Every four years the Summer Olympic games are held somewhere in the World. The naive amongst us think that it is a celebration it is not.
Instead the purpose of the modern Olympic movement is to gather the nations of the World together to discuss the political issues that they find important. Due to the high number of nations now competing in the Olympics - higher even than the number of nations on earth - this can lead to an extremely noisy affair with every screaming out the issues that they consider important.
During the course of each games that huge array of topics is whittled down to just a handful. These issues are then explored in great detail at the Parallel or "Para-Olympics" for disabled athletes that are held around two weeks later. I think someone really needs to look up the word; "Parallel" in the dictionary.
The 2016 Olympics were supposed to be held in Rio de Janerio. Unfortunately the US and the UK decided to hijack this year's event and turn it into a mass celebration of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group. This mainly took the form of trying to get competitors from Russia who have long opposed ISIL banned from the games.
In this effort the US and the UK were only partially successful. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did stop short of issuing a blanket ban on Russia it did leave individual federations such at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to impose their own bans.
Due to the US' failure to get exactly what it wanted much of what became known as the ISIL games were spent worrying about where America's rage would explode next in an effort to ruin the games.
For much of early 2016 attention focused on Turkish President/Prime
Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to reignite the long
running conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Region (NKR). Both Armenia and Azerbaijan who contest the NKR sit
directly south of Georgia. It was during the 2008 Beijing games that
Georgia decided launch into a war against Russia that it promptly lost.
Fortunately several months of concerted
international pressure seemed to put the lid back on NKR - at least for
now. Sadly that only meant that attention switched back to Shamali
Province which the US created from the ruins of Ukraine during the 2014 Sochi games and where Turkish backed terror groups continue to be a particular problem.
Within the first week of the games on
August 10th (10/8/16) Russian security services foiled a Shamali
Province backed plot to launch a terror attack in the Russian province
of Crimea. In response Shamali Province began massing its military on
the border with Russia. This created a fear that Shamali Province would
attempt to invade Crimea rather like Georgia attacked Russia back in
2008.
Obviously this forced Russia to
mobilise its forces to deter any attack by Shamali Province. The games
also set out to deter Shamali Province's aggression with lots of results
- particularly in boxing - suddenly going Russia's way. This was to
send the message that Russia rather than Shamali Province had the
majority of international support.
Sadly with the games ending on August 21st (21/8/16) Erdogan's and the Americans nihilism could not be contained forever. It exploded on August 24th (24/8/16) when Turkey with US permission launched an invasion of northern Syria. The purpose of this invasion is to protect ISIL's supply lines into Turkey that have been coming under increasing pressure from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) coalition.
The Turkish invasion and continued occupation of Syria used a mixture of regular troops - particularly very Special Forces known as "Purple Berets" - and irregular troops known collectively as the Syrian Turkmen Brigades (STB). These are made up of members of the "Grey Wolves" - the paramilitary wing of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
One of their key divisions take their name from Sultan Mehmed - the 15th Century Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
He is often referred to as; "Mehmed the Conqueror" for his role in expanding that Islamist Caliphate through the capture of what it now known as Istanbul. He also invaded and occupied much of the Balkans including what is now known as Greece, Bosnia, Hungary and Albania. It was also Mehmed the Conqueror who invaded and occupied Crimea on the Black Sea before launching an invasion of Italy which ultimately failed.
With the Turkish military - both regular and irregular - operating in parallel with ISIL in Syria it is only appropriate then that the ISIL Games are followed by the Sultan Mehmed Games.
The Opening Ceremony of which took place last night.
The Video Countdown: It is a longstanding tradition that ceremonies such as these begin with a short video sequence that features a prominent 10 to 1 countdown. The purpose of this is to allow all the broadcasters who are picking up the official International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) feed to make sure they calibrate their coverage so they don't miss the start of the ceremony say because they were in a commercial break.
During the ceremonies of the ISIL games the Brazilian hosts broke with this tradition. Instead they showed a video sequence followed by a countdown in the arena that was part of the ceremony itself. This was done to make the point that in recent years broadcasting technology has moved on to the point where this type of countdown is redundant. In turn this poses the question of whether the Olympics themselves have become redundant. After all in the gap between the last Closing Ceremony and this Opening Ceremony we've had the annual G20 political summit.
In this ceremony the Brazilian hosts continued to play about with this idea. Right before the ceremony began a 10 to 1 countdown was shown on giant screens inside the arena. At the time the IPC feed was showing a wide aerial shot of the arena. That meant that the 10 to 1 countdown was reasonably clearly visible to anyone who was watching the IPC feed. Particularly any program directors who at that point would be shouting at their presenters in the studio to shut up because the show was about to start.
The ceremony then began with a video sequence that did not feature a 10 to 1 countdown. Instead it featured IPC President Phillip Craven at his home in Stoke Mandeville, UK - birthplace of the Para-Olympic movement - packing a suitcase for his trip to Brazil.
