The 2016 ISIL Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.2

This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 1; http://watchitdie.blogspot.in/2016/08/the-2016-isil-games-opening-ceremony.html

Urbanisation: The previous sequence saw the green canopy of the Amazon Rainforest gradually replaced with the geometrically perfect fields and hedgerows of modern agriculture.

This sequence saw those fields and hedgerows suddenly replaced with the grey of concrete. From one end of the arena Parkour runners entered and acrobatically ran across the grey floor. As they ran Brazilian-style urban buildings appeared beneath their feet.

It took you a while to realise that these buildings weren't actually physically rising from the floor but an optical illusion created by a video projection. The way that the performers movements were co-ordinated with each phase of the video projection was highly impressive.

I think this type of video projection was first used in an Olympic ceremony in Beijing, China in 2008. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada also made some use of them.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, UK also partially used video projection in its ceremonies but mainly focused on physical stage furniture. For example the Opening Ceremony saw an actual rural field physically built in the centre of the arena.

When Russia used video projection during the Opening Ceremony 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi the UK raised many complaints about how the use of video projection rather than physical structures made it hard for viewers to follow the action.

The Russians responded by sarcastically making the video projections progressively bigger and clearer throughout the remaining three ceremonies.

The Brazilian use of video projection here made reference to that argument between Russia and the UK. After all watching from the fixed viewing position of the camera this optical illusion worked perfectly for me. However I did find myself wondering whether people watching from the other side of the stadium had a clue what was going on.

This sequence of course represented the Urbanisation of Brazil as its people moved from rural farms and villages into urban towns and cities.

Much of Brazil's Urbanisation occurred between the 1950's and 1970's.

During this time the architectural school of "Brutalism" was dominant across much of the World. Inspired heavily by the Socialist Utopian ideology of Communism Brutalist design focuses on repeated geometric zones of specific function being grouped together into a unified whole encased in concrete.

Following this design school many Brazilian cities are built around an economic city at the centre containing offices and businesses. Surrounding that you have numerous satellite or dormitory cities where people live and sleep only travelling into the central city to work.

This geometric pattern of a central circle being surrounded by a ring of much smaller circles seems to have heavily influenced the strange golden sculpture that adorns this year's Olympic cauldron.

This type of urban design is far from unique to Brazil. In fact Croydon where I grew up was built in the 1950's to act as a dormitory city for the UK capital London. The 2012 Olympic Park in Stratford now functions as a dormitory town for central London.

The problem with this type of urban design is that it utterly destroys any sense of community.

The economic city is of course teaming with life during the working day but absolutely empty at night. Similarly the dormitory cities are ghost-towns during the day and filled with people sleeping in their beds at night. This all stems from the Communist ideal that people are not individuals but simply worker bees dedicated to the greater good of the nation.

Despite being a Socialist idea the lack of a sense of community causes huge problems in terms of social cohesion and social exclusion.

That has probably been most dramatically highlighted recently in France.

Following the Second World War France underwent a massive period of reconstruction in the 1950's and 1960's. This too followed the Brutalist school with many French cities being built with around a city centre (Ville-centre) ringed by a housing area (Banlieue) which in turn is ringed by a suburban area (Couronne periurbaine).

This occurred at the same time as a mass immigration of predominately Muslim migrants from former French colonies in North Africa. Those migrants became settled in the Banlieues and basically became stuck never able to move out in the richer Couronne periurbaines and properly integrate with wider French society.

The last big explosion of rioting occurred in 2005 when the Paris Banlieues tore themselves apart for 17 days. However a smaller degree of rioting and urban disorder seems to occur in one or other of France's Banlieues every summer.

Just in the last two weeks or so there has been rioting in Beaumont-sur-Oise following the death of a young black man in police custody on July 19th (19/7/16). That has arguably been fuelled by the corrosive effect of US President Obama's Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

The way that the lack of social cohesion created by this type of urban design can fuel terrorism was put on sharp display by the July 14th (14/7/16) terror attack in Nice, France.

Nice is famous for its picturesque seafront where millionaires and tourists flock. However behind the old city leading up in the mountains you have these vast, impoverished housing estates where the people of Nice actually live. It was in these estates that the attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was recruited by a small terrorist cell.

