Olympic preparation déjà vu

Just under two years ago, the city I was living in was awarded the Olympic Games for the second time in my life. This time round, I didn't participate in a basketball dribbling race at an event that was part of the bid process, although I did walk through a gateway supporting the bid at a Guy Fawkes' Night Display. However, we do live roughly the same distance from the site of the Olympic Stadium as the furthest part of the Olympic village will be.

As of today, the roads, footpaths, cycleways, towpaths and waterways in the Olympic Park area will be closed to allow for construction. Thankfully, the two main routes, the Greenway and the River Lee Navigation, are excepted from this, so it will still be easy to go off along the river or head towards Beckton. The Greenway will be partially closed at some points, but that's just as well, because that part of the Greenway could do with revamping. The Olympic Park should be quite a nice area by the time everything is done.

Of course, this is not the only "closure" that has just come into effect. Yesterday England "went smokefree". It is no longer legal to smoke in enclosed areas that are also workplaces. At the same time. the whole college campus has been declared a non smoking area. I don't think I've ever breathed in so much cigarette smoke while walking down a public road as I did outside the college this morning.

(Ten points for the best explanation of what the picture has to do with this post.)

Symbols: help or hindrance?

I don't know how much you have seen of the new London 2012 Olympic logo, which has attracted a lot of criticism. The biggest problem with the logo itself (as opposed the flashing promotional video which caused problems for some people with epilepsy) is that it doesn't really have any symbolism. It has the Olyympic rings, the word London, and the shape almost clearly spells out "2012". Apart from these bare essentials, there is... nothing.

From what I've heard, this is quite understandable, as the designers were given criteria that ruled out nearly every symbolism the logo could draw on. The 2012 logo could not look like any previous Olympic logos, ruling out anything resembling an athlete or the Olympic flame. The logo of "the UK's games" was not allowed to be too London-centric, ruling out a vast array of images. I'm not sure whether something reppsenting the whole of Britain would have been acceptable, but I don't think the Union Flag is subtle enough for that context, and no alternative springs to mind. There really isn't much left, is there?

A similar set of restrictions have appeared in the rules for the competition for a new flag and emblem of Kosovo. In this case, the brief is less restrictive, and much more reasonable anyway. Unwanted symbols in flags can easily spark all sorts of problems, and the political sensitivites in this area are more serious than worries that the Scots will resent the extra spending on a London event.

A new flag for Kosovo needs to be acceptable to both the Serbian and Albanian residents in order to avoid sparking tensions and dooming any peaceful settlement to failure. The flag must be neutral, combining symbology, or making references only to peace or the region itself.

Unfortunately, no matter how neutral the flag is, it will only succeed if there is an acceptable settlement to start with. Removing a symbol is only a skin deep change. The deliberately inclusive/neutral flags of Ireland and Cyprus have both ultimately become associated with one side of a conflict. It would be hard to find a more intrinsically neutral flag than the Cypriot map and olive branches, but in recent years plans for reuniting the island have included a requirement for a new flag.