The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Closing Ceremony.

As I've said the purpose of an Opening Ceremony is to introduce the host nation and the competitors to the World while trying to set the agenda for what is to come. A Closing Ceremony is much more about celebrating what has taken place and the people that made it happen.

Last night Brazil really took that idea and ran with it.

Obviously at the Para-Olympics many of the competitors have mobility problems. Not only that they have quite a wide variety of mobility problems. Coordinating several thousand people with differing levels on mobility into one place in a narrow window of time is an absolute nightmare. Therefore it is something of a tradition that for the Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony the competitors are brought into the arena beforehand.

This Closing Ceremony was no exception with the competitors all seated in the arena before the show started. Specifically they were seated in rows and blocks all across the arena floor in a layout similar to that you would get in a theatre or cinema. At one end of the arena there was a comparatively small stage where the action would take place.

That action was just a series of singers and bands turning the ceremony into a large concert with the competitors given front row seats. There was a smaller stage in the centre of the arena and some of the performers walked through the crowd as they sang. This made the competitors almost participants in what for them would have been a very visceral experience.

With the exception of one all of the acts were popular Brazilian singers and bands many of whom I sadly did not recognise. That is not to say that they're not famous - Irele Sangala who closed the show is extremely famous. However they're only really famous within Brazil and other Portuguese speaking nations rather than being World famous.

By contrast the 2012 London Closing Ceremony which Brazil picked the baton up from featured Coldplay, Jay Z and of course Rihanna. All three of these acts are so World famous that even if you don't like their music I think it is fair to assume that most people in the World will at least have heard of them.

This contrast gave the ceremony its main political/social theme. The language barrier as really the last barrier to globalisation.

The World now is an almost infinitely more globalised place than it was even as recently as the 1996 Atlanta games. A key driver of this has been the Internet. For example I can sit here writing this on a computer in the UK and as soon as I press the publish button it can be instantly read by people in Brazil, China, South Africa or anywhere else just as easily as if they were sitting in the next room to me. Likewise if there's a major news story in somewhere like New York City, US or anywhere else I can instantly be talking to the eyewitnesses on the ground.

The only barrier though is language. Although I can instantly speak to eyewitnesses in places like Russia, China, Israel or Brazil I can't understand a word they're saying to me and they can't understand a word I'm saying to them.

The Opening Ceremony touched on a play called "Rossum's Universal Robots." In part of that play some of the characters lament teaching the Robots a single global language rather than nationally specific languages. In the context of the play that's intended as an allegory for the way that nationalism is used to oppress the poor and the weak. Invented for the play the term "Robot" derives from the Czech word "Robotnik" which means "Slave." The word Slave derives from the word "Slav" or "Slavic" but I think I'm going off on a bit of a tangent there.

A large part of the reason why acts like Coldplay, Jay Z and Rihanna are globally famous is because they speak and perform in English. This has rather emerged as the dominant global language.

There are a number of reasons why the English language has become so popular. A significant one of these is the dominance of the British Empire which has really been carried on by Britain's former colony America. As a result English has become the language of business and politics.

I think another significant reason is that at a basic level English is actually a very simple language. For example if you wanted to thank a Brazilian person in their native Portuguese the word you'd use would depend on whether they were male (Obrigado) or female (Obrigada). Although it does have gender pronouns like he or she English doesn't have gender specific words making it much easier to learn.

Despite being easy to learn at a basic level English also manages to be quite a rich language that particularly lends itself to things like nuance and metaphor that are really useful in song lyrics and poetry. English also strongly encourages the people speaking it to add to it by making up new words. For example every year the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that people have simply made up over the previous year. Some of this year's examples include; "Clickbait" and "Slacktivist."

This dominance of the English language is particularly on display at the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Up until, I think, 2005 nations had to perform in their own language. Then they changed the rules so nations could compete in any language they liked. This has pretty much meant that everybody now performs in English.

A nation that is extremely protective over its language is France. Not only do they defiantly insist on singing in French and insist that everything at Eurovision must be done in English and then again in French the French Ministry of Culture actually sets quotas of the number of songs played on the radio and movies shown in cinemas that must be in the French language.

