“Fan”ning the Flames – FanTrust: Your Mission Control for Olympic Fan Action

The FanTrust office is just a short walk along the water to the Olympic Torch. I’ve been making a regular pilgrimage to the flames, generally checking out the scene and hearing what the fans have to say about the Games, the Torch and the city of Vancouver.

With almost as much bad press as Gitmo, our Olympic-Torch-behind-bars, has become a lightening rod for activists, tourists and even the Mayor, who all want to free the flame.

In one of the world’s freest countries, our torch sits behind a chain-link fence. Worse, it rises up from what looks like a construction site, with cement blocks and boards. This is like the proverbial bride who wears curlers at the wedding to look good for the reception. What are we waiting for, Vancouver?

The Dope on the Cauldron

“I have been to Turin and Beijing and never seen anything like this before,” said one tourist to me in passing. “To think I paid to come here and see this,” he added, referring to the Olympic Torch — or “Olympic Toke” as others refer to our spectacular haystack of reefers. As one Facebook post succinctly posted today: “The Olympics are dope, but the fence is lame.”

In an op-ed piece in today’s Vancouver Sun, Microsoft’s corporate VP notes that we’ve reached a social media tipping point for the Games: “Future Olympic Games will see us interacting with our devices simply by gesturing.”

I’d say, if left to our own devices, we’ll happily gesture to authorities right now, overturning bad decisions — such as the imprisonment of the Torch.

At last, bowing from the pressure from mass media, social media and passers-by, VANOC has just cut a peep hole along the length of the fence and opened a viewing platform for visitors and photo ops. I look forward to retaking and reposting earlier photos of my son taken at the Torch-site, which unfortunately evoked escape from Alcatraz.