A continuation of Part 7; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_26.html
1 Minute 45 Seconds:
This next sequence was a performance by the Bae Hui Gwan Band. Some of their members, including the lead singer, suffer from some level of visual impairment.
As I've said despite claiming to be a big supporter of those with disabilities in the UK Channel 4 only broadcast a heavily edited, recorded version of the Closing Ceremony.
This sequence was extremely heavily edited. Channel 4 broadcast just 105 seconds of it. Not only that their commentators talked over all of those 105 seconds.
Channel 4 didn't even name check Bae Hui Gwan Band. I had to find that out from elsewhere.
When Someone Shows You Their True Face...
This closing sequence began with Korean Pop (K-Pop) star Ailee performing a special, extended version of her 2012 hit; "I Will Show You." Turning proceedings into one big party for the games' participants.
To use her full name Amy Lee is actually American. She was born in Colorado and raised in New Jersey. In 2010 she moved to the RoK - the country of her parents birth.
Using a family connection Amy Lee signed to the YMC Entertainment management company. In 2011 she appeared on the TV talent show; "Singer & Trainee." This led to her being officially classed as a; "Rookie."
As an official Rookie Ailee worked to support more experienced artists such as Wheesung, Decipher and Clara C. In March 2012 she won the; "Rookie of the Month" title at the Cyworld Music Awards.
In October 2012 Ailee released her debut EP; "Invitation." I Will Show You was the most popular song from that EP.
Ailee's career path really shows how far the RoK has gone in treating pop music like an industry.
It is expected that you will have management before you go on a TV talent show. If you succeed on a TV talent show you will be accepted into a record label's Rookie program. Only after serving an apprenticeship will you be allowed to release music of your own.
Show titles like; "Singer & Trainee" alongside trying to find the English lyrics for Korean pop songs also raises the issue of translation.
This has a particular relevance to this; "Novichok" everyone has been talking about in relation to the Skripal case in Salisbury.
Novichok is part of the V-Series of organophosphate nerve agents which were invented by the UK just outside Salisbury. What makes Novichok stand out from other members of the V-Series such as VX is that it is much simpler to manufacture from widely available agricultural chemicals.
Literally translated from Russian "Novichok" means; "Newcomer."
However the only real context in which a Russian would use the term is in relation to a newcomer in the workplace. So the more accurate translation for Novichok is; "Novice" or "Rookie."
So while UK Prime Minister May has been shouting her head off everyone has been expressing huge concern about the Novice.
Notably Israel has not joined the UK in blaming Russia. But then Israel did use Novichok to kill the inventor of Novichok.
Speaking of translation I have managed to dig out an English lyric video for I Will Show You;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEvkiGmJs3Y
It certainly shows that the RoK would be extremely well suited to the Eurovision Song Contest.
However compared to the earlier high culture sequences this pop song doesn't stand up to much analysis.
Broadly through it can be described as a Female Empowerment Anthem. Much like CL's songs; "Baddest Female" and "I Am the Best" were used to discuss the Female Empowerment element of the RoK's "Birth Strike" during the Olympic Closing Ceremony.
More specifically though it's about a girl who's been dumped by her boyfriend. However rather than crying about it she's going to change her appearance and get herself a whole new man.
On Singer & Trainee Ailee performed the Beyonce song; "Halo." Wearing black hotpants and knee high boots her performance during this ceremony very much resembled Beyonce's performance of; "Formation" at the 2016 Super Bowl.
During that performance Beyonce paid tribute to the Black Panther Party (BPP). Through her use of the trademark black beret, leather jacket and two bandoleers in the rough shape of a Sam Brown belt.
Although they were always the under achievers of the group the BPP were part of the Cold War Arc of Resistance. Involving groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Through the use of an X formation Beyonce also paid tribute to Malcolm X. Although his often mistaken for the BPP Malcolm X was a follower of the hateful ideology of the Nation of Islam (NoI).
To give you an idea of how hateful the NoI are towards the end of his life Malcolm X did convert to actual Sunni Islam. So the NoI killed him.
Although Channel 4 still didn't think they were important the Bae Hui Gwan Band then returned to duet with Ailee.
The song they performed was "To You" by Shin Hae-chul.
Although he died in 2014 at the age of just 46 Shin Hae-chul is still considered one of the giants of innovation within South Korean music.
Shin Hae-chul made his debut with his college rock band Muhangwedo in 1988. To You is actually their song.
Shin Hae-chul then went solo for a few years being the first South Korean artist to include English rap lyrics in his songs. In 1992 he formed the experimental Prog-Rock band N.E.X.T.
In 1998 Shin Hae-chul moved to the UK and reinvented himself as the Techno dance music act; "Crom." In 2002 he returned to the RoK and restarted N.E.X.T.
In 2003 Shin Hae-chul began hosting the popular radio music show "Ghost Nation." In 2007 he released his first Jazz album.
These games have been dominated by the Skripal case. That has been used to discuss the person the UK poisoned during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) leading up to 2015. It's included an offer by the UK to perform a long overdue autopsy on that person.
In October 2014 Shin Hae-chul suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma in hospital. On October 22nd he died with the hospital blaming complications from Peritonitis.
Literally hours before his funeral Shin Hae-chul's family changed their minds and decided to perform an autopsy. This revealed that the hospital had lied about the cause of death to cover up their own malpractice.
The singer in fact died because the director of the Sky medical clinic Dr Kang had improperly used surgical staples which had cut Shin Hae-chul's intestines. In January 2017 Dr Kang was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Again I have managed to dig out an English lyric video for To You; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3YzOdBiDkg
This is a love song. However with lyrics like;
"We Are So Disappointed With Each Other"
and;
"Even If I Lose Everything I Love//I Can't Give Up On You"
It seems to be a very destructive form of love.
Although as the English language reporting of Novichok has shown meanings are often lost in literal translations.
In her solo performance Ailee was showing a lot of skin in her hotpants. For her duet with the Bae Hui Gwan Band she'd covered up.
Ailee had wrapped a long black skirt around her waist. Along with the embroidery on her black top this gave her appearance of her wearing an Abaya. The cloak that extreme Muslims require women to wear.
As such this sequence seemed to be a commentary on all the ways US Democrats try to change their appearance;
"Black Lives Matter" one week, "Women's March" another and most recently; "March For Our Lives."
This though hasn't stopped people from seeing their true face. And start thinking it's time to break up with them.
The irony is that Shin Hae-chul who will love until his life ends suffered from the impairment; "Prosopagnisa."
Which prevents you from recognising people's faces.
The sequence and the ceremony ended with a large explosion of fireworks which resembled a nuclear mushroom cloud.
I think we should congratulate the South Koreans for waiting this long to do that very obvious joke.
17:00 on 27/3/18 (UK date).
Tuesday 27 March 2018
Monday 26 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.7
A continuation of Part 6; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_42.html
Closing Speeches:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony includes two closing speeches.
By the head of the host National Paralympic Committee (NPC). In this case Lee Hee-beom. Also by the head of the IPC. In this case Andrew Parsons.
The significance of these speeches was the speeches themselves. So while I do not mean to snub the speakers if you want to know the significance of these speeches you can simply watch or read them yourselves.
Nine days after the event I am now trying to trim this down wherever I can.
It is also IPC protocol that the closing speeches are followed by a formal declaration that the games are over. The UK broadcaster Channel 4 decided to edit out this closing declaration.
Commercial Break:
Channel 4 edited out the closing declaration so it could show some commercials.
Salispury?!:
Channel 4's decision to include a commercial break was particularly poorly timed. Following the closing declaration the ceremony seamlessly moved to a sequence in which the Cauldron was extinguished.
This took the form of an ancient Korean Animist ritualistic dance known as; "Sal'puri."
"Puri" translates as; "To Purify."
"Sal" translates as; "An Evil Plague."
The Sal'puri ritual dates back from before the Three Kingdoms of Korea period. So prior 57 B.C.
During that time is was believed that illness was caused by evil spirits.
So although it literally translates as "Evil Plague" "Sal" really refers to evil spirits. However a Chemical Warfare agent like the one used in Salisbury could certainly be described as an example of a "Sal."
The dance involves a Shaman or witch doctor absorbing the evil spirits into their body. The dance then purifies that evil spirit by re-balancing its Ying and Yang elements into harmony. No longer an evil spirit it is then discharged.
Sal'puri can be performed at any time to exercise evil spirits. It is though most commonly associated with death.
The Shaman removes the evil spirit which killed the person to stop it travelling with them into the next dimension. This is important because many Animists - particularly Buddhists - believe in reincarnation. You certainly don't want to carry an evil spirit with you into your next life.
The Sal'puri often involves a prayer scroll in the form of a long handkerchief. This details the person, what evil spirit has afflicted them and what the ritual hopes to achieve. Recovery from the evil spirit or merely a peaceful journey into the next dimension.
So this sequence as really mourning the end of the 2018 Games.
While at the same time wishing it well as becomes reincarnated as, strictly speaking, the 2022 Games. Although if it comes back to life as the 2020 Games I don't think anyone would be too upset.
It began with a giant prayer scroll stretching from the Cauldron, down the ramp to the stage.
The prayer scroll then took on physical form and was used by the Shaman as she performed the Sal'puri dance. Wearing the traditional white of purity.
She was accompanied by a vocalist and a woman playing a traditional Korean flute - the Daegeum. Neither of whose names I caught.
I am not sure if the Daegeum player had an impairment in her right arm. However she was unusually resting her instrument on a stand. So you were certainly being invited to speculate on whether she had an impairment.
You may have noticed some similarities between this Korean ritual and Native American rituals. Particularly of Hopi Indians in Arizona.
That's because despite what Obama's warriors will try and tell you even Native Americans aren't that native. Originally they've migrated from East Asia and Russia. Bringing with them Animist belief systems.
Prominent on stage during this sequence was an earthenware cooking pot. As far as I can tell this has no role whatsoever in the Sal'puri ritual.
I think this pot's inclusion here was to encourage us to focus on the similar looking pot element of the Cauldron. Inspired by the Cauldron used in the 2016 Summer games this provided a talking point about efforts to combat Climate Change.
In less economically developed nations combating Climate Change can be something as simple as replacing open fires with wood burning cookstoves that use less fuel and therefore create fewer emissions. It is the role of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) based in the RoK to find a way to pay for such schemes.
During the Olympics the focus was very much on the Cauldron's legs. This made it resemble a; "Martian War Machine" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Welles.
In 1938 Orson Welles produced and directed a radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds. This is widely recognised as the greatest Fake News hoax in US broadcasting history.
This turned the Olympic medal table into a symbol of where people think Orson Welles' production now stands in the all time list of US Fake News Hoaxes. After Obama's claims of Russian interference in the 2016 Election it seems to have slumped considerably.
You can't really play games like this at the Para-Olympics. Although efforts have been made by particularly the RoK to put the Para-Olympics on an equal footing with the Olympics the Para-Olympics still has an inherent competitiveness problem.
In any nation the majority of people do not suffer from the types of impairments seen at the Para-Olympics. So from this already small sub-group you've got to find people who want to do sport. For that even smaller sub-group you've got to find the people who are actually any good at sport.
This is actually well illustrated by the; "Good Odds" commercial by Paralympic sponsor Toyota featuring Lauren Woolstencroft. This actually debuted during the 2018 Super Bowl.
You can watch it here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sefscV3GvWM
It begins with Woolstencroft being born with a disability. It shows her odds of winning a Gold medal at around 1 in 1 billion. It then shows her growing and training as the odds shorten. It ends with her winning Gold and the odds being 1 in 1.
If you play the commercial backwards it shows the odds a nation must overcome to produce a Para-Olympic Gold medallist.
As a result nations with large populations always do well at the Para-Olympics. Through just sheer weight of numbers.
China is only really beginning to take an interest in Winter sports. Russia has been banned from these Para-Olympics sending only a small delegation competing as neutrals.
So the fact that the US was going to top the Para-Olympic medal table was never up for discussion.
It almost goes without saying that as the Sal'puri ritual ended the Cauldron was extinguished.
20:20 on 26/3/18 (UK date).
Closing Speeches:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony includes two closing speeches.
By the head of the host National Paralympic Committee (NPC). In this case Lee Hee-beom. Also by the head of the IPC. In this case Andrew Parsons.
The significance of these speeches was the speeches themselves. So while I do not mean to snub the speakers if you want to know the significance of these speeches you can simply watch or read them yourselves.
Nine days after the event I am now trying to trim this down wherever I can.
It is also IPC protocol that the closing speeches are followed by a formal declaration that the games are over. The UK broadcaster Channel 4 decided to edit out this closing declaration.
Commercial Break:
Channel 4 edited out the closing declaration so it could show some commercials.
Salispury?!:
Channel 4's decision to include a commercial break was particularly poorly timed. Following the closing declaration the ceremony seamlessly moved to a sequence in which the Cauldron was extinguished.
This took the form of an ancient Korean Animist ritualistic dance known as; "Sal'puri."
"Puri" translates as; "To Purify."
"Sal" translates as; "An Evil Plague."
The Sal'puri ritual dates back from before the Three Kingdoms of Korea period. So prior 57 B.C.
During that time is was believed that illness was caused by evil spirits.
So although it literally translates as "Evil Plague" "Sal" really refers to evil spirits. However a Chemical Warfare agent like the one used in Salisbury could certainly be described as an example of a "Sal."
The dance involves a Shaman or witch doctor absorbing the evil spirits into their body. The dance then purifies that evil spirit by re-balancing its Ying and Yang elements into harmony. No longer an evil spirit it is then discharged.
Sal'puri can be performed at any time to exercise evil spirits. It is though most commonly associated with death.
The Shaman removes the evil spirit which killed the person to stop it travelling with them into the next dimension. This is important because many Animists - particularly Buddhists - believe in reincarnation. You certainly don't want to carry an evil spirit with you into your next life.
The Sal'puri often involves a prayer scroll in the form of a long handkerchief. This details the person, what evil spirit has afflicted them and what the ritual hopes to achieve. Recovery from the evil spirit or merely a peaceful journey into the next dimension.
So this sequence as really mourning the end of the 2018 Games.
While at the same time wishing it well as becomes reincarnated as, strictly speaking, the 2022 Games. Although if it comes back to life as the 2020 Games I don't think anyone would be too upset.
It began with a giant prayer scroll stretching from the Cauldron, down the ramp to the stage.
The prayer scroll then took on physical form and was used by the Shaman as she performed the Sal'puri dance. Wearing the traditional white of purity.
She was accompanied by a vocalist and a woman playing a traditional Korean flute - the Daegeum. Neither of whose names I caught.
I am not sure if the Daegeum player had an impairment in her right arm. However she was unusually resting her instrument on a stand. So you were certainly being invited to speculate on whether she had an impairment.
You may have noticed some similarities between this Korean ritual and Native American rituals. Particularly of Hopi Indians in Arizona.
That's because despite what Obama's warriors will try and tell you even Native Americans aren't that native. Originally they've migrated from East Asia and Russia. Bringing with them Animist belief systems.
Prominent on stage during this sequence was an earthenware cooking pot. As far as I can tell this has no role whatsoever in the Sal'puri ritual.
I think this pot's inclusion here was to encourage us to focus on the similar looking pot element of the Cauldron. Inspired by the Cauldron used in the 2016 Summer games this provided a talking point about efforts to combat Climate Change.
In less economically developed nations combating Climate Change can be something as simple as replacing open fires with wood burning cookstoves that use less fuel and therefore create fewer emissions. It is the role of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) based in the RoK to find a way to pay for such schemes.
During the Olympics the focus was very much on the Cauldron's legs. This made it resemble a; "Martian War Machine" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Welles.
In 1938 Orson Welles produced and directed a radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds. This is widely recognised as the greatest Fake News hoax in US broadcasting history.
This turned the Olympic medal table into a symbol of where people think Orson Welles' production now stands in the all time list of US Fake News Hoaxes. After Obama's claims of Russian interference in the 2016 Election it seems to have slumped considerably.
You can't really play games like this at the Para-Olympics. Although efforts have been made by particularly the RoK to put the Para-Olympics on an equal footing with the Olympics the Para-Olympics still has an inherent competitiveness problem.
In any nation the majority of people do not suffer from the types of impairments seen at the Para-Olympics. So from this already small sub-group you've got to find people who want to do sport. For that even smaller sub-group you've got to find the people who are actually any good at sport.
This is actually well illustrated by the; "Good Odds" commercial by Paralympic sponsor Toyota featuring Lauren Woolstencroft. This actually debuted during the 2018 Super Bowl.
You can watch it here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sefscV3GvWM
It begins with Woolstencroft being born with a disability. It shows her odds of winning a Gold medal at around 1 in 1 billion. It then shows her growing and training as the odds shorten. It ends with her winning Gold and the odds being 1 in 1.
If you play the commercial backwards it shows the odds a nation must overcome to produce a Para-Olympic Gold medallist.
As a result nations with large populations always do well at the Para-Olympics. Through just sheer weight of numbers.