At the 2016 Song Contest France broke with this tradition and performed a song that was largely in English. This was intended to signal that France might be reconsidering its aggressively secular laws that force immigrants to adapt to French culture in favour of the more flexible approach of Multiculturalism. This issue has been a big one over the summer with the Burkini issue.

Also I should probably point out that I've finally found out why the Eurovision Song Contest has got so much attention at these games. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that stages the Song Contest has for the first time partnered with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). As a result the games have been available to broadcast in all of the EBU's 50+ member nations.

Video Sequence and Countdown: It is a longstanding tradition that both Olympic and Para-Olympic ceremonies begin with a short video sequence featuring a prominent 10 to 1 countdown. This is to allow all the broadcasters who are carrying the official feed live to calibrate their coverage to make sure they don't miss the start of the ceremony.

At these games Brazil has broken with and played about with this tradition. This was done to promote discussion about whether advances in broadcasting technology mean that this tradition is no longer relevant. In turn that leads into a discussion of whether the Olympic movement is no longer relevant as a political spectacle.

This ceremony continued that theme. Just before the ceremony began a 10 to 1 countdown was featured on big screens inside the stadium. This was visible on the wide, aerial shot of the stadium the official feed was showing at the time. The ceremony itself then began with a video sequence that didn't feature a countdown.

This video sequence featured a man who I presume to be deaf speaking both in Portuguese and in sign language. To further aid deaf or hearing impaired viewers and non-Portugese speakers this video sequence was also subtitled in English.

Despite disability being a major feature of both disabled sport and the Para-Olympic movement hearing impairment or deafness is one major disability that tends to get overlooked. That's because hearing impairment doesn't have any real impact on sporting ability so there are no hearing impaired classifications at the Para-Olympics.

However a degree of hearing impairment is a somewhat common element of other impairments - particularly neurological conditions such as Cerebral Palsy. For example the head injury that impaired UK soccer captain Jack Rutter's mobility also left him fully hearing impaired in one of his ears. That though has no impact on his ability to play football.

Ironically it was at this point my father who has been hearing impaired since a childhood case of Measles and now due to age is just deaf decided to wake up and start engaging me in conversation. As if I wasn't already trying to do several other things at that point.

However I've since gone back and checked the recording and discovered that the man in this video was Armaund Marcel. He was talking about what inspired him to set up his "Silent Drummers" project.

This is a project to teach deaf and hearing impaired people to drum. Being unable to hear they instead use vibration and a system of lights to see and feel what others hear. So for example a loud drum beat would be represented by a white light while a soft drum beat would be represented by a green light.

This picks up on the discussion of how human senses work - particularly in conditions like Synesthesia - that featured in the Opening Ceremony. It also touches on the issue of the language barrier because generally pictures unlike words are understood by people regardless of what language they speak. I would point out though that different cultures have different visual styles that almost constitute a language. Those differences are much more subtle though.

Marcel and group of his hearing impaired drummers known as Mestre Batman then performed on the stage in the arena. They were joined by famous Brazilian popstar Gabby Amarantos who lead the crowd in a 10 to 1 countdown that was shown on a giant video screen behind the stage.

This screen was particularly important throughout the ceremony because it was used to show anything the stadium announcer said in written form to aid the hearing impaired. The style of the graphic used for this subtitling seemed very much intended to resemble a computer. For example it had the little microphone symbol on the screen. This obviously picked up on the theme of technological solutions to the limitations of disability that featured so heavily in the Opening Ceremony.

As it has with other aspects of our lives advances in computer technology have really improved the range of  technological solutions to disability. For example voice recognition software has made it much easier and therefore cheaper to subtitle TV programs. As such many more TV programs are now subtitled. It also works in the reverse with software that can recognise written words and convert them into speech for visually impaired people. People with extremely limited mobility including to their speech like Stephen Hawking can now use computers to allow them to talk.

I think the specific type of computer these graphics were trying to mimic was Apple's "Siri" system. This is actually a rudimentary from of Artificial Intelligence so it brings in all the discussions about Artificial Intelligence that is sort of a hot topic in science and technology generally at the moment.

