The 2016 ISIL Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.3

This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 2; http://watchitdie.blogspot.in/2016/08/the-2016-isil-games-opening-ceremony-pt2.html

The Girl From Impanema: Following Alberto Santos-Dumont's flight around Rio this next sequence began simply.

On a stage in the centre of the favela structure at one end of the arena Daniel Jobim sung his grandfather - Antonio Carlo's Jobim - famous song "The Girl From Impanema."

Essentially a song about watching a pretty girl walk along Rio's Impanema beach this became a massive worldwide hit back in 1964. Back when being a worldwide hit meant something.

In those days if a song was to be a hit across the globe it had to be pressed onto hundreds of thousands of individual vinyl discs. Those discs then had to be put onto ships and moved between countries. Once they arrived in port import taxes needed to be paid and they had to be placed on trucks to be taken to shops for people to buy. There was none of this streaming nonsense.

During this period the World was a much more isolated, less globalised place. International air travel was reserved for the select few and the Internet hadn't even been dreamt of. As a result The Girl From Impanema was many people's first taste of this strange land called Brazil and of this Bosa Nova, Jazz style of the song.

Therefore an entire generation of people have fond, often romantic memories associated with the song. That generation is I think best encapsulated by the US TV Show "Mad Men" with the Jazz/Beatnik generation making way for the so-called "Swinging Sixties."

Unfortunately that generation is very much before my time so I can't talk in much detail about it. However The Girl From Impanema was released in July 1964 just three months after the US installed a military dictatorship in Brazil as part of the "Brother Sam" operation.

As such the success of The Girl From Impanema could well have been part of a US-led public relations exercise for the Brazilian military dictatorship. The idea being to make ordinary members of the public look fondly on Brazil so they would support the dictatorship and pray the nation didn't fall under the evils of Communism.

As the song was being sung from the stage at one end of the arena at the other Gisele Bundchen entered from the other of the arena and proceeded to walk the length of the arena towards the stage. An internationally recognised supermodel and wife of American Football star quarterback Tom Brady Gisele Bundchen is probably the most famous non-footballing Brazilian in the World right now.

Bundchen also serves to further highlight Brazil's rich racial diversity. As the name suggests she is of German heritage and part of the roughly 5 million German Brazilians who migrated to Brazil towards the end of the 19th and start of the 20th Century.

There is of course a second period of immigration from Germany that Brazil is less proud of.

Despite Brazil officially being at war with Nazi Germany since 1942 some of Brazil's German population remained loyal to the Nazis. So much so that towards the end of the Second World War the Nazis dreamt up a plan to escape Europe and continue their Reich in the Amazon Rainforest on the border between Brazil and Guyana.

Although this plan for a Nazi colonisation of the Amazon Rainforest was always more pipedream rather than reality some 9,000 Nazi war criminals did succeed in fleeing Europe for South America using the so-called "Rat Lines." The most famous of these was probably Adolf Eichmann who was captured in Argentina in 1960.

However the Commander of the Sobibor and Treblinka death camps Franz Stangl was captured in Brazil in 1967. Gustav Wagner who was deputy Commander at Sobibor and nicknamed "The Beast" for his role in exterminating some 200,000 Jews was captured in Brazil in 1978. Obviously Brazil's 1964 to 1985 US-backed fascist dictatorship played a crucial role in sheltering Stangl, Wagner and others.

The UK commentator on the Opening Ceremony in particular was at great pains to make clear that Gisele Bundchen was not descended from that generation of German immigrants.

As Gisele made her extremely long walk across the arena very fluid, flowing, curvaceous lines were video projected onto the arena floor.

These were a reference to the visual style of that other extremely famous German Brazilian - architect Oscar Niemeyer. Who is not to be confused with current Brazilian football star Neymar. Niemeyer is widely considered to be the father of the "Modernist" architectural movement.

Although Niemeyer worked on the planned city of Brasilia the "Brutalist" style of that city is merely a sub-genre of Modernism. I'm sure you can see difference between Niemeyer designed buildings such as the Cathedral of Brasilia or the Brazilian National Congress building and the Brutalist Hubert H Humphrey Building in Washington D.C, US or the Unite d'Habitation building in Marseilles, France. Particularly if you make use of Google image search.

With the purpose of these ceremonies primarily being to promote conversation I'm sure you could find a talking point in the contrast flowing lines of Niemeyer's designs and the stark geometry of Brutalism as a metaphor for the difference between the libertarian Socialism of South America and the dour authoritarian Socialism of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Bloc.

