Summary: Tear gas and rubber bullets, surface to air missiles on residential buildings, brand exclusion zones and riot police, forced relocation of citizens and planned gentrification of prime real estate - the madness of international sport has been an evolutionary process that piled layer upon layer of self-fulfilling logic and precedent to help stage and finance the World Cup and Olympic Games. In those countries where international sport is set to arrive serious concerns have begun to arise in the matter of public financing, civic priorities and human rights and it begs a simple question, when does this madness end and what next for these world sport mega-events and, better yet, who is being held accountable for what is emerging as expensive corporate festivals which come at great human cost. Helping us evaluate the evolution of some dubious IOC and FIFA Shadow Legacies and Celebration Capitalism is author, activist and former athlete Jules Boykoff who breaks down the procession where rampant commercialism, crony capitalism and serious human rights abuses have become the foundation upon which expensive stadium and infrastructure projects now fuel a fully developed Sports Industrial Complex with its own level of para-military suppression when not all goes according to plan, as evidenced at the 2013 Confederation Cup and the protests which endure even today in Brazil from that experience. Jules is an Associate Professor at Pacific University and has written commentaries on politics for outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, New Left Review, Dissent Magazine, The Nation and across academic disciplines for more than a decade, in fields as diverse as political science, sociology, geography, environmental studies, and history. This is an almost anthropological expose of how international sport has become an increasing tool used by the privileged to increase their personal wealth, how mega-sponsors align themselves to the halo-effect of these athletic movements done in the name of corporate sin-washing and how the less advantaged are now targeted via spin and misdirection talking points that so easily win each and every media day. Meanwhile mass evictions at gun point, planned gentrification projects and worker abuses have become just one more extension of Shadow Legacies left behind in the name of sport. At the core of this program, Unite Part Two, is the intensification of a dual economic and political evolution for both the IOC and FIFA where we must now ask of ourselves a serious question, is the temporary bump in consumerism and nationalism really worth the financial and human toll it takes to stage these mega-events.
