The 2016 ISIL Games: Closing Ceremony.

When they're allowed to take place the Olympics are never about sport. Instead it is to provide a forum to gather all the nations of the World together to discuss political issues they consider important.

This means that during the Olympics itself there are a huge range of topics being pitched by different nations that consider them important. These then are normally streamlined down to a handful of issues that are discussed in detail during the Parallel or "Para-Olympics."

This year though a handful of nations led the USA and the UK decided to hijack the Olympics and turn it into a celebration of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated radical Islamist terror groups. This was primarily done by trying to get Russia - as a longterm opponent of ISIL and associates - banned from the games.

The problem was that of the 207 delegations at these games only around a half-dozen such as the US, the UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar support ISIL. As a result rather than being a vast range of topics being discussed it was really a case of everybody sitting there twiddling their thumbs whilst watching the US and the UK have some sort of psychotic episode.

Through the Opening Ceremony and stunts like the diving pool turning green with algae the Brazilian hosts did try to present an alternative topic in the form of the environment and the battle against Climate Change.

The problem is that back in April 2016 almost all of the Olympic nations signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) so-called "Paris Agreement."

As a result no-one was really in much of a mood to discuss how being weaker than the Kyoto Protocol it replaces the Paris Agreement actually sets back efforts to combat Climate Change by some 20 years.

Also unlike the Kyoto Protocol the Paris Agreement has no expiry date. As a result it is far from clear when we will be able to start work on recovering from the set-back.

One issue that did gain a degree of traction during the games was that of Cybersecurity or computer hacking. This was primarily due to the major effort the US put into hacking absolutely everyone.

Although I was never taken offline throughout the games the traffic between my computer and my Internet server has been slowed down dramatically. At times if often felt as though I was operating on an old fashioned 28k dial-up modem. Due to all the extra reading I have to do during an Olympics that was extremely annoying.

The Russian news broadcaster RT was subjected to mass and repeated Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attacks throughout the games. Making the wild assumption that everyone shares the radical Islamist agenda it's been pumping out to its citizens beyond raising the general topic the US thought that launching this anti-Russian attack would boost its popularity during the games.

Back on August 13th (13/8/16) it was announced that the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA)  Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS) had been hacked to find the location of Russian athlete Yuliya Stepanova. With Stepanova being central to their efforts to have Russia excluded from these games in carrying out this hack the US were hoping that Russia would be blamed further smearing their reputation.

On August 11th (11/8/16) the Australian Swimming team claimed that its website had been hacked. This came in the midst of a rather spectacular feud between Australia and China with Australia's Mack Horton accusing Sun Yang of being a drugs cheat.

At one point China responded by calling Australia a vast offshore prison. A particularly sensitive topic with Australia being forced to close its off-shore immigration detention centres in Papua New Guinea.

The feud between China, Australia and Brazil's Japanese population really served to highlight the problem with the BBC's - the British Olympic broadcaster - coverage of the games.

Simply put they didn't cover the games. Instead they covered the British athletes, their relatives, friends, neighbours, dogs etc. Therefore if it didn't involve a British athlete the big stories of the games were completely ignored by the BBC.

The most important thing to remember about the Closing Ceremony though is that it took place during a horrid rainstorm. As a result all the performers in the open roofed Maracana Stadium got absolutely drenched and the audio kept getting drowned out and carried away by the wind.

The Video Countdown: It is a tradition that all Olympic ceremonies begin with a short video sequence which prominently feature a countdown from 10 to 1.

The purpose is to allow all the local broadcasters who are taking the official  International Olympic Committee (IOC) video feed to co-ordinate their coverage so they don't miss the start of the ceremony itself.

During the Opening Ceremony though Brazil broke with that tradition by showing a video without a countdown and then having the countdown projected onto the arena floor as part of the ceremony.

This was done to promote discussion about the way that broadcasting technology has progressed making the need for this type of countdown obsolete. In turn that prompted discussion about whether the Olympics themselves have become obsolete.

During the Closing Ceremony Brazil continued with this break with tradition. Although there was a short video sequence it was followed by the countdown being video projected onto the arena floor.

The video sequence featured actual archive footage of Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. This was interspersed with modern aerial footage of Rio which had been digitally aged to make it appear as though it was archive footage.

This was obviously a little nod to the sequence in the Opening Ceremony in which Santos-Dumont took us on an aerial tour of Rio during a video sequence. It also helped emphasise the passage of time.

That was further emphasised when the action moved back into the arena. Before the countdown was projected onto the arena floor first an old fashioned pocket watch was projected with its hands spinning forward at alarming speed. Officially this was a reference to how Santos-Dumont had to use his pocket watch to navigate after the instruments on his prototype plane failed.