During the dress rehearsal this sequence caused quite a bit of controversy because it feature Giselle being robbed by a favela kid. Primarily I think this was due to the intense focus the dress rehearsal comes under as people try and steal the secrets of the ceremony. Therefore the director simply threw in fake sequences to throw people off the scent.

However I would have been impressed if the robbery sequence had been included in the actual ceremony. All to often these ceremonies are used to portray the host nation as some sort of utopia where everything is happy, glorious and there are no problems. Therefore I think it would have been artistically brave to make reference to some of Brazil's problems. After all every Olympic host has its problems even if they try and pretend they don't.

That said with the favelas having previously been linked to crime and the pollution problems in the Rowing and Sailing venues I think a further reference to crime would have set the wrong tone for the next sequence.

At around 15:40 on 15/8/16 (UK date) I'm going to have a coffee break to order my thoughts slightly.

Edited at around 16:20 on 15/8/16 (UK date) to add;

The Voice of the Favelas: This sequence was intended as celebration of the favelas who'd been much maligned for their crime and pollution in an earlier sequence.

This began with a performance of "Passinho" dance. This is a style of modern, urban/street dance that was invented in Brazil's favelas. It has recently become popular in American hip-hop, black pop culture. It's inclusion here gave Brazil an opportunity to remind the World who invented it and who's just ripping it off.

The demonstration of Passinho dancing was accompanied by a performance by Brazilian singer Ludmilla who is dubbed "The Brazilian Beyonce."

Apart from showcasing another famous Brazilian this helped to serve as a timely reminder of the role that US ghetto culture has on Brazilian culture. After all the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that both US President Obama and Beyonce celebrate is the sort of thing foreign intelligence agencies do to nations that they hate.

The Passinho showcase made way for a small performance by Elza Soares. Born in Rio favela Soares was reasonably famous across Latin America and the US during the late 1960's and 1970's - the era associated with the birth of disco music. Crucially she was also married to star Brazilian footballer Garrincha.

Garrincha was part of that World captivating Brazilian national football squad of the 1970's that included players such as Socrates and Pele. Garrincha briefly played his club football alongside Socrates at Corinthians.

That Corinthians side very famously eschewed the traditional style of team management. Instead all decisions about how the team played were made by democratic votes amongst the players and their fans.

This helped teach a generation of Brazilians about democracy and show them that democracy was the key to success. In a country run by a military dictatorship at the time that was an extremely brave thing to do.

It stands in sharp contrast to all the cowardly Olympians who have swarmed the Brazil to selfishly celebrate the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated Islamist terror groups.

Playing up Soares' role in the birth of disco provided an excuse to break out the big Afro hairstyles that were popular at the time.

As I've mentioned Brazil is rather unique in its racial diversity having no dominant ethnic group. However that does not mean that Brazil is a nation completely free of racial tensions.

What is interesting though is that the racism that exists in Brazil is not based on skin colour. After all even the German Brazilians have very dark skin to go along with their fair hair. Instead racism in Brazil is focused on hair type with those who have curly Afro-style hair considered to be less attractive and worthy then those with straight Caucasian-style hair.

The big Afros of the disco era help highlight this uniquely Brazilian take on racism.

Throughout this sequence all the action took place on the physical favela structure at one end of the arena.

However brightly coloured graphics were video projected onto the floor of the arena in the geometric style of a graphic equaliser that you would find on a stereo. At one point performers on wheeled toboggans slide down from the favela onto the arena floor.

This was all intended to pay tribute to the favelas role as the cultural heart and soul of Brazil flooding the grey city with colour and life.

The cheapness of these wheeled toboggans seemed intended as contrast with the excess of the London 2012 ceremonies.

The London Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony featured performers riding these small motorbikes that appeared to be powered by giant fans on the back. Each one of these strange contraptions had been specially designed and built by a team of engineers just for the ceremony at great expense. The Brazilians simply used what appeared to be children's toys that had been brought cheaply and would no doubt be donated to the favela children after the ceremony.

Next tribute was paid to the influence of Caribbean culture on Brazilian life. This was done through a performance by Brazilian dancehall MC's Karol Conka and MC Sofia.

Part of the bundle of issues that Brazil inherited from the London 2012 games was the popstar Rihanna who of course is from the Caribbean island of Barbados.

