I explained how the Russian hosts used the ceremony to tackle the issue of gay rights head on by setting the narrative of a character called "Lubov/Love" making their way through Russian history. The chapter of what happens to Lubov/Love in modern Russia was left unwritten.
Following this spectacular production there were still a few bits of official Olympic procedure to be followed with raising of the Olympic flag, the singing of the Olympic anthem, the taking of the athlete's oath and the lighting of the Olympic flame.
As always the people chosen to carry the Olympic flag into the stadium had some political symbolism and on this occasion seem to have been chosen exclusively by the Russian hosts rather then the International Olympic Committee (IOC). They were;
- Chulpan Khamatova - A famous Russian actress Khamatova may also be recognised by a western audience through her role in the 2003 Oscar nominated German film "Goodbye Lenin!" This tells the story of two brothers from the old East Germany trying to protect their grandmother from the shock of waking from a coma to discover that the Soviet Union has collapsed and east and west Germany have been reunited. Obviously this features lots of nostalgia for the old days which most people have regardless of where they're from and what those old days actually entailed. Although it's hard to distill what is actually a really good film down into a simple political message generally the younger characters are happy that the Soviet Union has collapsed. In her native Tartar language Khamatova's given name Chulpan roughly translates a "Venus" the Roman goddess of love who was earlier referenced by the stars in the opening act. Therefore she provides an opportunity to discuss the way the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union has absorbed as wide-range of cultures and languages while re-stating the narrative of the ceremony that most people appear to have missed.
- Lidiya Skolikova - Having won six gold medals for the Soviet Union at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics Skolikova is still the best speed skater in Olympic history and even here in 2014 we are still waiting to see if someone will be able to beat her record.
- Anastasia Popova - A journalist for the Russia-24 channel Popova directed the documentary "The Syrian Diary" which I gather tells a very different version of the conflict in Syria then the delusional propaganda that gets pumped out by western (and Qatari) news channels. Also the fact that she is a journalist provides opportunity to discuss the fact that due to epic levels of corruption especially at the local level being an journalist in Russia is still an extremely dangerous job.
- Valentina Tereshkova - In 1963 Tereshkova became the first woman in space which more then qualifies her as an important person. However her inclusion also provides Russia with the opportunity to remind the US that Russia not only won the space race but their commitment to civil-rights and equality at the time was that they didn't see any reason why women shouldn't be equally as able to go into space as men. The US of course didn't allow women to go into space until 1978.
- Viacheslav Fetisov - A legend of Russian ice hockey Fetisov became the first Soviet given permission to play in the American National Hockey League (NHL) in 1989 as Mikhail Gorbachev began his policy of Glasnost/Openness that eventual brought an end to Russia's Communist era. Fetisov was also the first in a series of Russian sporting greats we saw who were appointed by Putin to the Russian government.
- Valery Gergiev - A director of opera companies, a classical conductor and the current principle of the London Symphony Orchestra Gergiev's inclusion provided Russia with another opportunity to the remind the UK that while it may not boast artists of the calibre of "Jessie J" Russia is certainly no slouch when it comes to the performing arts. Gergiev was also born in North Ossetia which is right next to South Ossetia over which Russia has had a long running dispute and one very short war with Georgia - where Joesph Stalin was born. A strong supporter of Putin Gergiev did vaguely comment that rather then being heroic protesters Pussy Riot were in fact driven by a desire for attention and personal glory. He has also had to suffer gay-rights protesters interrupting his performances in protest over Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws. This obviously promotes discussion about how best for protesters to challenge those laws.
- Nikita Mikalkov - Very much a member to the Russian aristocracy Mikalkov's father wrote the words to the Russian national anthem not once but three times. Again a strong supporter of Putin Mikalkov has spoken out in support of Serbs in Kosovo - the creation of which must surely count as a NATO war-crime. The connection between the Russian aristocracy and Putin would have provided a domestic audience plenty of opportunity to discuss the way that which Russia's endemic corruption allows a privileged elite to live like Tsars while the majority of the population are forced to suffer in serfdom.
