On or around March 4th (4/3/18) three individuals were taken ill in the UK city of Salisbury.
They have since been identified as Sergei Skripal a Russian agent of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, his daughter Yulia and a British police officer Nick Bailey.
On March 12th (12/3/18) British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed that the three had been poisoned by Russia. Specifically using a nerve agent known as; "Novichok" which had been produced at the Shikhany-2 facility located just outside of Moscow.
This is the type of allegation that is very easy to test scientifically. And in doing so either prove or disprove.
Shikhany-2 has been described as; "Russia's Porton Down." In reference to Britain's Porton Down Chemical Warfare facility which is located around 12km (8 miles) outside of Salisbury. This seems a reasonable comparison.
Neither Shikhany-2 nor Porton Down give tours to the public. However the existence of either is hardly a secret.
In 1997 Russia, along with 164 other nations, signed up to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. In the area of Chemical Warfare research this put Russia, and all other signatories, under the authority of the regulatory body to the convention - the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In accepting the authority of the OPCW the Shikhany-2 facility was registered with the OPCW. As Porton Down was.
This registration involved the OPCW inspecting the Shikhany-2 and collecting reference samples. Not just of any chemical agents which had been produced there but also of the manufacturing processes and raw materials used.
In order to identify an chemical compound you use a process called; "Mass Spectrometry." This is so widely used and accepted amongst the scientific community if you've seen a TV cop show you've more than likely heard it discussed.
Mass Spectrometry works by blasting a chemical compound with either electrons or ionising radiation. This breaks the compound into its ionic state. You then measure the mass of those ions.
For each chemical compound Mass Spectrometry produces results which are as unique as any fingerprint of DNA test.
You would compare the results in the same way you would compare a fingerprint of DNA test. Either to a library of known reference samples or to an individual sample you have collected elsewhere.
Most modern Mass Spectrometry machines do this comparison automatically using computer software. However it can also been done manually. It is a simple as placing one line graph on top of another line graph and seeing if they match up.
So if the chemical used in Salisbury had been produced at Shikhany-2 it would already be in both the OPCW's and Porton Down's reference library.
On March 22nd (22/3/18) the British Court of Protection (COP) released details of Porton Down's analysis of the chemical used in Salisbury.
In itself this is highly unusual.
As the name suggests the Court of Protection deals with matters of protection for people who lack the mental capacity to protect themselves. The majority of its work deals with children who are being physically or sexually abused or people who have been incapacitated by medical conditions.
Due to issues of patient privacy the COP is one of, if not the most secretive of Britain's Courts. It is most certainly not in the habit of making its proceedings public.
To give you an idea of the level of secrecy involved if I were to simply confirm that I have participated in COP proceedings I would potentially be in contempt. The same would be true if I were to simply confirm that I have a written warning from a COP Judge stating just that.
The analysis presented by Porton Down to the COP identified the chemical used in Salisbury as; "A Novichok class nerve agent or closely related compound."
This is the sort of inexact language which puts scientists teeth on edge.
The class of nerve agent of which Novichok is member of is the "Organophosphate Class." More specifically it belongs to the "V-Series" subclass. Novichok was invented as an easier to manufacture member of the V-Series which was first produced at Porton Down.
Obviously the exact manufacturing processes of Organophosphate class nerve agents are not widely available to the public. However while this has been going on Porton Down have been talking about a manufacturing process being reduced from 40 steps to just 2 steps.
This evidence by Porton Down is so inexact it could mean that the chemical compound is some sort of commercially available Organophosphate pesticide. These are banned by just 23 or the World's 192 nations.
However Porton Down's evidence stops short of identifying the chemical as the specific Novichok compound. It certainly stops far short of identifying it as Novichok produced at Shikhany-2.
At the time the release of the COP ruling was widely reported by both the British and global media.
However they all collectively failed to mention the detail that Porton Down had not identified the chemical as Novichok.
Instead they focused on sensationalist claims that the Skripals may never recover from the poisoning.
In doing this the media have either wilfully attempted to mislead the public. Or they have simply not understood what was being said to them.
In deciding whether it can make a decision regarding an individuals medical care the COP must consider a very narrow question under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act.
In short it is whether that person has the mental capacity make that decision for themselves.
If a person is unconscious they are quite reasonably considered to lack that mental capacity. Unless the reason for that lack of consciousness is something simple like them being asleep or drunk that lack of mental capacity is considered long term.