China is only really beginning to take an interest in Winter sports. Russia has been banned from these Para-Olympics sending only a small delegation competing as neutrals.
So the fact that the US was going to top the Para-Olympic medal table was never up for discussion.
It almost goes without saying that as the Sal'puri ritual ended the Cauldron was extinguished.
20:20 on 26/3/18 (UK date).
Saturday 24 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt 6.
A continuation of Part 5; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_24.html
Fun With Flags:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony must include a sequence marking the transition from one Olympic host to the next. This must be done through a lot of mucking about with flags.
The Para-Olympic flag is then taken down while the Para-Olympic anthem is played. It is then handed to a representative of the next Para-Olympic host. The flag of that nation is then raised and their national anthem performed. Finally the flag of the existing host nation is taken down.
The UK broadcaster heavily edited this sequence. They joined as the Para-Olympic flag had been lowered and handed to the military flag detail. You could just about hear the last few bars of a recording of the Para-Olympic anthem being played
Channel 4 then cut away from the sequence before the flag was handed to the next host.
However I can tell you that during the handover the RoK were represented by Mayor of PyeongChang County Shim Jae-kook. He passed the Para-Olympic flag to China's representative Mayor of Beijing Chen Jining.
As the Chinese flag was raised the Chinese national anthem was performed by the Chinese Children's Choir.
Commercial Break:
Yes that's right. Channel 4 decided to edit out the transition ceremony so it could show commercials.
China's Bit:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony includes a sequence produced by the next Para-Olympic host. In this case China.
The purpose is to briefly introduce us to that nation and identify the topics which will likely come up in the next four years preparing for their games.
China of course produced a similar sequence during the Olympic Closing Ceremony. It's main themes were really;
China's role as the sort of Country Bumpkins of Asia. That is to say poorly educated, not particularly sophisticated and generally lacking in good manners and good breeding.
China's role as the Workshop of the World. Specifically how they wish to develop their economy by moving away from simply providing cheap labour to build other people's designs to developing designs and products of their own.
It also touched on how as part of this transition China's actions have sometimes been legally questionable. They have frequently been accused of what is known as; "Intellectual Property Theft." In short stealing other people's ideas.
It must be said then that China's sequence looked remarkably similar to the South Korean designed sequences of the Closing Ceremony we'd already seen.
It began with a High School aged girl sitting in a wheelchair. She was wearing the same combination of a white tunic and red scarf as was used in the earlier; "United in Mourning" sequence.
Here as it was there this is an unusual colour combination for those guided by the Wu Xing.
The colour white represents the element Metal and the season of autumn. It's phase of development is withering and decline. It is in autumn leaves wither on the branch and fall from the trees.
So in Asian culture the colour white is associated with death and mourning.
The colour red represents the element Fire and the season of summer. It's phase of development is blooming and growth. Summer being the peak growing season.
So in Asian culture the colour red is associated with prosperity and good fortune. It is not a colour that you would wear at a funeral.
The girl was surrounded by the giant TV screens which China had used in its sequence in the Olympic Closing Ceremony. A nice gesture of parity between the Olympics and Para-Olympics.
Initially these TV screens showed astronomical images. Stars, Galaxies etc. This referenced the very heavy Physics themes which had been a major part of all the 2018 ceremonies.
It also appeared to show things orbiting a planet. Rather like satellites. This was a reference to QUESS Quantum Communications Satellite launching China's advances in science and technology.
The TV screens were present throughout the sequence. Towards the end they started showing the core Winter Para-Olympic sports.
However in a further reference to China's technological advances they showed them in the form of advanced medical imaging. Sort of digital X-Rays.
Suddenly the girl rose from her wheelchair and began to walk.
You could argue that this promoted discussion about the differing degrees of impairment and how different people are affected at different times.
Not all wheelchair users are totally unable to walk. Some of their mobility impairments allow them to stand briefly or even walk a couple of steps. That does not mean that they are faking or don't need to use a wheelchair.
However it came across like an act of mockery for all the Para-Olympians who can't suddenly rise up from their wheelchairs and walk.
A complete Country Bumpkin move from China then.
Although she has no mobility impairment this girl actually does suffer from an hearing impairment.
So when she rose from her chair and was joined by 16 other hearing impaired girls to perform a ballet routine she became yet another deaf ballet dancer.
Just like we'd just seen in the earlier; "Balhae School" sequence.
The girl returned to her wheelchair as an image of a Lotus flower was projected onto the floor.
This projection was replaced with an image of a bird. Either the Huangdong - the Chinese Phoenix - or the Vermilion Bird. One of the Four Guardians.
I've got a feeling this crash course in traditional Asian Animist religions and mythology is going to serve us well as we spend the next four years tearing around Asia.
The sequence ended with a projection of the Beijing 2022 logo.
At around 22:10 on 24/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up Monday.
Edited at around 16:00 (15:00 GMT) on 26/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Medal Ceremony:
It is IOC protocol that each Olympic Closing Ceremony features a medal ceremony. As a reminder of all the other medal ceremonies which have taken place throughout the games.
Para-Olympic Closing Ceremonies do not traditionally include a medal ceremony. Instead they have the Whang Youn Dai Award ceremony.
However here I'm going to talk about the medal ceremony I would have included. The Visually Impaired Women's Slalom.
The UK broadcaster also seemed to think that this should have been included in the Closing Ceremony. They flashed up an onscreen graphic showing the result like every 10 minutes.
The 2018 Winter Olympics were Britain's most successful Winter Olympics ever. In part this was due to the efforts of its athletes. However it also reflected an approval of the political positions Britain took during the games.
For example with the medal table taking on a theme of an all time list US Fake News Hoaxes there was no way the US was going to finish top. No matter how well their athletes performed.
Going into the games Britain's objective was to win at least 6 medals. Ideally all of them Gold.
However the British athletes were let down very badly on the political side of things. This resulted in a distinctly lacklustre performance.
Prior to the games the UK poisoned Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury. This was actually a good opening move by the UK. Although rather loud it did invoke many of the political topics being discussed at the games.
For example Skripal was recruited to MI6 by someone who now works in the private sector for Christopher Steele. Despite being asked to leave MI6 under a cloud over his judgement Christopher Steele complied the dossier that alleges Russian interference in the 2016 US Election.
That is now considered the greatest Fake News Hoax in US history. Dislodging Orson Welles' 1938 production of; "The War of the Worlds" into fourth place.
Unfortunately Britain was unable to stick to its own script.
On the third day of the games UK Prime Minister Theresa May formally accused Russia of carrying out attack. Displaying the sort of delusional thinking that got Christopher Steele kicked out of MI6.
Prime Minister May went on to set a deadline of the fifth day of the games for Russia to respond.
Although Russia did respond Prime Minister May started the sixth day taking dramatic action in terms of expelling diplomats claiming it was punishment for Russia failing to respond.
At this point the British team were one medal short of their target of six. Unfortunately their chances of winning that sixth medal died amid Prime Minister May's rantings.
As is often the case in games of strategy the key moment came in the Wheelchair Curling.
At the end of league play Britain needed Slovakia to beat Norway to progress to the medal matches. Slovakia threw the game to keep Britain from winning any more medals.
This came just hours after Slovak Prime Minister at the time Robert Fico offered his resignation.
Prime Minister Fico was under pressure over the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak on February 25th (25/3/18). So his eventual resignation seemed to be something of an inevitably.
What was interesting about his first offer to resign is that it was on condition Slovakia's coalition government would be allowed to continue without him. This was to ensure that the government would not collapse and there would be no need for a fresh election.
This seemed to be the European Union (EU) calling for the resignation of UK Prime Minister May over her false accusations in the Skripal case.
The only thing preventing the EU making that demand explicit is concerns that it would plunge the UK into fresh elections mid-way through the Brexit negotiations. An area where Britain is falling far short diplomatically already.
The following day Slovakian Prime Minister Fico did resign.
Desperate for that sixth medal the UK then threw everything it had at the Visually Impaired Women's Slalom held on the final day.
During the final day there was a incident at a nightclub in the British town of Gravesend in Kent. Having been refused entry to a tented area at the rear of the venue a man then drove a vehicle into that tented area. Creating very dramatic scenes.
The Olympic Closing ceremony made much of the Games' role as a massive, 15 ring circus. In the "George Smiley" spy novels Britain's MI6 is referred to as; "The Circus."
Prime Minister May's constituency is in Kent. Her decision to wreck the Para-Olympics by breaking away from MI6's Skripal script was a lot like someone driving a 4x4 through the middle of a circus tent.
The main argument put forward that Russia must have poisoned Skripal is that Britain would never do something like that.
The problem with that argument is that Britain most certainly would do something like that before. It has done almost the exact same thing on several occasions.
One notable recent British poisoning incident played a major part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations leading up to 2015.
Those negotiations resulted in the creation of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) based in the RoK. That buildings stands as a monument to the last time Britain poisoned someone.
As part of the Skripal investigation the UK sealed off the Skripal family graves amid talk that they would exhume the bodies to perform autopsies. That was an offer to finally perform an autopsy and resolve the case of the person the UK poisoned during the UNFCCC negotiations.
The Gravesend incident withdrew that controversial offer. By making clear that things would end at the grave. After of six years of decomposition and decay an autopsy would cause huge amounts of disruption but contribute nothing in terms of data.
Also on the final day of the games there was a large fire at the Stalybridge Ray Mill in the UK city of Manchester.
That invoked the imagery of the Grenfell Tower fire. It also invoked the May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) bombing.
The Mill fire also restated the role of the Bishop's Mill Pub in the Skripal case. Particularly as it links to the TV shows; "The Pillars of the Earth" and; "Agents of Shield." Links Prime Minister May's actions have made it almost impossible to discuss.
The Visually Impaired Women's Skiing has seen one of the huge rivalries of these games.
Between British Skiers Menna Fitzpatrick and Millie Knight along with their guides Jen Kehoe and Brett Wild. Against Slovakia's Henrieta Farkasova and her guide Natalia Subrtova.
In all other skiing events the podium has looked the same; Farkasova Gold, Fitzpatrick Silver and Knight Bronze.
This rivalry has caused a far bit of amusement in the UK because "Farkasova" can be pronounced a bit like; "F*ck Us Over." As in; "Slovakia have F*cked us over again!"
Unlike in the Curling in this race Slovakia did not Farkasova. Fitzpatrick won Gold, Farkasova took Silver and Knight again took Bronze.
As a result the UK not only hit but exceeded its medal target as Fitzpatrick became the UK's most decorated Winter Para-Olympian ever.
So there was no need for a public inquiry as to why Britain did so badly.
That falls to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Who will discuss the actual issues rather than the sporting metaphor.
17:10 (16:10 GMT) on 26/3/18 (UK date).
Edited again at around 18:45 on 26/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Between me starting this post and finishing it Britain has moved onto British Summer Time (BST). Calculating how that affects the time difference with places like the RoK and the US is a big part of why I hate this.
Initially I wrote the wrong times.
Fun With Flags:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony must include a sequence marking the transition from one Olympic host to the next. This must be done through a lot of mucking about with flags.
The Para-Olympic flag is then taken down while the Para-Olympic anthem is played. It is then handed to a representative of the next Para-Olympic host. The flag of that nation is then raised and their national anthem performed. Finally the flag of the existing host nation is taken down.
The UK broadcaster heavily edited this sequence. They joined as the Para-Olympic flag had been lowered and handed to the military flag detail. You could just about hear the last few bars of a recording of the Para-Olympic anthem being played
Channel 4 then cut away from the sequence before the flag was handed to the next host.
However I can tell you that during the handover the RoK were represented by Mayor of PyeongChang County Shim Jae-kook. He passed the Para-Olympic flag to China's representative Mayor of Beijing Chen Jining.
As the Chinese flag was raised the Chinese national anthem was performed by the Chinese Children's Choir.
Commercial Break:
Yes that's right. Channel 4 decided to edit out the transition ceremony so it could show commercials.
China's Bit:
It is IPC protocol that each Closing Ceremony includes a sequence produced by the next Para-Olympic host. In this case China.
The purpose is to briefly introduce us to that nation and identify the topics which will likely come up in the next four years preparing for their games.
China of course produced a similar sequence during the Olympic Closing Ceremony. It's main themes were really;
China's role as the sort of Country Bumpkins of Asia. That is to say poorly educated, not particularly sophisticated and generally lacking in good manners and good breeding.
China's role as the Workshop of the World. Specifically how they wish to develop their economy by moving away from simply providing cheap labour to build other people's designs to developing designs and products of their own.
It also touched on how as part of this transition China's actions have sometimes been legally questionable. They have frequently been accused of what is known as; "Intellectual Property Theft." In short stealing other people's ideas.
It must be said then that China's sequence looked remarkably similar to the South Korean designed sequences of the Closing Ceremony we'd already seen.
It began with a High School aged girl sitting in a wheelchair. She was wearing the same combination of a white tunic and red scarf as was used in the earlier; "United in Mourning" sequence.
Here as it was there this is an unusual colour combination for those guided by the Wu Xing.
The colour white represents the element Metal and the season of autumn. It's phase of development is withering and decline. It is in autumn leaves wither on the branch and fall from the trees.
So in Asian culture the colour white is associated with death and mourning.
The colour red represents the element Fire and the season of summer. It's phase of development is blooming and growth. Summer being the peak growing season.
So in Asian culture the colour red is associated with prosperity and good fortune. It is not a colour that you would wear at a funeral.
The girl was surrounded by the giant TV screens which China had used in its sequence in the Olympic Closing Ceremony. A nice gesture of parity between the Olympics and Para-Olympics.
Initially these TV screens showed astronomical images. Stars, Galaxies etc. This referenced the very heavy Physics themes which had been a major part of all the 2018 ceremonies.
It also appeared to show things orbiting a planet. Rather like satellites. This was a reference to QUESS Quantum Communications Satellite launching China's advances in science and technology.
The TV screens were present throughout the sequence. Towards the end they started showing the core Winter Para-Olympic sports.
However in a further reference to China's technological advances they showed them in the form of advanced medical imaging. Sort of digital X-Rays.
Suddenly the girl rose from her wheelchair and began to walk.
You could argue that this promoted discussion about the differing degrees of impairment and how different people are affected at different times.
Not all wheelchair users are totally unable to walk. Some of their mobility impairments allow them to stand briefly or even walk a couple of steps. That does not mean that they are faking or don't need to use a wheelchair.
However it came across like an act of mockery for all the Para-Olympians who can't suddenly rise up from their wheelchairs and walk.
A complete Country Bumpkin move from China then.
Although she has no mobility impairment this girl actually does suffer from an hearing impairment.
So when she rose from her chair and was joined by 16 other hearing impaired girls to perform a ballet routine she became yet another deaf ballet dancer.
Just like we'd just seen in the earlier; "Balhae School" sequence.
The girl returned to her wheelchair as an image of a Lotus flower was projected onto the floor.
This projection was replaced with an image of a bird. Either the Huangdong - the Chinese Phoenix - or the Vermilion Bird. One of the Four Guardians.
I've got a feeling this crash course in traditional Asian Animist religions and mythology is going to serve us well as we spend the next four years tearing around Asia.
The sequence ended with a projection of the Beijing 2022 logo.
At around 22:10 on 24/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up Monday.
Edited at around 16:00 (15:00 GMT) on 26/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Medal Ceremony:
It is IOC protocol that each Olympic Closing Ceremony features a medal ceremony. As a reminder of all the other medal ceremonies which have taken place throughout the games.
Para-Olympic Closing Ceremonies do not traditionally include a medal ceremony. Instead they have the Whang Youn Dai Award ceremony.
However here I'm going to talk about the medal ceremony I would have included. The Visually Impaired Women's Slalom.
The UK broadcaster also seemed to think that this should have been included in the Closing Ceremony. They flashed up an onscreen graphic showing the result like every 10 minutes.
The 2018 Winter Olympics were Britain's most successful Winter Olympics ever. In part this was due to the efforts of its athletes. However it also reflected an approval of the political positions Britain took during the games.
For example with the medal table taking on a theme of an all time list US Fake News Hoaxes there was no way the US was going to finish top. No matter how well their athletes performed.
Going into the games Britain's objective was to win at least 6 medals. Ideally all of them Gold.
However the British athletes were let down very badly on the political side of things. This resulted in a distinctly lacklustre performance.
Prior to the games the UK poisoned Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury. This was actually a good opening move by the UK. Although rather loud it did invoke many of the political topics being discussed at the games.
For example Skripal was recruited to MI6 by someone who now works in the private sector for Christopher Steele. Despite being asked to leave MI6 under a cloud over his judgement Christopher Steele complied the dossier that alleges Russian interference in the 2016 US Election.
That is now considered the greatest Fake News Hoax in US history. Dislodging Orson Welles' 1938 production of; "The War of the Worlds" into fourth place.
Unfortunately Britain was unable to stick to its own script.
On the third day of the games UK Prime Minister Theresa May formally accused Russia of carrying out attack. Displaying the sort of delusional thinking that got Christopher Steele kicked out of MI6.
Prime Minister May went on to set a deadline of the fifth day of the games for Russia to respond.