Craven then arrives at an airport where he discovers that all flights have been cancelled. Unlike the IOC the IPC has imposed a blanket ban on Russia competitors at these games. This is unfortunate because if there is one main topic to be carried over from the ISIL games to the Sultan Mehmed games it is; "How did the US and the UK get it so wrong?" By banning Russia from these games Craven - whose family name means; "Cowardly" - has prevented even that topic being discussed. It's rather as if he's cancelled everybody's flights.
Eventually Craven was able to sneak aboard a flight to the Brazilian city of Belem. This is located in the far north of Brazil in Para state close to the border with French Guyana. It is probably as far away from Rio de Janerio as you can get whilst staying with in Brazil. It is also the Brazilian city that sounds most similar to the term; "Bellend" which is an English slang term that it hardly complimentary.
From Belem Craven had to make a treacherous journey in his wheelchair across the length of Brazil passing many of its famous people, Rainforests, rivers and towns on the way. His arrival in Rio de Janerio was marked by a shot of Craven sitting at the feet of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. With much Closing Ceremony just gone focused on my 'stigmata' I'll take that as a compliment.
Craven was then shown making his way through the streets of Rio where he encountered many Para-Olympic sports such as what seemed to be the wheelchair marathon. Finally Craven made his way through the halls and passageways of the Maracana stadium where the ceremony was being held.
The video then suddenly ended and we cut to Craven sitting in his wheelchair on a platform inside the arena. After being introduced by the announcer Craven pulled on a giant rope hanging next to him. This unfurled a giant number 10 that began another 10 to 1 countdown.
Although I suspect they were sequenced by computer in much the same way that commercial breaks on TV are these days the numerals themselves were distinctly low-tech. They were simply cloth banners that unfurled around the arena until they reach 1.
There was then a giant sculpture of a zero that stood in front of a ramp. Down that ramp came hurtling Aaron Fotheringham who is quite possibly the World's only wheelchair stuntman. This native of Las Vegas, Nevada, US regularly competes in BMX and Skateboard competitions alongside able bodied athletes.
However Fotheringham is probably most famous for appearing in the UK broadcaster Channel 4's "Yes I Can" Para-Olympic trailer; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IocLkk3aYlk
As I mentioned at the time of the Closing Ceremony there was serious concern that these Sultan Mehmed games would be a complete flop with only 12% of tickets. In an effort to prevent that from happening Channel 4 dubbed this trailer into Portuguese and let it be shown across Brazil. Along with an endorsement from the Pope and the "#FillTheSeats" campaign this has significantly helped boost interest in the games.
Unlike in the trailer during the ceremony Fotheringham came down this huge ramp and then jumped through the zero which let out fireworks as he did so. This gave it the full Evel Knievel stuntman effect.
It might just have been me but I thought this oval zero seemed to resemble the opening of a woman's vagina. This gave the whole sequence an air of a man in a wheelchair hurtling down the birth canal and then being born into the world through a giant flaming vagina.
Apart from producing an image that will stick in the mind this raised an interesting talking point.
The Para-Olympics feature a wide range of competitors with a wide range of disabilities. Some of these are congenital disabilities meaning that people are born with them. Others - particularly the amputees - will have lived much of their life as able bodied only to suddenly become disabled.
During the 2014 Sochi Para-Olympics I seem to remember discussing this by comparing British Skier Kelly Gallagher and Russian Rower Alexey
Chuvashev who performed that memorable "I'm Possible" sequence. Kelly Gallagher suffers from Albinism which is a congenital condition in which a certain protein is not produced or the receptor sites don't respond to the protein. Chuvashev was simply a soldier who stepped on a bomb and his legs fell off.
To answer the question Aaron Fotheringham suffers from Spina Bifida which is a congenital condition. So he was born that way. Although I think his mother might remember it slightly differently.
Wheels Within Wheels: The next sequence began with a traditionally Brazilian circle of Samba drummers.
As part of this circle was the older man who featured in the earlier Opening Ceremony teaching a young boy to dance. At the time I said that I didn't catch his name. I have since found out his name and written it down. Unfortunately I have forgotten where I wrote it down. So it seems this poor guy will have to wait a little bit longer to receive his due credit.
All the members of this Samba circle were black. In fact at one point I commented that they looked like some of my Caribbean neighbours. I then remembered where Brazil was on the map and what I'd just said. Some of the male members of the circle were wearing red and white striped tops that made them resemble characters from the children's books that are known in the US as "Where's Waldo" but in the UK as "Where's Wally."
With their Afro hairstyles they also seemed to resemble the British "Golliwog" or the similar US "Sambo" dolls that are now considered wildly racist. This seemed to be another reminder that Brazil like much of the rest of Latin America shares the US' history of slavery and racism.
As the Samba circle was perform onto the arena floor around them was video projected a sequences of cogs all whirring as if in some giant machine. The arena floor was then taken over by performers wielding all sorts of wheeled objects.
The were giant "Penny Farthing" bicycle style wheels being pushed. There were wheelchairs pulling wheeled trailers carrying what appeared to be giant plant pots - there's definitely a "Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men" joke in there somewhere. There was also people carrying medium sized wheels on sticks above their heads which seemed to resemble giant lollipops. I think this was a reference to the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" whose star Gene Wilder died recently. It seems his body of work will live on across the globe.