Unofficially though it was intended to pose the question of whether the Olympics time has passed. After all due to things like the development of aviation the World is a much more globalised place. As a result there doesn't seem to be any need to gather nations together every four years for an Olympics to have the political discussions that take place at a host of dedicated political summits every year.

Although he made his first flight some three years after the American Wright brothers claim to have made the first powered flight in 1903 Santos-Dumont is still recognised as the first man to fly. That's because unlike the Wright brothers his flight was witnessed and verified by an independent and competent governing body - the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

This issue of verification by an independent and competent governing body is a hugely important one at these games.

In their effort to punish Russia for its opposition to ISIL by banning them from the games a number of governing bodies - particularly the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) who govern track & field events and swimming's Fédération internationale de natation (FINA) - introduced a presumption of guilt for Russian athletes. 

This was challenged in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which ruled that this was wholly unfair. Particularly as it held Russian athletes to a completely different standard to all other athletes. As a result if any governing body continued using this standard they could not be considered to be either independent or competent.

FINA did reverse its policy to an extent. However the IAAF adamantly continued to apply a presumption of guilt to Russian athletes banning them from the games.

Therefore if the results of the track & field events were challenged CAS seems to have little option other than to completely dissolve them stripping athletes of their medals and any World or Olympic records they may have set.

Quite why the IAAF has been prepared to tolerate the corrupt and incompetent leadership of Sebastian Coe for this long remains something of a mystery to all.

Rio - The Movie: The Closing Ceremony proper began with a performance by "Barbatuques" who are something of a Brazilian musical collective who specialise in lighthearted and comedy songs. Globally they are probably most famous for appearing on the soundtrack of the 2011 animated movie "Rio."

If you have young children or have friends who have young children I am sure you are more than familiar with the movie Rio. For many people it is their first introduction to Rio de Janerio where these games are being held.

The fact that Rio is an animated movie also brought what was a big theme from the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. I think that people who put on Olympic ceremonies outside of Europe are secretly very jealous of the fact they don't get to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps rather than putting up with all this tedious sport we could replace the Olympics with a Global Song Contest.

Although I think it took me two days to discuss all the ways animation was discussed at Eurovision a particularly important contribution came from Israel.

In discussing racial integration as a way to combat terrorism the Israelis highlighted that foreign movies tend to be dubbed into Hebrew and then subtitled in Arabic. When it comes to children's movies such as Rio this is hugely discriminatory against Israeli Arab parents who can't take their children to see those movies because they can't yet read.

As Barbatuques were performing on stage a group of brightly coloured performers took to the arena floor. With the help of video projection they arranged themselves in a series of complex formations to tell a story.

This combination of performers in tight formation and video projection onto the floor was technique that was employed extensively during all the ceremonies at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.

Following the Opening Ceremony the UK complained that this made it difficult for people in the arena to follow what was going on. This led to something of a feud with the Russian organisers making the video projections progressively and sarcastically bigger and clearer in each ceremony.

Obviously the UK wasn't actually complaining about the Opening Ceremony being hard to understand. Instead they were simply exploiting it like the gay-rights issue to damage Russia's reputation in response to its long standing opposition to ISIL and associates. That the Brazilians made such use of the Russian technique could be viewed as a sign of support to Russia.

The story the performers in this ceremony were trying to tell was of Rio and its famous landmarks. This began with the sun, sea and sand of the Rio's famous beaches such as Copacabana and Ipanema.

They then moved on the the Arches of Lapa or Carioca Aqueduct. This is an 18th century aqueduct that runs through the centre of Rio. It was built to carry water from the Carioca River to the city's residents. This is obviously highlights the importance of water for life which in turn touches on the issue of Rio's water pollution.

However as with all the other locations mentioned it can trigger discussion about any one of array of memories someone watching might have associated with that location. For example I seem to remember hearing somewhere that every weekend people gather at the Arches of Lapa to join in a mass line-dancing party of the sort seen during the Opening Ceremony.

The next landmark referenced was the Christ the Redeemer statue. This obviously triggers discussion about religion - particularly Catholicism.

However you could also use it as an opportunity to start talking about the unofficial 2014 World Cup song "Jungle" by Jay Z which references the statue. In the song Jay Z also boasts he's going to drink Champagne out of the World Cup. As the World Cup isn't actually a cup this had roughly half the World's population shaking their heads and quietly muttering; "Idiot."

The performers then arranged themselves into the SugarLoaf mountain and its cable cars. The only reference that triggers in me is the "Blame it on Lisa" episode of the TV show "The Simpsons" in which the Simpson family visit Rio.