Although Russia did respond Prime Minister May started the sixth day taking dramatic action in terms of expelling diplomats claiming it was punishment for Russia failing to respond.
At this point the British team were one medal short of their target of six. Unfortunately their chances of winning that sixth medal died amid Prime Minister May's rantings.
As is often the case in games of strategy the key moment came in the Wheelchair Curling.
At the end of league play Britain needed Slovakia to beat Norway to progress to the medal matches. Slovakia threw the game to keep Britain from winning any more medals.
This came just hours after Slovak Prime Minister at the time Robert Fico offered his resignation.
Prime Minister Fico was under pressure over the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak on February 25th (25/3/18). So his eventual resignation seemed to be something of an inevitably.
What was interesting about his first offer to resign is that it was on condition Slovakia's coalition government would be allowed to continue without him. This was to ensure that the government would not collapse and there would be no need for a fresh election.
This seemed to be the European Union (EU) calling for the resignation of UK Prime Minister May over her false accusations in the Skripal case.
The only thing preventing the EU making that demand explicit is concerns that it would plunge the UK into fresh elections mid-way through the Brexit negotiations. An area where Britain is falling far short diplomatically already.
The following day Slovakian Prime Minister Fico did resign.
Desperate for that sixth medal the UK then threw everything it had at the Visually Impaired Women's Slalom held on the final day.
During the final day there was a incident at a nightclub in the British town of Gravesend in Kent. Having been refused entry to a tented area at the rear of the venue a man then drove a vehicle into that tented area. Creating very dramatic scenes.
The Olympic Closing ceremony made much of the Games' role as a massive, 15 ring circus. In the "George Smiley" spy novels Britain's MI6 is referred to as; "The Circus."
Prime Minister May's constituency is in Kent. Her decision to wreck the Para-Olympics by breaking away from MI6's Skripal script was a lot like someone driving a 4x4 through the middle of a circus tent.
The main argument put forward that Russia must have poisoned Skripal is that Britain would never do something like that.
The problem with that argument is that Britain most certainly would do something like that before. It has done almost the exact same thing on several occasions.
One notable recent British poisoning incident played a major part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations leading up to 2015.
Those negotiations resulted in the creation of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) based in the RoK. That buildings stands as a monument to the last time Britain poisoned someone.
As part of the Skripal investigation the UK sealed off the Skripal family graves amid talk that they would exhume the bodies to perform autopsies. That was an offer to finally perform an autopsy and resolve the case of the person the UK poisoned during the UNFCCC negotiations.
The Gravesend incident withdrew that controversial offer. By making clear that things would end at the grave. After of six years of decomposition and decay an autopsy would cause huge amounts of disruption but contribute nothing in terms of data.
Also on the final day of the games there was a large fire at the Stalybridge Ray Mill in the UK city of Manchester.
That invoked the imagery of the Grenfell Tower fire. It also invoked the May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) bombing.
The Mill fire also restated the role of the Bishop's Mill Pub in the Skripal case. Particularly as it links to the TV shows; "The Pillars of the Earth" and; "Agents of Shield." Links Prime Minister May's actions have made it almost impossible to discuss.
The Visually Impaired Women's Skiing has seen one of the huge rivalries of these games.
Between British Skiers Menna Fitzpatrick and Millie Knight along with their guides Jen Kehoe and Brett Wild. Against Slovakia's Henrieta Farkasova and her guide Natalia Subrtova.
In all other skiing events the podium has looked the same; Farkasova Gold, Fitzpatrick Silver and Knight Bronze.
This rivalry has caused a far bit of amusement in the UK because "Farkasova" can be pronounced a bit like; "F*ck Us Over." As in; "Slovakia have F*cked us over again!"
Unlike in the Curling in this race Slovakia did not Farkasova. Fitzpatrick won Gold, Farkasova took Silver and Knight again took Bronze.
As a result the UK not only hit but exceeded its medal target as Fitzpatrick became the UK's most decorated Winter Para-Olympian ever.
So there was no need for a public inquiry as to why Britain did so badly.
That falls to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Who will discuss the actual issues rather than the sporting metaphor.
17:10 (16:10 GMT) on 26/3/18 (UK date).
Edited again at around 18:45 on 26/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Between me starting this post and finishing it Britain has moved onto British Summer Time (BST). Calculating how that affects the time difference with places like the RoK and the US is a big part of why I hate this.
Initially I wrote the wrong times.
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt. 5.
A continuation of Part 4; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_22.html
Balhae School:
The second phase of this high culture sequence centred around classical music and classical opera.
The ballerina gave way to South Korean pianist Kim Ye-ji.
Kim Ye-ji is visually impaired. As she is everywhere she was accompanied on stage by her guide dog.
This created a scene reminiscent of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra's June 2017 performance at the IKSEV festival in Epheus, Turkey.
A stray Labrador dog wandered onto the stage. Then just sat down in the middle of the stage, enjoying the performance while staring out across the audience.
The video of this became a massive viral Internet hit. The Para-Olympics wish it could produce viral hits like this. If only people were watching.
Although I think I should point out that no-one was that interested in the IKSEV festival. Until the stray dog turned up.
The success of the orchestra dog is another example of those things that are common to all. Wherever you go in the World people keep dogs as pets and much like elementary school aged children and find them adorable.
For many dog owners is hard to reconcile the fact that South Koreans keep dogs as pets with the fact they also farm them for food.
At the Olympic games US Skier Gus Kenworthy decided to make a big deal out of this. He frequently took to social media to condemn the South Koreans for eating dogs. He ended up buying some 90 dogs from a farm and taking them home with him to the US.
The US airline United then got involved.
On March 14th (14/3/18) America as a nation was appalled by the news that a French Bulldog had died after being placed in an overhead locker. The jokes about Koreans referring to that as a packed lunch were too obvious to resist.
This was followed up on March 15th (15/3/18) with the news that United had 'accidentially' shipped a Kansas bound German Shepherd to Japan. Again the jokes about the US' inability to tell the difference between Japan and the RoK really messing up someone's lunch order were too obvious to resist.
In a post games development in the story the boss of United has apologised on behalf of former US President Obama. For attempting to impose definite solutions onto existential questions.
Kim Ye-ji was joined by the countertenor Lee Hee-sang.
As he sang Lee Hee-sang was wearing a tunic very reminiscent of the tunic famously worn by Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong.
The death of Chairman Mao triggered a particular period of chaos within China. His style of one man rule left no clear plan of succession. In the absence of democratic elections Mao's death triggered a lot of destructive infighting within the Chinese Communist Party.
In response the Chinese Communist Party introduced a limit of two, ten year terms for its leaders. It also moved away from one man rule into government by committee. This created a clear line of succession.
The current Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has just scrapped all that. He has done away with term limits and the current Communist Party committee contains no obvious rivals or successors to him.
Lee Hee-sang's tunic was adorned with an open Lotus flower. A symbol of enlightenment in particularly Buddhism. In a sequence that invoked the issue of gender fluidity Lee Hee-sang also seemed a little feminine.
So the South Koreans seemed to be openly questioning Premier Xi's manhood. And urging him to choose the path of enlightenment.
The song Kim Ye-ji and Lee Hee-sang performed was entitled; "You Are The Flower." The dance performed by the ballerina was supposed represent the blossoming of a flower.
The sequence climaxed with the ballerina returning to emerge from a recessed portion of the stage's main platform. She was wearing a massive white dress.
This symbolised the Buddhist journey to enlightenment as shown through the Lotus flower emerging from the dark ignorance of its underwater roots to its bright full bloom.
This occurred at the centre of a stage resembling the internationally recognised symbol for Chemical Weapons agents. Which moments before had been overlaid by the internationally recognised symbol of MI6 assassins.
This gesture seemed to express confidence that the Chinese-led Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will fully enlighten us about the Skripal case.
Video Highlights:
The ceremony then cut to a video presentation showing the highlights of the games.
This began at the beginning. With a shot of the single, below the elbow amputee striking a Pungmul-buk drum at the start of the Opening Ceremony. It also included other sequences from the Opening Ceremony.
It then included a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of the Alpenisa Ski Jumping Centre. However if unlike me you didn't freeze-frame this multiple times you could easily mistake the structure for a Ski-Lift.
The 2018 Winter Games of course pick up the baton from the 2014 Winter Games. Held in Sochi Russia.
The 2018 games also mark the Winter Para-Olympic debut of Georgia.
When it comes to Russia and the Olympics Georgia has a difficult history.
During the 2008 Summer Games held in Beijing, China the Georgia of then President Mikhail Saakashvili launched an attack on its neighbour Russia. The infamous Eight Days of War.
In doing this Saakashvili thought the NATO nations would leap to his aid and join a war that would eventually lead to the conquering of Russia.
The actual outcome was that Georgia became almost completely isolated within the international community. Any talk of them joining NATO or the EU ended there and then.
At the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, Canada killed its Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Primarily as a way to garner sympathy for Georgia in protest at its international isolation.
In March 2010 still President Saakashvili entirely faked a Russian land invasion of Georgia. This was done to give Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) party an advantage in an upcoming election.
That stunt has got to feature in any discussion about Fake News. Particularly the current ones about fake accusations of Russian interference by those trying to rig elections. It has certainly featured in discussions about the 2018 Cauldron.
Georgia's international isolation really peaked in 2012. Since then they've slowly been returning to the mainstream. Not least because Saakashvili was placed under investigation for corruption and banned from contesting the 2013 election.
In 2014 the US overthrew the Ukrainian government. During the Russian hosted games. Amongst other things this led to Saakashvili escaping justice in Georgia. By becoming Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Province.
During the 2018 games Ukraine has been making a point acknowledging the truth of the events of 2014.
This has included former hero of the 'revolution' Nadiya Savchenko admitting the US directed the shooting of people in Maidan Square. It has also seen Saakashvili expelled from Ukraine and barred from re-entering the country at least until 2021.
In the gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics the UK poisoned Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal in the city of Salisbury.
Left as a mystery this is an excellent conversation piece for the Para-Olympics. Those who wanted to blame Russia would blame Russia. Those who wanted to defend Russia would defend Russia. It is vital though this remains speculation - a sort of existential topic.
Unfortunately on March 12th (12/3/18) the UK Prime Minister Theresa May suffered some sort of mental breakdown, abandoned the script and definitively blamed Russia.
It was particularly unwise because the information Prime Minister May used to reach this conclusion can't even be described as; "Preliminary Analysis." British scientists working at Porton Down don't expect their preliminary analysis to be completed for at least another week.
On March 22nd (22/3/18) the usually highly secretive British Court of Protection (COP) took the barely precedented step of making its ruling in this case public.
It confirmed that the Chemical Weapons agent has not been identified as so-called "Novichok." It has merely been identified as a member of the Organophosphate class of chemicals. This includes G-Series, V-Series and industrial pesticides.
Novichok is merely a member of the V-Series. Which was invented at Porton Down.
By making a definitive accusation Prime Minister May forced other national leaders to reassert past statements about Russia's involvement in Ukraine which they know to be untrue.
For example there's the claim that Russia sent troops into Crimea.
As the 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremony pointed out Crimea has been the main base for Russia's Black Sea fleet since about the 18th Century. Russia didn't send troops into Crimea. Russian Marines - in their clearly identifiable green uniforms - were already in Crimea at the time.
Then there's the claim Russia annexed Crimea. By overthrowing Ukraine's government the US voided Ukraine's sovereignty. In the chaos a region held a referendum to rejoin Russia. As is their right. Russia itself was not exactly pleased by this.
There's also the claim that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
As was a huge talking point at the 2018 Olympics the Dutch investigation found no evidence Russia shot down MH17. It did though assign blame to Ukrainian Air Traffic Controllers - at the time under US command - for flying a civilian aircraft into an air combat zone.
To give you an idea of the chaos caused by Prime Minister May's malfunction you only need to look at this March 15th (15/3/18) footage of a Georgian Ski-Lift spiralling dangerously out of control;
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/16/europe/georgia-ski-lift-accident-intl/index.html
At around 18:10 on 24/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner.
Edited at around 20:15 on 24/3/18 (UK date) to add above and below;
If there was a main theme of the highlights video it was Para athletes falling over. Then getting up again amongst much warmth, hugs and sympathy.
On the surface this celebrated Para athletes overcoming disability to achieve. Amid lots of love and support.
This was actually quite condescending and bordering on the offensive.
Earlier on this Closing Ceremony referenced Brazilian Para athlete Marcia Malsar. Specifically the way that she, as a torch bearer, fell during the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Games.
By promoting discussion about how you react when a disabled person falls that highlighted that disabled people don't want to be wrapped in cotton wool, fussed over and given sympathy.
Instead they just want the same things everyone wants. Equality and respect.
Fortunately being condescending to the cripples wasn't really what this highlights video was talking about.
If you watched it carefully you would notice that certain nations were given more prominence than others. Ukraine led the way with at least six appearances. Belarus came second with at least four appearances.
So this sequence was really talking about how Ukraine collectively stuffed up during the 2014 Winter Games. With the help of friends it now needs to pick itself up, dust itself down and move on from its collective failure.
It recommends the best way to do this is by Ukraine fully implementing the; "Minsk Protocol."
Rather than taking the US - under Obama - position that the Minsk Protocol only applies to ethnically Russian Ukrainians. Ethnically Slavic Ukrainians can continue using as many illegal Nazi militias formed of foreign mercenaries as they like.
The Minsk Protocol takes its name from the capital of Belarus where it was signed. Under former President Obama the US was notably excluded from the negotiations which led to the Minsk Protocol.
Even back then it was clear to all that Obama didn't care about Ukraine or Ukrainians one bit.
20:50 on 24/3/18 (UK date).
Balhae School:
The second phase of this high culture sequence centred around classical music and classical opera.
The ballerina gave way to South Korean pianist Kim Ye-ji.
Kim Ye-ji is visually impaired. As she is everywhere she was accompanied on stage by her guide dog.
This created a scene reminiscent of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra's June 2017 performance at the IKSEV festival in Epheus, Turkey.
A stray Labrador dog wandered onto the stage. Then just sat down in the middle of the stage, enjoying the performance while staring out across the audience.
The video of this became a massive viral Internet hit. The Para-Olympics wish it could produce viral hits like this. If only people were watching.
Although I think I should point out that no-one was that interested in the IKSEV festival. Until the stray dog turned up.
The success of the orchestra dog is another example of those things that are common to all. Wherever you go in the World people keep dogs as pets and much like elementary school aged children and find them adorable.
For many dog owners is hard to reconcile the fact that South Koreans keep dogs as pets with the fact they also farm them for food.
At the Olympic games US Skier Gus Kenworthy decided to make a big deal out of this. He frequently took to social media to condemn the South Koreans for eating dogs. He ended up buying some 90 dogs from a farm and taking them home with him to the US.
The US airline United then got involved.
On March 14th (14/3/18) America as a nation was appalled by the news that a French Bulldog had died after being placed in an overhead locker. The jokes about Koreans referring to that as a packed lunch were too obvious to resist.
This was followed up on March 15th (15/3/18) with the news that United had 'accidentially' shipped a Kansas bound German Shepherd to Japan. Again the jokes about the US' inability to tell the difference between Japan and the RoK really messing up someone's lunch order were too obvious to resist.
In a post games development in the story the boss of United has apologised on behalf of former US President Obama. For attempting to impose definite solutions onto existential questions.
Kim Ye-ji was joined by the countertenor Lee Hee-sang.
As he sang Lee Hee-sang was wearing a tunic very reminiscent of the tunic famously worn by Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong.
The death of Chairman Mao triggered a particular period of chaos within China. His style of one man rule left no clear plan of succession. In the absence of democratic elections Mao's death triggered a lot of destructive infighting within the Chinese Communist Party.
In response the Chinese Communist Party introduced a limit of two, ten year terms for its leaders. It also moved away from one man rule into government by committee. This created a clear line of succession.
The current Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has just scrapped all that. He has done away with term limits and the current Communist Party committee contains no obvious rivals or successors to him.
Lee Hee-sang's tunic was adorned with an open Lotus flower. A symbol of enlightenment in particularly Buddhism. In a sequence that invoked the issue of gender fluidity Lee Hee-sang also seemed a little feminine.
So the South Koreans seemed to be openly questioning Premier Xi's manhood. And urging him to choose the path of enlightenment.
The song Kim Ye-ji and Lee Hee-sang performed was entitled; "You Are The Flower." The dance performed by the ballerina was supposed represent the blossoming of a flower.
The sequence climaxed with the ballerina returning to emerge from a recessed portion of the stage's main platform. She was wearing a massive white dress.
This symbolised the Buddhist journey to enlightenment as shown through the Lotus flower emerging from the dark ignorance of its underwater roots to its bright full bloom.
This occurred at the centre of a stage resembling the internationally recognised symbol for Chemical Weapons agents. Which moments before had been overlaid by the internationally recognised symbol of MI6 assassins.
This gesture seemed to express confidence that the Chinese-led Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will fully enlighten us about the Skripal case.
