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Use Olympics to raise $1 billion for world's poor, says peer
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent1 Dec 2009
Lord Puttnam, the Oscar-winning peer, has condemned the Olympic movement for having lost its high idealism.
But he said it was within the grasp of the London 2012 Games to prove that the true Olympic spirit was not really dead.
If everyone watching the opening ceremony in three years' time was encouraged to send a donation through mobile phone or computer, Lord Puttnam said $1 billion could be raised to help the lives of the poorest young people in the world.
And the ceremony itself could be used to highlight the transformative power of the games through films of young men and women who were benefiting from sport even if they never competed at the highest level.
Lord Puttnam, who counts Chariots of Fire, about the athlete Eric Liddle, as among his most famous films, called on the International Organising Committee to find a new, more relevant role for the 21st century.
Giving the third annual lecture in memory of the Games' modern founder, Pierre de Coubertin, the peer said sport had yet to understand the contribution it could make to human development.
Encouraging young women to take part was the “best possible investment,” he said, for experience showed they then produced smarter, healthier children even if they had little other education.
An £88 million programme called International Inspiration for sport in poorer countries, funded by the British government with the London Games organisers Locog and other donors, was on course to transform the lives of 12 million children this way by 2012.
And Lord Puttnam said that if money could be raised for that work to continue, London really would have found a worthwhile legacy.
Speaking at Bafta to an audience of sports and arts men and women including triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and Royal Opera House boss Tony Hall, he said: “Pierre de Coubertin founded something into which he injected a set of ideals which were not just his, but ideals of human behaviour that we human beings have aspired to, possibly since the beginning of time, but certainly for the past 2,500 years.
“In doing so, he asked a great deal of us – the question is, are we, is today's Olympic movement, worthy of what he conceived? My considered answer is no – but with courage, it could so very easily be.”
Lord Puttnam said the Olympics really could engage the hearts and minds of young people “if only the IOC could be persuaded to embrace a wider and more generous interpretation of their responsibilities and the important role that's sitting there waiting for them to play.”
The London Games needed to deliver the soul of Sydney with the spectacle of Beijing, he added. “I want the London Olympics to be everything. It's not a big sell,” he said.
Bill Morris, Locog's director of culture, said the IOC seemed genuinely impressed by work like International Inspiration. “There really is a chance it will become part of the DNA of future games,” he said.
Reader views (5)
I've recently been reading some revealing critiques of the Olympic Games. I'd like to quote a short passage from Chris Shaw's book, "Five Ring Circus: Myths & Realities of the Olympic Games" (p86-87):
"...the entire Olympic industry is endemically corrupt... What else would one call an industry that knowingly puts cities & states into debt, promises social inclusion but directly penalises the poor or labels itself environmentally friendly while abetting outright destruction..."
Just about sums up what's wrong with the Olympics in a nutshell!
- Cally G, Essex, UK, 03/12/2009 10:39
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Surely by just cancelling the whole shebang £8 billion could be found for better causes.
- Mdj E10, london uk, 02/12/2009 18:20
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Lord Puttnam - by all means help the poor, but make it own home grown poor, not the worlds poor.
- Tony Heath, Godalming, Surrey, 01/12/2009 17:47
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"If everyone watching the opening ceremony in three years' time was encouraged to send a donation through mobile phone or computer, Lord Puttnam said $1 billion could be raised to help the lives of the poorest young people in the world"
Er sorry but as London council tax payers, we have already paid more than our fair share towards this ego circus, and without being asked.
As for helping the worlds "poor" we were throwing money at countries in Africa, in the 70's, the 80's, the 90's and we will still be throwing money at them in another 50 years, so forgive me for not having a bleeding heart and wringing my hands for them.
As for any other "poor" countries, I would say stop having endless kids and practice some contraception, or abstain from sex.
I and countless others are fed up of people asking for handouts, we have enough scroungers in the UK
- P Staker, Londonistan., 01/12/2009 16:14
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My Lord Puttnam, you missed the most important point. Could it be these are the How rich, how quick can Seb Coe and friends get, games. The world appears to look on them not as the London games but as the Seb Coe games
- Clare, cardiff, 01/12/2009 14:44
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