Of course if the person does regain consciousness they can overrule whatever decision the COP has made.
So rather than being an assessment that the Skripals will be permanently brain damaged that part of the ruling was just standard COP boilerplate.
With the media collectively failing to report that Porton Down have not identified the chemical as Novichok Porton Down themselves were forced take unusual action.
On April 3rd (3/4/18) the head of Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead insisted that Sky News interview him. As the was the same day Sky New's parent company presented regulatory remedy proposals to the UK Competition & Markets Authority they decided to go ahead with the interview.
Aitkenhead used this interview to clearly state - on tape so even the illiterate could understand - that Porton Down has not identified the chemical as Novichok.
Having falsely accused Russia Prime Minister May then convened a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the matter on March 14th (14/3/18).
Of the 15 members of the UNSC 11 did not believe Prime Minister May's claim. Instead they voted for a statement demanding an OPCW investigation.
This forced the UK to exercise its veto to prevent the statement effectively calling it a liar being passed.
Again though the, particularly British media, failed to report this.
They showed only statements from the three other members of the UNSC that did not vote for the statement. They completely failed to mention that a vote had taken place and the UK had been forced to veto.
Britain though did take the hint. On March 15th (15/3/18) the invited the OPCW to conduct an investigation. The alternative being weeks and weeks of the UNSC demanding an OPCW investigation and the UK being repeatedly forced to use its veto.
This OPCW has been really bad news for the people of Salisbury.
Although as with bringing their Skripal's out of their induced comas the risk is best assessed using accurate data the cordons around Salisbury could probably have come down around March 14th (14/3/18).
Pretty much my entire family spent the Easter (1/4/18) Weekend in Salisbury. I was not even remotely concerned about their health.
However because the OPCW launched an investigation the scenes needed to be preserved so the cordons stayed up. With literally the entire World's media camped out at the cordons Britain had to keep the theatre going to keep them entertained.
For example on Monday (9/4/18) Yulia Skripal was released from hospital and taken to a safehouse.
On Sunday (8/4/18) evening UK TV had broadcast Episode 8 or Season 7 of the US TV Show; "Homeland." This entire season has centred around a Novichok like contact poison. This specific episode centred around a Russian woman holed up in a safehouse.
This disruption has pretty much destroyed Salisbury's tourist economy. The irony is that when they do finally remove the cordons the first thing they're going to have to do is put down a lot of poison to kill all the rats.
Today the OPCW has finally released the results of its investigation.
The OPCW have confirmed Porton Down's evidence. They are unable to identify the chemical as Novichok.
Prime Minister May and her government have lied. Both to the British public and to the international community.
It should come as no surprise then that the UK has not cleared the entire OPCW report for publication. Instead only allowing the Executive Summary to be published.
It will take me a little while to fully digest that Executive Summary. However at first glance it appears the OPCW have gone further than Porton Down in making it clear that Theresa May has lied.
The inability to match the chemical to reference samples of Novichok taken from Shikhany-2 does not 100% rule out Russian involvement. There is an outside chance that they could have used a secret, temporary lab. A "Gypsy Lab" as it were.
The OPCW describe the chemical used as being of very high grade and almost entirely lacking in impurities. That seems to rule out a Russian gypsy lab.
You would think that having being exposed as a liar by not just Britain's scientists and Britain's Courts but now the OPCW and scientists from four nation Prime Minister Theresa May would now be desperately apologising to all concerned.
Instead though she is holding a cabinet meeting to authorise airstrikes against Syria.
Apparently she is as certain that Syria used chemical weapons on April 8th (8/4/18) as she is that Russia used chemical weapons on March 4th (4/3/18).
I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with keeping the fact that the OPCW have declared her to be a liar off the news.
16:15 on 12/4/18 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:45 on 14/4/18 (UK date) to add;
It should come as absolutely no surprise that Theresa May and her cabinet decided that yes, they do need a war to distract from the fact both British scientists and the OPCW have declared them to be liars.
It should also come has no surprise that Theresa May and her cabinet needed that distraction to begin before Saturday April 14th (14/4/18).
On April 14th the OPCW were going to arrive in Syria. To investigate recent claims of a Chemical Weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma. This OPCW investigation has been undertaken at the request of the Syrian government.
Without any investigation Theresa May has accused the Syrian government of conducting the Douma attack.