Video Highlights:
The ceremony then cut to a video presentation showing the highlights of the games.
This began at the beginning. With a shot of the single, below the elbow amputee striking a Pungmul-buk drum at the start of the Opening Ceremony. It also included other sequences from the Opening Ceremony.
It then included a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of the Alpenisa Ski Jumping Centre. However if unlike me you didn't freeze-frame this multiple times you could easily mistake the structure for a Ski-Lift.
The 2018 Winter Games of course pick up the baton from the 2014 Winter Games. Held in Sochi Russia.
The 2018 games also mark the Winter Para-Olympic debut of Georgia.
When it comes to Russia and the Olympics Georgia has a difficult history.
During the 2008 Summer Games held in Beijing, China the Georgia of then President Mikhail Saakashvili launched an attack on its neighbour Russia. The infamous Eight Days of War.
In doing this Saakashvili thought the NATO nations would leap to his aid and join a war that would eventually lead to the conquering of Russia.
The actual outcome was that Georgia became almost completely isolated within the international community. Any talk of them joining NATO or the EU ended there and then.
At the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, Canada killed its Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Primarily as a way to garner sympathy for Georgia in protest at its international isolation.
In March 2010 still President Saakashvili entirely faked a Russian land invasion of Georgia. This was done to give Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) party an advantage in an upcoming election.
That stunt has got to feature in any discussion about Fake News. Particularly the current ones about fake accusations of Russian interference by those trying to rig elections. It has certainly featured in discussions about the 2018 Cauldron.
Georgia's international isolation really peaked in 2012. Since then they've slowly been returning to the mainstream. Not least because Saakashvili was placed under investigation for corruption and banned from contesting the 2013 election.
In 2014 the US overthrew the Ukrainian government. During the Russian hosted games. Amongst other things this led to Saakashvili escaping justice in Georgia. By becoming Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Province.
During the 2018 games Ukraine has been making a point acknowledging the truth of the events of 2014.
This has included former hero of the 'revolution' Nadiya Savchenko admitting the US directed the shooting of people in Maidan Square. It has also seen Saakashvili expelled from Ukraine and barred from re-entering the country at least until 2021.
In the gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics the UK poisoned Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal in the city of Salisbury.
Left as a mystery this is an excellent conversation piece for the Para-Olympics. Those who wanted to blame Russia would blame Russia. Those who wanted to defend Russia would defend Russia. It is vital though this remains speculation - a sort of existential topic.
Unfortunately on March 12th (12/3/18) the UK Prime Minister Theresa May suffered some sort of mental breakdown, abandoned the script and definitively blamed Russia.
It was particularly unwise because the information Prime Minister May used to reach this conclusion can't even be described as; "Preliminary Analysis." British scientists working at Porton Down don't expect their preliminary analysis to be completed for at least another week.
On March 22nd (22/3/18) the usually highly secretive British Court of Protection (COP) took the barely precedented step of making its ruling in this case public.
It confirmed that the Chemical Weapons agent has not been identified as so-called "Novichok." It has merely been identified as a member of the Organophosphate class of chemicals. This includes G-Series, V-Series and industrial pesticides.
Novichok is merely a member of the V-Series. Which was invented at Porton Down.
By making a definitive accusation Prime Minister May forced other national leaders to reassert past statements about Russia's involvement in Ukraine which they know to be untrue.
For example there's the claim that Russia sent troops into Crimea.
As the 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremony pointed out Crimea has been the main base for Russia's Black Sea fleet since about the 18th Century. Russia didn't send troops into Crimea. Russian Marines - in their clearly identifiable green uniforms - were already in Crimea at the time.
Then there's the claim Russia annexed Crimea. By overthrowing Ukraine's government the US voided Ukraine's sovereignty. In the chaos a region held a referendum to rejoin Russia. As is their right. Russia itself was not exactly pleased by this.
There's also the claim that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
As was a huge talking point at the 2018 Olympics the Dutch investigation found no evidence Russia shot down MH17. It did though assign blame to Ukrainian Air Traffic Controllers - at the time under US command - for flying a civilian aircraft into an air combat zone.
To give you an idea of the chaos caused by Prime Minister May's malfunction you only need to look at this March 15th (15/3/18) footage of a Georgian Ski-Lift spiralling dangerously out of control;
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/16/europe/georgia-ski-lift-accident-intl/index.html
At around 18:10 on 24/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner.
Edited at around 20:15 on 24/3/18 (UK date) to add above and below;
If there was a main theme of the highlights video it was Para athletes falling over. Then getting up again amongst much warmth, hugs and sympathy.
On the surface this celebrated Para athletes overcoming disability to achieve. Amid lots of love and support.
This was actually quite condescending and bordering on the offensive.
Earlier on this Closing Ceremony referenced Brazilian Para athlete Marcia Malsar. Specifically the way that she, as a torch bearer, fell during the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Games.
By promoting discussion about how you react when a disabled person falls that highlighted that disabled people don't want to be wrapped in cotton wool, fussed over and given sympathy.
Instead they just want the same things everyone wants. Equality and respect.
Fortunately being condescending to the cripples wasn't really what this highlights video was talking about.
If you watched it carefully you would notice that certain nations were given more prominence than others. Ukraine led the way with at least six appearances. Belarus came second with at least four appearances.
So this sequence was really talking about how Ukraine collectively stuffed up during the 2014 Winter Games. With the help of friends it now needs to pick itself up, dust itself down and move on from its collective failure.
It recommends the best way to do this is by Ukraine fully implementing the; "Minsk Protocol."
Rather than taking the US - under Obama - position that the Minsk Protocol only applies to ethnically Russian Ukrainians. Ethnically Slavic Ukrainians can continue using as many illegal Nazi militias formed of foreign mercenaries as they like.
The Minsk Protocol takes its name from the capital of Belarus where it was signed. Under former President Obama the US was notably excluded from the negotiations which led to the Minsk Protocol.
Even back then it was clear to all that Obama didn't care about Ukraine or Ukrainians one bit.
20:50 on 24/3/18 (UK date).
Thursday 22 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt. 4
A continuation of Part 3; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_21.html
Balhae School:
The Olympic Opening Ceremony introduced us to a period of Korean history know as the Unified Three Kingdoms of Korea period. This lasted between 57 B.C and 668 A.D.
Through an alliance with the Chinese Tang Dynasty Korea's three kingdoms; Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo were unified.
With the Three Kingdoms joined as one the Chinese Tang dynasty was expelled in roughly 676 A.D. This created really the first example of a unified Korea.
In 698 A.D this unified Korea under the leadership of former Goguryeo General Dae Joyeong expanded into an area which includes what are now the Chinese cities of Changchun, Jiamusi and even the Russian city of Khabarovsk. Dae Joyeong named this area; "Balhae."
The Olympic Opening Ceremony also introduced the Unification of North and South Korea as an existential concept.
Most Koreans support unification in some form. It's rarely defined though whether they mean;
A unified Korean Peninsula under the Communism of the DPRK?
A unified Korean Peninsula under the Democracy of the RoK?
A unified Korean Peninsula under the RoK dictatorship of Park Chung-hee?
A unified Korea which includes Balhae - essentially the peninsula plus large parts of what are currently China and Russia?
Never being able to resist a pun I referred to that last, ultranationalist perspective as the; "Balhae School (of thought)."
Clearly it was a good pun.
This next sequence began with a Ballet Dancer. A young woman who has graduated from a Ballet School.
The 2018 Winter games officially picked up the baton from the 2014 Winter games held in Sochi, Russia.
If there was a main theme to the 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremony it was; "Russia: Here Long Before Communism. Still Here After Communism."
It explained Russia's history before the 1917 Communist Revolution, during the Soviet period and afterwards. It was actually quite critical of the Communist period.
For example it featured a sequence on the official newspaper of the Russian Communist Party; "Pravda." This is just the Russian word for; "Truth." Amongst ordinary Russians it became a big joke that the newspaper named Truth never, ever published the truth.
Something the US' New York Times newspaper clearly didn't consider when declaring itself to be the newspaper of Truth following the US 2016 Election.
One good thing you can say about the Communist system is that it placed huge value on education. So under the Communist system education was universal.
Not only that the Communist education was more rounded than the education provided in Capitalist societies. So not only were students taught academic subjects like maths, science etc they were also taught cultural subjects. Things like fine art, classical music and ballet etc.
Even after the fall of the Soviet Union Russia and many Eastern European nations have maintained this commitment to a rounded education. As a result people from those nations have a higher level of cultural intelligence than their western counterparts.
That's why western and particularly American pop music hasn't really caught on in Russia and Eastern Europe. Consumers there can see it for what it is. Often just utter cultural trash.
Following the 2014 Winter games and the US' associated attack on Ukraine this contrast between Russian high culture and American low culture became a useful tool at the Eurovision Song Contest.
If nations wanted to show support for American aggression in Ukraine they would perform a song in a western pop music style. If they wanted to show support for Russia they would perform a song in a classical style.
This sequence of the Closing Ceremony featured classical music, opera and ballet. If the level of support for Russia was too subtle for you the ballerina was trained at the Bolshoi school in Moscow, Russia.
Although I didn't catch her name the ballerina has some level of hearing impairment.
Far from being unique this is bordering on the cliche. There are numerous deaf ballet dancers including Simone Welgemoed and Denisse Limcuando who've been used in commercials etc in recent years.
A deaf ballet dancer was featured in the video for the song; "Hall of Fame" by the Irish band The Script in 2013.
This was unapologetically stolen by France for their 2016 Eurovision Song Contest entry; "J'ai cherché" by Amir. Having just experiences the November 2015 Paris Massacres the last thing France wanted was to win the rights to host the 2017 Song Contest.
A deaf dancer does though provide something of a talking point about how the impairment in one sense can be compensated for through another sense. Rather than hearing the music these dancers feel the vibrations of the music through their body.
As I'm sure a doctor would point out that is not technically one sense compensating for another. Humans perceive sound through vibrations on their eardrums. So sound is actually a sense of touch. These dancers are just experiencing it through a different body part.
The ballet performance was accompanied by classical violins.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony was also extremely critical of the US' Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
In 2014 then US President Barack Obama wanted to lead his Democrat Party to victory in the November mid-term elections.
So in August 2014 Obama invented this story of an innocent young black man named Micheal Brown being murdered by the racist police. While having his hands up in surrender and begging; "Don't Shoot!"
Obama then tasked the FBI and the Department of Justice with perpetuating that lie.
This birthed the "Black Lives Matter (BLM)" movement. That drove extremely well regimented riots and protests alongside a campaign to erase the Democrat's racist role in the US Civil War from history.
It has also turned public discourse in America into a contest to see who can come up with the most elaborate way of identifying racism where no racism exists and being offended by it.
One of the greatest thought crimes that Obama's BLM warriors created was that of; "Cultural Appropriation."
Particularly the "Twitchy Eye, Psychotic Face Emoji" sequence highlighted the hypocrisy of Obama's BLM warriors. They don't seem offended by black rap performers appropriating aspects of Asian culture.
The example held up was the rap group The Wu Tang Clan.
They take the martial arts practice inspired by Animist religion of a quest for balance in body, mind and within the Wu Xing. They apply them to the; "5% Nation" ideology which itself is an off-shoot from the extremely nasty, black supremacist Nation of Islam (NoI).
The Nation of Islam is headed by Louis Farrakhan. Believe it or not he is a violinist.
The Nation of Islam recently announced that they are releasing a five disc album entitled; "Let's Change the World Through Music."
It features Farrakhan alongside of number of black American pop music acts including Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Chaka Khan, Common, Damian Marley (song of Bob Marley) and Rick Ross.
So not only were the South Koreans showing massive support for Russian high culture during this sequence they were also mocking American low culture.
And using Russian high culture to do it in a way Americans would not understand.
A sort of insult cubed.
At around 18:05 on 22/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up later.
Edited at around 19:55 on 22/3/18 (UK date) to add above and below;
The ballerina gave way to a couple doing classical ballroom dancing.
This was a slightly teasing reference to US Para-Olympic Snowboarder Amy Purdy. Despite being a winter Para-Olympian Amy Purdy stole the show at the 2016 Summer games. She appeared in the Opening Ceremony dancing with a robot.
These are skills that Amy Purdy learnt on the US TV Show; "Dancing With the Stars." The inclusion of Amy Purdy as a double, below-the-knee amputee on this primetime dance show is one of the efforts undertaken by the US to boost the profile of the Para-Olympics and disability in sport in general.
The two main ballroom dancers were male and female. In traditional male and female costumes. However they were joined by many other dancers. These were a mixture of men and women. They were though all dressed in traditional male costumes.
That reference the issue of transgenderism and gender fluidity.
This is quite a big topic within Olympic and Para-Olympic circles. The big breakthrough in transgender rights came in the form of South African runner Caster Semenya.
At the 2009 World Championships Caster Semenya won Gold in the Women's 800m. This led to people complaining that Semenya was in fact male and cheating by competing in the women's event. Semenya was then forced to undergo a series of gender tests.
After analysis of those gender tests by experts from all the nations in the Olympic and Para-Olympic community it was concluded that on a genetic level Caster Semenya is both male and female. This just triggered more discussion about if and in what classification Semenya would be allowed to compete.
Then of course there is Bruce Jenner who won Gold in the Men's Decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Father of American celebrities such as Kendell Jenner Bruce Jenner confirmed himself to be transgendered and chose to live as female under the identity Caitlyn Jenner.
It was a particular talking point at the 2014 Winter games which were held in Russia's gay capital Sochi.
The legacy element of awarding those games to Russia was to improve gay rights within Russia.
Russia very much did their part in this by making a huge talking point about the biological causes for homosexuality and to a lesser extent transgenderism through the curiously constructed athletes village.
Using a bit of artistic license DNA is the blueprints for life. Proteins are the building blocks of life. The human endocrine system is the site foreman. Its the job of the endocrine system to assemble the building blocks in accordance with the blueprints.
As the athletes village in Sochi showed if the site foreman is having a bad day the results can be unusual. You may get radiators halfway up walls or fuseboxes in showers. Likewise you sometimes get people who are both male and female or are sexually attracted to their own gender.
So Transgenderism is a topic that people in Olympic and Para-Olympic circles consider to be resolved and have grown bored of now.
It is though a topic that Obama's BLM warriors have become fixated on recently alongside things like Cultural Appropriation.
However having no understanding of the transgenderism issue these people have made up a sort of Kindergarten version for them to play with known as; "Gender Fluidity."
Within transgenderism there are still only two genders; male and female. However there are people who are both male and female.
Obama's warriors seem obsessed with inventing new genders with absolutely no scientific basis. Facebook recently introduced 56 different genders.
Going off on a bit of a topical tangent the venture capital behind Facebook is provided by the US Intelligence Agency the CIA.
You can forget all about Facebook being set up so Mark Zuckerberg could keep in touch with his university friends. Facebook was set up to mine huge amounts of personal data on behalf of the US government.
In part this data allows the US to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) through social programming. China's 300m+ social media's give that nation a huge advantage over the US in terms of AI development.
This data also allows the US to interfere with the politics and internal affairs of many nations. The horrifying wars that we've seen in places like Libya, Syria and Ukraine all began as Facebook campaigns.
So no, US Democrats are not outraged because they've suddenly learnt that Facebook is a huge data-mining operation designed to influence elections.
Obama's 2012 election campaign was entirely based on using Facebook to steal voters personal data.
Obama's warriors obsession with the false concept of gender fluidity have led to demands that shows like Dancing With The Stars include same gender couples. This thinking has begun to affect the Olympic movement through sports like Figure Skating.
What those people don't realise that Figure Skating are Ballroom Dancing are art. They're make believe.
Although performers may convey emotions like rage, lust, love etc they're just pretending. At the 2018 Olympics one of the main Figure Skating couples were actually brother and sister.
To work as a form of art Figure Skating and Ballroom Dancing require two contrasting forces acting within one whole. Rather like the Taoist Ying Yang symbol.
Trying to turn it into one single force would ruin it as an art form.
In short the issue of gender fluidity is just another example of how under Obama the US seems to have become just the dumbest nation on Earth.
The violinists who accompanied the dancers were joined by cellists giving a very dramatic, classic strings based composition.
This sounded very much like theme music to the movies about James Bond - that very famous assassin for Britain's MI6 Intelligence Agency.
The 1967 James Bond movie; "You Only Live Twice" was filmed in part the Shinmoedake Volcano on Japan's Kyushu island. On March 1st (1/3/18) - the gap between the Olympics and Para-Olympics - Shinmoedake started erupting.
Now the 2018 games are over attention turns to the 2020 games being held in Japan. Much of the preparations for that are dominated by the massive Earthquake which struck Japan on March 11th 2011 (11/3/11).
Like Volcanic eruptions Earthquakes are seismic events. So in terms of the Quantum Field/Wu Xing it's certainly an interesting talking point about whether all the talk about Japan's Earthquake caused a Volcano to erupt.
Mainly though this James Bond style music was the internationally recognised symbol of MI6 assassination.
It was overlaid the stage - the internationally recognised symbol for Chemical Weapons agents.
