Sadly the big story
of the Olympics today has been the continued violent protests in Ukraine. This
has made the political situation so volatile that Olympic delegations now seem
to be holding off from plays they would have made in order to avoid having them
misconstrued as references to the Ukraine situation.
Events in Ukraine
have been most keenly felt in the men's Ice Hockey where Finland surprised
everyone by knocking Russia out at the quarter-final stage. As a result Russia
now stand no chance of meeting the USA in the final or even winning any medal.
It was never guaranteed that Russia would win the competition because while
they have a squad made up of some of the best hockey players in the World at the
moment that squad has always had trouble functioning as a team. Finland are
pretty much exactly the opposite because while they lack stand out superstar
players the players they do have function very well together. In the first two
periods this was very much apparent with the Russians seemingly more interested
in showing the World how they were getting bashed about by a more organised
opposition then winning. In the third period Russia did make more of an effort
but being 3-1 down and unable to score an early goal this quickly descend into
players settling personal scores amongst themselves. In the end 3-1 was how it
finished but we did at least get to see the blood bounce.
This spectacle of the
Russians getting bashed about by an organised and co-ordinated opposition does
provide a rather apt metaphor for the political situation at the games.
Although the situation in Ukraine is certainly a part of it I think the
Russians were focused on the US-led Principle 6/1.2.6 gay-rights campaign that
was intended to spark daily waves of unilateral protests at the games but has so
far failed to find much traction despite daily provocations from the US in the
form of famous people announcing they are gay along with gay-friendly
announcements by the US government. Then there have been the exploits of Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova who were formally members of the band Pussy Riot. On Tuesday
(18/2/14) Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were briefly arrested and today they claim they were beaten and
whipped by Cossack Olympic security while trying to mount a protest close to
the Olympic park. In much of the western media these have wrongly been
described as "Pussy Riot Protests" which is untrue. On February 6th 2014 (6/2/14) Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova
appeared on stage at a concert in New York, US alongside Madonna. This prompted Pussy Riot
to expel them as members for being two close to the US. So Pussy Riot have not
protested against the Sochi games - two darlings of the US media have protested
mis-using the Pussy Riot name.
The fact that Russia
have now thrown away their chance to duke it out with the US in the men's Ice
Hockey is clearly a result of events in Ukraine. Despite the repeated claims in
the western media the conflict in Ukraine is not about European Union (EU)
membership. Instead it is the result of a long-term geographical or perhaps
more accurately linguistic split within the nation. In the east of the country
you have Ukrainians who speak Russian as their first language. In the west of
the country you have Ukrainians who speak Ukrainian as their first language.
President Yanukovych comes from the east while the rioters come from the west.
While the US is directing the violence in Ukraine in order to punish
neighbouring Russia over Syria if Russia were to join through a bruising ice
hockey final this would make it a lot easier for the western rioters to portray
Yanukovych as a Russian-stooge further inflaming the situation. As people are
already starting to draw comparisons between the situation in Ukraine as similar
to the situation in the former Yugoslavia before their brutal civil war(s)
further division should be the last thing anyone wants. Therefore I think the
Russians should be commended for giving up their chance of a gold medal in
order to help calm the situation.
Although I didn't get the opportunity to watch them in the other men's quarter-finals Sweden destroyed Slovenia 5-0 setting up an interesting semi-final against their neighbours Finland. Team USA smashed the Czech Republic 5-2 while Canada only squeaked past Latvia 2-1. The semi-final between the US and Canada is going to be interesting because they both a deep Ice Hockey tradition and they're neighbours and rivals. Also Canada may come under pressure to let the US win in order to show support for the US' stance on Syria both through the gay-rights thing and the situation in Ukraine.
Before the situation
in Ukraine really started kicking off yesterday there were a few little
interesting things taking place amongst European nations. The first of these
was the announcement by France that they'd made arrests in the Saad
al-Hilli/French Alps murder case. This was an incident that occurred just after
the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in which a British family were killed in a
shooting in the French Alps. Although I can't remember the exact circumstances
this was a British/French co-production. I think the objective was to allow
Britain to show how excellent they were at controlling me by pointing out that
I'd grown up on the fringes of the murky world of espionage/diplomacy. The
original accusation that Sad al-Hilli's brother had hired a hitman to kill him
in a dispute over an inheritance was supposed to the give the false impression
that the dispute between my brother and I over our grandmother's medical
mistreatment was in fact a dispute over an inheritance. This latest announcement
came at a time where France stands its best chances of winning medals at the
Winter Olympics in events like biathlon which involves shooting and skiing/snowboarding
where the men in helmets are hugely importance. So by arresting a former
policeman in the al-Hilli case France seems to be trying to increase its medal
chances by confessing to its role in the al-Hilli case, dropping the UK in it
in the process.
Also yesterday a
new-born baby girl was killed in a dog attack in Camathernshire in South Wales.
My now deceased grandmother and her family come from Camathernshire in South
Wales. However this largely seemed a UK attempt to piggy-back on Vanessa Mae's appearance
for Thailand at the Winter Olympics. The girl who died was Eliza-Mae Mullane
which sounds remarkably similar to Vanessa Mae-Vankorn which is the name Vanessa
Mae competed under.
The reason why the UK
was keen to piggy-back on the attention surrounding Vanessa Mae becomes clear
when you consider the type of dog involved in the death. This was a Alaskan
Malamute which is a type of sled-dog similar to a Husky. Huskies feature
heavily in the TV Show "Game of Thrones" and if you didn't work out
that references helpfully Game of Thrones actor Clive Mantle was called to a
British Court to give evidence against accused of biting his ear off later that day.
The reason why the UK
is so keen to draw attention to Game of Thrones is that although it is produced
by a US network (HBO) it is based on a British novel, it is filmed largely in
Britain and the cast is mostly British. Therefore it provides a convenient way
for Britain to declare it's world beating status in the creative industries.
This has been a pattern for this week at the Olympics with the British BAFTA
film awards being held on Sunday (16/2/14) and the British BRIT music awards
being held tonight. What I find interesting is that both the BAFTA's and the
BRIT's featured lots of big name US guests. Now this could be the US helping
the UK by increasing international interest in these otherwise third rate award
ceremonies. Alternatively though it could be the US reminding the UK that it is
not quite the World beater it thinks it is. Something that both Russia and Israel have already picked the UK up on.
Of course the fact that the UK has killed an infant in an effort to garner publicity for its attempts to showcase its creative industry does of course contribute to the Olympic debate o; "How far is too far?"
20:10 on 19/2/14 (UK date).
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