From experience we know that in about three weeks the OPCW will again demonstrate that Theresa May is a liar.
So in technically the very early hours of April 14th the UK conducted airstrikes against Syria.
They were supported by France. French President Emmanuel Macron is currently facing mass unrest amongst his voters over three months of strike action which have crippled France's transport network.
The UK and France were also supported by the US. I don't think I need to restate the pressure US President Donald Trump is under from the Democrat Party's Mueller investigation which repeatedly accuses him of being a Russian spy.
Involving more than 100 missiles the British led strikes targeted the Syrian military bases of Barzah near Damascus alongside Him Shinshar in Homs Province.
These are the two bases the OPCW have been invited to inspect. In order to prove or disprove the claim they were involved in the Douma.
Obviously that providing that proof of either guilt or innocence is no longer possible. The bases and their contents have just been blown up.
I see no reason why this latest development should distract from the fact that;
Theresa May has lied to the United Nations.
Theresa May has lied to NATO.
Theresa May has lied to the European Union.
Theresa May has lied to the British Parliament.
Most importantly Theresa May has lied to the British public.
She has now killed to try and cover up those lies.
15:00 on 14/4/18 (UK date).
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Monday, 2 April 2018
The 2016 ISIL Games: Closing Ceremony Pt. 7
A seriously delayed continuation of Part 6; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-isil-games-closing-ceremony-pt6.html
Japans Bit:
It is IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony must include a sequence marking the transition from one Olympic host to the next.
The Greek national flag is raised while their national anthem is performed. Next the Olympic anthem is performed. The Olympic flag is then taken down and handed to a representative of the next 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.
It is then protocol that the Closing Ceremony includes a sequence produced by the next Olympic host. 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.
On this occasion the 2020 Olympic host merged its sequence with the transition ceremony.
As Japan's national flag was being raised and its anthem was played the entire arena floor was bathed in red light.
At the edges of the arena floor what can only be described as; "Robotic Geishas" appeared. Geishas are of course a World famous symbol of Japanese culture. Japan is also one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth leading the way in many fields. Including in robotics.
In reality these Robotic Geishas were human performers wearing metal framed costumes covered in lights. They were propelled across the floor on wheels rather like a hoverboard.
As the Robot Geishas advanced the red light receded. Eventually it became a red circle at the centre of the white arena floor. Just like the red circle symbolising the rising sun at the centre of Japan's national flag.
Within the centre circle the word; "Rio" appeared twice. In reference to Rio de Janeiro where this ceremony was taking place.
One of the words; "Rio" became the word; "Obrgado." This means; "Thank You" in Portuguese, the native language of 2016 host Brazil.
The other word; "Rio" became the word; "Arigato." This means; "Thank You (or "Thanks")" in Japanese. The native language of 2020 host Japan.
Apart from highlighting the transition from Brazil 2016 to Japan 2020 this highlighted the strong cultural links between Japan and Brazil. The largest ethnically Japanese population outside of Japan lives in Brazil.
The arena floor and the stadium seats were then bathed in light showing the word; "Thank You" in pretty much all of the languages of the World.
This issue of language has been a recurring theme throughout the 2016 Games. As technology has advanced the World has become smaller. For example I can publish this on the Internet in the UK and it can instantly be read in both Brazil and Japan.
The only real restriction left is language. You can certainly read this in Brazil and Japan. I can't guarantee you'll understand it though.
The reference to language here though also prepares you for one of the big culture shocks you'll be in for if you travel to the 2020 Games.
In many parts of the World people fluently speak several languages. If you travel to particularly tourist areas you will find people who speak the language of their main guests along with signs in multiple languages.
So even if it is everyone's second or third language most people can normally find a common language. Typically English.
The British are famously terrible at learning other people's languages. Even so these days if you go to the main tourist areas of places like London you will find signs not only in English but also languages such as French, Spanish and Chinese.
Japan is absolutely not like that. As a island nation it is very insular with very few people speaking a language other than Japanese.
As a result all the signs, menus, maps and so on are in Japanese. And only Japanese. Making things utterly incomprehensible to outsiders.
I remember once being at a railway station in Barcelona, Spain and discovering that all the signs were written in three languages. None of which I could read.
However by matching the combination of letters in the Latin alphabet on my ticket to the combination of letters in the Latin alphabet on the signs I was able to just about cope.
Given Japanese's logographic writing style something like that is simply not going to be an option.
