environment where you bury vascular lesions or oblique muscular atrophy JC and mawenzi Mash poly mobile KVM aka the Abuja forest or Cali Yousef works for the organization United migrants. He was at this former cement factory just a block from the athlete’s village in April 2023 when hundreds of migrants squatting there were evicted.
forest or Cali Yousef works for the organization United migrants. He was at this former cement factory just a block from the athlete’s village in April 2023 when hundreds of migrants squatting there were evicted.
This presents at passie. limited only to on Tuesday Paola police will review on a credit card visit soon some details via mail to Carson TVv dossier this quote was God only on plenty liberty. Off to the side squatting in old abandoned buildings is one of the few ways unhoused people are able to find shelter in Paris. But in June 2023, the French government adopted a bill toughening the penalties for squatting making it more difficult and risky.
So they see novel law luck is on polishes are on peak use have landed in France as a refugee from chat in 2015. More than a million asylum seekers and migrants arrived in Europe that year. Mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Judicial Italy alone What are we going to find a pre CD jewel? Because of its own experience, use of now works to help distribute basic food This applies to migrants struggling to survive on the streets. And in Paris has few remaining squats.
But I really wish I knew how to UBC he was on. He was on purpose he is he prophesied upon Obamacare pledges as Kadambari you’re pleading for you don’t pay on volume.
People leave their country because there was a wall because there’s extreme poverty because they have to flee like a natural catastrophe. It’s not any homeless population. It’s refugee people. So they already under the stress of the violence of the departure, the violence of the journey. And then you arrive, and you’re welcome by the sidewalk and that you have to live under tents, and there is nobody to really help you. It’s the toughest life conditions I’ve ever so.
This underpass has become a makeshift home for around 100 unhoused people, mostly men, mostly from Afghanistan. For those living here, it’s one of the few options to stay in the city where many have already found work.
I think they’re going to close the area offensive in the long way too long one because we.
Dozens of riot police and local police converged above the overpass to clear out the encampment. People scrambled to leave with whatever belongings they could carry.
While the mattresses and tents are bulldozed and carted off to the dump the evicted Ford buses, some headed to so called SAS reception centers don’t the centers created by the government in 2023 are located around the country. People who arrive there are provided food and shelter for a few weeks was on give me about this as is your compact tank issued by Vijay Sharma. Mana manager may view in solution global procedures.
The stated goals of the centers are to take pressure off the asylum application system in Paris, and speed up the processing time for people seeking refugee status so they can legally live and work in France. hassanzadeh Qudra Tula is from Afghanistan. He was living on the street in Paris and parties too much problem. Nobody helped us a slip in the street. Qudra
Tula voluntarily boarded a bus to a SAS center in Bordeaux, where he has temporary housing. After that he doesn’t know what will happen to him. We have five person in the room, they give us for two euros per weeks.
They tell us to we send this camp is maybe five weeks after five weeks, they want to transfer transfer us. This has really nothing to do with the games. Right. And I don’t say that the situation is an easy one. What the French authorities were explaining is that moving these people from Paris is to help with the pressure that is that is put on Paris as the capital.
So we have to make the distinction between the pressure that is put on any given capital, the response from the authorities and the games.
Critics argue that removing unhoused people and sending them to SAS centers is an ineffective short term solution to a long term problem. And that the unstated goal of this is to clear the streets of Paris ahead of the games.
It’s been years that the police has been mistreating people in the streets of Paris. But now the elections the police harassment, it’s getting bigger and bigger because of the Olympics.
And while the French government works to move people out of Paris, there are plans to bring more police and even the military in. That’s more than 40,000 officers 15,000 soldiers and 1000s more private security. The goal being to protect athletes and fans.
17 people were slaughtered yesterday to in the Olympic village on the other 15 in the shootout at the airport.
Past the Olympics and major sporting events have come under attack. A terrorist attack at the Summer Games in Atlanta and France has been the target of several domestic attacks Charlie Hebdo a satirical Will magazine has been attacked at least 12 people were dead.
The opening ceremony for Paris 2024 is along the river sin, posing an even greater security challenge for organizers than in past games. The athletes parade will be held on boats passing by some of Paris’s most iconic landmarks.
For the opening ceremony, first time ever, an open ceremony outside the stadium, there is a big ambition of having as many people as possible around the same river in front of you. The world is passing through on boats and barges behind you, you have the Eiffel Tower. It’s the most outstanding opening ceremony where we welcome the world.
Can France pull this off? Can it do this big splash of an opening ceremony along the sand? On one hand, potentially more people could enjoy the spectacle directly. On the other hand, it means that heavy military presence will be necessary. For Olympic organizers.
There’s a tension between hosting large crowds of sports fans and keeping those fans safe. The fact that people are saying it’s a legitimate terrorist target is real, and we can’t deny that there’s no question about it. What you need to look at is whether the response is proportionate.
And whether the response lasts beyond the Olympic moment. And what we ofteAnd with concerns about security Hi following the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow, organizers are gearing up to deal with potential threats.
The initial plans for a nearly six kilometer long route with as many as 600,000 spectators have already been scaled back to around 300,000 For security reasons to manage the expected crowds. They’re also installing state of the art surveillance technology ton see is that it’s both disproportionate and everlasting.
And with concerns about security Hi following the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow, organizers are gearing up to deal with potential threats. The initial plans for a nearly six kilometer long route with as many as 600,000 spectators have already been scaled back to around 300,000 For security reasons to manage the expected crowds.