- Alan Enileev - Sadly no-one on the entire Internet seems to have a clue who Alan Enileev is. There is a possibility though that he is a Russian World Champion in computer games. I hope that is the case because it provides plenty of opportunity for discussion about the competition for viewers the Olympics face in the new digital age and whether computer games could ever become considered Olympic sports despite encouraging a sedentary lifestyle rather then the Olympic ideals of health and fitness.
Anyway it seems all these Russian names have started to make my spellchecker cry and I need to have dinner so it looks like I'm going to be dragging this out into a third day.
19:40 on 9/2/14 (UK date).
Edited at around 22:55 on 9/2/14 (UK date) to add; I'm a little bit drunk so what could possibly go wrong?
After the Olympic flag had been brought into the stadium it fell to IOC President Thomas Bach (Welsh speakers will get the joke) to deliver a statement declaring the 2014 games open. In this speech the IOC President relied heavily on Article 1.2(6) of the Olympic Charter which declares that it is the IOC's role to act "against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement." For this he was roundly applauded by the elite users of Twitter (I believe they still describe their opponents as "The Bourgeoisie") for his brave stand against Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws.
I personally found this speech to be so toe-curlingingly embarrassing that I felt the need to go outside for a *ahem* cigarette. However I do not want to blame Thomas Bach particularly because with much of the western world clamouring on him to mount an "Article 6" protest against Putin's homophobia or perhaps, more accurately, Russia's stance on Syria the IOC President had to do something to stave off more unilateral forms of protest. Seriously at one point people were suggesting that winning athletes took to the podium and raised a single leather gloved fist to show their support for homosexuality. As if that would have helped(!)
Anyway after the Olympic flag was raised and the Olympic anthem was sung (by a Russian Opera singer) the production was handed back to the Russians for the obligatory releasing of the Olympic doves. White doves are of course usually released to symbolise peace and have been adopted by the IOC as a symbol of; "Can you please just try and stop fighting for just 6 weeks every two years!!!! After all we're trying to do something."
Breaking with tradition rather then releasing actual doves the Russian hosts instead unveiled skaters (roller-bladers) who skated around the arena dressed in such a way as to resemble white doves. They were accompanied by music from Peter Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake." I thought this was a move of absolute genius because the version of Swan Lake that most people are familiar with is the recent Hollywood movie "Black Swan."
This of course stars Mila Kunis who despite describing herself as "Ukrainian born" is a native Russian speaker and provides something of a perfect case study for modern Russia. For example I saw one interview in which Kunis mentioned how she often speaks to her father on the phone in Russian. This normally causes the people who have overheard the conversation to rush to her aid and ask if she is OK following the big argument. To that she normally responds; "No it's fine, I was just telling him that I loved him." Also the fact that Mila Kunis plays "Meg" in the US TV Show "Family Guy" tells you probably all you need to know about the Russian sense of humour.
Mila Kunis was of course ably accompanied in Black Swan by my 'Jewish Wife' Natalie Portman. Following Black Swan Ms Portman went on to star in "Your Highness" which is a film so terrible that no amount of Portman related nakedness can ever cause me to recommend that people watch it. However having being forced to watch "Your Highness" at least once I can report that the 'award winning London 2012 Para-Olympic closing ceremony' did indeed just steal most of its narrative from this truly awful film.
However the most important point being made by the inclusion of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is that Tchaikovsky is very famous Russian composer who also happened to be massively and epically gay. Therefore by including him so prominently in the opening ceremony the Russians were suggesting that perhaps rather then repeatedly insulting Russian homophobes through long, painful speeches telling them how stupid they are maybe it would be more useful to point out that at least one of the most famous and internationally respected Russians was in fact gay.
After all the Swan Lake narrative of the virginal, pure White Swan versus the darker, more sexual Black Swan certainly becomes a lot more interesting when you understand that the composer was working through some issues.