As I've said the Para-Olympics features a wide range of competitors with a wide range of disabilities. However the ones that are most obvious to the untrained eye are the people confined to wheelchairs. Although I should point out that there are a host of reasons why someone might need to use a wheelchair.
As a result the wheelchair is largely considered the internationally recognised symbol of disability.
Within the wheelchair events there is actually something of an engineering arms race to see who can get the best performance out of their equipment. It leads to lots of scandals with people accusing each other of using illegal designs. If you are super into wheels then the Handcycling events are definitely for you. Not least because they feature Alex Zanardi who by all accounts is just as mad now as he was when he was a Formula 1 driver.
However I think this sequence was also a reference to the indirect and sometimes mysterious way in which politics and international diplomacy. The famous Irish poet Seamus Heaney used a bicycle as a metaphor for this type of complexity in his poems "Wheels Within Wheels."
An example of this that I am particularly familiar with that seems very relevant to Brazil is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations to find a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.
Using made up examples in this you would find that say the UK was resistant to a legally binding agreement due to fears that it would impose unduly onerous Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emission reduction targets.
Once the UK had been reassured it could set its own targets its cog would shift to allow for legal force to the agreement. This in turn would impact say the Norwegian cog that wanted to give more money to nations such as Brazil but needed a legally binding structure to make sure that money wasn't squandered. Once Norway had got its legally binding structure from the UK its own cog would turn releasing money to Brazil. In turn this guarantee that they would receive a baseline of funding below what the market could provide Brazil's cog would turn allowing for market based funding. This is turn would move say Nepal's cog so they too would allow for market based funding.
Amid this complex array of turning and whirring cogs eventually you would end up with an agreement that suits everybody.
Or at least we would have done if at the last minute US President Barack Obama hadn't turned up and once again declared;
"I'M HERE TO SAVE THE WORLD!"
And smashed it all to bits with a hammer.
As this "Where's Wally" sequence ended Philip Craven once again found himself in the spotlight. This time he was sitting in the stands where he was formally introduced by the announcer.
17:45 on 8/9/16 (UK date).
Thursday, 8 September 2016
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
The 2016 Heritage Flame Lighting Ceremony.
Yes. I am fully aware that I have not yet finished writing up the Closing Ceremony of the 2016 ISIL games.
However even by last Friday (2/9/16) the UK had decided to add to everybody's workload with a ceremony marking of the heritage flame. Rather than being a tradition this is something the UK started in 2012 and is desperately hoping will catch on.
The main feature of the ISIL games Opening Ceremony was of course the Parade of Nations. As part of this competitors were asked to plant a single seed in seedbanks which would then be used to plant an Olympic forest. This obviously carried with it an air of sexual innuendo. The seedbanks then burst open to reveal the Olympic rings in the form of what resembled Marijuana plants.
The heritage flame ceremony took this idea and ran with it. The ceremony being entitled "Seeds of Diversity."
Ward X: The ceremony began where the Para-Olympic movement itself began - in 1944 in Stoke Mandeville military hospital in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Here Jewish-German Doctor Ludwig Guttmann was treating 26 British combat veterans for spinal injuries in a special ward designated as "Ward X." He chanced upon the idea of using an archery competition to get these men out of their beds and into wheelchairs to show them that they could still achieve despite their newly inflicted disabilities. From that seed of an idea the Paralympic movement was born.
The action focused on a small wooden hut that initially represented Ward X which was just a small wooden hut with 26 beds in it. From that hut emerged two below the knee amputees in World War 2 British military uniforms being pushed on hospital beds by performers who were wearing strangely very modern medical uniforms.
After they had strapped on their prosthetics and risen from their beds the 'soldiers' were joined by two wheelchair dancers. One of these was Laura Dajao a professional dancer who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She was the first wheelchair dancer to join the prestigious Saddlers Wells dance company.
The male dancer who accompanied her whose name I did not catch appeared to be suffering from Downs Syndrome. This is unusual because normally people with that type of severe developmental disability do not compete in the Para-Olympics. Instead they compete in the Special Olympics.
The fact that the Para-Olympics are often mistaken for the Special Olympics is a longrunning source of irritation. After all you can see how telling a brain surgeon who happened to lose their lower leg in a motorcycle accident in their mid-thirties that they're suddenly mentally retarded would be offensive.
During the dance number performers appeared on top on what are called "Sleigh Poles." The way that these elasticated metal poles flex under tension obviously reflects an archers bow. However with the medical staff these performers that seemed to fly in the air invoked memories of the sequence in the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony that referenced Britain's National Health Service (NHS).
This sequence proved rather controversial because during the 2014 Sochi Olympic ceremonies Britain chastised the Russia organisers claiming the use of video projection made it hard to understand. The Russians snapped back that at least their ceremonies didn't include tedious sections of healthcare funding and policy.
During the ceremonies so far the Brazilians made extensive use of video of projection this seemed to be a sign of support for Russia over the UK. However the Brazilian ceremonies also dealt with extremely technical topics. I think to understand the Opening Ceremony in particular you actually did need to hold a Geography degree.