Nobody really minds the UK poisoning an MI6 agent in Salisbury in an effort to dominate the Para-Olympics. They don't even really mind them using a banned chemical weapons agent to do it.
What is unforgivable though is Britain failing to stick to its own script.
21:05 on 22/3/18 (UK date).
Balhae School:
The Olympic Opening Ceremony introduced us to a period of Korean history know as the Unified Three Kingdoms of Korea period. This lasted between 57 B.C and 668 A.D.
Through an alliance with the Chinese Tang Dynasty Korea's three kingdoms; Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo were unified.
With the Three Kingdoms joined as one the Chinese Tang dynasty was expelled in roughly 676 A.D. This created really the first example of a unified Korea.
In 698 A.D this unified Korea under the leadership of former Goguryeo General Dae Joyeong expanded into an area which includes what are now the Chinese cities of Changchun, Jiamusi and even the Russian city of Khabarovsk. Dae Joyeong named this area; "Balhae."
The Olympic Opening Ceremony also introduced the Unification of North and South Korea as an existential concept.
Most Koreans support unification in some form. It's rarely defined though whether they mean;
A unified Korean Peninsula under the Communism of the DPRK?
A unified Korean Peninsula under the Democracy of the RoK?
A unified Korean Peninsula under the RoK dictatorship of Park Chung-hee?
A unified Korea which includes Balhae - essentially the peninsula plus large parts of what are currently China and Russia?
Never being able to resist a pun I referred to that last, ultranationalist perspective as the; "Balhae School (of thought)."
Clearly it was a good pun.
This next sequence began with a Ballet Dancer. A young woman who has graduated from a Ballet School.
The 2018 Winter games officially picked up the baton from the 2014 Winter games held in Sochi, Russia.
If there was a main theme to the 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremony it was; "Russia: Here Long Before Communism. Still Here After Communism."
It explained Russia's history before the 1917 Communist Revolution, during the Soviet period and afterwards. It was actually quite critical of the Communist period.
For example it featured a sequence on the official newspaper of the Russian Communist Party; "Pravda." This is just the Russian word for; "Truth." Amongst ordinary Russians it became a big joke that the newspaper named Truth never, ever published the truth.
Something the US' New York Times newspaper clearly didn't consider when declaring itself to be the newspaper of Truth following the US 2016 Election.
One good thing you can say about the Communist system is that it placed huge value on education. So under the Communist system education was universal.
Not only that the Communist education was more rounded than the education provided in Capitalist societies. So not only were students taught academic subjects like maths, science etc they were also taught cultural subjects. Things like fine art, classical music and ballet etc.
Even after the fall of the Soviet Union Russia and many Eastern European nations have maintained this commitment to a rounded education. As a result people from those nations have a higher level of cultural intelligence than their western counterparts.
That's why western and particularly American pop music hasn't really caught on in Russia and Eastern Europe. Consumers there can see it for what it is. Often just utter cultural trash.
Following the 2014 Winter games and the US' associated attack on Ukraine this contrast between Russian high culture and American low culture became a useful tool at the Eurovision Song Contest.
If nations wanted to show support for American aggression in Ukraine they would perform a song in a western pop music style. If they wanted to show support for Russia they would perform a song in a classical style.
This sequence of the Closing Ceremony featured classical music, opera and ballet. If the level of support for Russia was too subtle for you the ballerina was trained at the Bolshoi school in Moscow, Russia.
Although I didn't catch her name the ballerina has some level of hearing impairment.
Far from being unique this is bordering on the cliche. There are numerous deaf ballet dancers including Simone Welgemoed and Denisse Limcuando who've been used in commercials etc in recent years.
A deaf ballet dancer was featured in the video for the song; "Hall of Fame" by the Irish band The Script in 2013.
This was unapologetically stolen by France for their 2016 Eurovision Song Contest entry; "J'ai cherché" by Amir. Having just experiences the November 2015 Paris Massacres the last thing France wanted was to win the rights to host the 2017 Song Contest.
A deaf dancer does though provide something of a talking point about how the impairment in one sense can be compensated for through another sense. Rather than hearing the music these dancers feel the vibrations of the music through their body.
As I'm sure a doctor would point out that is not technically one sense compensating for another. Humans perceive sound through vibrations on their eardrums. So sound is actually a sense of touch. These dancers are just experiencing it through a different body part.
The ballet performance was accompanied by classical violins.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony was also extremely critical of the US' Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
In 2014 then US President Barack Obama wanted to lead his Democrat Party to victory in the November mid-term elections.
So in August 2014 Obama invented this story of an innocent young black man named Micheal Brown being murdered by the racist police. While having his hands up in surrender and begging; "Don't Shoot!"
Obama then tasked the FBI and the Department of Justice with perpetuating that lie.
This birthed the "Black Lives Matter (BLM)" movement. That drove extremely well regimented riots and protests alongside a campaign to erase the Democrat's racist role in the US Civil War from history.
It has also turned public discourse in America into a contest to see who can come up with the most elaborate way of identifying racism where no racism exists and being offended by it.
One of the greatest thought crimes that Obama's BLM warriors created was that of; "Cultural Appropriation."
Particularly the "Twitchy Eye, Psychotic Face Emoji" sequence highlighted the hypocrisy of Obama's BLM warriors. They don't seem offended by black rap performers appropriating aspects of Asian culture.
The example held up was the rap group The Wu Tang Clan.
They take the martial arts practice inspired by Animist religion of a quest for balance in body, mind and within the Wu Xing. They apply them to the; "5% Nation" ideology which itself is an off-shoot from the extremely nasty, black supremacist Nation of Islam (NoI).
The Nation of Islam is headed by Louis Farrakhan. Believe it or not he is a violinist.
The Nation of Islam recently announced that they are releasing a five disc album entitled; "Let's Change the World Through Music."
It features Farrakhan alongside of number of black American pop music acts including Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Chaka Khan, Common, Damian Marley (song of Bob Marley) and Rick Ross.
So not only were the South Koreans showing massive support for Russian high culture during this sequence they were also mocking American low culture.
And using Russian high culture to do it in a way Americans would not understand.
A sort of insult cubed.
At around 18:05 on 22/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up later.
Edited at around 19:55 on 22/3/18 (UK date) to add above and below;
The ballerina gave way to a couple doing classical ballroom dancing.
This was a slightly teasing reference to US Para-Olympic Snowboarder Amy Purdy. Despite being a winter Para-Olympian Amy Purdy stole the show at the 2016 Summer games. She appeared in the Opening Ceremony dancing with a robot.
These are skills that Amy Purdy learnt on the US TV Show; "Dancing With the Stars." The inclusion of Amy Purdy as a double, below-the-knee amputee on this primetime dance show is one of the efforts undertaken by the US to boost the profile of the Para-Olympics and disability in sport in general.
The two main ballroom dancers were male and female. In traditional male and female costumes. However they were joined by many other dancers. These were a mixture of men and women. They were though all dressed in traditional male costumes.
That reference the issue of transgenderism and gender fluidity.
This is quite a big topic within Olympic and Para-Olympic circles. The big breakthrough in transgender rights came in the form of South African runner Caster Semenya.
At the 2009 World Championships Caster Semenya won Gold in the Women's 800m. This led to people complaining that Semenya was in fact male and cheating by competing in the women's event. Semenya was then forced to undergo a series of gender tests.
After analysis of those gender tests by experts from all the nations in the Olympic and Para-Olympic community it was concluded that on a genetic level Caster Semenya is both male and female. This just triggered more discussion about if and in what classification Semenya would be allowed to compete.
Then of course there is Bruce Jenner who won Gold in the Men's Decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Father of American celebrities such as Kendell Jenner Bruce Jenner confirmed himself to be transgendered and chose to live as female under the identity Caitlyn Jenner.
It was a particular talking point at the 2014 Winter games which were held in Russia's gay capital Sochi.
The legacy element of awarding those games to Russia was to improve gay rights within Russia.
Russia very much did their part in this by making a huge talking point about the biological causes for homosexuality and to a lesser extent transgenderism through the curiously constructed athletes village.
Using a bit of artistic license DNA is the blueprints for life. Proteins are the building blocks of life. The human endocrine system is the site foreman. Its the job of the endocrine system to assemble the building blocks in accordance with the blueprints.
As the athletes village in Sochi showed if the site foreman is having a bad day the results can be unusual. You may get radiators halfway up walls or fuseboxes in showers. Likewise you sometimes get people who are both male and female or are sexually attracted to their own gender.
So Transgenderism is a topic that people in Olympic and Para-Olympic circles consider to be resolved and have grown bored of now.
It is though a topic that Obama's BLM warriors have become fixated on recently alongside things like Cultural Appropriation.
However having no understanding of the transgenderism issue these people have made up a sort of Kindergarten version for them to play with known as; "Gender Fluidity."
Within transgenderism there are still only two genders; male and female. However there are people who are both male and female.
Obama's warriors seem obsessed with inventing new genders with absolutely no scientific basis. Facebook recently introduced 56 different genders.
Going off on a bit of a topical tangent the venture capital behind Facebook is provided by the US Intelligence Agency the CIA.
You can forget all about Facebook being set up so Mark Zuckerberg could keep in touch with his university friends. Facebook was set up to mine huge amounts of personal data on behalf of the US government.
In part this data allows the US to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) through social programming. China's 300m+ social media's give that nation a huge advantage over the US in terms of AI development.
This data also allows the US to interfere with the politics and internal affairs of many nations. The horrifying wars that we've seen in places like Libya, Syria and Ukraine all began as Facebook campaigns.
So no, US Democrats are not outraged because they've suddenly learnt that Facebook is a huge data-mining operation designed to influence elections.
Obama's 2012 election campaign was entirely based on using Facebook to steal voters personal data.
Obama's warriors obsession with the false concept of gender fluidity have led to demands that shows like Dancing With The Stars include same gender couples. This thinking has begun to affect the Olympic movement through sports like Figure Skating.
What those people don't realise that Figure Skating are Ballroom Dancing are art. They're make believe.
Although performers may convey emotions like rage, lust, love etc they're just pretending. At the 2018 Olympics one of the main Figure Skating couples were actually brother and sister.
To work as a form of art Figure Skating and Ballroom Dancing require two contrasting forces acting within one whole. Rather like the Taoist Ying Yang symbol.
Trying to turn it into one single force would ruin it as an art form.
In short the issue of gender fluidity is just another example of how under Obama the US seems to have become just the dumbest nation on Earth.
The violinists who accompanied the dancers were joined by cellists giving a very dramatic, classic strings based composition.
This sounded very much like theme music to the movies about James Bond - that very famous assassin for Britain's MI6 Intelligence Agency.
The 1967 James Bond movie; "You Only Live Twice" was filmed in part the Shinmoedake Volcano on Japan's Kyushu island. On March 1st (1/3/18) - the gap between the Olympics and Para-Olympics - Shinmoedake started erupting.
Now the 2018 games are over attention turns to the 2020 games being held in Japan. Much of the preparations for that are dominated by the massive Earthquake which struck Japan on March 11th 2011 (11/3/11).
Like Volcanic eruptions Earthquakes are seismic events. So in terms of the Quantum Field/Wu Xing it's certainly an interesting talking point about whether all the talk about Japan's Earthquake caused a Volcano to erupt.
Mainly though this James Bond style music was the internationally recognised symbol of MI6 assassination.
It was overlaid the stage - the internationally recognised symbol for Chemical Weapons agents.
Nobody really minds the UK poisoning an MI6 agent in Salisbury in an effort to dominate the Para-Olympics. They don't even really mind them using a banned chemical weapons agent to do it.
What is unforgivable though is Britain failing to stick to its own script.
21:05 on 22/3/18 (UK date).
Wednesday 21 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.3
A continuation of Part 2; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing_19.html
United in Sorrow:
This sequence centred around Lee Chun-hee. A very famous South Korean singer of Gyeonggi Minyo music. This is a style of folk music from the Gyeonggi Province.
Gyeonggi translates as; "The area surrounding the capital." So Gyeonggi-do is the province surrounding the South Korean capital Seoul.
Unfortunately my knowledge of South Korean folk music is not so good that I was able to recognise the exact songs being performed.
Lee Chun-hee performed from the stage's centre platform.
From the sub-platform at roughly 8 o'clock she was accompanied by a modern rock band.
From the sub-platform at roughly 2 o'clock the performance was joined by performers playing traditional drums from the Joseon Dynasty. I think they were specifically Jeolgo drums.
This showed the combination of the old and new. A major theme of the Olympic Closing Ceremony.
The performance was joined by many female dancers in traditional white tunics.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony introduced us to the concept of the Wu Xing.
In Chinese physics this contains the five essential elements which make up everything in the universe. The objective of life is to have these elements exist in balance with each other.
The elements all represent a different phase of development. Most commonly seen in the changing of the seasons. They are all also assigned a colour.
The colour white represents the element Metal and the season of autumn. It's phase of development is withering and decline. It is in autumn leaves wither on the branch and fall from the trees.
So in Asian culture the colour white is associated with death and mourning. This sequence set out to mourn the end of the 2018 games.
However the dancers were also wearing a red sash around their waists. It is very unusual to see this combined with white.
The colour red represents the element Fire and the season of summer. It's phase of development is blooming and growth. Summer being the peak growing season.
So in Asian culture the colour red is associated with prosperity and good fortune. It is not a colour that you would wear at a funeral.
So while this sequence was mourning the end of the 2018 games it was also looking forward to the 2022 games to be held in China. Both through Asian culture and Communism China is heavily associated with the colour red.
The dancers then took off their sashes and revealed them to be half red and half white.
This seemed to be a reference to the red and white flag of Japan. Before the 2022 Winter games in China there are the 2020 Summer games in Japan.
These half red, half white sashes also seemed to resemble the half-and-half scarves you sometimes get at football matches. Each half of the scarf is in the colours of the two teams playing.
It's often used for teams whose fans are closely linked with each other. Liverpool and Celtic being prime examples.
This raised the issue of Unification between the two Koreas. Something which had been a massive theme of the games. Not least with North and South Korea entering the stadium as a single team during the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Particularly with US Vice President Mike Pence being replaced by US Presidential adviser Ivanka Trump the theme of the Olympic Closing Ceremony touched on the concept of new replacing old.
The Para-Olympic Opening Ceremony was very much a celebration of transformation and equality. Leading to upgraded and mature attitudes.
This sequence then seemed to indicated support for a new approach replacing the old approach to the conflict between the Koreas.
Something like doing away with the notion that the US cannot talk to the DPRK as an equal because the DPRK is not a nuclear power.
As Lee Chun-hee was singing and the drummers were drumming projected lightwaves radiated out from the stages centre platform.
This obviously touched on how an impairment in one sense can be compensated for through another sense. So light and vision being used to compensate for an impairment in hearing.
It also touched on the concept from Physics of the Doppler Effect. I'm sure as you know by now the Doppler Effect means that the frequency of either sound or light waves will change depending on the point at which you observe them.
Mainly though these radiating circles seemed to be a reference to the way that Earthquakes are shown on maps.
On March 11th 2011 (11/3/11) the fourth largest Earthquake ever recorded struck off the coast of the Tohoku region on the northwest of Japan's main Honshu island.
That Earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1. It triggered a Tsunami wave which caused mass devastation across coastal areas. Including triggering a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. That in turn cause Japan to shut down all of its Nuclear Power Plants plunging the nation into an energy crisis.
That Earthquake is often referred to as; "3/11." In reference to the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the US in 2001. The Japanese Earthquake did far more damage.
You may have noticed that I end all of my posts with the time and the date in the UK. That is a tradition that began with the 3/11 Earthquake.
I still remember waiting to see whether the massive Tsunami would travel back across the Pacific Ocean and the International Date Line to strike the US the day before it began.
It is the sort of situation that has you really questioning the linear nature of time. No matter what Albert Einstein says in his theories of relativity.
As you may have noticed from the teasing throughout the games Japan and the RoK are regional rivals. However this is more of a friendly, sporting rivalry. It is certainly not the sort of thing that would stop the RoK joining the World in sympathy for Japan over the 3/11 Earthquake.
That Earthquake will be amongst the main considerations as Japan prepares to host the 2020 Summer games.
Tokyo where the games will be held is around 200km (120 miles) south-east of the Fukushima exclusion zone. However just on February 18th (18/2/18) Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered into a special pact to protect the games from any nuclear threats.
Then of course there is the issue of Japan's energy crisis. Although that is now easing there remains questions over whether Japan will be able to provide enough electricity to power the games.
At the stage's 8'clock you had a modern rock band. At the stage's 2 o'clock platform you had traditional drummers.
Towards the end of the sequence they were joined by another band on the 4 o'clock platform. This band combined both modern and traditional instruments within their performance.
I think it may have been the same band that appeared during the Parade of Nations during the Olympic Closing Ceremony. The one that was able to combine all the styles of music in one long single song.
Parade of Nations:
It is protocol that each ceremony must include a segment in which the flags of the competing nations are paraded around the arena and then raised.