Throughout all this the performers were dressed in colourful feathers like some extremely exotic birds. The main plot of the movie Rio is a love story between two Spix Macaws and their avian friends.

The video projection made frequent reference to the blazing sun. This was often represented by an orange or yellow circle. This was a little nod to the fact that Brazil is now handing the Olympics over to Japan for the 2020 Tokyo games. The Japanese flag is the red circle of the sun against a white background. Also on occasion the projected circles seemed to radiate out from a central point. This was a reference to Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake.

The final landmark if you can call it that was the tropical Rainforest. During this phase the video projections showed multi-coloured lines. Officially these were meant to be tree branches. However they also seemed to resemble the "Agitos" logo of the Para-Olympics as a reminder that the games are only half-way through.

The sequence ended with the performers forming the famous Olympic rings.

At around 17:55 on 22/8/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner. I'm really not planning on spending two weeks on it.

Edited at around 19:15 on 22/8/16 (UK date) to add;

Tender Affection: Following Barbatuques onto the stage was famous Brazilian musician and political activist Martinho da Vila. He performed a song called "Carinhoso." This is a famous Brazilian torch song that is known by everyone and sung by many. The title roughly translates as; "With tender affection."

Apart from introducing the World to another aspect of Brazilian culture this seemed also to be a reference to Brazil's large ethnically Japanese population and the fact that Japan is the next summer Olympic host.

One thing that many visitors to Japan are going to have to get used to is their Logographic written language. Here hundreds of thousands of different symbols or pictures are used to form words and phrases. You could almost say that the pictures tell the story.

For example in written Japanese you can't simply write that you love someone. Instead you have to write the symbol for the person you love such as a father, another symbol indicating the type of love it is. However the one constant is a symbol roughly meaning "Tender Affection."

In preparation for the games the British hired sports journalist Charlie Webster to cycle to Rio to act as an ambassador for the games. During that trip Ms Webster contracted Malaria and was taken seriously ill in hospital on the day of the Opening Ceremony.

In order to reassure people she was recovering Ms Webster published a picture on social media of herself in hospital. In that picture you can clearly see the Japanese symbol for Tender Affection tattooed on her arm.

I of course have similarly grammatically nightmarish tattoo. I must say that I didn't particularly enjoy watching this ceremony because it did seem to turn into yet another tour of my tattoos, battle scars and distinguishing features.

Alongside da Vila on stage two performers made small, see-through glass balls dance on their hands and arms. On the floor of the arena were video projected images of space such as stars. Towards the end of the song a small group of children entered the arena wearing clothes made of smart fabrics that lit up.

As the technology has progressed to make them possible this type of smart fabric has become something of a fashionable talking point recently. At the May 2016 Met Gala in New York City, US the actress Claire Danes wore a Zac Posen designed gown that incorporated fibre optic cabling in the fabric to make it light up.

It's claimed that Team USA's dress uniforms featured a similar technology although I can't say I've seen it in action. Then of course there were the light-up shoes Team GB wore to the Closing Ceremony. But more of that later.

With it being such a fashionable topic light-up smart fabrics were used throughout the Opening Ceremony and elsewhere in this Closing Ceremony. However in this particular sequence along with the projections of space they were intended as a reference to the launch by China on August 16th (16/8/16) of the Quantum Science Satellite (QUESS). The first of its type.

I can't pretend that I fully understand the science of quantum communication. However it is based on using sub-atomic particles such as photons to transmit data. Basically it's like fibre optic technology just without the cabling. Apart from the vast amounts of data it can carry the main attraction is that it is extremely secure. If you attempt to hack into the signal the photons simply destroy themselves.

China has obviously taken great pride in launching the first ever quantum communications satellite. It claims that it marks the shift between China being a nation that simply uses technology that other people have invented to a global leader in technological development.

The fact that China is now billing itself as one of the most developed nations on earth further underlines the failure of the Paris Agreement which still classes and will forever class China as "developing" and therefore free to grow its Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions as much as it likes.

Brazilian Flag & National Anthem: Seamlessly this sequence progressed into that bit of IOC protocol - the raising of the national flag of the host and the singing of the host nation's national anthem.

The children who had emerged during da Vila's performance quickly formed into a choir to sing the national anthem.

Apart from containing smart fabrics the children's costumes were virginal white. Possibly being the same choir that sang the Olympic anthem during the Opening Ceremony this was another reference to that ceremony's theme of child sexual abuse and child prostitution.

As the flag was being raised another Brazilian flag was video projected onto the arena floor. As the sequence ended this flag made of light broke apart into hundreds of pieces.

Rather like the photons in a quantum communication system would do if you attempted to hack into it.

20:30 on 22/8/16 (UK date).