The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.3

This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 2; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening_8.html

National Flag and Anthem: The Life's a Beach sequence ended with all the beachgoers turning to face one end of the stadium to salute a projected red, circular sun as it set behind the seats.

The previous Closing Ceremony of course featured the national flag of Brazil being lowered and the national flag of Japan - with a red, circular sun at it's centre - being raised in its place. This saluting of the sun seemed to a lighthearted way for the Brazilian hosts to say that they're now going to take down the Japanese flag and raise their own flag in its place.

Amid the crowd of beachgoers emerged a single flagbearer carrying a neatly folded Brazilian flag. This woman was Rosanne Miccolis. She is the daughter of Aldo Miccolis who was a keen advocate of the Para-Olympics and played a key role in developing disabled sport within Brazil.

Miccolis climbed all those stairs on to what I think is termed the "Protocol Island" where she was met by a pianist sitting at his piano, some flagpoles and what is termed a flag detail. Their job is to unfold the flag and then raise it up one of the flagpoles.

During the previous Brazil ceremonies the flag details were made up of members of the Brazilian military in full dress uniform. If you've ever seen the soldiers guarding Britain's Buckingham Palace or Swiss Guard at the Vatican City you would know that military dress uniforms can get quite theatric. The Brazilian military dress uniform is very simple though made up of the working uniform of camouflage fatigues, a beret and combat boots along with a shiny white leather "Sam Brown" belt.

This flag detail was much more smartly dressed. They wore shiny well polished boots, neatly pressed trousers and equally well pressed shirts adorned with different medal ribbons and insignia. They also wore garrison caps. They actually reminded me of the US military service uniforms of the 1960's. The maroon cravat or dickie they wore actually reminded me of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers.

These are paramedics who parachute out of aeroplanes or more commonly these days helicopters to treat and then rescue battlefield casualties - particularly downed aircrews. Quite why the service uniform of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers is stuck in my head remains a bit of a mystery even to me. However all these references to Paramedics, Parachutists and Paramilitaries seem rather appropriate at the Para-Olympics.

It turns out though that the men making up this flag detail weren't in the military at all. Instead they were civilian firefighters. Quite why they were wearing winged parachute insignia indicating they'd qualified as Paratroopers is something I still don't quite understand.

Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil was run by a military dictatorship that the US imposed in the "Brother Sam" operation to fight Communism.

As a result the military has seeped into Brazilian culture influencing a wide array of areas of public life. Prior to the games I was absent mindedly watching a news report on anti-terror drills Brazil was conducting in preparation for the games. I remember being taken aback by the fact that even Brazil's ambulance drivers sill look quite a bit like they're in the military.

Due to the history of the military dictatorship the role of the military within public life is still a controversial one in Brazil. Obviously no-one really minds them doing flag ceremonies and colour parades at this type of national event. After all that's the sort of thing the military spend a lot of time practising and are very good at.

However a lot of people are less keen on Brazil's Military Police. In the US or the UK when you talk about the Military Police you're talking about a police force that polices members of the military. In Brazil you are talking about members of the military who are being used to police civilians. They were formed during the military dictatorship and up until very recently were paid a bonus for every suspect they killed rather than arrested.

This is actually a situation that is far from unique to Brazil. The French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri are both paramilitary police forces that technically fall within the military rather than the civilian command structure. You can see why then every time US President Obama gets on his Black Lives Matter hobby horse and starts ranting about America's militarised police no-one can take him seriously.

This is one of the areas I would have liked to have been able to research in more detail prior to the games. But generally speaking using the military to police civilians never ends well. Military police tend to treat crime as a military problem. That means they storm an area with troops to eliminate the enemy and then withdraw. Policing civilians more requires building up a relationship with the local community.

So rather than having heavily armed troops smashing their way into the neighbourhood in armoured cars whenever there's a crime you have lightly armed officers patrolling the streets of a neighbourhood day-in-day-out regardless of whether there is crime being committed. This allows them to get to known the local residents building up trust and deter crime from happening in the first place.

Through their neighbourhood pacification units the Brazilian authorities do seem to have begun to understand this. As such a key part of that strategy is the building of local police stations with the same local officers in high crime areas when they can afford to do so. It must be said though that such is the level of violence in some of Brazil's Favelas it is often closer to a military issue than a policing one.

As the Brazilian flag was being raised the Brazilian national anthem was played on the piano. The pianist was the extremely famous Brazilian Joao Carlos Martins. A renowned interpreter of the works of Bach Martins has worked with a number orchestras worldwide including the Boston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic both in the US. He was also Brazil's Secretary of State for Culture under the military dictatorship in 1981.