Edited at around 17:00 on 10/2/14 (UK date) to add;
Despite following his speech with the Swan Lake sequence I don't think that the Russians were trying to embarrass the IOC President specifically so much as highlight that to fight homophobia in Russia - or anywhere else - there needs to be a range of voices with some pointing out that homophobia is wrong and others pointing out that a persons sexuality doesn't actually make that much difference. Plus I suspect that the script for the opening ceremony was written long before the IOC's President's speech so it was really up to him to fit in with the ceremony. What followed the Swan Lake sequence was most certainly Russia venting it's frustration at the rarely constructive pressure the IOC and the international community have been putting it under over homosexuality in the run up to the games.
Entitled "Gods of the Olympics" officially this was intended to showcase the sports that will take place during the games with each sport being represented by pieces of sky furniture in the shape of people either playing the sport or an object closely associated with that sport. Each piece of furniture was lit up in quick succession by a bright white light. Unofficially though the "Olympic Gods" were supposed to represent the IOC and members of foreign Olympic delegations that had been attack Russia over it's anti-gay propaganda laws. The harsh strobe-like lighting effects were meant to represent the violence of the attacks against Russia.
Alongside the objects representing the different sports there was one that represented the atom which is pretty much the internationally recognised symbol for science. This was a reference to the scientific basis for homosexuality which is actually pretty well understood but with people calling for homosexuality to be eradicated no-one likes to talk too much about how that could actually be done. Through Evander Holyfield's anti-gay speech in the recent UK season of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) and the warning that pregnant women shouldn't drink the water following the recent chemical spill in West Virginia the US has been trying to manipulate me into discussing the scientific basis for homosexuality. Therefore I have obviously been refusing to do so in order to make a point but it is something that I might get into as the games progress although being hard science it seems better suited to the para-Olympics. The reference to science was Russia pointing out that it is well aware of the scientific basis for homosexuality so understands that homosexuality is not a choice but were looking to the IOC and the international community for help in educating the Russia public about that point.
Although the Russians will no doubt claim that each of the Olympic sports were given equal attention during this sequence a lot of people feel that Ice Hockey was given special prominence. Ice Hockey is probably one of the few winter sports that exists in its own right outside of the winter Olympics and both Russia and the USA take it incredibly seriously. Therefore there are a lot of people getting quite excited about the prospect of Russia and the US meeting in the Gold medal match of the men's Ice Hockey giving the two nations the opportunity to thrash out their differences in what can be an extremely violent sport. As such the Russians seemed to be using this sequence to throw down the gauntlet to the US because there is some doubt as to whether the US hockey team is actually good enough to make it to the final this time around.
It was also during this sequence that the lighting director used the way that these bit of sky furniture were being lit up to cast a shadow in the shape of a giant penis on the arena floor. Partly this was just an opportunity to show off what is actually quite a neat trick but it could also have been interpreted as a protest against Putin. Mainly though as any TV sports reporter, weather presenter or newscaster who uses one of those digital pens will testify sometimes the temptation to draw a giant penis is just too much to resist.
Edited at around 20:15 on 10/2/14 (UK date) to add;
Following the end of the Olympic Gods sequence the only thing left was the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. As is traditional the Olympic flame was carried into the stadium by a relay of torch bearers who were all chosen by the Russian hosts. They were as follows;
- Maria Sharapova - Being world famous and stunningly beautiful this champion tennis player was born and brought in Sochi making her almost a compulsory choice. Sharapova has also been used extensively as an ambassador for Sochi in the build up to the games.
- Yelena Isinbayeva - A hugely successful pole vaulter who is very popular within Russia Isinbayeva caused a little bit of controversy at the 2013 athletics world championships by voicing support for Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws saying something along the lines of; "In Russia boys go off with girls and girls go off with boys. Boys shouldn't go off with boys and girls shouldn't go off with girls." Therefore she was included to highlight that while I personally think gay people should be treated equally that is not the only view. It also provided an opportunity to discuss why Isinbayeva and by extension other Russians hold their views. Although it is getting dangerously into stereotype territory generally competitive sports attract gay women in a way that they just don't appeal to men. Therefore in her professional life Isinbayeva is probably frequently made to feel quite uncomfortable having to shower, get undressed and prance in not very many clothes surrounded by gay women who are all having a little bit of a perv at her. After all it turns out gay women really like looking at naked women.
