Poverty Olympics
Welfare hurdles raise awareness through the spirit of competition.
Words by Kristi Anderson
He’s no dirty rat. He dominates the poverty line high jump and rocks the welfare hurdles. The crowd roars as Chewy the Rat stands victoriously in Vancouver's Carnegie Community Centre, positioned next to Creepy the Cockroach and Itchy the Bedbug. This celebrated rodent is one of the official mascots of the 2008 Poverty Olympics, an event to raise awareness about the underprivileged in Vancouver, Canada.
While hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver will have a bright, international spotlight on its people and places. But residents believe the games will also unveil the city’s dark side. “Our government is really concerned about the image of Vancouver now that we’re hosting the Winter Olympics,” says Janet Swanson, one of the events organizers. “We thought we'd try to embarrass the government into doing something.” Raise the Rates Coalition and the Carnegie Action Project joined forces to create the event to combat poverty. The Poverty Olympics’ first event took place in February 2008.
When Vancouver won the bid to host the Winter Olympics, the Games Committee, which includes British Columbia’s government, made public promises to build social housing and increase welfare rates. “The government hasn’t done these things yet,” says Swanson. “It will be difficult, but it’s possible The B.C. government has billions of dollars in surplus money.”
The Poverty Olympics mocks the official games in hopes that the government will take some action. It’s the only place in town where you get a reward for being covered in parasites. Event goers munch on cockroach-shaped cakes and compete in events like the Broad Jump. Imagine two air mattresses covered with 25 fake bedbugs. Now picture competitors jumping on them, trying to collect all the creepy crawlers. Forget the saying, “don’t let the bedbugs bite,” these Olympians earn the goal by obtaining the most vermin. In the spirit of competition, everyone who participates gets a spray-painted medal.
The cockroach, rat, and bedbug mascots won’t be exterminated anytime soon. There will be at least two or three more events before 2010, according to Swanson. A new satirical event is joining the schedule—the welfare hurdles—where participants get to role play sick, illiterate, or homeless characters. Residents will leap over plastic hurdles to reach the social worker.
Poverty high-jumps and curling events for housing rights will continue until the city takes bigger strides toward bettering the community. Until then, Chewy, along with organizers and concerned citizens, will be working to light the torch toward ending poverty. Let the games begin.