Unfortunately disability forced Martins to give up playing the piano professionally. So he simply reinvented himself as a conductor. Although I don't have his medical notes in front of me I gather he suffered a brain injury as the result of a mugging that partially paralysed his right arm. Then an unsuccessful surgery robbed him of sensation in all but the thumb and one finger of his right hand.

Looking at the clumping of Martins' knuckles I would also guess that some form of arthritis is also playing a role as he reaches 76 years of age.

This adds another element to the discussion about the types of disability that was begun with Aaron Fotheringham's fiery 'birth' during the opening countdown. As well as people who are born with disability or acquire disability through accidents there are also the disabilities of ageing bodies such as worn out hips and knees.

As the actual flag was being raised and the national anthem performed the beachgoers who were still in the arena turned their parasols upside down to form a giant Brazilian flag covering the arena floor.

At around 16:25 on 10/9/16 (UK date) I'll be back after a long dinner break.

Edited at around 20:00 on 10/9/16 (UK date) to add;

Parade of Nations: This is by far the most important section of any Opening Ceremony. It allows the competitors without whom there wouldn't be a games to take centre stage and be introduced to the World.

However as I said about the previous Opening Ceremony unless someone falls over there's not really much for me to write about. At the Para-Olympics someone falling over is a very real possibility.

Take for example the British flag carrier Lee Pearson. This Equestrian rider suffers from a condition called Arthrogryposis. This is defined by muscle shortening which prevents the joints from extending and contracting across the normal range of mobility.

Therefore as he attempts to walk the joints in Lee Pearson's legs such as his ankles or knees may well lock at a critical moment causing him to lose balance and fall over. That can be annoying and somewhat embarrassing. Particularly when it happens in public.

So as he was carrying the British flag Lee Pearson was wearing callipers to support his legs and was riding on one of those "Rascal" mobility scooters that are normally used by fatties.

As they entered the stadium the competitors were paraded around a central square with their route being marked out by stewards who were dressed to resemble clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky.

I suspect that the stewards outfits featured a hooded top was another reference to the Islamic dress issue. After all in the previous Opening Ceremony the Swedish flag carrier Therese Alshammar did wear a hooded dress. This resembled the dress worn by Jamela as she represented Shamali Province in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest which was hosted by Sweden.

However it was two of these stewards who were particularly important.

The Rio games obviously pick up from the 2012 London games. As part of their coverage the host broadcaster Channel 4 put on a special show called; "The Last Leg." Broadcast live at the end of each day's events this show featured three comedians - well two comedians and Alex "Work Experience" Brooker - taking a light hearted look at what happened that day. This show was a huge hit particularly amongst competitors staying at the athletes village.

Having being forced to miss the 2014 Sochi games because the British security services could no longer guarantee their safety The Last Leg has returned. It is being broadcast live from Rio both in the UK and into the athletes village on a sort of CCTV system.

Nestled away among all these stewards was two of The Last Leg's presenters - Josh Widdecome and Alex Brooker. While they were pratting about in the arena the third presenter Adam Hills was in the commentary box presenting Channel 4's coverage of the ceremony.

Following yesterday's show I think we need to have a little bit of a stewards inquiry into The Last Leg.

Representing New Zealand in the Track 43 (T43) sprinting events we have double below the knee amputee Liam Malone. Following his 100m heat on Thursday (8/9/16) a reporter went straight up to Malone to interview him about how the race went.

Still pumped up from the race Malone was in what can only be described as; "Full Beast Mode." He then proceeded to give this really intense interview in which he described the competition as being kill or be killed and said he'd set out to eat his opponents alive.

Being hilarious to watch this is exactly the sort of thing The Last Leg covers and they featured it on Friday's (9/9/16) show. However the presenters seemed to be mocking Malone telling him to calm down because this was the Para-Olympics. Not the Hunger Games.

About three hours later Malone won Silver in the 100m final. In this post race interview he seemed quiet, nervous and almost apologetic. It was as if all the jokes about his previous interview had got inside his head.

Gold was won by Britain's Johnny Peacock who The Last Leg were rooting for. As a result you can't help but wonder if there's been a wee bit of mind games going on. Particularly with Adam Hills being an Australian.

The only real controversy from the Parade of Nations was Belorussian official Andrei Fomochkin who waved a Russian flag. Russia of course has been banned from these Sultan Mehmed games. Almost immediately Fomochkin was also expelled from the games.