Following the attack the federal authorities ordered the local authorities to delete all of their CCTV footage. The local authorities claimed that this was part of a cover-up. However it struck me as the federal authorities trying to avoid an awkward conversation about how many local authority employees who live on those housing estates would fail a background check.

As such this extremely dry topic of urban design actually makes a significant contribution to the discussion about immigration, integration and terrorism that was such a huge feature of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

Apart from adding to the problems of social cohesion this type of urban design also presents huge problems for the other main theme of this Opening Ceremony - The Battle Against Climate Change.

Obviously if people do not live in the same city in which they work they cannot simply cycle or walk to and from work. Instead they have to use some sort of powered transport. Even if they're using public transport like trains or buses rather than private cars more transport miles means more Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions and therefore more Climate Change.

Before US President Obama decided to come in and destroy it a lot of people hoped that a new global Climate Change agreement would rely heavily on developing nations who are just entering the urbanisation phase being almost mentored by nations such as Brazil so they don't make the same mistakes.

In an effort to help pay for both the construction of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside generally boosting government revenues in 2013 bus fares were raised across a number of Brazilian cities including Rio. Although I don't have the exact figures for Rio to hand generally these increases were only around 6-7%.

However the way that Brazilian cities are designed in order to get to work people will have to get at least one bus from their dormitory city to the economic city. They would then have to take at least another bus across the economic city. They then have to repeat that journey on the way home.

As a result a 7% rise in a single bus journey quickly turned into a 28% rise for a daily commute and a 140% increase for an average working week.

That very quickly took a huge chunk out of the average Brazilians pay packet and triggered several months of rioting in at least 100 Brazilian cities between April and July 2013. These are sometimes referred to as; "The Confederations Cup Riots."

Faced with similar mass protests over Gezi Park Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that both the Brazil and Turkish protests were the work of the same global Zionist conspiracy. The Brazilians largely ignored him. 

With the protesters calling for an end to government corruption it was really these protests that set in motion the chain of events that saw the Brazilian Senate vote yesterday to hold an impeachment trial of Dilma Rousseff over charges of corruption.

This topic of Brazil's urbanisation is also hugely and specifically important to the history of Rio de Janerio where these games are taking place.

Up until 1960 Rio was Brazil's capital city. Then inspired by the Brutalist design school the Brazilian government decided to design and build a specially planned new city - Brasilia - to become the new capital.

With the seat of government moved to Brasilia by the 1980's all of the government agencies had also left Rio. This caused all of Brazil's financial institutions to leave moving their headquarters to Brasilia. In 2000 the Brazilian stock exchange moved to Sao Paulo leaving Rio as a ghost town with high levels of unemployment and little hope for the future.

The big idea behind hosting the games in Rio was to end this decline and reinvigorate the city.

As the Parkour performers reached the opposite end of the arena a physical structure of buildings emerged from the wall. The Parkour performers dressed in sort of construction overalls then proceeded to climb all over this structure.

For this small period I think the structure was intended to represent Rio's 21st century buildings and serve as a tribute to the great construction effort that had gone into preparing for the games.

If you looked closely at the Parkour performers during this phase you may have noticed that they seemed intended to resemble Japanese Brazilians. This was a little nod to the fact the next Summer Olympics in 2020 are to be held in Tokyo, Japan.

If you were looking closely enough you may also have noticed that the climbers were using the sort of hand-grips common in artificial climbing walls. This was a little nod to the fact that Sport Climbing is to be included for the first time in the 2020 games.

However with the very acrobatic climbers pulling off moves that seemed far more complicated than any sport climber could manage this seemed to be the traditional Olympic sport of Gymnastics looking at the sport climbers and snobbishly going;  

"Oh. You think that's difficult enough to be considered a proper sport do you?"

This type of rivalry between the old and new is actually quite common in the Winter Olympics. There the Skiers tend to take a great deal of pleasure in looking down on the Snowboarders.

Although we talk about these being the summer games as the cancellation of rowing events today have demonstrated Rio is currently in the depths of its winter.

However the northern Brazilian state of Roraima is currently enjoying the height of its summer. States such as Amazonas and Para which have the Equator running through them are deeply confused.

At around 17:25 on 10/8/16 (UK date) I just realised I've missed a huge chunk out above. I guess I'll have to be back after dinner to fix that.

Edited at around 18:50 on 10/8/16 (UK date) add above: Urban design and bus fares. Always thrilling.

