tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/glasgow-2014-11551/articlesGlasgow 2014 – The Conversation2014-08-04T05:21:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/300642014-08-04T05:21:07Z2014-08-04T05:21:07ZIt is time to let Africa host the Commonwealth Games<p>With the end of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it is tempting to suggest that its success might just have saved the event. Certainly what has not been in question is that its future has been in doubt in recent years. </p>
<p>For one thing, the number of countries and cities wanting to host the games has been problematic. In 2006 Melbourne and Wellington initially expressed an interest. Wellington eventually withdrew, citing cost as the reason, leaving Melbourne to win by default. The situation was somewhat better in 2010, with both Hamilton in Canada and New Delhi tabling bids. </p>
<p>There were also head-to-head bids in 2014 and 2018 – Glasgow against Abuja in Nigeria; and Australia’s Gold Coast against Hambantota in Sri Lanka. For the 2018 process, which was won by the Gold Coast, other cities withdrew however. Adelaide was interested but the South Australian government would not consider funding it, with then treasurer Kevin Foley listing the Commonwealth Games as B-grade event (though the city is now <a href="http://www.insidethegames.biz/commonwealth-games/1015397-adelaide-set-to-bid-for-2030-commonwealth-games">planning to</a> bid for 2030). </p>
<p>For the 2022 games, whose destination will be decided next autumn, the two bidders are Canada’s Edmonton and Durban in South Africa. All eyes will be watching to see if South Africa is selected, particularly after Abuja’s loss to Glasgow despite strong support from African Commonwealth members as well as Australia, in what would have been be the largest multi-sport event to be held thus far on that continent. Despite Africa’s number of members, the decision meant that the continent has still never hosted the games – the last of the Commonwealth continents not to have done so. Other cities who were previously linked to bids such as Singapore and Hambantota did not go ahead, but another head to head is at least an encouraging sign for the future. </p>
<h2>Money’s too tight to mention</h2>
<p>Yet money remains a major factor and even the low-cost Glasgow games are estimated to have cost the city beyond what many in the Commonwealth can afford. The mechanism for funding and support of nations remains contentious. Earlier this year a proposal from Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Tunku Imran, a Malaysian prince, was <a href="http://www.insidethegames.biz/commonwealth-games/1015566-exclusive-commonwealth-games-federation-plan-to-quit-london-for-kuala-lumpur-blocked">put forward</a> to move the organisation’s headquarters from London to Kuala Lumpur for tax purposes. It was later blocked by a majority of members. </p>
<p>Another major issue for the games goes back to Kevin Foley’s B-grade event comment. The breadth of major world events means that it can be difficult to attract the best athletes to an event like the Commonwealth Games, which is another issue for its survival prospects. For instance Kemar Bailey-Cole of Jamaica’s victory in the men’s 100m sprint in exactly 10 seconds would only have been fast enough for him to have finished eighth at the London Olympics. </p>
<p>Some of those in front were Americans, who don’t compete in the Commonwealth Games. This is a weakness in itself, but Bailey-Cole’s fellow Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt were absent too. Bolt did at least give the games a huge boost by competing in the men’s 4x100m relay, but he claimed that the timing was such that he was just coming back to fitness and needed earlier rounds of the relays to bring back track fitness. Then came the row in which he was reported to have told a journalist that the games were “a bit shit” – which <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/30/usain-bolt-commonwealth-games-2014">he later denied</a>. Meanwhile English distance runner Mo Farah stayed away altogether, citing lack of fitness. </p>
<p>There are concerns over the extent to which the games uphold core Commonwealth values of humanity, equality and destiny. Canada <a href="http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/nl/paper_series_2014/CHRI-Series%20on%20CW%20Mechanisms-Good-Offices%20of%20the%20SG.pdf">recently withheld</a> its support for the games federation because of human rights concerns in Sri Lanka. And New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary-general Kereyn Smith <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11300303">recently admitted</a> that disputes over governance could still have a detrimental effect on interest.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that the federation has come in for some flak, it is not insensitive to the bigger picture. It invited Australian consultancy Global Media Sports group a few years ago to undertake an independent media rights review of perceptions of the Commonwealth Games and strategies for revitalising the Commonwealth Games. </p>
<p>Its <a href="http://www.fioga.co.fk/files/GMS%20CGF%20Workshop%20-%20Research%20Presentation.pdf">2011 report concluded</a> that few people thought of the games as the top-ranked multi-sport event, and given the Olympics this might always be the case. But more worrying was that nations such as India, England, Malaysia, and New Zealand thought that the games were in decline and 31% of Canadians were not sure and placed the event behind the winter Olympics. </p>
<h2>Future days</h2>
<p>So what for the future? What should the purpose of the Commonwealth Games in the 21st century be? What does the CGF want sport to look like in the Commonwealth? Will it suffice to be the public face of the Commonwealth every four years or will the future of the event depend on more being done to deliver on the core Commonwealth values. At the opening ceremony, the CGF told us the games are about humanity, diversity and destiny. For the games to continue to be held in only the safe and secure cities would fly in the face such values. </p>
<p>One solution is to take the route offered by Global Media Sports, whose key recommendations were to amend the sports mix to maximise viewer interest, event attendance and participation throughout the Commonwealth; ensure world-class athletes compete at the games; and develop media expertise aligned to the CGF to ensure coverage and rights fees are maximised. </p>
<p>Yet perhaps the more imaginative solution is to balance the emphasis on a race for medals every four years with much more of a continued focus on the sport-for-development-and-peace initiatives that have been developing throughout the Commonwealth. In Rwanda and Sierra Leone, for example, <a href="http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/sport/shared/sport/pdfs/SDP%20IWG/2011-05-12_2nd%20SDP%20IWG_Minutes_Final.pdf">sport has been used</a> to restore normality in violent and war-torn communities. This was showcased during the Glasgow opening ceremony. The Commonwealth Games has never been just another international sporting event but an explicitly political and cultural exchange to affirm and strengthen values and communities. </p>
<p>Only a fraction of the public and private funds spent on sport in most Commonwealth countries goes to grass roots development and even less to initiatives like these. This disconnect is exacerbated by the cost of the games. Yet bid cities should ensure sustainable and measurable increases not only in sport and physical activity but involvement from the most marginal members of society. Perhaps the idea of joint bids should be revisited in order to ensure a more equitable hosting amongst the cities of the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>What we probably can say about Glasgow is that it has bought the games more time. During the opening ceremony, the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly evoked the memory of Mandela and reminded us of Glasgow and Scotland’s support for the anti-apartheid movement. Sport was an important part of this struggle. South Africa thanked Glasgow for what was a good example of effective cultural relations through sport.</p>
<p>Following the closing ceremony, it is now time to reflect once again about how to make this event relevant for the future. If the Commonwealth deeply believes in its values and wants to make the games a sustainable resource for hope, it will have to think hard about where they go from here. Glasgow’s Mandela moment is not a bad place to start. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant receives funding from UK research councils and both Scottish and UK governments. He is affiliated with Sportscotland. He is fully employed by the University of Edinburgh. This article is written in his capacity as Chair of Sport at the University of Edinburgh where he leads Edinburgh Sports Research.</span></em></p>With the end of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it is tempting to suggest that its success might just have saved the event. Certainly what has not been in question is that its future has been in doubt…Grant Jarvie, Chair of Sport, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/286192014-08-03T20:05:09Z2014-08-03T20:05:09ZFrom Glasgow to the Gold Coast: what to expect in 2018<p>It’s hard to think of any two Commonwealth Games host cities more different than Glasgow and the Gold Coast in faraway Australia, home to the 2018 Games. </p>
<p>But as our small university delegation discovered after making a 30-hour trip across the world a fortnight ago, Glasgow has set a high bar for the Gold Coast to follow – not just with their venues, but with the warmth of their welcome to visitors.</p>
<h2>From cobblestones to surf beaches</h2>
<p>Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow is a 12th century, magnificent, cobble-stoned place, which is being revived after a long <a href="https://glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3372">post-industrial depression</a>. The Glaswegians I met at the Games were very proud of their city, and keen to tell how they and their ancestors were born there over many centuries. </p>
<p>In contrast, the Gold Coast is blessed with 40 kilometres of beautiful surf beaches and sub-tropical sunshine almost year round. </p>
<p>Not far from the coast, we also have lush, <a href="http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/things-to-see-and-do/gondwana-rainforests-of-australia/index.cfm">World Heritage-listed rainforests</a>, and mountainous terrain that will severely test the stamina of the 2018 Games bike riders. </p>
<p>But the vast majority of Gold Coasters – like me – were not born in our city, which is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Australia_by_population">Australia’s sixth largest</a>. It’s a mobile and multicultural population of <a href="http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/default.html">more than half a million residents</a>, including a <a href="http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/indigenous-people-894.html">proud but relatively small Indigenous population</a>. </p>
<p>It’s also a tourist mecca for both Australians and millions of people from overseas, with particular appeal for surfers, backpackers, and Asian and Middle Eastern tourists.</p>
<h2>The Gold Coast’s long and short history</h2>
<p>Senior members of the Glasgow City Council asked us how old the Gold Coast was. Our answer? Somewhere from tens of thousands of years old – with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gold_Coast,_Queensland">archaeological proof of Aboriginal occupation</a> going back at least that far – to as young as just <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Coast_City">66 years old</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Where today’s skyscrapers stand: an aerial view from the beach end of Cavill Avenue looking south to Broadbeach, 1955.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.surfersparadise.com/about-surfers-paradise/history">Gold Coast City Council Local Studies Library</a></span>
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<p>A bemused council member then asked about the Gold Coast’s oldest public building. After scratching our heads for a while we couldn’t come up with an answer – perhaps because none of the five-strong delegation was a born and bred Gold Coaster. Both sides decided it was time for a drink.</p>