This over-reaction suggests to me that significance of International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven having his flight cancelled and then being exiled to Belem/Bellend in the opening video sequence was not understood by all. As a result the games seem to be proceeding in a manically reckless anti-Russian frenzy.

If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had conducted itself in the same way it would have had to immediately expel the Egyptian competitor who waved the flag of Saudi Arabia during the opening Parade of Nations.

The IOC would then also have had to expel all members of the Saudi delegation who were throwing their flags about in the first place. Along with all the members of the Iranian delegation who started throwing their flags about in response.

The IOC would then have had to expel any competitor wearing the Hijab. America's Ibtihaj Muhammad in particular was extremely clear about the fact she viewed her wearing to the Hijab to be both a religious and political statement. A clear violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. 

Highlighting the political importance of the games Craven's frankly deranged behaviour seems to be having very real and serious consequences. Just (technically) this morning Russia seemed to indicate that in retaliation it is going to give ISIL and Al Qaeda the free run of Syria. As they're forced to deal with that I suspect that the US and in particular European nations won't be finding their Para-Olympic medals quite so shiny.

They will though likely be able to send very large teams to the 2020 Tokyo games. After all you should see what the 7/7 London bombings did for the British sitting volleyball squad.

As they paraded into the arena each nation carried with them a sign bearing the name of their nation in the form of a jigsaw puzzle piece. As they handed their national flag to be placed on the protocol island they handed this jigsaw piece to be placed in the square in the centre of the arena.

As the parade ended the camera pulled back and revealed the finished jigsaw. It showed the faces of all the competitors in the games. A giant anatomically correct beating human heart was then video projected onto the jigsaw.

Officially this was to send the message that the disabled are people too. They all have human hearts and emotions and are just as deserving of our respect as anybody else.

For someone like me who is already extremely familiar with not only disabled sport but disability issues in general this message might seem rather trite and somewhat stating the obvious. However in parts of Africa you still have Albino children being murdered so their bones can be used in witchcraft rituals.

Therefore as a global event it is very important that the Para-Olympics promotes this type of message no matter how obvious it might seem to some.

To me though these black & white photographs of the competitors seemed to very much resemble the photographs of "The Missing." It was those missing that the Suadade sequence of the previous Closing Ceremony was dedicated to.

Within Latin America "The Missing" refers to the upwards of 80,000 people were simply disappeared by fascist dictatorships in numerous countries including Brazil but particularly Chile and Argentina. Commonly referred to as; "The Dirty War" these disappearances took place as part of what is officially known as;  "Operation Condor" which took place between 1968-1989.

Operation Condor was conducted with the full backing of the US with America training many of the Paramilitary death squads at The School of the Americas. It was largely conducted under the supervision of then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Particularly Argentina's "Triple A" death squad.

Henry Kissinger has just endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

Some of the most powerful opposition to Operation Condor came from an Argentinian group that became known as; "The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo." I did briefly touch upon them during the Closing Ceremony but being rushed for time I far from did them justice.

What the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo would do is gather together one day a week - I think a Friday - outside Argentina's Presidential Palace on the Plaza de Mayo. They would then simply stand there in complete silence each holding a framed black & white photographs of the son or daughter who had simply disappeared.

The fact that the military dictator Jorge Videla outside whose Palace they were standing employed death squads should tell just how dangerous this type of protest was.

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo are absolutely legendary amongst the history of social and political protest and across Latin America generally. The photographs of their protests are every bit as iconic as that footage of a man standing in front of a tank in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

I was even considering comparing them to that iconic "Napalm Girl" photograph from the Vietnam war of a fully nude 9 year old girl running away from a Napalm strike. Her back horribly burned. However I personally would class that as an image of war rather than an image of protest.

Those who are trying to tear Syria apart such as Turkey's Sultan Mehmed Brigades clearly looked at the Suadade sequence of the Closing Ceremony and saw a full endorsement of their cause. So on August 30th (30/8/16) they launched another social media campaign bombarding people with gory images of people they claimed had been disappeared by Syria government death squads.

However the message I took away from the Suadade sequence was that there are people across Latin America who have really lived through what Turkey etc is claiming is happening in Syria. Therefore they can see instantly where the Erdogans of this world are so clearly lying.

The message that I took away from this Parade of Nations sequence is that anyone with a heart would call out those hateful lies loudly and clearly any time they're given voice.

22:05 on 10/9/16 (UK date).