The Japanese sequence then cut away to a video presentation.
This began with the pedestrian scramble crossing outside Tokyo's Shibuya Railway Station.
The Shibuya Crossing is one of Tokyo's most famous landmarks. It's featured in movies such as; "Lost In Translation," "The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift" and "Resident Evil: Afterlife."
It also introduces you to another one of the big culture shocks you're going to experience travelling from Brazil 2016 to Japan 2020.
Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is a beach city. This gave the 2016 a very laidback, casual atmosphere.
By comparison the pace of life in Japan and particularly Tokyo is just insane.
The Shibuya district of Tokyo is around 15kmsq (6 milesq) in area. It is home to around 220,000 people giving it a population density of around 14,600 people per square kilometre. By comparison Rio de Janeiro has a population density of around 5,300 people per square kilometre.
The Shibuya Crossing serves two main railway stations. Shibuya Station and Shinjuku Station. Between them the two stations are used by around 6 million people each day. Many of those people also use the Shibuya Crossing.
The video then went onto show the 33 events which will make up the 2020 Olympics alongside other famous Tokyo landmarks. Such as the Rainbow Bridge and the famous Bullet Train.
The video was also interspersed with famous characters from Japanese Anime and video games. Such as; "Hello Kitty," "Pac Man," "Doraemon" and "Captain Tsubasa."
The video featured several famous Japanese Olympians; Swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, Long-Distance Runner Naoko Takahashi and Boxer Ryota Murata.
It then cut to the back of a limousine where it showed another famous Japanese. The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister Abe kept looking at his watch, worrying he wasn't going to make it to the Closing Ceremony in time.
In his urgency Prime Minister Abe then donned the costume of; "Mario" from the famous "Super Mario Brothers" game franchise from the Japanese company Nintendo.
Having become Super Mario Prime Minister Abe was then provided with a; "Warp Pipe" from the game by the Doraemon character. This allowed him to travel through the centre of the Earth from Shibuya Crossing to Rio's Maracana Stadium where the Closing Ceremony was being held.
His journey across the globe was illustrated by a cartoon style animation. This showed the huge distance between Tokyo and Rio. It also represented the strong links between Japan and Brazil which is home to the largest ethnically Japanese population outside of Japan.
The video then ended and the action returned to the arena.
There a Super Mario Warp Pipe had appeared in the centre of the arena floor. Standing atop of it was Super Mario.
Super Mario then took off his costume to reveal that it was the actual Prime Minister Abe.
Traditionally the transition ceremony is performed by the local officials of the two host cities. In this case the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes and the Governor of the Tokyo region Yuriko Koike.
So for the upcoming host to send its Head of Government/State to a Closing Ceremony is a huge gesture of solidarity. To have your Prime Minister not only attend in person but actually physically participate in the Closing Ceremony is a massive gesture of solidarity.
The sequence then merged the video/animated portion with the real word portion. It did this was an Augmented Reality (AR) sequence.
Essentially AR is the layering of one level of electronic images on top of another layer of electronic images.
I think the most widely known example is the Nintendo licensed "Pokemon Go" Smartphone game. In the game you go to a specified GPS location. You then hold up your Smartphone in video mode and if you're lucky the Pokemon computer game characters will appear.
This was the first time that Augmented Reality had ever been used in any Olympic or Para-Olympic ceremony. Although significant for that reason the sequence actually only showed the 33 event that will make up the 2020 Olympics.
The next phase of the sequence saw a joint performance by male rhythmic gymnasts from Aomori University alongside female dancers from the; "Elevenplay" dance troupe.
The centrepiece of this performance were giant box frames. They were made up of lighting tubes. As they were moved around the arena floor and accompanied by similar block like light projections they were supposed to represent video pixels.
This seemed to highlight Japan's advances in technology from the block graphics on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which brought the World Super Mario Brothers through to the Augmented Reality of Pokemon Go.
Throughout this phase of the dance/gymnastic routine the music was very modern Japanese in style. It had been specially composed by Yasutaka Nakata. Composer and producer for famous Japanese acts including the Perfume girlband, Techno band Capsule and the singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
The phase ended with an overhead view of the Tokyo skyline being projected onto the arena floor. This resembled an electric circuit board. Further highlighting Japan's leading role in technology.
The dance/gymnastic routine then seamlessly moved into a second phase.
This was really dominated by performers standing atop of the Warp Pipe waving the Japanese national flag amid lots of red light.