They’re also installing state of the art surveillance technology to system do organisms or goods make a sunset or promote quickly Dooney detected the Cupertino kids who we must admit I’m not President Danielle Simoni is a member of France’s national parliament from a left wing party Simoni has been advocating against the use of new algorithmically driven surveillance.
During the games cameras will be used to detect things like weapons and abandoned objects and crowds of people gathering routinization let’s do video of the the own the meter that greets Mitch pull her Desley Dakota mark is problematic inappropriate and not more on Zach he’s on to tootsies experimental test show come in innovative is your external baton polar security.
The two the two Spanish zoonotic look up UV comes as some as safe as you know, may affect it to beta Bucha meatsuit as triggered as converting Yeah, absolutely more Oakland demonstrators from San Sheikh Kibera made that mistake with techniques no system function.
Only the shock of the new system you don’t know that police. Opponents worry that after the games, the technology will be used against those who are already disproportionately targeted by police in France, racial minorities, people living on the streets and political activists. The surveillance and policing plans have also been the target of protests.
This group of activists, which included members of a privacy rights group, gathered outside of an Olympic souvenir store dressed like athletes, technology will never prevent someone from killing other people on the streets.
bestehen the correct is a lawyer with La Quadrature du net, a digital rights advocacy organization. The Olympics are always an occasion to introduce in the law, new aspects that were previously refused. The video surveillance using AI was used in France illegally for years, but now the government has had the occasion to legalize them using the excuse of the Olympics.
From the perspective of those who are securitizing they’re perfectly happy This is a once in a generation opportunity to ramp up securitisation capabilities. When I lived in London, for example, for the 2012 Summer Olympics, they actually ratcheted missiles onto the top of apartment buildings in order to ward off terrorism.
Should there be a terrorist attack. All the special weapons that are purchased don’t put them back in the box and return them to sender after the Olympic Games.
The cost for security is roughly 320 million euros. The initial pair his budget was estimated at nearly 7 billion euros. Organizers say it’s now costing closer to 8.4 billion euros.
budget wise we were able to keep the financial trajectory almost to what it was planned. So we are very satisfied with this and we believe that a new blueprint for the future Olympic Games.
Historically keeping the finances on track has been an Olympic sized problem. Every One of the biggest expenditures for Paris is the 1.4 billion euro cleanup of the river sin, making the water swimmable for the first time in 100 years. Paris’s sewer system was built in the 19th century and regularly dumps pollution into the sin when it’s overwhelmed by heavy rains and storms. In 2020 to 1.9 million cubic meters of untreated wastewater poured into the river.
This is an investment that was long overdue. It’s a massive achievement if we can do it, but we’re confident we’ll we’ll get there. Francoise croquette is the director of ecological transition and climate for the city of Paris. He is a strong advocate for the cleanup of the Sen. The Olympics has been a huge boost. And this has given us the energy and the funds to produce a massive effort in terms of investment. And in terms of the work that has been put into cleaning the river.
The city has constructed a massive storage tank that holds up to nearly 50 million litres of overflow water. It’s connected to a new tunnel that will divert the wastewater downstream to a sewage treatment plant.
Because this is the river sand because this is an iconic place for tourists from all over the world, especially during the Olympics, you would like to send the message that if we’ve done it in Paris, you can do it elsewhere.
The problem according to some environmental experts is that the new system could soon be overwhelmed by increased rainfall due to climate change, spewing sewage back into the river.
They talk a big environmental game, but oftentimes the follow through is lacking. When I lived in Rio de Janeiro, and 2015 and 2016 the Olympics were supposed to clean up Guantanamo Bay, this bay that was notorious for having large animals like horses and goats floating in it.
So when Rio was bidding, they promised that 80% of the water that was filtrated was going to be clean. By the time the Olympics rolled around, it was actually only about 25 26% Nokia buku because in Washington, the coffee clock is at leisure, don’t pick the one for your own homemade leisure deja ecolodge.
Miss Belle Puglisi persuasions when I pick reprise EqualLogic, I need so switching over you.
As Paris gears up to welcome millions of fans and athletes. The question again remains whether these games will deliver on the promises of its promoters.
I think it’s a trend that the IOC is trying to put forward so that actually the games adapt to the cities they go to and not the other way around, we’ve made a choice of not constructing a lot for these games. And we hope that we will leave a fantastic legacy a successful Paris Games could raise the bar for future Olympics.
For France, this summer is a preview of what’s ahead, the country is expected to host the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps, the games will live an imprint souvenirs for all of us starting with the fields of play, but for the communities, it will be very long lasting afterwards.
If the past is prologue, they’re going to have a very difficult time in Paris meeting their big promises. That’s just the Olympic track record playing and true. We’re living in an extraordinary moment when it comes to the Olympics, in terms of their worldwide reach, but also in terms of their internal contradictions.
And you know, you can live in this world and not have a heart. But to look at all the things that have transpired in the context of the Olympic Games and not believe that things absolutely need to change. Well then it really makes you wonder.
And then you have the values of the Olympics, friendship between the people and the salary thing. And they are insisting on the most inclusive the greenest, the most humanitarian Olympics ever. Okay, all right. So let’s take this bet, you know, like, let’s do it for real
Discover more from AGENDAPEDIA
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.