That could be interpreted as a sign of support for the UK over Russia as Brazil tried to be a good host and keep all sides happy. However everyone knows that Brazil can throw a good party. What everyone's less sure about is whether Brazil can manage serious and tedious topics. Therefore making the ceremonies very technical helps to dispel Brazil's image as; "Not a serious country."
In the 2012 ceremony London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) was used to tell the story of the creation of the NHS. To this day GOSH really exists as a private hospital that occasionally treats NHS patients. As a result it also served as an example of the reforms to the NHS the government of the day wanted to introduce which would effectively scrap the NHS and replace it with GOSH style private hospitals.
About a year after the ceremony that government of the day scrapped the economic policy that it claimed made the NHS reforms essential. Back in June of 2016 the Finance Minister George Osborne behind that policy was forced to resign. As was the Prime Minister. Curiously the Health Minister Jeremy Hunt kept his job despite mounting strike action by NHS doctors opposed to the policy.
Those NHS doctors had scheduled an unprecedented five day long strike during the games next week. As such I'm getting the distinct impression that those NHS reforms are about to join the changes to housing policy and education policy that were discussed during the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest and be completely withdrawn as a threat to the British way of life.
Sadly the NHS seem to have lose their nerve and cancelled next week's strike. I guess they're much better at healthcare than they are at politics.
One thing that did catch my eye is that along with the white coats the performers playing the role of medical professionals were wearing very crisp, new pink medical scrubs.
Yesterday the Turkish based propaganda group Syria Civil Defence (The White Helmets) claimed that the Syrian government had carried out a Chlorine gas attack in Aleppo City. The video released to back up their claim showed the 'victims' all dressed in those same crisp, new pink medical scrubs.
Like all the other rumours going around this could be a complete coincidence. However I think its clear that the hospitals in Aleppo City are under nowhere near as much pressure as they like to claim. After all they clearly have no problem obtaining fresh supplies.
The Allotted Time: The scene then changed to resemble what in the UK is known as an "Allotment." This is an allotted patch of government owned land that that people use to grow vegetables. This is a very British pastime. Allotments also played a critical role in feeding Britain during the Second World War.
Allotments can also be used as a form of therapy for people with disabilities. By getting people out into the fresh air and sunshine and providing them with structure and purpose they can be a particularly good way of treating the type of depression and other mental health problems associated with a life changing injury such as an amputation or a spinal injury.
My mothers are very into their allotment. On the site that they use there are actually a number of plots fitted with raised soil beds specifically for use by wheelchair users.
Along with their dungarees, spades, potted plants and other gardening supplies performers then started parading placards featuring the faces on significant people in the Para-Olympic movement such as Ludwig Guttmann. It was claimed that these were "Seed Packets" and some were adorned with pictures of Orchids. However others were adorned with pictures of Poppies.
The Poppy of course is used in Britain to mourn the war dead particular the dead of the First World War. The poem "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae is particularly resonant. As a result the 'seed packets' bearing Poppies alongside black & white photographs resembled with World War One recruiting posters or the memorial photographs giving to the relatives of those killed in battle.
Those battles of Flanders are particularly important to the creation of Northern Ireland and therefore the Northern Irish Troubles. It was due to the way that Irish Protestants fought during the battles of Flanders that led to them being allowed to establish Northern Ireland in the 1920's rather than becoming part of a united Irish Republic under majority Catholic rule.
With it being 2016 we are mid-way through the 100 year anniversary of the First World War that raged from 1914 to 1918. Back in March we had events marking the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign. In June we had the very strange ceremony marking the Battle of Verdun. The commemorations of the Battle of the Somme began in July but like the battle itself won't end until November.
Sadly with trench warfare, chemical weapons and claykickers all back on display in Syria in many ways we seem to be closer to 1916 now than we were just 10 years ago.
Danger Naked Flame: During the allotment sequence the Ward X hut had rotated to show a side resembling the type of Greenhouse you find on many allotments. Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions have of course been big themes of the Brazilian ceremonies.
From the Greenhouse emerged Kelly Gallagher the Northern Irish skier who won the UK's first ever Winter Para-Olympic gold medal in Sochi. Appropriately enough she was carrying the Heritage flame in a wheelbarrow in front of her.
Kelly Gallagher was wearing a very elaborate gold dress that made her resemble the Danenerys Targaryen character from "Game of Thrones." However being an Albino that mass of very blond hair was all Kelly Gallagher's own.
I must confess that I am very behind in my watching of Game of Thrones. I've still got the DVD's of Season 4 sitting on a coffee table to still wrapped in cellophane. However from what I've heard the most recent Season features the Danenerys Targaryen character in a very big nude scene. I think it involves her emerging from fire and then walking towards the camera fully nude with everything on display.
Throughout much of 2015 & 2016 what can be shown in terms of sex and nudity has been a big discussion point amongst British TV broadcasters. During the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest this got elevated into a discussion about how to integrate large numbers of refugees from conservative Muslim societies into much more liberal European societies. In turn this seems to have morphed in to France's current debate over the Burkini and swimwear.