Although it's not compulsory in the Opening Ceremony many competitors choose to join their flag in the parade. So you have the teams led out in orderly blocks behind their flags.
The Closing Ceremony is more relaxed. So the flags tend to be paraded together. In the Olympics the competitors then enter the arena in one big, chaotic but happy mess.
The Para-Olympics obviously features many competitors who have physical impairments which affect their mobility. This means that they tend to not bother participating in the closing parade. Instead they take their seats within the arena before the ceremony starts.
This Closing Ceremony was no exception. The competitors were already seated in and around the stage with its different platforms. This made the competitors very much part of what is really a celebration of their efforts.
The dancers from the previous sequence actually became the stewards guiding the route of the parade. They used their half red, half white sashes as a sort of rope to mark out the route.
That really emphasised the similarity with football supporters half-and-half scarves.
Commercial Break:
The UK broadcaster felt the need to edit their broadcast of a recording of the Closing Ceremony so it would fit into its time slot.
That time pressure however did not extend to Channel 4 forgoing commercial breaks.
At around 17:45 on 21/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up later. Possibly tomorrow.
Edited at around 16:00 on 22/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Whang Youn Dai:
It was the UK who created the Para-Olympics in 1948. However it was the RoK which brought these Parallel Olympics together on an equal footing with the Olympics at the 1988 Summer games held in Seoul.
That year the RoK also introduced the Whang Youn Dai Award.
Whang Youn Dai is a South Korean woman who at the age of three contracted Polio. This caused her severe and lifelong impairments to her mobility.
However Whang Youn Dai did not allow those impairments to hold her back. In 1963 she qualified as a medical doctor. In itself a woman qualifying as a doctor in the RoK was no mean feat. Let alone as a disabled woman.
As a doctor Whang Youn Dai very much embraced Para-Olympic founder Dr Ludwig Guttman's philosophy of sport being a highly effective form of treatment and rehabilitation. Her commitment to promoting disability sport was a key driver in the Para-Olympics and Olympics being placed on an equal footing in 1988.
The Whang Youn Dai Award is handed out at every Para-Olympics to those;
"Who is fair, honest and is uncompromising in his or her values and prioritizes the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition."
2018 is of course the 30th anniversary of the Whang Youn Dai Award. This sequence was a tribute to the award and the remarkable woman who inspired it.
This took the form of a photo slideshow of all the previous winners of the award. It was interspersed with video tributes from three previous winners; David Lega, Sweden, 1996. Collette Bourgonje, Canada, 2010 and Bibian Mantel-Spee, the Netherlands, 2014.
Attention then shifted to the arena where Dr Whang Youn Dai took centre stage in her wheelchair on the protocol stage. The previous winners then came out and handed her a special award honouring how she has been;
"Fair, honest and uncompromising in her values and prioritizes the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition."
I understand the sequence then moved on to presenting the 2018 Whang Youn Dai Award(s).
As I've said though the UK broadcaster Channel 4 only showed a recorded and edited version of the Closing Ceremony. Rather proving my jealously theory this is one of the things they edited out.
Although I have no idea how it appeared during the ceremony this year's awards went to;
Adam Hall: This New Zealander was born with Spina Bifada. That though did not prevent him becoming both a Para-Olympic Alpine Skier and working to promote disability sport within New Zealand.
Sini Pyy: Already an accomplished athlete she suffered a spinal injury in a car accident aged 17. However she did not allow that to set her back becoming not just a Para-Olympic Cross Country Skier but also a Para-Olympic Biathlete.
Sini Pyy's most significant achievement though was building the first athlete's council within the National Para-Olympic Committee (NPC) in her native Finland.
On the editing issue I should point out that the full Closing Ceremony is available on both the Paralympic website and YouTube channel. However the broadcast deal it has done with Channel 4 prevents this content being shown in the UK.
Obviously I could get around this by Spoofing my IP address. Essentially changing a tiny bit of computer code to make YouTube of the Paralympic website think I'm somewhere it is able to broadcast that content.
That is though a massive pain. I'm already very behind with the bits of the Closing Ceremony I have seen.
This issue of IP Spoofing though is why when people say things like;
"We've traced the hack/virus back to Russian IP addresses!"
People like me go;
"And?!".
16:45 on 22/3/18 (UK date).
United in Sorrow:
This sequence centred around Lee Chun-hee. A very famous South Korean singer of Gyeonggi Minyo music. This is a style of folk music from the Gyeonggi Province.
Gyeonggi translates as; "The area surrounding the capital." So Gyeonggi-do is the province surrounding the South Korean capital Seoul.
Unfortunately my knowledge of South Korean folk music is not so good that I was able to recognise the exact songs being performed.
Lee Chun-hee performed from the stage's centre platform.
From the sub-platform at roughly 8 o'clock she was accompanied by a modern rock band.
From the sub-platform at roughly 2 o'clock the performance was joined by performers playing traditional drums from the Joseon Dynasty. I think they were specifically Jeolgo drums.
This showed the combination of the old and new. A major theme of the Olympic Closing Ceremony.
The performance was joined by many female dancers in traditional white tunics.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony introduced us to the concept of the Wu Xing.
In Chinese physics this contains the five essential elements which make up everything in the universe. The objective of life is to have these elements exist in balance with each other.
The elements all represent a different phase of development. Most commonly seen in the changing of the seasons. They are all also assigned a colour.
The colour white represents the element Metal and the season of autumn. It's phase of development is withering and decline. It is in autumn leaves wither on the branch and fall from the trees.
So in Asian culture the colour white is associated with death and mourning. This sequence set out to mourn the end of the 2018 games.
However the dancers were also wearing a red sash around their waists. It is very unusual to see this combined with white.
The colour red represents the element Fire and the season of summer. It's phase of development is blooming and growth. Summer being the peak growing season.
So in Asian culture the colour red is associated with prosperity and good fortune. It is not a colour that you would wear at a funeral.
So while this sequence was mourning the end of the 2018 games it was also looking forward to the 2022 games to be held in China. Both through Asian culture and Communism China is heavily associated with the colour red.
The dancers then took off their sashes and revealed them to be half red and half white.
This seemed to be a reference to the red and white flag of Japan. Before the 2022 Winter games in China there are the 2020 Summer games in Japan.
These half red, half white sashes also seemed to resemble the half-and-half scarves you sometimes get at football matches. Each half of the scarf is in the colours of the two teams playing.
It's often used for teams whose fans are closely linked with each other. Liverpool and Celtic being prime examples.
This raised the issue of Unification between the two Koreas. Something which had been a massive theme of the games. Not least with North and South Korea entering the stadium as a single team during the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Particularly with US Vice President Mike Pence being replaced by US Presidential adviser Ivanka Trump the theme of the Olympic Closing Ceremony touched on the concept of new replacing old.
The Para-Olympic Opening Ceremony was very much a celebration of transformation and equality. Leading to upgraded and mature attitudes.
This sequence then seemed to indicated support for a new approach replacing the old approach to the conflict between the Koreas.
Something like doing away with the notion that the US cannot talk to the DPRK as an equal because the DPRK is not a nuclear power.
As Lee Chun-hee was singing and the drummers were drumming projected lightwaves radiated out from the stages centre platform.
This obviously touched on how an impairment in one sense can be compensated for through another sense. So light and vision being used to compensate for an impairment in hearing.
It also touched on the concept from Physics of the Doppler Effect. I'm sure as you know by now the Doppler Effect means that the frequency of either sound or light waves will change depending on the point at which you observe them.
Mainly though these radiating circles seemed to be a reference to the way that Earthquakes are shown on maps.
On March 11th 2011 (11/3/11) the fourth largest Earthquake ever recorded struck off the coast of the Tohoku region on the northwest of Japan's main Honshu island.
That Earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1. It triggered a Tsunami wave which caused mass devastation across coastal areas. Including triggering a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. That in turn cause Japan to shut down all of its Nuclear Power Plants plunging the nation into an energy crisis.
That Earthquake is often referred to as; "3/11." In reference to the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the US in 2001. The Japanese Earthquake did far more damage.
You may have noticed that I end all of my posts with the time and the date in the UK. That is a tradition that began with the 3/11 Earthquake.
I still remember waiting to see whether the massive Tsunami would travel back across the Pacific Ocean and the International Date Line to strike the US the day before it began.
It is the sort of situation that has you really questioning the linear nature of time. No matter what Albert Einstein says in his theories of relativity.
As you may have noticed from the teasing throughout the games Japan and the RoK are regional rivals. However this is more of a friendly, sporting rivalry. It is certainly not the sort of thing that would stop the RoK joining the World in sympathy for Japan over the 3/11 Earthquake.
That Earthquake will be amongst the main considerations as Japan prepares to host the 2020 Summer games.
Tokyo where the games will be held is around 200km (120 miles) south-east of the Fukushima exclusion zone. However just on February 18th (18/2/18) Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered into a special pact to protect the games from any nuclear threats.
Then of course there is the issue of Japan's energy crisis. Although that is now easing there remains questions over whether Japan will be able to provide enough electricity to power the games.
At the stage's 8'clock you had a modern rock band. At the stage's 2 o'clock platform you had traditional drummers.
Towards the end of the sequence they were joined by another band on the 4 o'clock platform. This band combined both modern and traditional instruments within their performance.
I think it may have been the same band that appeared during the Parade of Nations during the Olympic Closing Ceremony. The one that was able to combine all the styles of music in one long single song.
Parade of Nations:
It is protocol that each ceremony must include a segment in which the flags of the competing nations are paraded around the arena and then raised.
Although it's not compulsory in the Opening Ceremony many competitors choose to join their flag in the parade. So you have the teams led out in orderly blocks behind their flags.
The Closing Ceremony is more relaxed. So the flags tend to be paraded together. In the Olympics the competitors then enter the arena in one big, chaotic but happy mess.
The Para-Olympics obviously features many competitors who have physical impairments which affect their mobility. This means that they tend to not bother participating in the closing parade. Instead they take their seats within the arena before the ceremony starts.
This Closing Ceremony was no exception. The competitors were already seated in and around the stage with its different platforms. This made the competitors very much part of what is really a celebration of their efforts.
The dancers from the previous sequence actually became the stewards guiding the route of the parade. They used their half red, half white sashes as a sort of rope to mark out the route.
That really emphasised the similarity with football supporters half-and-half scarves.
Commercial Break:
The UK broadcaster felt the need to edit their broadcast of a recording of the Closing Ceremony so it would fit into its time slot.
That time pressure however did not extend to Channel 4 forgoing commercial breaks.
At around 17:45 on 21/3/18 (UK date) I'll pick this up later. Possibly tomorrow.
Edited at around 16:00 on 22/3/18 (UK date) to add;
Whang Youn Dai:
It was the UK who created the Para-Olympics in 1948. However it was the RoK which brought these Parallel Olympics together on an equal footing with the Olympics at the 1988 Summer games held in Seoul.
That year the RoK also introduced the Whang Youn Dai Award.
Whang Youn Dai is a South Korean woman who at the age of three contracted Polio. This caused her severe and lifelong impairments to her mobility.
However Whang Youn Dai did not allow those impairments to hold her back. In 1963 she qualified as a medical doctor. In itself a woman qualifying as a doctor in the RoK was no mean feat. Let alone as a disabled woman.
As a doctor Whang Youn Dai very much embraced Para-Olympic founder Dr Ludwig Guttman's philosophy of sport being a highly effective form of treatment and rehabilitation. Her commitment to promoting disability sport was a key driver in the Para-Olympics and Olympics being placed on an equal footing in 1988.
The Whang Youn Dai Award is handed out at every Para-Olympics to those;
"Who is fair, honest and is uncompromising in his or her values and prioritizes the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition."
2018 is of course the 30th anniversary of the Whang Youn Dai Award. This sequence was a tribute to the award and the remarkable woman who inspired it.
This took the form of a photo slideshow of all the previous winners of the award. It was interspersed with video tributes from three previous winners; David Lega, Sweden, 1996. Collette Bourgonje, Canada, 2010 and Bibian Mantel-Spee, the Netherlands, 2014.
Attention then shifted to the arena where Dr Whang Youn Dai took centre stage in her wheelchair on the protocol stage. The previous winners then came out and handed her a special award honouring how she has been;
"Fair, honest and uncompromising in her values and prioritizes the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition."
I understand the sequence then moved on to presenting the 2018 Whang Youn Dai Award(s).
As I've said though the UK broadcaster Channel 4 only showed a recorded and edited version of the Closing Ceremony. Rather proving my jealously theory this is one of the things they edited out.
Although I have no idea how it appeared during the ceremony this year's awards went to;
Adam Hall: This New Zealander was born with Spina Bifada. That though did not prevent him becoming both a Para-Olympic Alpine Skier and working to promote disability sport within New Zealand.
Sini Pyy: Already an accomplished athlete she suffered a spinal injury in a car accident aged 17. However she did not allow that to set her back becoming not just a Para-Olympic Cross Country Skier but also a Para-Olympic Biathlete.
Sini Pyy's most significant achievement though was building the first athlete's council within the National Para-Olympic Committee (NPC) in her native Finland.
On the editing issue I should point out that the full Closing Ceremony is available on both the Paralympic website and YouTube channel. However the broadcast deal it has done with Channel 4 prevents this content being shown in the UK.
Obviously I could get around this by Spoofing my IP address. Essentially changing a tiny bit of computer code to make YouTube of the Paralympic website think I'm somewhere it is able to broadcast that content.
That is though a massive pain. I'm already very behind with the bits of the Closing Ceremony I have seen.
This issue of IP Spoofing though is why when people say things like;
"We've traced the hack/virus back to Russian IP addresses!"
People like me go;
"And?!".
16:45 on 22/3/18 (UK date).
Tuesday 20 March 2018
Emergency SHIELD.
I've decided the best way to cover the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Para-Olympics is to go on a little detour.
Instead I'm going to write about a US TV Show; "Marvels: Agents of Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D)."
This was a talking point during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Particularly through the mostly Asian, always hungry actress from the show Chloe Bennet. And her avatar. Korean American Snowboarder Chloe Kim.
It was also a big talking point during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics the UK broadcaster Channel 4 started airing Season 5 of the show. This prompted me to catch up on Season 4. The one which had been on air during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
I'm glad I did. It seems much of the antics surrounding the Para-Olympics have, at least in part, been influenced by Season 4 of Agents of Shield.
For example there was the March 4th (4/3/18) poisoning of Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal. This took place in the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire in the UK.
There is a spin-off show from Agents of Shield called; "Agent Carter." The lead role is played by British actress Hayley Atwell.
Hayley Atwell's big TV breakthrough came in the 2010 mini-series; "The Pillars of the Earth."
This was a huge multinational production relying on talent from the UK, the US, Canada and Germany. It was largely filmed in Hungary using development money from the European Union (EU).
It is loosely based around the building of Salisbury's very famous Cathedral. It uses that story to explore the core underpinnings of society. The pillars of the earth as it were.
So you have a very devout Monk who represents the good side of religion. You also have a corrupt Bishop representing politics and corruption. Hayley Atwell's character represents lust and sexuality.
People who enjoy fantasy comic book movies and TV shows like Agents of Shield like to talk about things like origin stories. The Pillars of the Earth is very much the origin story for the much more famous TV show; "Game of Thrones."
So The Pillars of the Earth has Game of Thrones levels of violence and nudity. That is all except for the actress Hayley Atwell. Despite representing lust and sexuality she does not appear nude.
Instead where it would be easier for the character to appear nude without you really noticing there is instead a very intrusive edit. The sort of thing that jolts your concentration reminding you that you are watching a TV show.
This makes The Pillars of the Earth an interesting case study in the never ending discussion about portrayals of sex and nudity in TV and movies.
Representing lust and sexuality it is really necessary for the artistic point being made that Hayley Atwell's character appears nude. The fact she doesn't and the way the director makes a point of the fact she doesn't raises further questions about the power of and attitudes towards women within the entertainment industry.
Watching the show you might be tempted to question whether this previously unknown actress was being difficult. Accepting a role that required nudity but then insisting on a no-nudity clause in her contract. Forcing everyone around her to work that bit harder to accommodate her ego.
In The Pillars of the Earth Hayley Atwell's character is a wool trader. The Bishop's Mill pub closed as part of the Skripal case in a former wool mill owned by the Bishop of Salisbury. Ian McShane I think.
If you go to particularly Salisbury Cathedral you can pick up a tourist map showing all the settings for The Pillars of the Earth. Including the Bishop's Mill pub.
I should probably explain why the fact I've got half a season's worth of Agents of Shield stacked up on my DVR is actually a sign of respect.
The show is very much about sub-text, metaphor and hidden meaning. Which is why it is so popular amongst the Eurovision Song Contest crowd.
The problem is that if you watch it in the same mindset you would watch some other TV show like NCIS or Law & Order it's terrible. It's just a series of a explosions and Kung Fu fight scenes happening for some dubious, unbelievable Sci-Fi reasons.
Instead you've got to watch it in the same mindset you would watch something like an Olympic ceremony. Open your mind to the hidden meanings and allow yourself to be absorbed by it. Marijuana really helps.