The music in this phase was much more of a fusion between modern Japanese music and the Latin Jazz and Salsa which Brazil is famous for. It included parts of the music from the 2012 play; "Egg" by the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
The main message of "Egg" is that whether in Sports, Music or Olympics War and Nationalism will never again be mixed.
Although I am seriously late in writing this up the next games after 2016 were the 2018 Winter Games held in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South).
Between 1910 and 1945 the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Japanese Empire. This occupation was absolutely brutal with the Korean Peninsula suffering a form of cultural genocide and the hands of the Japanese.
During the Second World War Imperial Japan allied itself with Nazi Germany. It was their defeat that lead to the partition of the Korean Peninsula and the Korean War which technically still continues to this day.
Imperial Japan's defeat in the Second World War also saw it forced to adopt a new constitution. This replaced the power of the Emperor with a democratic Parliamentary system. It also forced Japan to adopt a position of neutrality by preventing it from forming a military.
Current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is quite a nationalistic leader. One of the main things he wants to do is scrap this Article 9 provision once again allowing Japan to possess a military.
This shift towards military nationalism is likely to be a significant talking point as Japan hosts the big nationalistic celebration that is the 2020 Games.
The fact that Prime Minister Abe is using the apparent threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) as an excuse to scrap Article 9 has not gone down well with the RoK. Not only do they have to deal with the DPRK they still have vivid memories of Japanese military nationalism.
The mass of red light then gave way to a mass of blue light. Amid all the talk of computer graphics and pixels this seemed intended to make you think of the Red, Blue, Green (RBG) colour pallate which makes up all the colours in pixels.
With that idea in mind once the Red light had been replaced with Blue light you would expect the Blue light to be replaced with Green light. However the Green light never appeared.
This seemed to indicate that Japan's commitment to environmental or "Green" issues such as Climate Change goes unspoken. After all the Kyoto Protocol is named after the Japanese city of Kyoto where it was signed.
Whatever the colour of the light it along with the pixel boxes gradually began to recede towards the Warp Pipe at the centre of the arena floor. This seemed to be a reference to the main concern heading into the 2020 Games.
In March 2011 Japan suffered the fourth most powerful Earthquake ever recorded. This triggered a Tsunami which amongst other things caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This forced Japan to shutdown all 54 of its nuclear power plants. At the time those provided Japan with 30% of its electricity. So their closure triggered an electricity crisis in Japan which continues to this day.
Therefore there are legitimate questions over whether Japan will be able to provide enough electricity to power the 2020 Games. They have currently brought 3 nuclear power plants representing around 2% of production back online amid widespread public protests.
The sequence ended with the Tokyo 2020 logo and an image of Tokyo's skyline showing landmarks such as the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and the Skytree.
17:10 on 2/4/18 (UK date).
Japans Bit:
It is IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony must include a sequence marking the transition from one Olympic host to the next.
The Greek national flag is raised while their national anthem is performed. Next the Olympic anthem is performed. The Olympic flag is then taken down and handed to a representative of the next 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.
It is then protocol that the Closing Ceremony includes a sequence produced by the next Olympic host. 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.
On this occasion the 2020 Olympic host merged its sequence with the transition ceremony.
As Japan's national flag was being raised and its anthem was played the entire arena floor was bathed in red light.
At the edges of the arena floor what can only be described as; "Robotic Geishas" appeared. Geishas are of course a World famous symbol of Japanese culture. Japan is also one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth leading the way in many fields. Including in robotics.
In reality these Robotic Geishas were human performers wearing metal framed costumes covered in lights. They were propelled across the floor on wheels rather like a hoverboard.
As the Robot Geishas advanced the red light receded. Eventually it became a red circle at the centre of the white arena floor. Just like the red circle symbolising the rising sun at the centre of Japan's national flag.
Within the centre circle the word; "Rio" appeared twice. In reference to Rio de Janeiro where this ceremony was taking place.
One of the words; "Rio" became the word; "Obrgado." This means; "Thank You" in Portuguese, the native language of 2016 host Brazil.
The other word; "Rio" became the word; "Arigato." This means; "Thank You (or "Thanks")" in Japanese. The native language of 2020 host Japan.
Apart from highlighting the transition from Brazil 2016 to Japan 2020 this highlighted the strong cultural links between Japan and Brazil. The largest ethnically Japanese population outside of Japan lives in Brazil.