<p>Having thought about it since, there’s good reason why we couldn’t name any historic public buildings: there are none, at least not by Glaswegian standards. Some of our oldest buildings include beachside bathing pools, like <a href="https://heritage-register.ehp.qld.gov.au/placeDetail.html?siteId=16028">the Main Beach Pavilion</a>, built in the 1930s to cater for the influx of people after the First World War who were not yet comfortable in the surf. </p>
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<h2>Let the next Games begin</h2>
<p>The Gold Coast is in the middle of a massive building and redevelopment boom. (You can watch the <a href="http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/imagine-gc2018-take-a-look-at-how-the-gold-coast-will-be-transformed-when-it-hosts-the-commonwealth-games/story-fnj94ixl-1227009462025">Gold Coast Bulletin’s new video and photos of the major Games venues here</a>.)</p>
<p>But it’s not all for the Games. The world-class Gold Coast University Hospital was only opened in the last year and overlooks the site of the 2018 Games Village. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.griffith.edu.au/">Griffith University</a>, established in 1971, is the largest and best-known of the city’s <a href="http://www.studygoldcoast.org.au/gold-coast-learning/universities">three universities</a>, and sits next to the Games Village. Its contemporary architecture is a long way from the centuries-old spires of Glasgow University.</p>
<p>Together with the hospital, the expanding university forms the heart of the new <a href="http://www.griffith.edu.au/health/griffith-health/gold-coast-health-and-knowledge-precinct">Health and Knowledge Precinct</a>, which is likely to be one of the main legacies of the 2018 Games. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Commonwealth Games Village site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Government</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>A sunny Scottish surprise</h2>
<p>Coming to Glasgow from Queensland – known locally as the Sunshine State – we had packed for Scottish weather with rain coats, overcoats and jumpers. </p>
<p>But we were in for a shock: the temperature was 27 degrees, the kind of <a href="http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=40764">weather we enjoy on the Gold Coast</a> for most of the year. </p>
<p>The locals couldn’t believe it either. Strangely to us, hordes of people sat eating in outdoor cafes in the sun, with no umbrellas or shade. Few Australians do this, as we have the world’s worst skin cancers.</p>
<p>So the weather became a major conversation point in a way we didn’t expect: we Australians complained about the heat, while the Scots laughed and warned us to enjoy it, as it surely couldn’t last (<a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGlasson/status/494448139307212800/photo/1">and it didn’t</a>).</p>
<p>But we found that Glasgow’s cooler climate is more than made up for by its people. It must be one of the friendliest cities in the United Kingdom and Europe. The Scots are not always known for their roguish charm and hospitality, but that’s what we received, admittedly at Games time.</p>
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<h2>Glasgow’s lessons for the Gold Coast and beyond</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gc2018.com/">Gold Coast 2018 Games</a> will be very different to Glasgow. For a start, we can’t ask Birmingham, London, Manchester and Liverpool to send 500 buses to assist us with transportation. We can’t conjure up a history we don’t have, or a gritty tenacity that is peculiarly Scottish. We don’t have kilts and bagpipes either. </p>
<p>But we can learn from the best of what the Scots have done, especially the way they have seized the opportunity of the 2014 Games to revitalise their great city. </p>
<p>Glasgow’s long-term legacy programs – conceived of and delivered by locally-based community groups across the city and across Scotland – include the redevelopment of the troubled East End with recreational and housing infrastructure and the Games sporting infrastructure. The sustainable health and fitness projects we saw were truly inspired.</p>
<p>The Scots’ attention to detail especially for security was precise and comprehensive. If any one thing unnerved us, it was the scale and complexity required for the job ahead. </p>
<p>Just as importantly, the way the city hosted the event was friendly and welcoming. Clearly, the ‘how’ was as important as the ‘what’. They were never bossy, never too pushy: it was just constant, friendly efficiency. But you knew you were being watched, that someone was on the job – and that was very reassuring.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I returned to the Gold Coast with new questions to ask, including how we can achieve Glasgow’s level of security, especially establishing a buffer around our Games Village, which will be overlooked by two hospitals and a university. And will our new light rail project match the transport might of 500 British buses?</p>
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<span class="caption">One of the Gold Coast’s new light rail trams at Cavill Station in Surfers Paradise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Morris/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>But as the world saw with the successful 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Australians always get the job done. And the exceptionally good 2018 Games Organising Committee is well on the way in its planning, even if it still has only 42 staff. </p>
<p>If you come to the Gold Coast in four years’ time, expect to be dazzled by our beaches, our sunshine and our efficiency in putting on big sporting events. If we can do all that, and give visitors as warm a welcome as we enjoyed in Glasgow, we’ll have done our job.</p>
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<p></p><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/63276004"></a> <a href="http://vimeo.com/gc2018"></a><a href="https://vimeo.com"></a></p><p></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Madden recently retired as Pro Vice Chancellor (International) at Griffith University. He is the Strategic Advisor to Griffith for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, which involves advising on strategies for the university to assist the state and local government and the Commonwealth Games Committee in the running of the 2018 Games. It also involves work on community engagement, legacy issues for the university, opportunities for students in volunteering, community and cultural engagement, internships and jobs.</span></em></p>It’s hard to think of any two Commonwealth Games host cities more different than Glasgow and the Gold Coast in faraway Australia, home to the 2018 Games. But as our small university delegation discovered…Chris Madden, Strategic Advisor on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/300042014-08-01T05:10:34Z2014-08-01T05:10:34ZWhen being good at badminton is the secret to a happy marriage<p>One intriguing subplot during the Commonwealth Games has been the progress of English husband-and-wife team Chris and Gabby Adcock in the badminton mixed-doubles. The couple are a good bet for a gold medal this weekend. They are <a href="http://www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=14955">ranked fifth</a> in mixed doubles in the world, having won both the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/badminton/25078077">Hong Kong Open</a> and <a href="http://www.bwfbadminton.org/news_item.aspx?id=82081">Swiss Open</a> in the past year – both times against Chinese opposition. </p>
<p>In Glasgow they stayed on course to make it three in a row by defeating their Malaysian opposition. They meet Singapore’s Chayut Triyachart and Lei Sin Yao in the quarter finals. </p>
<p>While there are many examples of married couples successfully competing in elite sport, including skeleton stars Shelley Rudman and Kristian Bromley; Paralympic athletes Rik Waddon (cycling) and Natalie Jones (swimming); Barney and Dame Sarah Storey; none of these work as closely together in a team like the Adcocks. So how does their relationship work on and off the court?</p>
<h2>Ups and downs</h2>
<p>Being an elite sportsperson involves enormous dedication, often with long periods of time away from home, separated from family. For many athletes the support of their partner forms a critical component of their sporting career. If a partner is not supportive or resents aspects of the athlete’s sport then problems can arise and this can often impact on performance. </p>
<p>For those individuals to which the elite sport environment is unfamiliar, it may be a struggle to understand the type of stress placed upon the athlete resulting in poor or inappropriate support. </p>
<p>An athlete needs to feel secure that support is available at times of need and this is crucial to their psychological well-being and ability to cope with stress. Unhelpful support, such as trying to reduce the importance of an event or even avoiding talking about an event, can be detrimental to the athlete’s performance. </p>
<p>The Adcocks feel their off-court relationship enables them to understand each other better in pressure situations on court making it easier to help one another cope with stressors. In an interview <a href="http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Video-Leicester-8217-s-Adock-takes-badminton/story-20824211-detail/story.html">earlier this year</a>, Gabby explained how their relationship alleviates some of the stresses involved in professional sport: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think we’re quite lucky that we get to travel the world together because there are a lot of people in the squad that miss their partners while they are away.</p>
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<p>GB Hockey Olympic bronze medallists Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh, who married in 2013, are another couple that believe being married to a fellow sportsperson, and in their case teammate, has had a positive effect on their sporting career. Kate explain recently <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/hockey/27491319.app">told the BBC</a> about the benefits of this dual relationship: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It helps when your partner understands hockey and what it takes to play at that level – to know that when you’re going off training again, getting up at a stupid time, or only talking about hockey, it’s because you love it.</p>
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<h2>When it goes wrong …</h2>
<p>Combining the two types of relationship may not always be trouble-free, though. Potential difficulties include a lack of distinction between the two roles where personal and professional issues become intertwined. Personal conflicts may infiltrate the sporting environment or performance issues may impact on the athletes’ personal relationship at home. Maintaining a good work life balance is key in these situations. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/badminton/21660639">It is imperative</a> that both partners are able to segregate the two aspects of sport and home. </p>
<p>For some professional athletes, forming and maintaining relationships can be a challenge due to the constraints placed on their lives by strict training regimes and competition schedules. The culture of certain sports may also impact on an athlete’s relationship, with <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/sop.2006.49.4.527?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104426294357">one study showing</a> that male athletes tended to use power and control in their relationships as a result of their sporting profession. </p>
<p>Conversely relationships can affect an individual’s sport performance. It <a href="http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/daniel.nettle/tennis%20players.pdf">has been found</a> in the past, for example, that professional male tennis players performed significantly worse following the year after their marriage compared to the year before, with no such effect for unmarried players of the same age. </p>
<p>Equally, complications in personal relationships will undoubtedly have a bearing on an athlete’s mindset. Andy Murray’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/28110931">poor performance</a> in his match at Wimbledon against Dimitrov this year was followed by rumours linking it to a dispute with girlfriend Kim Sears immediately before the match, while Tiger Woods has certainly experienced a dip in form since his very public divorce. </p>