So what I tend to do is turn out the lights, close the curtains and allow myself to be absorbed by a couple of episodes in a row. It's much harder to do that during the summer months. Particularly when your 2017 was as hectic as mine.
The big theme of Season 4 is Artificial Intelligence (AI). As the technology advances this has become an increasingly important global talking point. We have things like self-driving cars.
The 2018 Winter Olympics specifically focused on the topic of AI bots on social media.
Ahead of the 2016 US Presidential Election incumbent President Barack Obama claimed Russia was using AI bots on social media to rig the election. This claim allowed Obama to set up a special unit of the FBI answering directly to him.
That special FBI unit was tasked with declaring comments supportive of the Republican candidate Donald Trump or critical of Obama's designated successor Hillary Clinton to be the work of Russian AI bots. Then removing them from social media under the guise of national security.
This was remarkably similar to events in Olympic host the Republic of Korea (RoK/South) during their 2012 Presidential Election.
There the incumbent President Lee Myung-bak claimed that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) was using AI bots on social media to rig the election. This claim allowed Lee to set up a special unit of the RoK's equivalent of the FBI - the NIS - answering directly to him.
That special NIS unit was tasked with declaring comments supportive of Candidate Moon Jae-in or critical of President Lee's designated successor Park Guen-hye to be the work of North Korean AI bots. Then removing them from social media under the guise of national security.
In late 2016, early 2017 it was revealed that these claims of AI bots was a deliberate lie. It allowed the NIS to rig the election in favour of Park Guen-hye. She was impeached and Moon Jae-in took her place.
Within Agents of Shield a sort mad scientist played by Scottish actor John Hannah creates an advanced AI called the; "Artificial Intelligence Digital Assistant (AIDA)" played by Australian actress Mallory Jansen.
For dubious Sci-Fi reasons AIDA goes on to create an artificial reality called; "The Framework."
Similar to the movie; "The Matrix" this is like a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Sort of like "Minecraft." However rather than being played on a computer it is fed directly into the person's brain.
AIDA then traps the core cast of the show into this Framework.
This is used to explore the notion of; "Social Programming." Essentially the way that the people we meet and the experiences we have shape us as people and determine how we behave.
A very good example of this is language.
Reading and writing are a slightly different thing. However it is likely that no-one taught you how to speak and understand your native language. Instead you just copied what everybody else in your society was doing.
Another good example is crime.
Most societies have laws. They also have police forces, Courts and prisons to enforce those laws. However what really prevents crime is the social convention that you don't commit crime.
The UK's August 2011 riots are a good example of this.
There is a social convention that you don't put a brick through a shop window and then just take whatever you want. During the riots that particular social convention collapsed.
The UK rapidly discovered it didn't have enough police officers to physically stop people from committing crime if they were prepared to disregard the social convention.
Social programing is also how AI bots on social media learn.
They consume the vast amount of human interactions freely available on social media. They then analyse them and then set out to recreate human behaviour.
A famous of this is Microsoft's chatbot; "Tay."
Unfortunately for Microsoft the online human interactions Tay studied seemed to be limited to people who use social media "Hate Sites" like "4Chan."
As a result Tay learnt to be foul mouthed, racist, homophobic and consumed by hate. Behaviour considered perfectly normal and acceptable by the 4Chan community.
I also recently heard about an AI bot which was forced to watch all of the "Saw" horror movies. It was then tasked with writing the script for the next horror movies.
The resulting dialogue was only slightly more clunky than the Saw movies themselves.
Another interesting real world case study in social programming is the Turpin siblings in the US.
Back in January 2018 in Riverside, California it was discovered that David and Louise Turpin had been holding their 13 children captive in some sort of bizarre basement dungeon. It emerged that all of the children had some opportunity to escape and one had even attended college. However none of them did.
That is because only ever experiencing that mini-society from birth they had been programmed to believe it was normal. Therefore they did not realise there was a reason they should try and escape.
That is an idea Agents of Shield very much explores. The core cast don't know that they've been put into the artificial reality Framework. So they don't realise it's not real or understand they need to escape.
As you would expect from Joss Whedon it all gets very existential.
Hopefully not too existential though. At around 18:45 on 20/3/18 (UK date) I've got to finish this after dinner. And drinks.
Edited at around 20:20 on 20/3/18 (UK date) to add above & below;
In putting the core cast of Agents of Shield into the Framework AIDA eliminates their one core regret. That one thing we all have that we wish we had done differently.
So for the "Fitz" character it was his father leaving when he was a child. In the Framework Fitz's father is still around. In death if not life he seems to resemble Harvey Weinstein.
For the "Caulson" character the regret is that he joined Shield. So in the Framework he is a High School history teacher. The career he would have chosen if he'd never joined Shield.
For the "Mace" character the regret is that he never got to have superpowers. So in the Framework he had superpowers.
However those superpowers do not prevent Mace being crushed by a concrete beam. In scenes that closely resemble the recent bridge collapse at Florida International University (FIU) in the US.
The result of removing these regrets is that Shield's arch-nemesis "Hydra" has risen to power. They are a Nazi like organisation.
The origin story for Shield is that Agent Carter fought for the allies in the Second World War against Nazi Germany who had Hydra as their science division. Agent Carter's Strategic Scientific Reserve (SCR) became S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hydra were able to rise to power through the never defined; "Cambridge Incident."
With boffin characters like Fitz and Simmons being British it is hard to work out is this Cambridge refers to Cambridge University. Where Stephen Hawking studied.
Or the Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. Close to Boston where there was a terrorist bombing in April 2013.
As a fascist organisation Hydra control the population through news broadcasts - seeming to resemble Al Jazeera - which urge viewers to remember the Cambridge Incident and constantly be on their guard.
As a history teacher Caulson starts to question the Framework. He can see that Hydra are further controlling the population by engaging in; "Revisionist History."
This is the sort of thing where you would demand US Civil War statues are removed from public view. So people forget that the US Civil War was the Democrat Party fighting to keep slavery alive.
It's also things like putting out propaganda movies like; "Selma." These claim that Martin Luther King Jr was placed under surveillance by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
So people forget that Martin Luther King Jr was little more than a bit part player in the US Civil Rights movement.
That was actually an internal dispute within the Democrat Party. One faction was led by Lyndon B. Jonson. The other was led by George C. Wallace.
The two factions used to meet for so-called; "Coca-Cola Summits." Hence the Coca-Cola button Lyndon B. Johnson had installed on the President's desk in the Oval Office.
Although apparently if you were raised on Selma you'd think President Trump installed that button.
I wouldn't worry though. It's not like its an important part of 20th century US political history or anything.
One of the core Shield cast is the; "Mack" character. He is black. His big regret is that his only child was stillborn.
So in the Framework Mack is the proud father of a 10 year old daughter named; "Hope." As in Barack Obama's 2008 election slogan; "Hope & Change."
Even after it is revealed to him that the world of Hope is Fake News Mack still refuses to leave the Framework. Like every Obamacare Opioid addict he would prefer to live in the comfort of hope rather than face reality.
In the last few days US Democrats have been presented with their own; "Cambridge Incident."
Cambridge Analytical are a UK based company. However they are being prosecuted by the US Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
What Cambridge Analytica have done is use almost AI bots to consume the vast about of human interaction freely available on social media. They have then used it to devise the best way to target potential voters.
In short Cambridge Analytica have done what is considered a perfectly normal part of election campaigning.
It is this sort of voter research which has coined terms such as; "White Van Man, "Mondeo Man" or "Joe the Plumber" from the US in 2012.
Of course some would say that Sergei Skripal and his ugly, ugly daughters resemble one of the Joe the Plumbers. But some would also say that Joe the Plumber resembles Ratko Mladic.
The type of social stratification used by Cambridge Analytica is as old as the social sciences itself.
Voters have long been classified in terms of their occupation, earnings, wealth and social or political power.
Politicians always try to identify each of these subgroups or tribes and then appeal to either their hopes of fears.
What has made Hydra angry about Cambridge Analytica is not that they were using exactly the same methods as Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
They are angry that they were working for the inhuman terrorist Donald Trump.
One of the key characters to emerge from the Cambridge Analytica story is Chris Wylie.
I say he's a "character." He appears to be the "Wylie" character from the US TV show; "The Mentalist."
The Mentalist centres around the; "Patrick Jane" character. A former stage hypnotist he is extremely skilled in psychological manipulation.
The introduction of the Wylie computer geek character was something of a reference to the way computer programming and social programming interact to produce AI.
Wylie joined the show when Jane joined the FBI and moved to the field office in Austin, Texas.
I gather the actual FBI field office in Austin, Texas is currently quite busy.
Something to do with Agent Antoine "Trip" Triplett and his Howling Commandos.
We hope that one day that along with Mack's brother and the rest of Obama's Watchdogs he will grow to become a patriot.
21:50 on 20/3/18 (UK date).
Instead I'm going to write about a US TV Show; "Marvels: Agents of Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D)."
This was a talking point during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Particularly through the mostly Asian, always hungry actress from the show Chloe Bennet. And her avatar. Korean American Snowboarder Chloe Kim.
It was also a big talking point during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics the UK broadcaster Channel 4 started airing Season 5 of the show. This prompted me to catch up on Season 4. The one which had been on air during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
I'm glad I did. It seems much of the antics surrounding the Para-Olympics have, at least in part, been influenced by Season 4 of Agents of Shield.
For example there was the March 4th (4/3/18) poisoning of Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal. This took place in the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire in the UK.
There is a spin-off show from Agents of Shield called; "Agent Carter." The lead role is played by British actress Hayley Atwell.
Hayley Atwell's big TV breakthrough came in the 2010 mini-series; "The Pillars of the Earth."
This was a huge multinational production relying on talent from the UK, the US, Canada and Germany. It was largely filmed in Hungary using development money from the European Union (EU).
It is loosely based around the building of Salisbury's very famous Cathedral. It uses that story to explore the core underpinnings of society. The pillars of the earth as it were.
So you have a very devout Monk who represents the good side of religion. You also have a corrupt Bishop representing politics and corruption. Hayley Atwell's character represents lust and sexuality.
People who enjoy fantasy comic book movies and TV shows like Agents of Shield like to talk about things like origin stories. The Pillars of the Earth is very much the origin story for the much more famous TV show; "Game of Thrones."
So The Pillars of the Earth has Game of Thrones levels of violence and nudity. That is all except for the actress Hayley Atwell. Despite representing lust and sexuality she does not appear nude.
Instead where it would be easier for the character to appear nude without you really noticing there is instead a very intrusive edit. The sort of thing that jolts your concentration reminding you that you are watching a TV show.
This makes The Pillars of the Earth an interesting case study in the never ending discussion about portrayals of sex and nudity in TV and movies.
Representing lust and sexuality it is really necessary for the artistic point being made that Hayley Atwell's character appears nude. The fact she doesn't and the way the director makes a point of the fact she doesn't raises further questions about the power of and attitudes towards women within the entertainment industry.
Watching the show you might be tempted to question whether this previously unknown actress was being difficult. Accepting a role that required nudity but then insisting on a no-nudity clause in her contract. Forcing everyone around her to work that bit harder to accommodate her ego.
In The Pillars of the Earth Hayley Atwell's character is a wool trader. The Bishop's Mill pub closed as part of the Skripal case in a former wool mill owned by the Bishop of Salisbury. Ian McShane I think.
If you go to particularly Salisbury Cathedral you can pick up a tourist map showing all the settings for The Pillars of the Earth. Including the Bishop's Mill pub.
I should probably explain why the fact I've got half a season's worth of Agents of Shield stacked up on my DVR is actually a sign of respect.
The show is very much about sub-text, metaphor and hidden meaning. Which is why it is so popular amongst the Eurovision Song Contest crowd.
The problem is that if you watch it in the same mindset you would watch some other TV show like NCIS or Law & Order it's terrible. It's just a series of a explosions and Kung Fu fight scenes happening for some dubious, unbelievable Sci-Fi reasons.
Instead you've got to watch it in the same mindset you would watch something like an Olympic ceremony. Open your mind to the hidden meanings and allow yourself to be absorbed by it. Marijuana really helps.
So what I tend to do is turn out the lights, close the curtains and allow myself to be absorbed by a couple of episodes in a row. It's much harder to do that during the summer months. Particularly when your 2017 was as hectic as mine.
The big theme of Season 4 is Artificial Intelligence (AI). As the technology advances this has become an increasingly important global talking point. We have things like self-driving cars.
The 2018 Winter Olympics specifically focused on the topic of AI bots on social media.
Ahead of the 2016 US Presidential Election incumbent President Barack Obama claimed Russia was using AI bots on social media to rig the election. This claim allowed Obama to set up a special unit of the FBI answering directly to him.
That special FBI unit was tasked with declaring comments supportive of the Republican candidate Donald Trump or critical of Obama's designated successor Hillary Clinton to be the work of Russian AI bots. Then removing them from social media under the guise of national security.
This was remarkably similar to events in Olympic host the Republic of Korea (RoK/South) during their 2012 Presidential Election.
There the incumbent President Lee Myung-bak claimed that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) was using AI bots on social media to rig the election. This claim allowed Lee to set up a special unit of the RoK's equivalent of the FBI - the NIS - answering directly to him.
That special NIS unit was tasked with declaring comments supportive of Candidate Moon Jae-in or critical of President Lee's designated successor Park Guen-hye to be the work of North Korean AI bots. Then removing them from social media under the guise of national security.
In late 2016, early 2017 it was revealed that these claims of AI bots was a deliberate lie. It allowed the NIS to rig the election in favour of Park Guen-hye. She was impeached and Moon Jae-in took her place.
Within Agents of Shield a sort mad scientist played by Scottish actor John Hannah creates an advanced AI called the; "Artificial Intelligence Digital Assistant (AIDA)" played by Australian actress Mallory Jansen.
For dubious Sci-Fi reasons AIDA goes on to create an artificial reality called; "The Framework."
Similar to the movie; "The Matrix" this is like a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Sort of like "Minecraft." However rather than being played on a computer it is fed directly into the person's brain.
AIDA then traps the core cast of the show into this Framework.
This is used to explore the notion of; "Social Programming." Essentially the way that the people we meet and the experiences we have shape us as people and determine how we behave.
A very good example of this is language.
Reading and writing are a slightly different thing. However it is likely that no-one taught you how to speak and understand your native language. Instead you just copied what everybody else in your society was doing.
Another good example is crime.
Most societies have laws. They also have police forces, Courts and prisons to enforce those laws. However what really prevents crime is the social convention that you don't commit crime.
The UK's August 2011 riots are a good example of this.
There is a social convention that you don't put a brick through a shop window and then just take whatever you want. During the riots that particular social convention collapsed.
The UK rapidly discovered it didn't have enough police officers to physically stop people from committing crime if they were prepared to disregard the social convention.
Social programing is also how AI bots on social media learn.
They consume the vast amount of human interactions freely available on social media. They then analyse them and then set out to recreate human behaviour.
A famous of this is Microsoft's chatbot; "Tay."
Unfortunately for Microsoft the online human interactions Tay studied seemed to be limited to people who use social media "Hate Sites" like "4Chan."
As a result Tay learnt to be foul mouthed, racist, homophobic and consumed by hate. Behaviour considered perfectly normal and acceptable by the 4Chan community.
I also recently heard about an AI bot which was forced to watch all of the "Saw" horror movies. It was then tasked with writing the script for the next horror movies.
The resulting dialogue was only slightly more clunky than the Saw movies themselves.
Another interesting real world case study in social programming is the Turpin siblings in the US.
Back in January 2018 in Riverside, California it was discovered that David and Louise Turpin had been holding their 13 children captive in some sort of bizarre basement dungeon. It emerged that all of the children had some opportunity to escape and one had even attended college. However none of them did.
That is because only ever experiencing that mini-society from birth they had been programmed to believe it was normal. Therefore they did not realise there was a reason they should try and escape.
That is an idea Agents of Shield very much explores. The core cast don't know that they've been put into the artificial reality Framework. So they don't realise it's not real or understand they need to escape.
As you would expect from Joss Whedon it all gets very existential.
Hopefully not too existential though. At around 18:45 on 20/3/18 (UK date) I've got to finish this after dinner. And drinks.
Edited at around 20:20 on 20/3/18 (UK date) to add above & below;
In putting the core cast of Agents of Shield into the Framework AIDA eliminates their one core regret. That one thing we all have that we wish we had done differently.
So for the "Fitz" character it was his father leaving when he was a child. In the Framework Fitz's father is still around. In death if not life he seems to resemble Harvey Weinstein.
For the "Caulson" character the regret is that he joined Shield. So in the Framework he is a High School history teacher. The career he would have chosen if he'd never joined Shield.
For the "Mace" character the regret is that he never got to have superpowers. So in the Framework he had superpowers.
However those superpowers do not prevent Mace being crushed by a concrete beam. In scenes that closely resemble the recent bridge collapse at Florida International University (FIU) in the US.
The result of removing these regrets is that Shield's arch-nemesis "Hydra" has risen to power. They are a Nazi like organisation.