However Artificial Intelligence does have specific applications for people living with disability. For example in the Opening Ceremony I mentioned an Israeli start-up "UPnRIDE" who are developing a type of vertical wheelchair that allows the user to stand up on an platform. In order to maintain balance this relies heavily on Artificial Intelligence.

This reference to Siri was particularly unfortunate because one of the Para-Olympics main sponsors is Samsung. The recent launch of their iPhone rivalling S7 smartphone has not gone well.

At around 16:50 on 19/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner although I have probably already covered about 80-85% of the politics of the ceremony.

Edited at around 19:00 on 19/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;

Guitar Heroes: Rather than featuring a single Brazilian band this next sequence featured a one off performance of several Brazilian guitar heroes.

This was begun by Armandiho. He's famous for playing a special Brazilian type of guitar known as a Boha. This is essentially a small, electric guitar. Armandiho was joined by Andreas Kisser who is part of the Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura. Although I wouldn't say that I was a fan this is one Brazilian band I have most certainly heard off. I'm a bit surprised they didn't feature in some of the earlier ceremonies because they are World famous although in the admittedly small world of heavy metal.

Armandiho and Kisser were then joined by Jonathan Bastos. This extremely talented Brazilian musician was born without arms. So very much in keeping with the spirit of the Para-Olympics he taught himself to play a number of musical instruments with his feet. Here he was obviously playing the guitar but in the "Yes I Can" Para-Olympic trailer he played the piano.

As the three thrashed away on their guitars they were joined on stage by a number of dancers with mobility problems. Primarily these were wheelchair users but others were able to dance on their arms and balance on each other's shoulders in a very acrobatic performance.

Brazilian Flag & Anthem: The concert then took a break while IPC President Phillip Craven was quickly introduced and the Brazilian flag was raised while the Brazilian anthem was performed as per IPC protocol.

The flag was brought in by the same Firefighter flag detail that featured in the Opening Ceremony. As the flag was being raised the anthem was performed live by Brazilian singer Saulo Laucus (I will need to check that spelling) who was accompanied by a Harp.

Laucus is both severely visually impaired and suffers from Autism. I think only indentified in the 1940's Autism has been one of the more fashionable developmental disorders in recent years as more research is done and more is learnt about it. Despite all that research the Anti-Vaxxer movement still claim that vaccines - particularly the combined Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine - cause Autism.

However as with hearing impairment Autism doesn't really affect athletic performance so there is no Para-Olympic class for people with Autism. However in some severe cases Autism can affect balance and coordination so you do occasionally get Autistic athletes competing in the neurological impairment class although no-one immediately springs to mind.

Obviously having spent the previous 10 days talking about the disorders and impairments that are included in the Para-Olympics it's quite nice to have an opportunity to discuss one that isn't. However this ceremony didn't really do anything more that shout; "Autism. Discuss."

On the giant video screen an animation inspired by astrophysics showing things like star constellations and the atom structures was being played. This was a reference to China's Quantum communication satellite QUESS that featured heavily in the initial Closing Ceremony. Dotted around the arena amid the crowd were what I assume were performers wearing smart fabrics that light up in white light. That too was a major feature of the initial Closing Ceremony.

However the fact that I can't be sure about any of this really highlights what was so different about this Closing Ceremony.

Normally these type of ceremonies are designed from the perspective of the TV viewer at home. As a result if you're actually in the arena it can be quite difficult to follow what's going on. This ceremony was very much designed from the perspective of the competitors sitting in the arena. So they actually had the best view and by the looks of things really enjoyed themselves while I as a TV viewer felt a bit left out.

Parade of Nations: Although the competitors had made their way into the arena before the ceremony began the flags of the competing nations were still paraded into the arena. They were largely carried by a competitor from that nation accompanied by a guide. They made their way in from the opposite end of the arena to the stage and made their way down the central gangway before being ushered off to the sides.

The British flag was carried by Kadeena Cox. She was selected as a reference to a topic that's sort of being floating around in the background of these games. Euthanasia or assisted suicide.