<p>Social support from a spouse or partner and an understanding of when and how to offer this support seems to be the key to a successful sports marriage. So far Chris and Gabby Adcock seem to have got the balance right in this respect. It will be interesting to see whether this helps to turn Glasgow gold for them. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Pinchbeck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One intriguing subplot during the Commonwealth Games has been the progress of English husband-and-wife team Chris and Gabby Adcock in the badminton mixed-doubles. The couple are a good bet for a gold medal…Jessica Pinchbeck, Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/299272014-07-30T16:57:42Z2014-07-30T16:57:42ZBehind the fence: the side of Glasgow games you’re not meant to see<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55321/original/zgwzt9cq-1406725233.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The miles of high fence separating east end Glaswegians from games athletes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hilary Mooney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the Commonwealth Games got underway, much praise has been heaped on the city and its population for the event’s apparent success so far (even if Usain Bolt <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/30/usain-bolt-commonwealth-games-2014">was alleged</a> to have suggested otherwise). So to write something that is strongly critical of particular aspects of the event and its consequences perhaps runs a high risk of being declared too negative – and “off message”. </p>
<p>Yet in winning the games for Glasgow, important questions were asked about the social and economic effects of such an event. And important questions remain about how the games are working for some Glaswegians. We have been particularly aware of these as part of a <a href="http://glasgoweastender.wordpress.com/">research project</a> into the city’s east end funded by the <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/researchcentres/osrc/">Openspace Research Centre</a>.</p>
<p>There were protests around different proposed aspects of the games long before the event began and even as they started. For instance, a two-day protest began on the day of the opening ceremony by some low-paid workers in Glasgow council’s workforce over payment for additional hours and over management-imposed shift changes (which the council <a href="http://news.stv.tv/west-central/283623-glasgow-council-loses-court-bid-to-block-games-pay-protest/">tried and failed</a> to ban through the courts). </p>
<p><a href="http://gamesmonitor2014.wordpress.com/">Other protests</a> have focused <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/commonwealth-games/cwg-news/angry-scenes-as-residents-attack-games-disruption.24339474">on some</a> of the impacts of the games on different communities. These have included protests over the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12845408">forced eviction</a> of a family whose house was being demolished to make way for the athletes’ village, and over the <a href="http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/news-editors-picks/protesters-in-march-to-save-care-centre.14905254">closure of a day care centre</a> to make way for other games infrastructure. And at other times there have been voices and protests around the cost of staging the games in the context of austerity and rising levels of poverty. Much of this received little media focus.</p>
<h2>The great regeneration promise</h2>
<p>Involving local people in a partnership to make the games a success was an <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/sp/?id=2007-11-14.3308.0">often-repeated</a> claim made by organisers and council officials at the time of the bid to host the games in 2007. This was said to mean “working with” the communities in the areas most affected by the games. The event promised to bring prosperity, economic growth and badly needed urban renewal. “Legacy” was the byword for a flagship event that was presented as meeting the long-term interests of Glasgow – and especially those who lived in relatively disadvantaged east-end areas such as Dalmarnock and Parkhead, where the opening ceremony and other events have been taking place, and which is home to the athletes’ village. </p>
<p>Yet just weeks before the games began there was mounting anger among the residents of Dalmarnock and Parkhead that their lives are being hugely and negatively affected. “Treated like animals”, feeling “caged in” and being “kept out” are <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-370513822.html">among the claims</a> that have been made repeatedly by a number of the residents in the areas most affected. Such resentment has been as local amenities, a community centre and local shops in Dalmarnock, were bulldozed to make way for games venues and other related infrastructure. </p>
<p>The organisers will retort that there have been improvements to the area. They have built the Emirates arena and the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, while the athletes’ village will be converted into a mix of social and private housing. The national hockey centre has been built at nearby Glasgow Green, the swimming centre at Tollcross upgraded – also in the east end – and there have been improvements to transport infrastructure. Previous government surveys <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2013/05/gowell28052013">have also indicated</a> that many residents are positive about how the games will affect the area in the long-run. </p>
<p>Yet these undoubted steps forward risk being undermined by the way that the organisers are interacting with the area. There have been longer-term complaints about the frequent disruption to utility supplies and there is a general feeling among many residents that the needs of local people are being overlooked by the organisers. These have largely been sidelined by the officials, dismissed as a temporary blip in a hugely successful event that will only benefit residents in time to come.</p>
<h2>The fence goes up</h2>
<p>Such anger about the disruption to daily life in these communities reached new levels with the construction within a few months of the start of the games of eight-foot fencing around the athletes’ village – fencing that has also almost entirely barricaded the residents of Dalmarnock into their housing scheme. Residents in the streets immediately adjacent to the village are effectively cut off from it. A temporary road entrance/exit represents the only way in and out of the area. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55320/original/qzpj4qjw-1406725065.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The red line highlights the security fence around the athletes’ village area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Maps</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fence is topped by CCTV cameras along its length, with security gates in place to allow into the village only those with the proper security passes. On the whole, the security budget for the games <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-20769485">has topped £90m</a>. Like the upheaval beforehand, there was little if any prior notification that it would be implemented in such ways and with such an impact.</p>
<p>People’s access to their properties, their ability to park beside their homes and even to enter their own area have been severely curtailed. Fears have been voiced that in the event of a fire or other incident, emergency vehicles would find it difficult to access some of the streets. Claims have been made that passes will be required for locals to access their own area. There are also health worries because local community health facilities and teams have also been moved out from the games areas. And there was a <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/parkhead-dalmarnock-rat-infestation-blamed-3675693">recent rat infestation</a> within Parkhead and Dalmarnock due to the extensive building along the River Clyde. </p>
<p>The feeling has been strongly voiced that local people are being excluded, actively pushed out and contained in what some have a termed a “prison”. At a large community meeting in the Emirates indoor arena in Parkhead in late May, some residents said to us that, “had this been the [more prosperous] west end, such things would have never been allowed to happen”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55322/original/gzkrxf8y-1406725415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local estates have become like cages, according to residents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hilary Mooney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Security for who?</h2>
<p>It is hard to avoid the conclusion that securing the games is partly about securing them from the residents of the inner east end. As well as the fences, security gates and CCTV, the highly visible presence of police, military personnel and security staff sends out a strong message that the locals are not to be fully trusted. There is also the fact that a large proportion of the security staff both in the east end and elsewhere in the city have been draughted in from London and elsewhere outside Glasgow – so much for using the games to create local jobs. </p>
<p>Far from the warm words about urban renewal, the treatment of the east end only reinforces the longstanding stigmatisation of the area and its people. There are growing demands by many residents for some kind of compensation, but the response from the organisers and council officials has been relatively muted so far. </p>
<p>The view has been allowed to develop that the games are not for ordinary people in the east end to be part of or enjoy. So whose games are they? Who will benefit? It might not be very fashionable to say it during all the excitement of the event, but the strong sense among many residents in the area is that it is not them. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vikki McCall is a board member of Parkhead Housing Association. She also receives funding from Glasgow City Council for a separate study looking at the working, training and educational transitions for looked-after children. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerry Mooney and Kirsteen Paton do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the Commonwealth Games got underway, much praise has been heaped on the city and its population for the event’s apparent success so far (even if Usain Bolt was alleged to have suggested otherwise…Gerry Mooney, Senior Lecturer, Social Policy and Criminology, The Open UniversityKirsteen Paton, Lecturer in Urban Sociology, University of LeedsVikki McCall, Lecturer in Social Policy and Housing, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/294352014-07-29T16:51:55Z2014-07-29T16:51:55ZSpiky Clyde is no wallflower, but has he got staying power to help define games’ legacy?<p>He may have entered your life abruptly over the past few days. With his purple mohican, jagged green hands and the sort of red, yellow and blue get-up that would trouble most prospective in-laws, Clyde the thistle is anything but a wallflower. </p>
<p>The Glasgow Commonwealth Games mascot was designed by 12-year-old Beth Gilmour from Cumbernauld and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-19651062">selected from over 4000 other applicants</a>. </p>
<p>The difficulty in designing a good mascot lies in creating a character that both resonates with the event and represents the image that the host city wishes to convey to its global audience. So the prickly question facing Clyde the thistle is, how effective is this part-man, part-plant? </p>
<p>The use of brand mascots is widespread across retail and commerce. They are adopted as a means of enhancing the brand of events. Well designed mascots can visually communicate a complex set of values, and elicit an emotional response across a wide population. They are also capable of gaining the attention of people who may not have otherwise been interested, and they have the advantage of being manipulable spokespersons. </p>