Part of the discussion about why there seems to be less nudity on British TV centred on the role of the Internet. This discourages actresses from appearing nude because those scenes will be immediately uploaded to pornographic sites where they're taken out of all artistic context. I gather that the producers of Game of Thrones are engaged in a big battle with those pornographic sites to stop this from happening.
At this point I have to say that I find that extremely frustrating. After all if I'm being forced to write an analysis of this particular Game of Thrones nude scene it would really help if I could see it. As I'm sure you understand I am particularly interested in the state of her brazilian.
Without too much work I'm sure you could turn that it into a discussion about how little coverage the Para-Olympic games receives compared to the Olympic games.
The Heritage flame lighting ceremony was broadcast live in the UK as part of Channel 4 News.
Britain's Channel 4 is I think the only network globally that will be broadcasting tonight's Opening Ceremony and parts of the games themselves live. However not even they could be bothered to broadcast all of the heritage flame ceremony live. Instead they cut away to a panel discussion followed by a weather forecast.
I gather though it ended with a performance of a specially written Operatic song.
16:00 on 7/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 01:15 on 8/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The Opening Ceremony of the parallel games has now ended. I will try and make a proper start on it later on in the morning. Or possibly the afternoon. In the meantime I like to think that I've left some thwacking great clues on Twitter. Amid the usual stream of casual racism.
Anyway. While all that was going on I suddenly remembered something. The Danenerys Targaryen character in Game of Thrones is played by British actress Emilia Clarke. In an effort to move away from that very blond character this brunette actress has recently appeared in a number of movies including "Terminator Genisys" in which she played Sarah Conner
However it was in the movie "Me Before You" in which she plays a care worker to a man who'd recently become a quadriplegic following a motorcycle accident. The main message of this film seems to be that disabled people deserve to be euthanized.
So while she may be the Mother of Dragons I doubt she's going to be particularly popular amongst this crowd.
01:25 on 8/9/16 (UK date).
However even by last Friday (2/9/16) the UK had decided to add to everybody's workload with a ceremony marking of the heritage flame. Rather than being a tradition this is something the UK started in 2012 and is desperately hoping will catch on.
The main feature of the ISIL games Opening Ceremony was of course the Parade of Nations. As part of this competitors were asked to plant a single seed in seedbanks which would then be used to plant an Olympic forest. This obviously carried with it an air of sexual innuendo. The seedbanks then burst open to reveal the Olympic rings in the form of what resembled Marijuana plants.
The heritage flame ceremony took this idea and ran with it. The ceremony being entitled "Seeds of Diversity."
Ward X: The ceremony began where the Para-Olympic movement itself began - in 1944 in Stoke Mandeville military hospital in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Here Jewish-German Doctor Ludwig Guttmann was treating 26 British combat veterans for spinal injuries in a special ward designated as "Ward X." He chanced upon the idea of using an archery competition to get these men out of their beds and into wheelchairs to show them that they could still achieve despite their newly inflicted disabilities. From that seed of an idea the Paralympic movement was born.
The action focused on a small wooden hut that initially represented Ward X which was just a small wooden hut with 26 beds in it. From that hut emerged two below the knee amputees in World War 2 British military uniforms being pushed on hospital beds by performers who were wearing strangely very modern medical uniforms.
After they had strapped on their prosthetics and risen from their beds the 'soldiers' were joined by two wheelchair dancers. One of these was Laura Dajao a professional dancer who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She was the first wheelchair dancer to join the prestigious Saddlers Wells dance company.
The male dancer who accompanied her whose name I did not catch appeared to be suffering from Downs Syndrome. This is unusual because normally people with that type of severe developmental disability do not compete in the Para-Olympics. Instead they compete in the Special Olympics.
The fact that the Para-Olympics are often mistaken for the Special Olympics is a longrunning source of irritation. After all you can see how telling a brain surgeon who happened to lose their lower leg in a motorcycle accident in their mid-thirties that they're suddenly mentally retarded would be offensive.
During the dance number performers appeared on top on what are called "Sleigh Poles." The way that these elasticated metal poles flex under tension obviously reflects an archers bow. However with the medical staff these performers that seemed to fly in the air invoked memories of the sequence in the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony that referenced Britain's National Health Service (NHS).
This sequence proved rather controversial because during the 2014 Sochi Olympic ceremonies Britain chastised the Russia organisers claiming the use of video projection made it hard to understand. The Russians snapped back that at least their ceremonies didn't include tedious sections of healthcare funding and policy.
During the ceremonies so far the Brazilians made extensive use of video of projection this seemed to be a sign of support for Russia over the UK. However the Brazilian ceremonies also dealt with extremely technical topics. I think to understand the Opening Ceremony in particular you actually did need to hold a Geography degree.
That could be interpreted as a sign of support for the UK over Russia as Brazil tried to be a good host and keep all sides happy. However everyone knows that Brazil can throw a good party. What everyone's less sure about is whether Brazil can manage serious and tedious topics. Therefore making the ceremonies very technical helps to dispel Brazil's image as; "Not a serious country."