This was touched upon in the September 2nd (2/9/16) Heritage flame lighting ceremony were Kelly Gallagher appeared dressed up to resemble the Emilia Clarke character from Game of Thrones. As I mentioned at the time Emilia Clarke has gone on to do a movie called "Me Without You." This centres around a man who decides that his life is not living and he must commit suicide because he was paralysed in a motorcycle accident.

Just on Saturday (17/9/16) it was announced that Canadian author of "Shoeless Joe" which became the movie "Field of Dreams" W.P Kinsella had been euthanised the previous day although no further details were given. Also on Saturday Belgium announced that the first child under the age of 18 had been euthanised under a law that was passed in 2014. Again though no further details were given.

The Para-Olympic movement was born out of the Second World War. Its purpose was to convince these big strong soldiers who'd be paralysed that there was no need to kill themselves simply because they could no longer walk. Instead they can still live a long an fulfilling life doing things like archery. They just need to get up out of their beds and stop feeling sorry for themselves.

As such euthanasia is very much against the spirit of the Para-Olympic movement.

However there is a small group of competitors with degenerative disorders which get progressively worse who may consider it. Kadeena Cox is one such athlete.

In these games Cox competed in both track events and cycling events winning two Gold, one Silver and a Bronze medal in the process. The reason she is competing in so many events is she knows that by the 2020 Tokyo games her condition - Multiple Sclerosis - may have deteriorated to the point that she's not able to compete in any event. Eventually euthanasia might be a dignified alternative to a painful and inevitable death.

Another example is Belgian wheelchair racer Marieke Vervoort who suffers from a degenerative spinal condition that is so rare it doesn't appear to have a name. In an interview at the games Vervoort announced that she had applied for and been granted permission to be euthanised and was planning to do so very soon. 

Needless to say this kind of bummed everyone out. After all even at the Para-Olympics; "So are you planning to kill yourself?" is not considered a polite greeting. 

Of course not all of the national flags were carried by competitors from that nation. Some nations opted to allow their flags to be carried by the local Brazilian volunteers or games makers. One such nation was Saudi Arabia.

I noticed the particular volunteer the Brazilians chose to carry the Saudi flag very closely resembled that possibly Jewish, possibly disabled volunteer who featured so prominently in the initial Closing Ceremony. With Saudi Arabia being one of the nations that would definitely fail that kind of anti-Semitism test that could well have been intended as an insult.

One of the things the Saudis may have done to annoy the hosts is that during the initial Opening Ceremony one of their delegation kept trying to muscle his way past the stewards onto the runway during the Parade of Nations. This was done to boost Saudi Arabia's screentime and very nearly led to an Egyptian athlete being expelled for waving a Saudi flag and nearly started a punch-up with the Iranian delegation.

It seems that Saudi Arabia had not learnt its lesson and again during this Parade of Nations one of their delegation was trying to muscle his way past the stewards. This time to take photographs. Well I assume he was Saudi he was wearing traditional white Saudi robes and headdress and spent most of his time with his back to the camera. So he could have been one of Saudis Gulf neighbours making a point about Saudi Arabia's poor behaviour. Then again he may have been French, Dutch, Belgian or from any other non-Gulf State nation.

What I found amusing was that on either side of the gangway there were two groups of people who were clearly friends. So they started playing this game where they threw paper aeroplanes and balled up scraps of paper across the aisle. As the game went on these paper projectiles were getting progressively closer to this photographers head. Eventually he got the message and backed off.  

The Parade of Nations ended with a short firework display. 

This wasn't as spectacular as the sequence in the initial Closing Ceremony that I've still not got around to covering. However rather than being just a simple firework display this used different colours and patterns in an attempt to convey a message. That message was simply; "RIO 2016."

This obviously again touched on the Synesthesia theme. Also using light to convey a message is a rudimentary example of quantum communication which uses sub-atomic particles like photons to transmit data rather like fibre optics just without the cabling.

21:00 on 19/9/16 (UK date).

Edited at around 16:25 on 20/9/16 (UK date) to add: I wasn't even close on that guy's name was I.