<p>A basic analysis of Clyde the thistle in terms of the characteristics considered important in semiotics, which is the science of signs, reveals a number of interesting points. Clyde has a strong identification with the games and with its host city. He signifies the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games by having the logo emblazoned on his chest. Garbed in modern sports kit and trainers, he is clearly ready to partake in physical activity. He relates to the city of Glasgow by adopting the name Clyde, its famous river. He evokes the host nation by wearing a vest fashioned from the St Andrews Cross, and by taking the form of a thistle, Scotland’s national flower. </p>
<p>Using a human-like thistle represents something of a risk, though. Choosing such a “not so ordinary” image could mean audiences find it unrecognisable and difficult to relate to, which would reduce its effectiveness and attractiveness. The best example of this at a mega event was Izzy, the much-derided amorphous design for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games whose appearance changed during the event to try to increase his appeal – without much success, it must be said. </p>
<p>The adoption of Clyde the thistle happens to be the first time the official mascot for the Commonwealth Games has not been an animal, the trend having started with a bear called Keyano at the 1978 games in Edmonton, Canada. The last Commonwealth Games saw Shera the tiger in Delhi 2010. The most recent two occasions when the games took place in the UK saw the adoption of Kit the Kat (Manchester 2002) and Mac the Scottie dog (Edinburgh 1986).</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54295/original/6n9knzbx-1405695547.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Misha the bear, practising his friendly face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kalak/3263030081/sizes/s/">Timo Kirkkala/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a positive note, the decision to give Clyde the thistle a face is a strength. Clyde has big eyes, a cheeky smile and a youthful haircut, making him somewhat childlike and appealing across many cultures. Historically, the most famous mega event mascots all have faces, like Misha the bear from the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games. </p>
<p>The use of a face allows a mascot to transfer emotion easily and engage quickly with an audience, an aspect thought to be pivotal for successful brand marketing, This was a point that was lost on the designers of Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Clyde also looks straight at the viewer, representing an openness to engage and build relationships with others. This gaze is largely horizontal also confirms an equality of power and status.</p>
<p>So overall, from the perspective of those of us who deal in semiotics – the science of signs – Clyde the thistle appears largely to be an effective mascot. </p>
<p>Overall, from a semiotic perspective, Clyde the Thistle appears to be a largely effective mascot – albeit with reservations about using a humanised plant and not the more traditional animal designs used in previous Commonwealth Games. </p>
<p>Since many mascots are pitched towards children, it will be interesting to see in the months to come whether our children and grandchildren easily recognise Clyde the thistle (Scottish schoolchildren will have the advantage that he has been heavily used in schools in the run-up to the games). If we buy <a href="http://www.glasgow2014.com/media-centre/press-releases/now-its-clyde-soft-toy-and-hes-coming-home-near-you">the children’s toy</a>, will they relate to the human-like thistle enough to want to play with it? Analysis might be useful, but ultimately it is the public who will decide how effective the different aspects of the games have been, and shape their legacy for years to come. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald Griggs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>He may have entered your life abruptly over the past few days. With his purple mohican, jagged green hands and the sort of red, yellow and blue get-up that would trouble most prospective in-laws, Clyde…Gerald Griggs, Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sports Studies, University of WolverhamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/298112014-07-29T05:15:23Z2014-07-29T05:15:23ZHost City Glasgow: ten things the tourist guides probably never mentioned<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55069/original/2fsp367g-1406574519.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The dear green place, a year or two ago</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So you’ve travelled to the Commonwealth Games, you’ve done the standard tourist route and you’ve figured out that your English phrase book is not much cop. Panic no more. Here is your essential guide to the real Glasgow. </p>
<h2>1. Preliminary lessons in Glaswegian</h2>
<p>You are not in Glasgow (as in “throw,” and certainly not as in “cow”); you are in Glesga. Get that right to start with. </p>
<p>A dry warm day – any temperature above 55 degrees fahrenheit – means “taps-aff”, where males of various ages will be wandering around the city topless. Tops – often t-shirts or football shirts – are “taps” – and “aff” – well, “off”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55063/original/cwhs3spp-1406572774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Taps aff!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/glasgowamateur/9559730189/in/photolist-5HLjT-8CwUVr-ejr7Po-kuG6Lx-fyL7Ji-pYjtz-7hzsw9-7hvuVV-7hvxAP-7hvuzT-7hztUf-7hvxNg-7hztpN-7hvvj8-7hzt5b-7hvwjk-7hztD3-7hvvAv">Charles Clegg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The hot weather at the start of the games led some to proclaim, “yon heat is pure murrderrr, so it is”. Understanding such terms will get you Glasgow bonus points: “Pure” denotes “really”. “Murrderrr” meaning “murder”, popularised by the TV detective series Taggart, means “difficult to take”. “So it is” is added emphasis. </p>
<p>Three other words will also help immensely: “aye”, “wee” and “dead”. The opening ceremony was arguably “dead good” (or “no’bad,” which is also really good); “wee” indicates the pejorative, such as “the wee dancers were brilliant”; “aye” is affirmative, as in, “aye, some of the Scottish stereotypes on display were cringe-inducing, but.”</p>
<h2>2. What is Glasgow? – well it’s no’ Edinburgh</h2>
<p>Lying only 52 or so miles apart, few countries can have two cities that are so different in so many ways. For many in Edinburgh, Glasgow is full of rough, criminal types who are prone to alcoholism and violence; and as they rarely wash, they are “soap dodgers”. </p>
<p>For many in Glasgow, well Glasgow is really Scotland’s capital city. It is more authentically Scottish, less “pan-loafy” (posh) and certainly not “all fur-coat and nae knickers” (superficial). Edinburgh is seen as primarily for tourists who seek the stereotypical Scotland of castles and tartan – hence the nickname “shortbread city”.</p>
<p>It might be nonsense – or “mince” – but many still believe that old Glasgow saying that, “the people of Glasgow have a better time at a funeral than the people of Edinburgh have at a wedding”.</p>
<h2>3. ‘C’moan get aff’</h2>
<p>“C’moan get aff” is a beloved contradictory Glasgow phrase long associated with the city’s bus conductors. On encountering a passenger who had somehow forgotten to purchase the required ticket and who was reluctant to do so on being challenged, the local version of “come on, get off” was the stock reply. </p>
<p>If you are travelling on public transport and someone asks, “comfy?” they are not referring to the quality of your seat. They mean: “where do you come from?”</p>
<p>Beware referring to the Glasgow underground as “the tube”, like you would in London. You will be identified as an outsider – an alien even. It is known as the “subway” – a “tube” in Glasgow is someone who is just plain daft.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55064/original/c88mj347-1406573327.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">They don’t make ‘em like they used to.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cliveabrown/5380089179/in/photolist-4ZM4jG-7cvwky-dEipbH-9bPRUn-b9tZNK-51Kvu2-d6Rxh-78mAht-cZZEQJ-5bmQi5-78mzUV-4ExjUP-dzBGSB-9cqn5g-78qCaE-5kxoQf-72LSiN-6M9uqW-9bPJHe-5kLgzU-78qxSy-5kxrrA-5kFF4H-78qw4y-9bSYtY-5RvAb7-5RqL1D-78qhFC-78qmGC-dEETV8-2cR3zx-6M4YSg-7aBE2W-5RFDTC-5RvBQ5-5wiLF8-b9ud4k-6M9d1u-b4UWUr-78qiMA-b9u9r2-5RvGZb-72Du2M-6M9JJz-72LSdW-5Rrjyk-e1rTZQ-b7nWu4-78qyMY-47o4ZL">Clive A Brown</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Chicago on the Clyde?</h2>
<p>Many have commented that both cities share what might be termed a similar sense of place. While the comparison might seem fanciful given Chicago’s size, part of Glasgow city centre is planned on a similar gridiron system. Glasgow’s imposing buildings and architecture convey a similar “feel,” including buildings constructed around iron frames, which have long been used in the largest US cities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55068/original/sc2258mc-1406573901.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The likeness is uncanny!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/22746515@N02/4854192144/in/photolist-dwEJkj-Js7UM-7cbJbN-brypPD-6uRnG7-nE1uGt-ii7cvk-59ghCi-a9WFqL-8oX1d1-boC7Nm-agpCPQ-5AgBS7-5wCERn-5Ackog-7hiHqU-dKRkMJ-9KEVWW-8TQHzX-bvfTK9-bnwQ5E-bW6YvQ-cTMeJs-8wAp1N-ao4C38-5g7n2S-7VTFyH-aQfTwc-cZCacA-9JTcWi-5gEDFv-fcG2mU-6827Ws-cKkKUJ-6hpRE2-a7qvwy-dpXAxs-cxPi3j-6cGV7R-8UjxNK-6f3ZTx-e88RbQ-9tVgsd-6qvbTG-8pYagL-9u9MmF-be2R9i-df5fTf-iEqRJo-2QQBuX">Bert Kaufmann</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both have their share of urban wastelands, and are built on important rivers. Unlike the Chicago River, though, the River Clyde has yet to be dyed green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, or even an important victory for Celtic football club – even if Glasgow translates as the Dear Green Place.</p>
<h2>5. Glasgow’s schemes</h2>
<p>Lying beyond the city centre is a different Glasgow, much of it with a poor yet undeserved reputation for deprivation and dereliction. We are talking here about the schemes – not housing estates, which in Scotland tends to refer to private developments. </p>
<p>Glasgow’s schemes enabled the city to demolish its slum housing, and many were built to house much poorer sections of the population. This was reflected in the quality of housing, the layout and the level of amenities. The largest schemes were built on Glasgow’s outer edges – at Easterhouse, Drumchapel, Castlemilk and Pollok.</p>
<h2>6. The Hielanman’s umbrella</h2>
<p>Glasgow has long been a place of migration. In recent decades communities of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and eastern Europeans have helped shape the city as it is today. Previous migrations have often been forgotten or overlooked.</p>
<p>Yet following the Highland clearances in the 19th century, tens of thousands of Highlanders came in search of a new life. Largely Gaelic speaking, they brought a bitter hatred of private landlords and the landed elites who removed them from their homes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55066/original/82msyqc9-1406573592.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watch out for hairy Highlanders!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/donnasmillie/157494733/in/photolist-5sEyVu-hZ7qHj-jzngwo-bzPuYT-bzPvdT-537pq9-6nKGaY-ctjL19-eVcGr-89Wb8v">Donna Smillie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Hielanman’s umbrella (“Highland man’s umbrella”) is the area underneath the main Central Station railway bridge as it passes over Argyle Street. It was where Highlanders would meet and shelter from the rain. They helped to shape the city’s culture, dialect and language; as well as its sense of struggle and politics.</p>
<h2>7. “People Make Glasgow”</h2>
<p>Visitors will notice many references to this latest city slogan. While for marketing folks it promotes a dynamic post-industrial city, more importantly Glaswegians have fought long and hard to make a city that is fairer and more equal. In every decade in the past century they have fought everything from poverty to poor housing to racketeering private landlords to racism. People make Glasgow in the sense of its struggle.</p>
<p>The city’s George Square is today a Commonwealth Games hub, but in the immediate aftermath of World War I, tanks circled, accompanied by soldiers determined to combat any communist uprising. This was the heyday of Red Clydeside – an era that spawned the world’s first workplace-based trade union activists.</p>