In the 2012 ceremony London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) was used to tell the story of the creation of the NHS. To this day GOSH really exists as a private hospital that occasionally treats NHS patients. As a result it also served as an example of the reforms to the NHS the government of the day wanted to introduce which would effectively scrap the NHS and replace it with GOSH style private hospitals.
About a year after the ceremony that government of the day scrapped the economic policy that it claimed made the NHS reforms essential. Back in June of 2016 the Finance Minister George Osborne behind that policy was forced to resign. As was the Prime Minister. Curiously the Health Minister Jeremy Hunt kept his job despite mounting strike action by NHS doctors opposed to the policy.
Those NHS doctors had scheduled an unprecedented five day long strike during the games next week. As such I'm getting the distinct impression that those NHS reforms are about to join the changes to housing policy and education policy that were discussed during the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest and be completely withdrawn as a threat to the British way of life.
Sadly the NHS seem to have lose their nerve and cancelled next week's strike. I guess they're much better at healthcare than they are at politics.
One thing that did catch my eye is that along with the white coats the performers playing the role of medical professionals were wearing very crisp, new pink medical scrubs.
Yesterday the Turkish based propaganda group Syria Civil Defence (The White Helmets) claimed that the Syrian government had carried out a Chlorine gas attack in Aleppo City. The video released to back up their claim showed the 'victims' all dressed in those same crisp, new pink medical scrubs.
Like all the other rumours going around this could be a complete coincidence. However I think its clear that the hospitals in Aleppo City are under nowhere near as much pressure as they like to claim. After all they clearly have no problem obtaining fresh supplies.
The Allotted Time: The scene then changed to resemble what in the UK is known as an "Allotment." This is an allotted patch of government owned land that that people use to grow vegetables. This is a very British pastime. Allotments also played a critical role in feeding Britain during the Second World War.
Allotments can also be used as a form of therapy for people with disabilities. By getting people out into the fresh air and sunshine and providing them with structure and purpose they can be a particularly good way of treating the type of depression and other mental health problems associated with a life changing injury such as an amputation or a spinal injury.
My mothers are very into their allotment. On the site that they use there are actually a number of plots fitted with raised soil beds specifically for use by wheelchair users.
Along with their dungarees, spades, potted plants and other gardening supplies performers then started parading placards featuring the faces on significant people in the Para-Olympic movement such as Ludwig Guttmann. It was claimed that these were "Seed Packets" and some were adorned with pictures of Orchids. However others were adorned with pictures of Poppies.
The Poppy of course is used in Britain to mourn the war dead particular the dead of the First World War. The poem "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae is particularly resonant. As a result the 'seed packets' bearing Poppies alongside black & white photographs resembled with World War One recruiting posters or the memorial photographs giving to the relatives of those killed in battle.
Those battles of Flanders are particularly important to the creation of Northern Ireland and therefore the Northern Irish Troubles. It was due to the way that Irish Protestants fought during the battles of Flanders that led to them being allowed to establish Northern Ireland in the 1920's rather than becoming part of a united Irish Republic under majority Catholic rule.
With it being 2016 we are mid-way through the 100 year anniversary of the First World War that raged from 1914 to 1918. Back in March we had events marking the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign. In June we had the very strange ceremony marking the Battle of Verdun. The commemorations of the Battle of the Somme began in July but like the battle itself won't end until November.
Sadly with trench warfare, chemical weapons and claykickers all back on display in Syria in many ways we seem to be closer to 1916 now than we were just 10 years ago.
Danger Naked Flame: During the allotment sequence the Ward X hut had rotated to show a side resembling the type of Greenhouse you find on many allotments. Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions have of course been big themes of the Brazilian ceremonies.
From the Greenhouse emerged Kelly Gallagher the Northern Irish skier who won the UK's first ever Winter Para-Olympic gold medal in Sochi. Appropriately enough she was carrying the Heritage flame in a wheelbarrow in front of her.
Kelly Gallagher was wearing a very elaborate gold dress that made her resemble the Danenerys Targaryen character from "Game of Thrones." However being an Albino that mass of very blond hair was all Kelly Gallagher's own.
I must confess that I am very behind in my watching of Game of Thrones. I've still got the DVD's of Season 4 sitting on a coffee table to still wrapped in cellophane. However from what I've heard the most recent Season features the Danenerys Targaryen character in a very big nude scene. I think it involves her emerging from fire and then walking towards the camera fully nude with everything on display.
Throughout much of 2015 & 2016 what can be shown in terms of sex and nudity has been a big discussion point amongst British TV broadcasters. During the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest this got elevated into a discussion about how to integrate large numbers of refugees from conservative Muslim societies into much more liberal European societies. In turn this seems to have morphed in to France's current debate over the Burkini and swimwear.
Part of the discussion about why there seems to be less nudity on British TV centred on the role of the Internet. This discourages actresses from appearing nude because those scenes will be immediately uploaded to pornographic sites where they're taken out of all artistic context. I gather that the producers of Game of Thrones are engaged in a big battle with those pornographic sites to stop this from happening.