Edited at around 15:35 on 11/8/16 (UK date) to add;

The large physical structure at the end of the arena then seamlessly morphed to represent Brazil's Favelas or slums. This is a meaning it maintained throughout the rest of the ceremony.

Favelas are unplanned shanty towns built illegally often on land that nobody else wants. As a result it is not really possible to talk about the design features of a favela because the main feature is that there isn't a planned design.

However I think the favela that will be most recognisable to particularly visitors to the Rio Olympics is the Rocinha favela.

This is Brazil's largest and is located in Rio's South Zone a short distance from the famous Copacabana and Impanema beaches. Parts of it are built up the hillside leading the Christ the Redeemer statue.

The Rocinha favela is located close to the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas  where the rowing events are being held and the Marina da Gloria where the sailing events are being held.

In the run-up to the games much has been made about concerns of the water quality at these venues. They're said to be littered with physical debris like plastic bags along with raw sewage and all the different types of bacteria and microorganisms they bring with them.

The main problem with the water quality at these venues is the Rocinha favela. Being an unplanned, illegal settlement Rocinha like most favelas doesn't have access to basic sanitation services like sewers and garbage collection. As result all the garbage and sewage simply gets chucked into the river to flow downhill into the sea.

The Parkour acrobats in construction overalls then began passing simple boxes made of wood and paper down from the top of the favela to the bottom. At the bottom of the favela these boxes were used as bricks to build a wall between the favela and the city.

On one level this is simply a reference to the fact that the favelas surrounding Rio are often walled off from the city itself as a security measure.

The Brazilian government has put a lot of effort into what is termed "Neighbourhood Pacification" to oust the drug gangs from the favelas and connect the residents to basic services. However many favelas are just so violent simply walling them off is all the government can do to protect citizens in the formal city.

For example on just the first day of the games the media centre at the equestrian venue was hit by gunfire. On Tuesday (9/8/16) a media bus travelling from the hockey venue close to the "City of God/Cidade da Deus" favela was also hit by gunfire. Rather than being attacks on the media these were simply the result of stray fire from the gun battles that rage daily in and around the favelas.

You could though also interpret this building of a wall as a talking point on US Republican Party Presidential nominee Donald Trump's plan to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

If you were a Hillary Clinton supporter you may also have been tempted to think that Brazil were mocking Trump's plan.

Unfortunately if you'd said that aloud you would've immediately exposed yourself as a fool who understands little of Trump's immigration plans and even less about the Democrats attitude towards migrants.

After all whenever the you hear the Democrats appeal to the Hispanic vote you do get the impression they think that all the 19 nations spread across two sub-continents south of Texas are all; "just Mexico." To Portuguese speaking Brazilians that's a little offensive.

I often talk about the Cold War being the golden age of the Olympic movement. However referring to the period between 1945 and 1990 as a "cold war" will often lead to snorts of derision from people who live in the Americas.

It was of course a period in which the US and the Soviet Union fought an almost constant stream on proxy wars for control of the Americas.

For example in April 1961 the US launched the failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba to oust the pro-Soviet Fidel Castro. In October 1963 the World was brought to the brink of destruction when the Cuban government allowed the Soviet Union to station nuclear missiles on the island.

Brazil itself got off rather lightly with the US conducting a military coup in the country named "Brother Sam" in 1964 leading to Brazil being ruled by a military dictatorship until 1985.

Similarly Brazil's neighbour Argentina only had to suffer through the decade long US sponsored "Dirty War" and a US-backed fascist dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983.

It was Central America that was particularly hard hit. There it was almost a weekly occurrence that some US-backed fascist group would stage a coup only for a Soviet-backed Communist group to stage a counter-coup and the entire process would continue.

One of the main fascist groups the US backed were the Honduras based "Contras" or "Counter-Revolutionaries" who were trying to overthrow the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in neighbouring Nicaragua. Due to their brutal methods including death squads US Congress eventually cut-off funding to the Contras.

So the CIA simply teamed up with Panamanian drug lord Pablo Escobar to help the Contras sell crack cocaine in the US to fund their war.

With that the South American drug cartels that continue to destabilise the entire continent were born. And along with them the US "Ghetto Culture" that Obama and Black Lives Matter are so proud of.