<h2>8. La Pasionaria</h2>
<p>Glasgow’s history as second city of the British Empire is well known, but other Glasgow international links could be celebrated much more. On the north banks of the River Clyde, close to the main shopping area, a statue celebrates the Glaswegians who fought to defend the Spanish republic in the late 1930s. </p>
<p>The statue – La Pasionaria – was erected in 1980. It is a constant reminder that struggles elsewhere – as with the naming of a city centre street after Nelson Mandela – are seen by some as Glasgow’s struggles too.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55062/original/p2f2ht9j-1406566070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">La Pasionaria: one of Glasgow’s more unusual memorials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/patersor/3333126417/in/photolist-4ZzToH-5izqF2-gtfRdK-bdKo2P-rU16k-rU16o-65x9mR-aADA7y-LGwg2-bCdqkk">Richard Paterson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>9. The Glesga night oot</h2>
<p>So you want a have a wee night oot in Glasgow? One could start at a famous Glasgow watering hole, The Horseshoe Bar, in Drury Street, close to Central Station. It is said to have the longest bar in Europe – in the shape of horseshoe, of course.</p>
<p>It has catered for Glaswegians since the mid-19th century. These days, it plays host to workers from the nearby commercial firms during daytimes. Later in the evenings the clientele might include political activists, musicians and trade unionists – and, of course, football fans. </p>
<p>If you are seeking a typical Glasgow meal afterwards, that can only mean one thing – time for a wee Ruby – “Ruby Murray” – a curry. Glasgow is one of the top places in the UK for its curry restaurants, boasting the likes of The Wee Curry Shop, Balbirs, Mother India and Richis. Indeed, one would be hard placed to find a restaurant selling everyday Glasgow food. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55067/original/n2rg9qbq-1406573715.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pull oot yer nan and cover her in gravy!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stvphotos/9010743769/in/photolist-5Mvgzu-ezDFxY-55DXV4-eJmAxb-3bAubo-3bvZy6-3bAtZ5-3bAtMq-3bAtf3-3bvZWB-3bAu4J-3bAthQ-3bAu8J-3bvZJt-3bvZAc-3bAu6Q-eJfqcc-4jii96-mnooE-5kTrD">STV</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>10. Glasgow place names quiz</h2>
<p>From the comfort of your trendy wee wine bar in Sauchiehall Street (or maybe the pub), can you say the following Glasgow place names in the Glesga way? </p>
<p>Arden, Auchinairn, Auchenshuggle, Barmulloch, Calton, Camlachie, Carmunnock, Carntyne, Carnwadric, Crossmyloof, Dalmarnock, Garngad, Garthamlock, Robroyston, Ruchill, Roystonhill, Ruchazie</p>
<p>Ask a local to help, and break the ice. Offer to buy them a drink first, of course.</p>
<p><em>To read the other parts of our Host City Glasgow series, click <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/host-city-glasgow">here</a>.</em> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerry Mooney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>So you’ve travelled to the Commonwealth Games, you’ve done the standard tourist route and you’ve figured out that your English phrase book is not much cop. Panic no more. Here is your essential guide to…Gerry Mooney, Senior Lecturer, Social Policy and Criminology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/297222014-07-26T09:12:43Z2014-07-26T09:12:43ZWhy isn’t tennis part of the Commonwealth Games?<p>Among those of us that follow the internal workings of the Commonwealth Games, eyebrows were raised when tennis was not included in the list of sports for Glasgow 2014. </p>
<p>Scotland has of course got great strength in tennis in the form of Andy Murray, Jamie Murray and Colin Fleming. If Glasgow was choosing which sports to include on the basis of what was likely to win Scotland the most medals, you might not have thought they would left tennis off the list. </p>
<p>Commonwealth Games host nations have to offer 17 sports, which are chosen from two separate lists – a core list and an options list. The 10 core sports are swimming, athletics, badminton, men’s boxing, hockey, women’s netball, lawn bowls, men’s rugby sevens, squash and weightlifting. </p>
<p>Glasgow 2014 represents the first time that the core list has been this large. For some of the previous events it was five, namely swimming, athletics, lawn bowls, rugby sevens and netball. To some extent this harks back to the days of the precursor 1911 Inter Empire Games, which consisted of four sports (athletics, swimming, boxing and wrestling) and nine events. The same sports plus rowing were competed for in 1930, when the first official event was renamed the British Empire Games (and held in Hamilton, Canada – after several more name changes, it became the Commonwealth Games in 1978).</p>
<p>Beyond the core sports, the options list includes <a href="http://topendsports.com/events/commonwealth-games/sports/index.htm">18 possibilities</a> which range from archery to cycling to table tennis to taekwondo. Some such as billiards have never yet been chosen. Glasgow’s seven are cycling, gymnastics, judo, shooting, table tennis, triathlon and wrestling. As well as tennis, the federations for synchronised swimming and ten-pin bowling had to accept rejection too. </p>
<p>The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) approves which sports make the two lists, which have had to expand over the years as the number of sports has increased. Where it was six in 1930, it reached 10 in 1978 before finally reaching the current 17 in Manchester 2002. Only three sports have been ever-present: athletics, boxing and swimming.</p>
<h2>The sports dogfight</h2>
<p>The Commonwealth Games might only be considered the second or third most important general sports event for competing countries (always behind the Olympics, and behind the Winter Olympics for some too). But for the sports federations seeking to push their particular sport, making sure they are on at least the optional list and eventually the core list will be one of their top priorities. </p>
<p>Two things have made the battle for inclusion more intense in recent years. First is the fact that the games’ popularity has waned, meaning that the case for change has grown stronger, particularly towards sports that will convert into TV rights in a good number of countries. </p>
<p>Second is that the balance of power between countries has been shifting, tilting towards those in Asia in particular, which had not even hosted a games until Kuala Lumpur in 1998 (and Africa still has not). This power shift has strengthened the argument for including sports that are more popular in the East or the Pan-Asian Games. The new CGF President is from Malaysia. </p>
<p>Kuala Lumpur represented the first major attempt to modernise the games, with a decision by the CGF to include team sports for the first time. This meant the arrival of cricket, hockey, women’s netball and men’s rugby sevens. Basketball was added for Melbourne 2006 (four team sports in total is currently the maximum permitted). </p>
<p>New Delhi was permitted to showcase kabaddi, a form of Indian wrestling, as a demonstration sport in 2010 and tennis was present in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. </p>
<h2>The big three</h2>
<p>Change still looks to be in the early stages, however. It is worth bearing in mind from the medal tables that in 91 years the same countries have dominated the top three positions (Australia, England and Canada). Certainly this does not reflect diversity, equality, development or indeed progress. Australia has topped the medal table in every games since 1990. The leading countries have hosted every games except Jamaica (1966), Kuala Lumpur (1998) and New Delhi (2010). And incidentally, all of the seven chairman/presidents of the CGF since 1930 have been men. </p>
<p>It is also worth pointing out that as well as the choice of sports, the individual sports federations have a hand in who competes because they set the qualifying standards for their sports. This is one reason why, looking at the Glasgow opening ceremony, Australia, Canada and England had larger teams than most of the other 71 nations and territories. Scotland’s team is its largest yet and comparable in size and range of sports covered. </p>
<p>As the CGF continues to wrestle with modernising the event, more change looks likely. Pointing the way might be an <a href="http://www.fioga.co.fk/files/GMS%20CGF%20Workshop%20-%20Research%20Presentation.pdf">independent report</a> from 2011 written on behalf of the CGF by the Australian consultancy Global Media and Sports. </p>
<p>The report acknowledges the declining popularity of the games and recommends some key changes, namely adding cycling, 20-20 cricket and triathlon to the core list in place of squash and lawn bowls, which would both become optional. There would then be an optional list of 11 and a new list of eight “less important” sports, which could also be chosen but in smaller proportions. </p>
<p>The report proposes to replace beach volleyball on the optional list with volleyball. Archery, canoeing, sailing, softball and ten-pin bowling have all been downgraded to less important. New arrivals (all on the less important list) are horse events, rugby league nines and football. Football is not given a higher billing for fear that it wouldn’t attract the stars, which has been an issue for Glasgow, most recently with Mo Farah’s withdrawal. The proposals have not yet been adopted, but we can be certain that the CGF will be thinking about them. </p>
<h2>As for Andy Murray…</h2>
<p>That glimpse of a possible future returns us to Glasgow and its tennis decision. There is certainly no bar to countries choosing sports that suit them. That was one reason why India had cricket on the programme in 2010, not to mention shooting and wrestling (and India collected the second-highest medal haul at its games – after Australia). </p>
<p>In mitigation to Glasgow, it had to make its decision on the sports offering seven years ago. While the Indians could reckon relatively far in advance that they would still be producing cricketers, Scotland’s current tennis stars were less advanced in their careers in 2007. Nonetheless, world tennis organisers <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23647343.html">let it be known</a> at the time that they thought Glasgow was opting out of tennis because it was not a universally popular enough sport to secure the backing of enough CGF members. This tells you something about Commonwealth Games realpolitik for a smallish country like Scotland in the modern era. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Scotland is well on the way to beating its highest ever haul of 33 (from Edinburgh 1986). Omitting tennis might not make any difference one way or the other. Scottish sport is in a good place and Scottish administrators are in positions of influence within the Commonwealth. </p>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant receives funding from UK research councils and both Scottish and UK governments. He is affiliated with Sportscotland. He is fully employed by the University of Edinburgh. This article is written in his capacity as Chair of Sport at the University of Edinburgh where he leads Edinburgh Sports Research.</span></em></p>Among those of us that follow the internal workings of the Commonwealth Games, eyebrows were raised when tennis was not included in the list of sports for Glasgow 2014. Scotland has of course got great…Grant Jarvie, Chair of Sport, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/296822014-07-24T17:55:56Z2014-07-24T17:55:56ZCommonwealth Games Mandela tribute overlooks a mixed record on apartheid<p>At different times ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, various politicians called for politics to be kept out of the event. This didn’t prevent the organisers paying tribute to Glasgow’s part in the Free Mandela movement in the 1980s at the opening ceremony. </p>
<p>Given the way that both elite and grassroots sport is funded and provided for, it is always extremely political. This is even before one discusses sport and identity, a subject that has come up at the games many times before. </p>
<p>This is the third time Scotland has hosted the event, having previously held them in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986. As the games had its origins in the British Empire Games, the competition accordingly reflects the UK’s – and Scotland’s – relationships with empire and decolonisation.</p>