At this point I have to say that I find that extremely frustrating. After all if I'm being forced to write an analysis of this particular Game of Thrones nude scene it would really help if I could see it. As I'm sure you understand I am particularly interested in the state of her brazilian.
Without too much work I'm sure you could turn that it into a discussion about how little coverage the Para-Olympic games receives compared to the Olympic games.
The Heritage flame lighting ceremony was broadcast live in the UK as part of Channel 4 News.
Britain's Channel 4 is I think the only network globally that will be broadcasting tonight's Opening Ceremony and parts of the games themselves live. However not even they could be bothered to broadcast all of the heritage flame ceremony live. Instead they cut away to a panel discussion followed by a weather forecast.
I gather though it ended with a performance of a specially written Operatic song.
16:00 on 7/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 01:15 on 8/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The Opening Ceremony of the parallel games has now ended. I will try and make a proper start on it later on in the morning. Or possibly the afternoon. In the meantime I like to think that I've left some thwacking great clues on Twitter. Amid the usual stream of casual racism.
Anyway. While all that was going on I suddenly remembered something. The Danenerys Targaryen character in Game of Thrones is played by British actress Emilia Clarke. In an effort to move away from that very blond character this brunette actress has recently appeared in a number of movies including "Terminator Genisys" in which she played Sarah Conner
However it was in the movie "Me Before You" in which she plays a care worker to a man who'd recently become a quadriplegic following a motorcycle accident. The main message of this film seems to be that disabled people deserve to be euthanized.
So while she may be the Mother of Dragons I doubt she's going to be particularly popular amongst this crowd.
01:25 on 8/9/16 (UK date).
Tuesday, 6 September 2016
The 2016 ISIL Games: Closing Ceremony Pt.6
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 5; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-isil-games-closing-ceremony-pt5.html
Thank You Volunteers: It has become tradition that the Closing Ceremony gives thanks to the thousands of volunteers known as "Games Makers" who gave up their free time to make the games possible.
This particular ceremony combined this with the election of the new delegates to the IOC by having four volunteers join the athletes on stage and pose with them for a "Selfie" photograph.
Of the selected volunteers one in particular stood out.
At the risk of causing offence I would say that the young man in the glasses looked like he was suffering from some type of disability. Possibly some form of neurological impairment such as Cerebral Palsy. This of course served to remind everyone that the Para-Olympics are yet to come.
This young man also had quite a large nose giving him a rather stereotypically Jewish look. How you would have reacted to this would probably have revealed more about you than the ceremony organisers.
For example after finishing fifth in the women's 800m Polish runner Joanna Jozwik had a bit of a meltdown. She declared that she felt like she'd won the real silver medal because she was the second white person to finish and the three blacks that finished ahead of her could not be considered human let alone women.
I'm sure Poland's support for Shamali Province comes from a good place though.
Then of course there is that group of German immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the 1940's. Franz Stangl - head of the Sobibor and Treblinka death camps - was probably not the most forward thinking man when it came to Jews and the disabled. Let alone disabled Jews.
Coming on the back of references to Golems I think it was also a little bit of teasing of the UK's 2012 assertion that I am some sort of feeble-minded cripple that they can control as they like.
Brazilian popstar Lenine then performed his song "Jack Soul Brasileiro" in tribute and celebration of the volunteers.
Personally I found Lenine to be a little too mainstream for my tastes. In my experience Brazilians tend to be really into their heavy metal so I was expecting a performance by a band like "Sepultura." Judging by all the devil horns hand gestures and stuck out tongues amongst the athletes it looked like they were too.
During Lenine's performance giant cutouts of hands were waved both on stage and amongst the crowd. This seemed to be a play on that traditional sign of appreciation - the round of applause - which is sometimes referred to as; "Giving people a big hand."
However as with much else in this ceremony these giant hands struck a more personal note with me.
The Olympic Cauldron which was lit during the Opening Ceremony is designed to resemble a cooking pot - literally a cauldron.
This was a reference to efforts to reduce Climate Change in developing nations by replacing the traditional open fire they use to heat their one room huts with a metal stove. These stoves use far less wood and therefore lead to far less deforestation and fewer Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions by heating the metal of the stove and then using the stove to heat the room.
This is far from a new technology and one that I'm sadly all too familiar with.
It was first invented by Nobel prize winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalen who incorporated it into his "AGA" cooker. Although there are various varieties this is essentially a giant cast iron cabinet. You set a small fire of wood or coal in the base of the cabinet which causes it to heat up. This heated metal then serves as both a cook stove and a central heating system.
As a very young child I placed my hands on one of these cookers causing the skin on the palms of both hands to melt. They healed up in scar formation that give the appearance of there being holes in the centre of my hands similar to the "Stigmata" with which Jesus Christ was said to be nailed to the Cross. It really freaks people out. Particularly Catholics.
The AGA or technically Rayburn stove I burnt my hands on was in a farmhouse that wasn't connected to the natural gas or electricity grids. However they have become something of a must have fashion accessory for rich people who will pay upwards of USD8,000 to give their designer kitchens that authentic rustic look.