- Aleksandr Karelin - Probably one of the most successful Greco-Roman wrestlers in Olympic history Karelin is now a member of the Russian Parliament representing Putin's United Russia party. So along with Viacheslav Fetisov who carried the Olympic flag Karelin's inclusion provides an opportunity to discuss the way that Putin seems to boost his own popularity by appointing popular and successful Russian sports stars to government positions. The leads onto a wider discussion about corruption and nepotism within all aspects of Russian public life.
- Alina Kabaeva - The second most successful rhythmic gymnast in Russian Olympic history Kabaeva is now a member of the Russian Parliament representing Putin's United Russia party. Kabaeva also seems to enjoy a particularly close relationship with Putin and in 2008 issued a public denial that she had secretly married Putin. In 2013 it was again rumoured that Kabaeva and Putin had secretly wed but this time no such denial was issued. Therefore for a domestic audience Kabaeva was intended to promote discussion about corruption and nepotism in Russian public life, the obvious question being; "Is she there because she deserves to be or simply because she is sleeping with Putin?" For an international audience Kabaeva's inclusion was intended to promote discussion about French President Francois Hollande who recently had a similar issue after he was caught visiting his mistress leading him to end his relationship with his long term girlfriend. Due to Hollande's current visit to the US and France's contributions to both Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR) I of course know absolutely nothing about this. However I will say that France's very tight privacy laws do make it hard for me to find out what exactly is going on in Mali and the CAR.
- Irina Rodnina - A hugely successful Russian figure skater Rodnina is now a member of the Russian Parliament representing - yep you've guessed it - Putin's United Russia party. Rodnina recently caused something of an international uproar by posting a picture on Twitter of US President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama eating on which Rodnina had photoshopped a banana. Obviously comparing America's first black President, or any other black person for that matter, to a monkey is simply not acceptable on the international stage. However there are actually very few black people in Russia to the point that many Russian people have simply never met a black person in real life. As a result Russia doesn't really have the cultural understanding of things like slavery and the civil rights movement. So while Rodnina was most certainly trying to cause offence there is a genuine possibility that she didn't understand just how offensive she was actually being. This cultural gap is already quite a big discussion point within European football and is one that will only grow in the run-up to the 2018 World Cup. Also given the provocative and hugely offensive way that US President Obama has been behaving towards Russia since the start of the Syria conflict Russia was most certainly celebrating causing offence to US President Obama.
As for the Olympic cauldron structure itself from the top it looks like a down hill ski slope, from the front it looks like an Olympic ski-jump. However for the side view it looks like a giant erect penis. As this is the first Olympics that will feature a women's ski-jump event this provides ample opportunity for discussion about gender roles in sport and everyday life.
This is relevant for the gay rights debate because it is impossible for homosexual relationships to conform to normal gender stereotypes meaning that a lot of heterosexual people find them difficult to understand. In fact in my experience many homophobic people don't hate gay people so much as they hate the fact that something they don't understand is giving them a headache. This highlights one of the main problems of Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws because if you can't discuss homosexual relationships how do you get people to understand how they work? Also the Russian laws don't specifically mention homosexuality but instead talk about "non-traditional relationships." so could that be taken to the ridiculous extreme and be interpreted to mean that you're not a allowed to talk about a relationship in which the woman goes out to work while the man stays home to look after the children?
Much more importantly then that though the cauldron structure provides everybody with lots of opportunity to make plenty of knob gags. As with fart jokes these tend to unite people of all races and nations in a way that the Olympics can only dream of.
21:15 on 10/2/14 (UK date).
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