<h2>Olympic protests</h2>
<p>South Africa’s system of apartheid ensured that it was banned from appearing at the Olympics and World Cup from the 1960s until apartheid ended in the early 1990s. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal was boycotted by 25 African nations after the IOC failed to ban New Zealand, which had recently allowed the South African rugby team to play in the country.</p>
<p>The Olympics survived, and went on to navigate two major Cold War boycotts in 1980 and 1984. It would also have survived the mooted but somewhat piecemeal Sochi 2014 boycott in relation to Russia’s treatment its LGBT citizens. </p>
<p>South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, so there was no question of the nation appearing at the games. But the Commonwealth Games became a protest forum for member countries in the 1970s and 1980s against the fact that South Africa had admirers within the conservative political and sporting establishments of the empire’s white dominions. They continually invited South Africa’s rugby and cricket sides to give tours of their countries.</p>
<h2>Not cricket</h2>
<p>After the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) invited the country’s cricket team for a tour of England in the summer of 1970, a comprehensive boycott was inevitable for Edinburgh’s games that same summer. The <a href="http://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization.php?name=South+African+Non-Racial+Olympic+Committee">South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee</a> called on Britain’s former imperial dominions not to attend the games if the tour went through – which they duly threatened to do. </p>
<p>Initially games organiser Herbert Brechin, a former lord provost of Edinburgh, accused the nations of blackmail and stated that the games would go on without them. In private, the games’ executive board confronted him on his comments, believing that a boycott would bring financial ruin. Almost immediately, his comments on the matter became more conciliatory. What actually saved the games, however, was largely the Labour government of Harold Wilson putting heavy pressure on the MCC to cancel the tour. </p>
<p>Yet the ongoing support for South Africa within the former imperial white dominions ensured that the Commonwealth Games would continue to be subject to boycott threats. Nigeria refused to attend the 1978 games in Vancouver, for example.</p>
<p>Margaret Thatcher took a different line on South Africa. She believed in trading with the country, in direct contravention of the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” programme called for by the anti-apartheid community. When the authorities allowed a South African rugby tour in 1984, moves began within the Commonwealth Games Federation to ban England. In the end this fell apart because protesters could not secure enough votes in the federation to make a ban go ahead. </p>
<p>But then came the case of white South African long-distance runner Zola Budd. The 1984 Great Britain Olympic team provocatively included her in its line-up, a controversial addition championed by sections of Britain’s right-wing press. The inclusion of Budd, with very tenuous family connections to Britain, subverted South Africa’s international sporting ban. And, when she was included in the 1986 England team along with Annette Cowley, a South African-born swimmer, the threats increased. </p>
<p>The timing of the Games took place at a critical juncture: the African National Congress had recently stepped up its guerrilla campaign against the government of South African president PJ Botha, and the games were scheduled to take place just before the next meeting of Commonwealth nations. African, Asian, and Caribbean nations were keen to make an example of the Thatcher government, and one by one they pulled out of the Edinburgh games.</p>
<h2>The Edinburgh conflict</h2>
<p>Edinburgh’s left-wing district council wanted to show its commitment to ending apartheid. An all-out boycott would prove tough, so it turned towards non-cooperation. The city had already confronted these issues when Budd had come to race at the <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vrUvXR5T5ZwC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=Dairy+Crest+Edinburgh+Games+1985&source=bl&ots=UAjNltSQwA&sig=AyWMApZX6BiiZGq44MczRlg_IFk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9S3RU7eGIqqw7Ab75oHgBQ&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Dairy%20Crest%20Edinburgh%20Games%201985&f=false">Dairy Crest Edinburgh Games</a> at the city’s Meadowbank stadium on July 23 1985. On that occasion, the council had unfurled a banner that read, “Edinburgh – Against Apartheid”. This was construed as political advertising. The event, which was due to be aired live on Channel 4, had its television transmission cut just before it went to air. </p>
<p>As the chaotic 1986 Games lurched from one crisis to another, Thatcher was invited to the city by the organisers. She became the district council’s primary target, and it ordered her to keep out of Edinburgh. This proved impossible, but Labour councillors nevertheless joined members of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in a picket line at Meadowbank stadium and the athletes’ village. Council leader (now a Labour MP) Mark Lazarowicz stated: “We don’t want to have in our city a woman whose support for Botha means that she… has the blood of suffering people on her hands.” </p>
<p>Once past the cordons, Thatcher fared no better. A tour of the athletes’ village resulted in the PM being grilled by English rower Joanna Toch over her government’s recommendations six years’ earlier that athletes boycott the 1980 Olympics over the Cold War. Canadian high jumper Nathaniel Brooks accused Thatcher of embarrassing herself by coming to Edinburgh, stating: “There is no atmosphere in the village and I believe she must take the blame for a lot of that.”</p>
<p>Scottish sport’s relationship with the South African question did not end in 1986. It’s easy enough to craft Scottish narratives of resistance to apartheid, which came to the surface for example during last night’s opening ceremony for Glasgow 2014 with the talk of that city’s support for Nelson Mandela’s liberation in the 1980s. </p>
<p>There was no mention of the fact that in 1989, the Scottish Rugby Union also invited South Africa’s team to the country. Those days of political boycotts have gone for the time being, but there is a a paradox about this year’s games all the same. In a year where Scotland holds a referendum on its place in the UK, a lot of work has gone into a sporting tournament that coyly acknowledges its place in the empire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At different times ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, various politicians called for politics to be kept out of the event. This didn’t prevent the organisers paying tribute to Glasgow’s part in the…Matthew McDowell, Lecturer in Sport and Recreation Management, The University of EdinburghFiona Skillen, Lecturer in Sport and Events, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/296762014-07-24T15:39:27Z2014-07-24T15:39:27ZWas the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony any good?<p><em>From John Barrowman’s Scottish accent to Susan Boyle’s nervous take of Mull of Kintyre to the cheered tribute to Nelson Mandela, the Commonwealth Games gave us an opening ceremony to remember. And that’s before anyone mentions <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/john-barrowman-praised-for-commonwealth-games-opening-ceremony-gay-kiss-9624782.html">that kiss</a>. We asked events specialist Joe Goldblatt and Simon Pia, veteran of Scottish journalism, what it all meant.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Simon Pia, Lecturer in Journalism, Edinburgh Napier University</strong></p>
<p>The kiss that went round the Commonwealth was surprisingly perhaps the least contentious part of an opening ceremony of what are going to be –- no matter what anyone says – a highly politicised Glasgow Games.</p>
<p>John Barrowman’s embrace with a male dancer during an opening stage that turned Celtic Park into something akin to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory was a bold, politically correct message that no one in what is still the UK was going to take issue with. How other parts of the Commonwealth, such as Uganda, felt about it is another matter. </p>
<p>But within minutes of the ceremony starting, social media, the litmus test for the zeitgeist, was already dividing along political lines. Nationalists and independence campaigners were cringing behind the sofa at home tweeting abuse about Barrowman -– a high profile unionist -– and what they saw as a naff rather than kitsch extravaganza coming in at over £20m. </p>
<p>Surrealism-sur-Clyde, at times, as giant tea-cakes and sugary soft drinks twirled around a statue of the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone on his head. Glasgow got it as did the rest of Scotland, but elsewhere? <a href="http://www.renemagritte.org">Rene Magritte</a> was not un Ecossais, n’est pas?</p>
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<span class="caption">The Duke of Wellington, complete with traffic cone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/citizenm/4726833425/in/photolist-8cGfU2-8cKzaW-igaNy-Gokqp-a1LxDX-a1LxR4-cHv9dS-dVy5uR-dVy8on-7JyCUJ-9Qg4rj-dqaRJM-821bor-821bon-81N2Qq-2t5E8L-9Y2uYC-78RMSD-9XYzDp-fZE9YW-8hrtL5-6jnA7w-addknL-8DStTB-8F4cNk-eaWedk">CitizenM Hotels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>But what Glasgow did was very Scottish. Knowing it couldn’t compete with Danny Boyle’s Olympics, or even perhaps afraid to, it decided to do what it does best –- take the piss out of itself. </p>
<p>Some got the joke while others, particularly nationalists, didn’t. Or maybe it just wasn’t a very funny one. But Scotland taking itself seriously is essential to the nationalist mindset, particularly at this time in its history. Glasgow didn’t and this was seen as a slap in the face. </p>
<p>A sombre first minister pointedly referred to Scotland rather than Glasgow in his short speech, breaking the protocol of games etiquette which should be all about the host city. But Alex Salmond has never been known to miss an opportunity to make his point or wave his saltire, regardless of the circumstances. </p>
<p>But the whimsy of Glasgow’s approach opened up the metaphysical dilemma at the heart of the independence debate and Scotland’s existential angst over its identity. Social media was awash with the ceremony reflecting what an independent Scotland would look like –- a naff little place that is a bit of an embarrassment.</p>
<p>The paranoid wing of the nationalist camp, which is substantial, saw it as a unionist plot whereas the more measured in their ranks reckoned such pap can only be expected as the product of an infantalised people under an imperial yoke.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the Better Together campaign was hailing it as a feel-good success as God Save the Queen reverberated around that republican heartland of Scotland, Celtic Park; and the Red Arrows flew overhead billowing red, white and blue streams across the summer night sky.</p>
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<p>The mainstream Scottish media gave it the thumbs up on its front-page splashes as did leading TV and radio bulletins. The media wants the games to succeed. Some of the more discerning elements, aka the awkward squad such as the critics, were less enthusiastic in their reviews, some even scathing.</p>
<p>But all this misses what opening ceremonies are about. They are eminently forgettable and by their very nature naff and tediously boring. The 2012 Olympic ceremony was an anomaly. </p>
<p>The Glasgow gig was pawky, cheeky, lively, corny, naff and compulsive as it just avoided turning into a complete car crash let alone a turning point in the referendum.</p>
<p><strong>Joe Goldblatt, Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh</strong></p>
<p>Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when one billion people throughout the world behold an opening ceremony such as the one staged to open the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow yesterday, the controversy often reaches a fever pitch.</p>