The violence of first the US-backed fascists like the Contras and then the violence of the drug cartels has torn much of Central America to pieces. For example Honduras currently experiences one of the highest murder rates in the World with people being killed in numbers to rival a warzone.

In turn this violence has destabilised those nations making them even poorer which in turn fuels more violence.

This endless cycle of violence, poverty and instability has left many in Central America trying to escape to the safety of the US.

To do this they pay the drug cartels huge fees of around USD20,000 to smuggle their children up through Central America across Mexico's border with the US.

As people traffickers tend not to be very nice people a lot of those making the journey are killed or seriously injured in the process. If the parents can't pay their debts in time the children are frequently sold into forced labour (slavery) or child prostitution.

This epidemic of human trafficking is every bit as horrific if not worse than the conditions experienced by irregular migrants on the Balkan route into the European Union (EU).

It also further destabilises the countries through which these migrants are trafficked. At the moment there is a big row brewing between Costa Rica and Panama over Panama's decision to open its border allowing a new flood of migrants into Costa Rica.

The US Democrat Party and in particular US President Obama have looked at this trail of human misery and seen nothing but an opportunity to consolidate their own power.

Back in November 2014 Obama announced plans to violate the US Constitution in order to grant amnesty and then citizenship to 5 million+ of these migrants through executive action.

Obama's thinking being that these freshly minted US citizens would owe such a debt to the Democrat Party they would help the party win traditionally Republican states such as Texas.

Obama and the Democrats didn't seem to care one iota that by ending the deportation of families with children under 18 he was formalising the drug cartels business model encouraging more parents to smuggle more children into the US.

This of course means more profits for the cartels making the violence and poverty worse further destabilising Central and South America.

Thankfully due to the public opposition led by Trump's call to; "Build That Wall!" the Democrats horrific and exploitative alliance with the drug cartels has been stopped in its tracks.

In January 2016 the Obama administration was instead forced to work with the United Nations (UN) to establish screening centres for refugees in Central American nations such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Operating rather like the system for Syrian refugees people in Central America now have an alternative to paying the drug cartels by applying for refugee status in the US. Those who are successful will then be safely transported to the US.

However much to the Democrats disappointment being classed as refugees they won't be able to vote n US elections.

Quite apart from taking the fate of these people out of the hands of drug cartels and treating them with basic human dignity the fact that the US is now classifying people fleeing violence in Central America as refugees opens the door to the possibility that the US will admit to its role in destabilising the region causing the violence that people are fleeing.

That day may be coming sooner rather than later. Just two days ago the US announced that it will be making public files on its role in Argentina's Dirty War.

As a result I think you'll find many Central and South American nations will be overjoyed to see Trump beat out Hillary Clinton in November.

At 17:45 on 11/8/16 (UK date) I still not finished this section.

Edited at around 19:05 on 11/8/16 (UK date) to add;

The box wall made way for a model of the box-plane that Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont flew on October 23rd 1906 (23/10/06).

Although this came almost three years after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight on December 14th 1903 (14/12/03) there were no witnesses to confirm that the Wright brothers flight ever took place. As such Santos-Dumont continues to be recognised both in Brazil and by the French Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as the man who made the first powered flight.

Beyond showing off a famous Brazilian and teasing Americans further this provides a way to bring up that despite its reputation as "Not a Serious Country" Brazilian actually has a thriving high-tech sector including in aviation. 

The company Embraer which makes military, cargo and private aircraft regularly competes with Canada's Bombardier for the title of third largest aircraft manufacturer behind Boeing and Airbus. 

This rivalry between Embraer and Bombardier is so great that they sued each other in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO ruled that both the Brazilian and Canadian governments had illegally subsidised Embraer and Bombardier respectively.

The model of Santos-Dumonts' plane then proceeded to take off and soar out of the arena. 

This provided an opportunity to show off more optical trickery. Initially only the video projected runway beneath the model moved backwards give the impression the model was moving forward. However the model itself then began to move forward being towed along an almost invisible rail.

The Opening Ceremony then cut to a partially computer animated video sequence of the "plane" flying around the skies of Rio. 

This obviously allowed the organisers to give TV viewers an idea of what Rio looks like. 

However it also gave them opportunity to clear and re-arrange the arena in preparation for the next sequence.

19:40 on 11/8/16 (UK date).