The origin story for Shield is that Agent Carter fought for the allies in the Second World War against Nazi Germany who had Hydra as their science division. Agent Carter's Strategic Scientific Reserve (SCR) became S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hydra were able to rise to power through the never defined; "Cambridge Incident."
With boffin characters like Fitz and Simmons being British it is hard to work out is this Cambridge refers to Cambridge University. Where Stephen Hawking studied.
Or the Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. Close to Boston where there was a terrorist bombing in April 2013.
As a fascist organisation Hydra control the population through news broadcasts - seeming to resemble Al Jazeera - which urge viewers to remember the Cambridge Incident and constantly be on their guard.
As a history teacher Caulson starts to question the Framework. He can see that Hydra are further controlling the population by engaging in; "Revisionist History."
This is the sort of thing where you would demand US Civil War statues are removed from public view. So people forget that the US Civil War was the Democrat Party fighting to keep slavery alive.
It's also things like putting out propaganda movies like; "Selma." These claim that Martin Luther King Jr was placed under surveillance by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
So people forget that Martin Luther King Jr was little more than a bit part player in the US Civil Rights movement.
That was actually an internal dispute within the Democrat Party. One faction was led by Lyndon B. Jonson. The other was led by George C. Wallace.
The two factions used to meet for so-called; "Coca-Cola Summits." Hence the Coca-Cola button Lyndon B. Johnson had installed on the President's desk in the Oval Office.
Although apparently if you were raised on Selma you'd think President Trump installed that button.
I wouldn't worry though. It's not like its an important part of 20th century US political history or anything.
One of the core Shield cast is the; "Mack" character. He is black. His big regret is that his only child was stillborn.
So in the Framework Mack is the proud father of a 10 year old daughter named; "Hope." As in Barack Obama's 2008 election slogan; "Hope & Change."
Even after it is revealed to him that the world of Hope is Fake News Mack still refuses to leave the Framework. Like every Obamacare Opioid addict he would prefer to live in the comfort of hope rather than face reality.
In the last few days US Democrats have been presented with their own; "Cambridge Incident."
Cambridge Analytical are a UK based company. However they are being prosecuted by the US Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
What Cambridge Analytica have done is use almost AI bots to consume the vast about of human interaction freely available on social media. They have then used it to devise the best way to target potential voters.
In short Cambridge Analytica have done what is considered a perfectly normal part of election campaigning.
It is this sort of voter research which has coined terms such as; "White Van Man, "Mondeo Man" or "Joe the Plumber" from the US in 2012.
Of course some would say that Sergei Skripal and his ugly, ugly daughters resemble one of the Joe the Plumbers. But some would also say that Joe the Plumber resembles Ratko Mladic.
The type of social stratification used by Cambridge Analytica is as old as the social sciences itself.
Voters have long been classified in terms of their occupation, earnings, wealth and social or political power.
Politicians always try to identify each of these subgroups or tribes and then appeal to either their hopes of fears.
What has made Hydra angry about Cambridge Analytica is not that they were using exactly the same methods as Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
They are angry that they were working for the inhuman terrorist Donald Trump.
One of the key characters to emerge from the Cambridge Analytica story is Chris Wylie.
I say he's a "character." He appears to be the "Wylie" character from the US TV show; "The Mentalist."
The Mentalist centres around the; "Patrick Jane" character. A former stage hypnotist he is extremely skilled in psychological manipulation.
The introduction of the Wylie computer geek character was something of a reference to the way computer programming and social programming interact to produce AI.
Wylie joined the show when Jane joined the FBI and moved to the field office in Austin, Texas.
I gather the actual FBI field office in Austin, Texas is currently quite busy.
Something to do with Agent Antoine "Trip" Triplett and his Howling Commandos.
We hope that one day that along with Mack's brother and the rest of Obama's Watchdogs he will grow to become a patriot.
21:50 on 20/3/18 (UK date).
Monday 19 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt. 2
A continuation of Part 1; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-2018-winter-para-olympics-closing.html
The ceremony completed its deconstruction of the Video Countdown tradition with a short video. Something which would traditionally appear at the start of the sequence.
I am far from an expert but this video seemed to use a technique known as; "Digital Rotoscopory."
Essentially footage is shot using a digital camera. Rather like the one on your cellphone. Computer animation is then added to the footage frame-by-frame to give it a distinctive, other worldly feel. Famous movies using this technique include; "A Scanner Darkly," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Sin City" and "Avatar."
Things that stood out for me in the video included;
A shot of the suspension system on a Sit Ski sledge used by skiers with lower limb impairments. This seemed to serve as a metaphor for the work of US Snowboarder Mike Schultz which has been a big talking point at the games.
Mike Schultz was a big extreme sports competitor. Including in sports such as Motocross riding. In 2008 he lost his leg below the knee after his Snowmobile crashed during a Snocross race - the winter version of Motocross.
Schultz then turned his attention to Para-Olympic Snowboarding.
Alongside competing Schultz has also used his engineering experience to develop new prosthetics. In 2010 he invented a new type of knee joint called the; "Moto Knee." In 2013 he invented a new type of ankle joint called the; "Versa Foot."
Particularly in the Snowboarding events it has been extremely easy to identify the competitors using Schultz's patented designs. They're the ones winning all the medals.
Obviously though Schultz's designs are hidden beneath the competitors clothes. Making it hard to get a clear action shot of them.
A shot of British fans cheering and waving a British flag. Britain of course feels it deserves an out-sized role in the Para-Olympics. At these games they've certainly not been afraid of making a lot of noise. Even if they can't stick to their own script.
A Japanese Ski-Jumper wearing a Japanese flag on his helmet. He was the first competitor whose nationality was clearly stated.
Japan is of course the RoK's big regional rival. They will be hosting the 2020 Summer games. I think people would like me to hurry up and cover their segment in the 2016 Closing Ceremony.
The shot of the Japanese competitor was immediately followed by a South Korean competitor. He was wearing a South Korean flag on his headband/helmet.
After these games you're never again going to mistake the Taoist Ying Yang symbol at the centre of the South Korean flag with the Rising Sun at the centre of the Japanese flag.
A Ukrainian biathlete posing with her rifle. In full sniper mode.
The 2018 Winter games of course pick up the baton from the 2014 Winter games. These were marred by the US overthrowing the Ukrainian government and plunging the nation into civil war. In the short gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics.
Throughout its aggression against Ukraine the US - particularly under former President Obama - held up Nadiya Savchenko as a hero of the revolution.
During the games - on, I think, March 12th (12/3/18) - Savchenko came clean about the 2014 "Revolution."
Savchenko admitted that the current Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy had transported weapons to the protesters. He had then directed some of those armed men to open fire onto the crowds from the Hotel Ukraine. Something which the US has repeatedly blamed on Ukraine's Russian backed government.
This comes after Ukraine formally expelled Mikhail Saakashvili from their country during the Olympics.
The former President of Georgia Saakashvili famously launched an attack on Russia during the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2010 he famously faked an entire Russian land invasion of Georgia in an effort to rig an election. Something the Cauldron is dedicated to.
So Britain's bizarre decision to start ranting and raving about Russia on March 13th (13/3/18) was totally out of step with the politics of eastern Europe.
The German Wheelchair Curling team. I recognised them because I watched them play against the British team.
Although I like to make fun of it Curling by far the most strategic sports at the winter games. So I secretly quite enjoy it.
The objective is to slide stones into a target area known as the; "House." The team whose stone is closest to the bullseye wins the round known as the; "End." They get a point for each stone within the house.
Getting a 20kg (44lb) granite stone to stop precisely on ice requires a great deal of skill on its own.
You can't though just try and get each of your eight stones into the bullseye. Instead you have to carefully position the early stones as guards to prevent your opponent getting into the house. This requires a lot of strategic thinking and mind games.
What I find frustrating about Curling is that in many ways the entire Olympics or Para-Olympics is like that. Nations may concede in one sport to position themselves to win in another.
For example at the 2018 Olympics the US Men's Curling victory against Sweden was really the result of the Canada Women's Ice Hockey conceding Gold to the US.
So in order to properly understand what is going on you have to keep an eye on all the events at the same time.
In order to do this I find my mind running at such a speed I end up finding Ice Hockey to be frustratingly slow. I simply haven't got the time for Curling.
The South Korean Sledge Ice Hockey team. One of the big events at the Olympics was the combined North and South Korean Ice Hockey team. This was not repeated at the Para-Olympics. North Korea simply didn't have any Sledge Hockey players.
Introductions & Handshakes:
It is IPC protocol that each Opening Ceremony features a short sequence in which VIP's are welcomed into the arena.
This normally includes the Head of Government/State of the host nation. In this case South Korean President Moon Jae-in. It also includes the Head of the IPC. In this case Andrew Parsons who was appointed in September 2016.
The only thing I can think to say about this sequence is about the coat President Moon was wearing.
Throughout all the previous ceremonies President Moon has worn a big arctic parka of the South Korean national team. On this occasion he was wearing a more normal wool dress coat.
This reflected how much the weather has warmed up during the games. Although officially the Winter games those familiar with the Taoist Wu Xing would describe these as the Earth games. That inbetween season where it's not quite winter but not quite yet spring.
I think after the UK v Germany Curling I caught a glimpse of the skiing events. These took place on artificial snow. I noticed some of the event staff were standing there in T-shirts.
Flag & Anthem:
It is a matter of Para-Olympic protocol that each ceremony must include a sequence in which the flag of the host nation is raised and its national anthem is performed. In closing ceremonies this is simply so the flag can be taken down again later.
Here six flagbearers carried a large, unfurled flag into arena. They arose for a recessed area in the central circular platform of the stage.
I think that these flagbearers were South Korean athletes who'd competed in these games. However I cannot be sure. I certainly can't name them.
Their names were given by the stadium announcer. However that was largely drowned out by the Channel 4 commentator who didn't give the names. The names were not included in an on-screen graphic.
I find this particularly annoying because the commentators get to watch a dress rehearsal of the ceremony the day before. They are also given a press pack including details such as the names of the performers. This is to help them prepare their commentary to convey those facts to viewers like me who don't have that luxury.
You would think that particularly at a Para-Olympics broadcasters should go to the effort of making sure performers names are included on the subtitles.
The actual flag raising was given to a military flag detail. As it had been during the Opening Ceremony.
The signing of the national anthem was sung by a choir including members who were wheelchair users.
Again though I did not catch the name of the choir. I think it may have been a military veterans association. Possibly of widows and their children.
21:05 on 19/3/18 (UK date).
The ceremony completed its deconstruction of the Video Countdown tradition with a short video. Something which would traditionally appear at the start of the sequence.
I am far from an expert but this video seemed to use a technique known as; "Digital Rotoscopory."
Essentially footage is shot using a digital camera. Rather like the one on your cellphone. Computer animation is then added to the footage frame-by-frame to give it a distinctive, other worldly feel. Famous movies using this technique include; "A Scanner Darkly," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Sin City" and "Avatar."
Things that stood out for me in the video included;
A shot of the suspension system on a Sit Ski sledge used by skiers with lower limb impairments. This seemed to serve as a metaphor for the work of US Snowboarder Mike Schultz which has been a big talking point at the games.
Mike Schultz was a big extreme sports competitor. Including in sports such as Motocross riding. In 2008 he lost his leg below the knee after his Snowmobile crashed during a Snocross race - the winter version of Motocross.
Schultz then turned his attention to Para-Olympic Snowboarding.
Alongside competing Schultz has also used his engineering experience to develop new prosthetics. In 2010 he invented a new type of knee joint called the; "Moto Knee." In 2013 he invented a new type of ankle joint called the; "Versa Foot."
Particularly in the Snowboarding events it has been extremely easy to identify the competitors using Schultz's patented designs. They're the ones winning all the medals.
Obviously though Schultz's designs are hidden beneath the competitors clothes. Making it hard to get a clear action shot of them.
A shot of British fans cheering and waving a British flag. Britain of course feels it deserves an out-sized role in the Para-Olympics. At these games they've certainly not been afraid of making a lot of noise. Even if they can't stick to their own script.
A Japanese Ski-Jumper wearing a Japanese flag on his helmet. He was the first competitor whose nationality was clearly stated.
Japan is of course the RoK's big regional rival. They will be hosting the 2020 Summer games. I think people would like me to hurry up and cover their segment in the 2016 Closing Ceremony.
The shot of the Japanese competitor was immediately followed by a South Korean competitor. He was wearing a South Korean flag on his headband/helmet.
After these games you're never again going to mistake the Taoist Ying Yang symbol at the centre of the South Korean flag with the Rising Sun at the centre of the Japanese flag.
A Ukrainian biathlete posing with her rifle. In full sniper mode.
The 2018 Winter games of course pick up the baton from the 2014 Winter games. These were marred by the US overthrowing the Ukrainian government and plunging the nation into civil war. In the short gap between the Olympics and the Para-Olympics.
Throughout its aggression against Ukraine the US - particularly under former President Obama - held up Nadiya Savchenko as a hero of the revolution.
During the games - on, I think, March 12th (12/3/18) - Savchenko came clean about the 2014 "Revolution."
Savchenko admitted that the current Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy had transported weapons to the protesters. He had then directed some of those armed men to open fire onto the crowds from the Hotel Ukraine. Something which the US has repeatedly blamed on Ukraine's Russian backed government.
This comes after Ukraine formally expelled Mikhail Saakashvili from their country during the Olympics.
The former President of Georgia Saakashvili famously launched an attack on Russia during the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2010 he famously faked an entire Russian land invasion of Georgia in an effort to rig an election. Something the Cauldron is dedicated to.
So Britain's bizarre decision to start ranting and raving about Russia on March 13th (13/3/18) was totally out of step with the politics of eastern Europe.
The German Wheelchair Curling team. I recognised them because I watched them play against the British team.
Although I like to make fun of it Curling by far the most strategic sports at the winter games. So I secretly quite enjoy it.
The objective is to slide stones into a target area known as the; "House." The team whose stone is closest to the bullseye wins the round known as the; "End." They get a point for each stone within the house.
Getting a 20kg (44lb) granite stone to stop precisely on ice requires a great deal of skill on its own.
You can't though just try and get each of your eight stones into the bullseye. Instead you have to carefully position the early stones as guards to prevent your opponent getting into the house. This requires a lot of strategic thinking and mind games.
What I find frustrating about Curling is that in many ways the entire Olympics or Para-Olympics is like that. Nations may concede in one sport to position themselves to win in another.
For example at the 2018 Olympics the US Men's Curling victory against Sweden was really the result of the Canada Women's Ice Hockey conceding Gold to the US.
So in order to properly understand what is going on you have to keep an eye on all the events at the same time.
In order to do this I find my mind running at such a speed I end up finding Ice Hockey to be frustratingly slow. I simply haven't got the time for Curling.
The South Korean Sledge Ice Hockey team. One of the big events at the Olympics was the combined North and South Korean Ice Hockey team. This was not repeated at the Para-Olympics. North Korea simply didn't have any Sledge Hockey players.
Introductions & Handshakes:
It is IPC protocol that each Opening Ceremony features a short sequence in which VIP's are welcomed into the arena.
This normally includes the Head of Government/State of the host nation. In this case South Korean President Moon Jae-in. It also includes the Head of the IPC. In this case Andrew Parsons who was appointed in September 2016.
The only thing I can think to say about this sequence is about the coat President Moon was wearing.
Throughout all the previous ceremonies President Moon has worn a big arctic parka of the South Korean national team. On this occasion he was wearing a more normal wool dress coat.
This reflected how much the weather has warmed up during the games. Although officially the Winter games those familiar with the Taoist Wu Xing would describe these as the Earth games. That inbetween season where it's not quite winter but not quite yet spring.
I think after the UK v Germany Curling I caught a glimpse of the skiing events. These took place on artificial snow. I noticed some of the event staff were standing there in T-shirts.
Flag & Anthem:
It is a matter of Para-Olympic protocol that each ceremony must include a sequence in which the flag of the host nation is raised and its national anthem is performed. In closing ceremonies this is simply so the flag can be taken down again later.
Here six flagbearers carried a large, unfurled flag into arena. They arose for a recessed area in the central circular platform of the stage.
I think that these flagbearers were South Korean athletes who'd competed in these games. However I cannot be sure. I certainly can't name them.
Their names were given by the stadium announcer. However that was largely drowned out by the Channel 4 commentator who didn't give the names. The names were not included in an on-screen graphic.
I find this particularly annoying because the commentators get to watch a dress rehearsal of the ceremony the day before. They are also given a press pack including details such as the names of the performers. This is to help them prepare their commentary to convey those facts to viewers like me who don't have that luxury.
You would think that particularly at a Para-Olympics broadcasters should go to the effort of making sure performers names are included on the subtitles.
The actual flag raising was given to a military flag detail. As it had been during the Opening Ceremony.
The signing of the national anthem was sung by a choir including members who were wheelchair users.
Again though I did not catch the name of the choir. I think it may have been a military veterans association. Possibly of widows and their children.
21:05 on 19/3/18 (UK date).
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