<p>It is important to place these events in a historical perspective. The majority of public events are funded by taxpayers, so millions of people have a vested interest in their content and legacy. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4As0e4de-rI">London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony’s</a> budget was estimated at £65m. Some taxpayers would ask, and rightly so, how many new hospitals and schools could be constructed with this level of funding? In contrast, the budget for the opening and closing ceremonies in Glasgow <a href="http://www.glasgow2014.com/media-centre/press-releases/global-events-team-ready-create-and-deliver-glasgow-2014-opening-and">is £14m</a>. </p>
<p>Opening ceremonies are not just about using bread and circuses as a means of amusing and even distracting the public. These events do provide escapism from the mundane and even from serious catastrophes of the day, including the Malaysia Airlines crash in the Ukraine, but actually serve a far greater purpose – to tell the story of the host city or nation to the world. This is what leads to their controversy.</p>
<p>In the past, opening ceremonies producers have sought to focus only on the positive aspects of a destination and to provide popular entertainment for the audience both in the stadium and through television. This was certainly true during the London 2012 opening ceremony.</p>
<p>Danny Boyle’s showpiece focused on the historical development of the United Kingdom and paid tribute to key historical milestones such as the development of the industrial age, the NHS and even the internet. It was also criticised for not examining some of the darker chapters in British life, however.</p>
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<p>Glasgow is sometimes described in tourism marketing jargon as being representative of “edge tourism”. This means there is both a dark and light side to the city, both of which are enjoyed by tourists. Glasgow 2014 producer <a href="http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/commonwealth-games-glaswegians-main-voice-3891812">David Zolkwer</a> largely succeeded in telling this complex story to the world, having made several correct choices along the way. </p>
<p>Above all, the show did not avoid the over-the-top brashness that you would expect of an aspirational city like Glasgow. This included a same-sex kiss at the top of the show to help demonstrate Glasgow’s tolerance and embrace of diversity. At the tail of the show they saluted Nelson Mandela through word and song. This was once again a reminder to the world that while others hesitated, Glasgow stepped boldly forward to be the first to honour this great and good man with its freedom of the city award, even though he was a prisoner and could not accept it until many years later.</p>
<p>Second, for the first time in a mega event they incorporated an opportunity for the worldwide audience to contribute to UNICEF. This dramatically changed the usual focus of opening ceremonies from being one massive party without a purpose to one that could change the world one person and one event at a time. This is highly commendable and will most likely be adopted by most major events in future. Who knows, like many other Scottish inventions it might become known as the “Glasgow effect”.</p>
<p>Finally, although some would question the relevance of the panto approach to some of the Glasgow 2014 segments, it is important to note that Scottish panto has a long and storied tradition in this land. It is therefore a logical way to effectively communicate to the masses the important themes of humanity, generosity, courage and even good humour.</p>
<p>When the role of public events is chronicled, I am convinced that Glasgow 2014 will be remembered as having accurately reflected a city and country that is in great dramatic transition. The producers of the opening ceremony will be remembered, like others before them, for their controversial choices. They will also be remembered in this case, more than any other I have seen, for their bold commitment to using fundraising to create a better world. This is the kind of controversy we need more of in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe is a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party, Academics for YES and the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon is a member of the Labour Party</span></em></p>From John Barrowman’s Scottish accent to Susan Boyle’s nervous take of Mull of Kintyre to the cheered tribute to Nelson Mandela, the Commonwealth Games gave us an opening ceremony to remember. And that’s…Joe Goldblatt, Professor of Planned Events, Queen Margaret UniversitySimon Pia, Lecturer in Journalism, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/296322014-07-24T05:10:29Z2014-07-24T05:10:29ZScotland Decides ’14: could the Commonwealth Games swing it for either side?<p>You may have thought that politics-as-usual was only put on ice during war time. But, no; politicians on both sides of Scotland’s divide <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/independence-salmond-pledges-politics-free-games-1-3484374">have been promising</a> in recent days that they won’t sully Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games with the battle over September’s independence referendum. </p>
<p>As the glow fades from the opening ceremony and the first events get underway, we asked our panel whether this was credible or even feasible, and in what ways the games could affect the coming vote. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Neil Blain, Professor of Communications, University of Stirling</strong></p>
<p>A large part of the decision that people make in September has to do with whether Scotland has the ability to run its own affairs. A potential effect of the games on the don’t-knows is that if there’s a general sense that the event has been successful, and that Glasgow might even have helped preserve the games’ future – <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-the-games-begin-but-whats-the-point-of-the-commonwealth-28577">which is very much in doubt</a> – it might to some extent offset the “Project Fear” negative economic warnings about independence. </p>
<p>One of the things you noticed in the run-up to the opening ceremony was the visibility of Glasgow on national television. You’re getting reports that are not just about <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19463119">deep-fried Mars Bars</a> for once. We have also heard a lot from Westminster about the viability of the regions outside London economically. They’re talking about Glasgow making satellites, being a player in life sciences, things like that. This is already a different message to what people in Scotland have been used to hearing. </p>
<p>The fact that this is happening in Glasgow is significant because it is where the Scottish parliament is not; it is where a large proportion of the Labour vote is, many of whom are no and don’t-know voters. Normally they just hear about the percentage of people on benefits or not working, and all the problems and deprivation – and the preservation of the UK is somehow seen by many of them as the way to solve these things. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/poll-shows-labour-supporters-are-being-won-over-by-yes-campaign.24787967">we’ve already seen</a> some of them moving over to the yes camp. If Glasgow comes out of these games with a sense of being a major European city that can do things well, it’s an answer to a lot of the concerns. On the other hand, if it’s judged not to have been staged successfully, that would reinforce the notion that we need a broader pair of shoulders behind us. </p>
<p>As to the question of keeping politics out of this event, the Olympics in London was very heavily politicised. Nobody ever suggested it shouldn’t be. It was used by David Cameron until the very recent past as an emblem of the virtues of British unity and unionism. The Olympics were inseparable from the display of the Union Jack and the links between Scottish history and the rest of these islands. If that was anything to go by, the Commonwealth Games will be heavily politicised too. Bear in mind that sport is one of the biggest carriers of national identity that we have, if not the biggest.</p>
<p>Also remember that we are talking about a whole series of countries that as part of the games will be celebrating their independence. I can’t think of another historical instance where a country can seriously discuss independence as a negative in front of so many countries for whom independence was in the end a great achievement. </p>
<p>I don’t buy the analogy that we Scots were subjects of the empire, or victims of it. We were at the forefront. So you do have to be careful here. But you can’t get away from the fact that you have got this substantial body of people that are presenting independence as a threat, yet you have these games going on that are partly by definition a celebration of independence from the British Empire. It’s something we should all be reflecting on. How you stop the politics emerging from that, I don’t know. </p>
<p><strong>Karly Kehoe, senior lecturer in history, Glasgow Caledonian University</strong></p>
<p>It will be impossible for the politicians not to use the games as part of their campaigning. There are thousands of people descending on Glasgow and they are all going to be curious about what’s going to happen in September.</p>
<p>Most sporting events are politicised. We just had the World Cup in Brazil, for instance, where there was plenty of focus on the struggles of Brazilians – the poverty, the environment and so on. And it’s particularly ironic for the politicians to say they won’t use the games when the Commonwealth is symbolic of the former British Empire and the decision taken by its colonies to negotiate a different relationship with the centre in an attempt to define their own futures.</p>
<p>The games include those nations that were part of Britain’s empire and represent a retention – in some form – of that relationship. So it’s intrinsically political. And remember that you have 71 nations participating and Scotland is represented as one of them. Not as GB but as Scotland, along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.</p>
<p>Having said that, the politicians probably do have to be seen to be ruling out making political capital of the games because the focus needs to be on the athletes who have to be focused on and ready for their events. It would be inappropriate, unless someone volunteers their position, for the press to ask athletes for their opinion on the referendum. Their job, at this point, is getting themselves mentally prepared for the task at hand – which is competing.</p>
<p>But the reality is that Scotland is going through a process of referendum and the games are being hosted in Glasgow, so it would be strange if politics didn’t come into it. In any case, it’s very close to the vote now and both sides have to be doing all they can to ensure that they bring over to their side the undecided – which is still a significant number.</p>
<p>On the question of who will benefit from the event, if the games come off without a hitch, if everybody enjoys themselves and the athletes feel they had a successful competition, if Glasgow shines and stands out as a world-class host city then it will be a boost for the yes campaign.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You may have thought that politics-as-usual was only put on ice during war time. But, no; politicians on both sides of Scotland’s divide have been promising in recent days that they won’t sully Glasgow’s…Karly Kehoe, Senior Lecturer in History, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityNeil Blain, Professor of Communications, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/296202014-07-23T13:15:23Z2014-07-23T13:15:23ZAny nationalist sugar rush from the Commonwealth Games is unlikely to last long<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54668/original/tcq2cz6v-1406119571.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I'd like Scottish independence and a large fries, please.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishgovernment/8205818398/in/photolist-dv7XVy-dv7YSJ">Scottish Government</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Celtic Park is hosting one of the biggest spectacles in the sporting calendar. The 40,000 spectators will be treated to the vagaries of the sports-media-entertainment complex: Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle and Amy Macdonald are due to perform while a 1020m2 mega-screen, Glasgow’s “Window on the Commonwealth,” will create a dramatic and immersive visual experience at the south stand. </p>