Back in 2014 Rihanna did the song "Can't Remember to Forget You" with Colombian popstar Shakira. In promoting the single Shakira talked about choosing Rihanna because they were both girls from the Caribbean. This had even people like me who really should know better looking at a map and going; "Oh yeah. Brazil's neighbour Columbia sits on the Caribbean Sea."

As apparently the 2012 Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony was mine and Rihanna's wedding ceremony I also know that Rihanna's mother isn't from Barbados at all. Instead she's from Brazil's Guyana. As such it seems that Brazil has more legitimate claim to Caribbean culture than the US which is where a lot of people assume Rihanna is from.

The ceremony then paid tribute to the World famous Brazilian martial art of "Capoeira" by video projecting someone doing Capoeira onto the arena floor. Back in November 2014 Capoeira was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was part of the World's intangible cultural heritage.

Next the ceremony went on to warn of the perils of racial discord and disharmony. These sequence began with fire dancers represented the flames of conflict.

Then from one end of the arena performers emerged wearing strange full-body furry red costumes. I'm assured that these costumes are an important part of Brazilian carnival culture. However the nearest thing I can compare them to are the "Elmo" the Muppet from the US TV Show "Sesame Street." These Muppets were each twirling a ball on a piece of rope as if preparing the hurl a rock from a slingshot.

The red rock throwers were supposed to represent Obama's Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. As they approached the centre of the arena they were meant by almost an opposing army made up of performers in similar full-body furry costumes. Some of the opposing army wore gold while other wore silver and others wore the same red as the stone throwers.

As the two armies lined up against each other they broke up into small square units and the lighting around them became very discordant constantly shifting and jumping in and out of focus.

This was intended to represent the pieces on a Chess board. The pieces on a Chess board are of course intended to represent soldiers in battle. In Chess there is a saying that you need to learn to think at least three of four moves ahead.

With US President Obama we wish he'd learn to think of the move he's actually making at the time.

After all as I write his Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement are tearing apart yet another US city let alone the influence it's having on the rest of the World.

This sequence ended with the multicultural army of golds, silvers and reds bitch-slapping - with the help of a little video projection - the stone throwing muppets and harmony was returned to the ceremony.

At around 17:40 on 15/8/16 (UK date) it's dinner time.

Edited at around 18:50 on 15/8/16 (UK date) to add above and below;

Having once again warning US President Obama against his attempts to spread racial disharmony and discord across the globe the Opening Ceremony returned to celebrating Brazil's racial diversity.

This involved famous Brazilian singer Jorge Ben Jor and famous Brazilian TV personality Regina Case leading the entire World in a rendition of the song "Pais Tropical (Tropical Country)."

This is massively famous song in Brazil that everybody knows the words to and can be relied upon to get any party started. For any visitors who didn't know the words they were shown on big screens around the stadium so absolutely everybody could join in.

The arena was then flooded by performers in colourful costumes all dancing and singing along. Particularly prominant amongst the costumes were Afro wigs in various garish shades. This again was a reference to Brazil's racial diversity and the rather unique hair based racism it has spawned.

At the centre there was the Brazilian pop group "Gang do Electro." This helped to further emphasise Brazil's links to Asia because Gang do Electro have a very furturistic style to them that is popular in Asian pop music. Plus if you're hearing it for the first time their name can easily be mistaken for "Guangdong" - the Chinese province.

The particular dance being performed was a form of Brazilian line dancing whose name completely escapes me. Some people may have found it surprising that a style of dancing more usually associated with US Cowboys and Country & Western music is acutally hugely popular in Brazil and other South American nations.

Cowboy culture however is far from unique to the US and is actually more common across South America. That is because cattle ranching is hugely important to the economies of many South America countries. I think Brazil in particular is the World's largest producer of beef.

The way that much of the Amazon Rainforest is being continually cut down to make way for cattle ranches is a big problem in the fight against Climate Change and one that comes up frequently in UNFCCC negotiations. After all it involves replacing trees that absorb Greenhouse Gases with cattle that emit Greenhouse Gases.

The shared Cowboy culture also serves to highlight the link between Brazil and the US that it born from many US Democrats picking up their slaves and heading south after they were defeated by the Republicans in the US Civil War.

It also seemed to serve as a little nod of support to the US state of Texas - home of the Dallas Cowboys American Football team - over their role in blocking US President Obama's corrupt and inhumane immigration reforms in the US Supreme Court.

19:10 on 15/8/16 (UK date).