The arena floor and the stadium seats were then bathed in light showing the word; "Thank You" in pretty much all of the languages of the World.
This issue of language has been a recurring theme throughout the 2016 Games. As technology has advanced the World has become smaller. For example I can publish this on the Internet in the UK and it can instantly be read in both Brazil and Japan.
The only real restriction left is language. You can certainly read this in Brazil and Japan. I can't guarantee you'll understand it though.
The reference to language here though also prepares you for one of the big culture shocks you'll be in for if you travel to the 2020 Games.
In many parts of the World people fluently speak several languages. If you travel to particularly tourist areas you will find people who speak the language of their main guests along with signs in multiple languages.
So even if it is everyone's second or third language most people can normally find a common language. Typically English.
The British are famously terrible at learning other people's languages. Even so these days if you go to the main tourist areas of places like London you will find signs not only in English but also languages such as French, Spanish and Chinese.
Japan is absolutely not like that. As a island nation it is very insular with very few people speaking a language other than Japanese.
As a result all the signs, menus, maps and so on are in Japanese. And only Japanese. Making things utterly incomprehensible to outsiders.
I remember once being at a railway station in Barcelona, Spain and discovering that all the signs were written in three languages. None of which I could read.
However by matching the combination of letters in the Latin alphabet on my ticket to the combination of letters in the Latin alphabet on the signs I was able to just about cope.
Given Japanese's logographic writing style something like that is simply not going to be an option.
The Japanese sequence then cut away to a video presentation.
This began with the pedestrian scramble crossing outside Tokyo's Shibuya Railway Station.
The Shibuya Crossing is one of Tokyo's most famous landmarks. It's featured in movies such as; "Lost In Translation," "The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift" and "Resident Evil: Afterlife."
It also introduces you to another one of the big culture shocks you're going to experience travelling from Brazil 2016 to Japan 2020.
Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is a beach city. This gave the 2016 a very laidback, casual atmosphere.
By comparison the pace of life in Japan and particularly Tokyo is just insane.
The Shibuya district of Tokyo is around 15kmsq (6 milesq) in area. It is home to around 220,000 people giving it a population density of around 14,600 people per square kilometre. By comparison Rio de Janeiro has a population density of around 5,300 people per square kilometre.
The Shibuya Crossing serves two main railway stations. Shibuya Station and Shinjuku Station. Between them the two stations are used by around 6 million people each day. Many of those people also use the Shibuya Crossing.
The video then went onto show the 33 events which will make up the 2020 Olympics alongside other famous Tokyo landmarks. Such as the Rainbow Bridge and the famous Bullet Train.
The video was also interspersed with famous characters from Japanese Anime and video games. Such as; "Hello Kitty," "Pac Man," "Doraemon" and "Captain Tsubasa."
The video featured several famous Japanese Olympians; Swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, Long-Distance Runner Naoko Takahashi and Boxer Ryota Murata.
It then cut to the back of a limousine where it showed another famous Japanese. The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister Abe kept looking at his watch, worrying he wasn't going to make it to the Closing Ceremony in time.
In his urgency Prime Minister Abe then donned the costume of; "Mario" from the famous "Super Mario Brothers" game franchise from the Japanese company Nintendo.
Having become Super Mario Prime Minister Abe was then provided with a; "Warp Pipe" from the game by the Doraemon character. This allowed him to travel through the centre of the Earth from Shibuya Crossing to Rio's Maracana Stadium where the Closing Ceremony was being held.
His journey across the globe was illustrated by a cartoon style animation. This showed the huge distance between Tokyo and Rio. It also represented the strong links between Japan and Brazil which is home to the largest ethnically Japanese population outside of Japan.
The video then ended and the action returned to the arena.
There a Super Mario Warp Pipe had appeared in the centre of the arena floor. Standing atop of it was Super Mario.
Super Mario then took off his costume to reveal that it was the actual Prime Minister Abe.
Traditionally the transition ceremony is performed by the local officials of the two host cities. In this case the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes and the Governor of the Tokyo region Yuriko Koike.
So for the upcoming host to send its Head of Government/State to a Closing Ceremony is a huge gesture of solidarity. To have your Prime Minister not only attend in person but actually physically participate in the Closing Ceremony is a massive gesture of solidarity.
The sequence then merged the video/animated portion with the real word portion. It did this was an Augmented Reality (AR) sequence.