<p>With an estimated live global television audience of one billion, the ceremony will provide the city with an opportunity to strategically position itself in relation to the Commonwealth and stress the “generosity of spirit” tag-line that runs through the Glasgow narrative. Yet even though such events usually focus on the host city, there appears to be no shying away from the opportunity to also display the nation (or selected versions of it). </p>
<p>As Eileen Gallagher, independent director of the Glasgow 2014 board and chair of the ceremonies, culture and Queen’s Baton relay <a href="http://www.glasgow2014.com/media-centre/press-releases/glasgow-2014%E2%80%99s-opening-ceremony-create-recordbreaking-%E2%80%98window-world%E2%80%99">explained</a>: “Our bold and creative vision [is] to showcase our host city and nation”. </p>
<p>She added: “We are not in any way shy about being as Scottish and as Glasgow as we should be, because this is a big, big opportunity. I want people to look at the images we show … and say, ‘I want to be there. I want to go to Glasgow. I want to go to Scotland’.” </p>
<p>These sorts of pictures are often mythical, inclusive visions that have political capital. They are designed to attract tourists, drive investment and promote some form of feel-good factor, a sense of pride, a sense of attachment and a sense of belonging to nation.</p>
<h2>Vote for Team Scotland!</h2>
<p>Arguably this could not come at a better time for some. For while sport maintains a sense of distance from politics, at least publicly, and both sides in the September independence referendum campaign <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/independence-salmond-pledges-politics-free-games-1-3484374">have been promising</a> to return the compliment, in reality the two could not be more interconnected. </p>
<p>So what impact are the games likely to have? Perhaps none. It is probably rather reductive to reduce the complexities of independence to athletic performance or one major event. The spectacle of the opening ceremony and medal-winning performances (or failures) are probably not reason enough to persuade voters. To say otherwise rather trivialises the intelligence of those voting.</p>
<p>Yet sporting events might provide one of the most powerful manifestations for the performance of Scottishness —- especially in such a global age. Scotland is arguably emblematic of what the late Eric Hobsbawn <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nations-Nationalism-since-1780-Programme/dp/1107604621">might suggest</a> as a nation through which sport is so uniquely an effective medium for inculcating national feelings.</p>
<h2>Brazil’s bum trip</h2>
<p>There are similarities here, albeit differing contexts, between the Commonwealth Games and this year’s World Cup. The national identity of Brazil, like Scotland, is bound with its sporting identity. And look what happened to Brazil when national performance did not live up to expectation. The mood turned following <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2014/07/06/neymars-injury-and-brazils-brutality-against-colombia-at-world-cup-an-alternate-view/">injury to Neymar</a> and more markedly following <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28102403">humiliation</a> at the hands of the Germans. </p>
<p>Dissonance, mourning and disbelief starkly contrasted with the feel-good factor; deep inequalities and economic disparities resurfaced following a brief pause. Here, sporting success mattered, with performance and levels of patriotism clearly linked. So for the yes campaign, no matter how unfairly, performance could matter. Failure, no matter how defined, could alter the mood. </p>
<p>Then there is the English dimension. If England dominate in Glasgow, would there be the potential for an inverse relation between success and feelings of Scottishness? Might English success manifest in some form of Scottish backlash that could benefit the yes campaign?</p>
<p>As for the broader spectacle, it is likely that the games may well deliver a euphoric high, no matter how ephemeral. Scots may experience intense feelings of patriotism, in a moment of what is somtimes termed “<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629809000420">hot nationalism</a>”. It can gloss over the realities of everyday life and the complex intricacies of the referendum. </p>
<p>One only has to think of the euphoria that circulated around London 2012, the version of Britishness on show at the opening ceremony, and the celebration and national pride demonstrated on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19131661">Super Saturday</a>. Indeed, with the Commonwealth Games exuding Britishness through all its sinews, one might question how Scottish the games can be. </p>
<p>Yet there is little to suggest that there would be long-lasting effects. These temporary moments of attachment, belonging and patriotism are often fleeting. Any euphoric hot nationalist attachment to some form of a mythical or manufactured Scottishness is likely to quickly dissipate. In the end, it is likely to make little difference to the independence referendum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Silk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Celtic Park is hosting one of the biggest spectacles in the sporting calendar. The 40,000 spectators will be treated to the vagaries of the sports-media-entertainment complex: Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle…Michael Silk, Reader in Physical Cultural Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/293512014-07-17T13:57:39Z2014-07-17T13:57:39ZTax, ads and prestige: why Usain Bolt won’t be centre stage this Commonwealth Games<p>If you’re grumbling about the number of athletes who have opted out of or are still prevaricating about whether to compete in the Commonwealth Games, blame Usain Bolt. The most charismatic and globally popular sports star since Muhammad Ali has decided to stay out of the 100m and 200m races that have made him famous and only compete in the 4x100m relay.</p>
<p>Bolt has redefined track in much the same way as Tiger Woods redefined golf and Michael Jordan basketball: not with his style, so much as his brand -– his name, image and imprimatur sell goods, most unrelated to sport, to any market in the world.</p>
<h2>Brand Bolt</h2>
<p>Last year Bolt <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24218141">renewed his endorsement contract</a> with Puma in a deal worth $10m (£5.8m) over two years. The Jamaican superstar also has promotional contracts with Virgin Media, Visa, Nissan, Gatorade, Swiss watchmaker Hublot and Soul Electronics; with which he will develop his own line of headphones. He has also published two books, pushing his early earnings to about $20 million. </p>
<p>So for him, the prize money available on the <a href="http://www.diamondleague.com">IAAF Diamond League</a> circuit from which most athletes earn a stable living (winners are paid $10,000 per event) is negligible. Typically, Bolt will command an appearance fee of between $200,000 and $350,000 per meeting. Promoters may balk at this, but his appearance guarantees a full stadium. He alone can confer respectability and glamour on the Glasgow tournament. </p>
<p>So why isn’t he interested in competing in the best-known events? A Commonwealth Games medal would not add commercial value to Bolt’s brand, and a defeat or disqualification (remember: he was disqualified from the 2011 World Championships) would be damaging from a marketing perspective. Bolt’s declination of the 100m and 200m is a big blow for the Commonwealth Games. But you can imagine the cost-benefit calculation behind the decision. </p>
<h2>The problem with the games</h2>
<p>The tournament has nowhere near the lustre of the Olympics, nor even the IAAF World Championships. Its television audience is relatively small and interest among the world’s richest economic nations is limited. The Commonwealth embraces some of the world’s poorest countries, such as Mozambique and Rwanda. As many as 31 of the member states have populations of 1.5m or less. </p>
<p>So while there is a collective population of near two billion and a few fast-emerging economies, the games do not present an especially attractive proposition for advertisers. One can imagine the global corporations that pay Bolt wondering out loud whether it is worth risking his reputation in a tournament that counts for little. Allowing him to compete in the relay might have been seen as a compromise – it will not expose him to any conceivable embarrassment or brand damage and will be entirely ritualistic. </p>
<p>Those who reject this explanation as too cynical should recall the <a href="https://in.news.yahoo.com/sprint-king-bolt-boycott-diamond-league-protest-against-110655511.html">fuss Bolt kicked up last year</a> when he was invited to participate in a post-Olympics event. HMRC, the British government’s tax service, requires its 50% cut of sports stars’ earnings. </p>
<p>HMRC agreed to International Olympic Committee demands that it grant stars an amnesty for the Olympics, and it will repeat this for the Commonwealth Games, but these are exceptions. Bolt is one of a number of stars that have avoided UK events because of the tax rules. Asked if he was staying away because he would lose as much money as he would earn from running in London, <a href="http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUKTRE66B4J820100712">Bolt replied</a>: “That’s what my agent told me.” It goes without saying, agents are in business to make money. </p>
<h2>The cold reality</h2>
<p>It may disappoint fans to learn their heroes are motivated by much the same pecuniary incentives as everyone else, but sports stars are not idealists. The Chariots of Fire have long since charged away. Bolt is far from unique: nowadays professional sportsmen and women are working for money and their priorities reflect this. Their pursuit of trophies or sporting accolades has long since been replaced by another, more basic pursuit. It’s not unknown for sports stars to skip training or even competition to attend events for their commercial sponsors. </p>
<p>Bolt’s official position is not clear: he is apparently not injured but just hasn’t trained enough for the big events. He is not the only Jamaican sprinter to be giving the games a cold-ish shoulder. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is also only competing in the 4x100m relay, while Yohan Blake last week went further and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/10/yohan-blake-blow-commonwealth-games-credibility">pulled out</a> altogether. </p>
<p>Double Olympic silver medallist Blake said he could not put his preparations for Rio 2016 at risk. Translated, this is: “The Commonwealth Games are worthless. There is no money, prestige or any kind of benefit to be gained from winning a tupenny ha'penny medal at a third-rate Games.” </p>
<p>Luckily the organisers are having slightly better luck with athletes closer to home. Cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cycling/sir-bradley-wiggins-will-pursue-commonwealth-gold-instead-of-tour-de-france-yellow-9569688.html">will be competing</a>, though this appears to be only because he was left out of the Sky team for the Tour de France. Mo Farah has been uncertain due to injury, but his fitness has been confirmed. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth-games/28323967">He strongly hinted</a> on Twitter that he would now compete in Glasgow. </p>
<p>As for Bolt, he may be secretly disappointed: an appearance at a venue full of adoring fans where he can do his usual shtick in front of TV cameras and pick up another medal for his cabinet would not be an onerous task for him, even if he did end up enriching the British taxman. But he isn’t in control: like other pro sports stars, he’s made a Faustian pact that renders him at the mercy of his corporate paymasters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ellis Cashmore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you’re grumbling about the number of athletes who have opted out of or are still prevaricating about whether to compete in the Commonwealth Games, blame Usain Bolt. The most charismatic and globally…Ellis Cashmore, Professor of Culture, Media and Sport, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.