Monthly Archives: February 2010

censorship makes me sad, too

The Olympics are great at drawing a big red line down the middle of the population. “With glowing hearts” we must choose to wholeheartedly support the Olympics and all their attendant corruptions, or not.

However, for those who choose to not support the Olympics – or even speak out against them, god forbid – it becomes very clear, very fast, that censorship is the usual response from the Cultural Olympiad. We saw it in Beijing in 2008; it was almost expected from a country already notorious for its censorship. But this is Canada, the true north strong and free, right? Sure. Now tell me why the exact same thing is happening here.

The censoring started before the Olympics even arrived in Canada, with the issue of indigenous rights and the censorship of outspoken members of that community. Then libraries in Vancouver received notice that they should be vigilant about policing brand names on display throughout the Games. Policing and libraries…now there’s two words I never wanted to hear in the same sentence.

What’s that? You’re sick of this crap and want to take it to the streets in protest? Sure, no problem – as long as you do it in one of Vancouver’s official  “free-speech zones”. (Don’t worry, we already booted all the homeless people out of that part of the city, so you’ll have plenty of room to move around.) Funny, doesn’t the very nature of a carefully-contained free speech area seem a tad oxymoronic? Emphasis on the last three syllables.

But hey, it’s all good for this guy, a local artist creating a piece of art expressing his opinion on the matter; art is out of the realm of corporate censorship, right? Well, sure – until bylaw inspectors ordered the gallery displaying his work to tear down that wretched piece of anti-Olympic graffiti.

I’m not exaggerating in stating that there are dozens of examples of Olympic censorship. I don’t have the space to list them all; instead I highly recommend that everyone visit the Censorship Gallery of the 2010 Olympics – it’s a regularly-updated Google map tracking incidents of censorship throughout the city of Vancouver. From those overzealous bylaw enforcers slapping tape over any logo that isn’t an official sponsor to VANOC trademarking the Canadian national anthem (I wonder how long before they sue me for using that trademarked phrase in this post?), it is painfully clear that the Olympics really aren’t about uniting the world’s nations in friendly competition. Nope.  They are about corporate profits, baby, and protecting those corporate profits. Vigilantly. With masking tape.

…I wouldn’t be very rich. Sure, there are a few alternatives to natural corks, namely screwcaps, synthetic corks, and glass stoppers, but that’s almost it. Though there is undoubtedly a big movement towards embracing the screwcap as the next best thing to hit the wine world since French oak (especially in the New World), natural corks are still staunchly defended by many as the best closure.

Right after I published my opinion on the issue of alternative closures, I intended to follow up with a post on improvements in cork technology, namely the DIAM cork. However, I was waylaid by a certain individual from the Spanish cork industry and his rather heated accusations regarding my knowledge – or supposed lack thereof – of the cork industry. Oh, and I was also distracted by sparkly plants.

No matter; I’ve returned to the subject at hand. To the cork industry’s credit, plenty of time, money and effort have been exerted towards the goal of reducing the harmful side effects of using cork stoppers – namely TCA contamination and oxygen exposure. One of these advancements is the new DIAM cork.

I first heard about the DIAM a couple months ago, and was intrigued by its lofty claim of virtually eliminating cork taint and oxygen spoilage while still giving you the pleasure of prying a hunk of tree bark out of your wine bottle. I delved further, discovering that DIAM is owned by OENEO Bouchage, a European company and a “leading innovator in developing effective wine closure solutions.”

DIAM corks are made in the Spanish city of San Vicente de Alcántara, through the patented “Diamant” process. Without going into specific details, the procedure looks something like this:

1. Boil chunks of raw cork.
2. Grind them into “flour.”
3. Use “supercritical carbon dioxide with intense pressure to penetrate and cleanse the cork granules,” a process that apparently “removes 99.8% of TCA – the leading cause of cork taint.”
4. Win.

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