Essentially AR is the layering of one level of electronic images on top of another layer of electronic images.
I think the most widely known example is the Nintendo licensed "Pokemon Go" Smartphone game. In the game you go to a specified GPS location. You then hold up your Smartphone in video mode and if you're lucky the Pokemon computer game characters will appear.
This was the first time that Augmented Reality had ever been used in any Olympic or Para-Olympic ceremony. Although significant for that reason the sequence actually only showed the 33 event that will make up the 2020 Olympics.
The next phase of the sequence saw a joint performance by male rhythmic gymnasts from Aomori University alongside female dancers from the; "Elevenplay" dance troupe.
The centrepiece of this performance were giant box frames. They were made up of lighting tubes. As they were moved around the arena floor and accompanied by similar block like light projections they were supposed to represent video pixels.
This seemed to highlight Japan's advances in technology from the block graphics on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which brought the World Super Mario Brothers through to the Augmented Reality of Pokemon Go.
Throughout this phase of the dance/gymnastic routine the music was very modern Japanese in style. It had been specially composed by Yasutaka Nakata. Composer and producer for famous Japanese acts including the Perfume girlband, Techno band Capsule and the singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
The phase ended with an overhead view of the Tokyo skyline being projected onto the arena floor. This resembled an electric circuit board. Further highlighting Japan's leading role in technology.
The dance/gymnastic routine then seamlessly moved into a second phase.
This was really dominated by performers standing atop of the Warp Pipe waving the Japanese national flag amid lots of red light.
The music in this phase was much more of a fusion between modern Japanese music and the Latin Jazz and Salsa which Brazil is famous for. It included parts of the music from the 2012 play; "Egg" by the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
The main message of "Egg" is that whether in Sports, Music or Olympics War and Nationalism will never again be mixed.
Although I am seriously late in writing this up the next games after 2016 were the 2018 Winter Games held in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South).
Between 1910 and 1945 the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Japanese Empire. This occupation was absolutely brutal with the Korean Peninsula suffering a form of cultural genocide and the hands of the Japanese.
During the Second World War Imperial Japan allied itself with Nazi Germany. It was their defeat that lead to the partition of the Korean Peninsula and the Korean War which technically still continues to this day.
Imperial Japan's defeat in the Second World War also saw it forced to adopt a new constitution. This replaced the power of the Emperor with a democratic Parliamentary system. It also forced Japan to adopt a position of neutrality by preventing it from forming a military.
Current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is quite a nationalistic leader. One of the main things he wants to do is scrap this Article 9 provision once again allowing Japan to possess a military.
This shift towards military nationalism is likely to be a significant talking point as Japan hosts the big nationalistic celebration that is the 2020 Games.
The fact that Prime Minister Abe is using the apparent threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) as an excuse to scrap Article 9 has not gone down well with the RoK. Not only do they have to deal with the DPRK they still have vivid memories of Japanese military nationalism.
The mass of red light then gave way to a mass of blue light. Amid all the talk of computer graphics and pixels this seemed intended to make you think of the Red, Blue, Green (RBG) colour pallate which makes up all the colours in pixels.
With that idea in mind once the Red light had been replaced with Blue light you would expect the Blue light to be replaced with Green light. However the Green light never appeared.
This seemed to indicate that Japan's commitment to environmental or "Green" issues such as Climate Change goes unspoken. After all the Kyoto Protocol is named after the Japanese city of Kyoto where it was signed.
Whatever the colour of the light it along with the pixel boxes gradually began to recede towards the Warp Pipe at the centre of the arena floor. This seemed to be a reference to the main concern heading into the 2020 Games.
In March 2011 Japan suffered the fourth most powerful Earthquake ever recorded. This triggered a Tsunami which amongst other things caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This forced Japan to shutdown all 54 of its nuclear power plants. At the time those provided Japan with 30% of its electricity. So their closure triggered an electricity crisis in Japan which continues to this day.
Therefore there are legitimate questions over whether Japan will be able to provide enough electricity to power the 2020 Games. They have currently brought 3 nuclear power plants representing around 2% of production back online amid widespread public protests.
The sequence ended with the Tokyo 2020 logo and an image of Tokyo's skyline showing landmarks such as the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and the Skytree.
17:10 on 2/4/18 (UK date).
Tuesday, 27 March 2018
The 2018 Winter Para-Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt. 8
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).
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).
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).
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