The fact that there are people in poor nations that can't afford what for them are necessities while people in rich nations will pay a large premium for what to them is a fashion accessory really serves to highlight the economic challenges in fighting Climate Change.
What a lot of people were hoping for from this new global Climate Change agreement was a mechanism that would allow poor nations and rich nations to cooperate to find solutions.
A prime example of this is that using rather made-up numbers lets say that it would cost a nation like the UK USD1million to cut ghg emissions by a single tonne. At the same time you've got a nation like Ethiopia that could cut ghg emissions by a tonne by spending USD100,000 to provide these stoves but can't afford it.
Surely then it would be better all round for the UK to spend USD100,000 buying Ethiopia those stoves to remove that one tonne. After all the atmosphere doesn't care where that 1 tonne of ghg is cut from just that it is removed.
Unfortunately in his rush to declare that he has once again Saved the World US President Obama at the last minute ordered all of those cooperation provisions to be stripped from the agreement.
As such you can see why a lot of people think that with very little effort we could achieve an awful lot more. In fact under the Paris Agreement we're doing a lot less than we were doing before.
While the giant hands were on stage and in the crowd on the floor of the arena a sort space themed display was being projected. This was another reference to China's quantum communications satellite QUESS.
The fact that China is able to launch the World's first quantum communication satellite yet is still classed as "Developing" under the Paris Agreement is just further testament to its failure.
At around 16:55 on 6/9/16 (UK date) I'll be back after dinner.
Edited at around 19:45 on 6/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
Fun With Flags: It is a matter of IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony features the raising of the national flag of Greece and a performance of the Greek national anthem.
The Olympic flag is then lowered, the Olympic anthem performed before the Olympic flag is ceremonially handed over to the next Olympic host. In this case Japan.
Then the national flag of the next Olympic host is raised and their national anthem performed
Basically it's a lot of faffing about with flags.
As with the flag protocols in the Opening Ceremony the Brazilian hosts kept matters rather simple. The Greek flag was raised and a recording of the anthem played.
During the lowering of the Olympic flag the Olympic anthem was sung by a child's choir.
With how to combat child sexual abuse and child prostitution being such a big theme in the run-up to the games any use of children is going to carry with it those connotations. However unlike in the Opening Ceremony where the children were wearing virginal white not much was made of it here. The children were all dressed in blue T-shirts that at most I think signified water.
What I did notice is that unusually for a nation as ethnically diverse as Brazil all the children in this choir were black. However the children with the darkest skin had straightened Caucasian style hair while the children with the lightest skin had big Afros. This seemed to be a reference to the rather uniquely Brazilian phenomenon of racism being determined not by skin tone but by hair type.
As with all the other flag protocols both the Greek national flag and the Olympic flag were carried by Brazilian soldiers in what passes for Brazilian dress uniform. This references the military dictatorship that the US imposed on Brazil between 1964 and 1985. However the fact that it was ruled by a military dictatorship for 21 years means that this is just how Brazil does things.
As is protocol during the ceremonial handing over of the Olympic flag the outgoing host is represented by the Mayor or Governor of the outgoing host city. In this case Mayor of Rio de Janerio Eduardo Paes. The IOC is represented by its President Thomas Bach. The incoming host city is represented by its Mayor. In this case the Governor of Tokyo prefecture Yurio Koike.
Although she was there simply in her capacity as Governor of Tokyo the fact that Yurio Koike is the Governor of Tokyo is in itself significant. Elected in July 2016 she is the first woman to hold a position of this magnitude anywhere in Japan.
This obviously reflects the fact that despite being extremely economically and technologically advanced by many western standards Japan still lags behind in many social areas - particularly women's rights. I think that based on the 2012 Gender Inequality Index Japan ranks 21st out of 136.
Improving gender equality may well be one of the issues that Japan chooses to focus on as it prepares to host the 2020 games in much the same way that Brazil has chosen to focus on preventing child sexual abuse.
The Japanese national flag was then raised on stage as a recording of the Japanese national anthem was played.
However you may have missed this because at the same time a giant version of the Japanese national flag was being video projected onto the floor of the arena. This marked the start of the Japanese produced segment of the ceremony.
It is here we hit something of an impasse. I've still not properly gone through the rest of the ceremony. The Para-Olympic Opening Ceremony starts in less than 23 hours.
20:35 on 6/9/16 (UK date).
Thank You Volunteers: It has become tradition that the Closing Ceremony gives thanks to the thousands of volunteers known as "Games Makers" who gave up their free time to make the games possible.
This particular ceremony combined this with the election of the new delegates to the IOC by having four volunteers join the athletes on stage and pose with them for a "Selfie" photograph.
Of the selected volunteers one in particular stood out.
At the risk of causing offence I would say that the young man in the glasses looked like he was suffering from some type of disability. Possibly some form of neurological impairment such as Cerebral Palsy. This of course served to remind everyone that the Para-Olympics are yet to come.
This young man also had quite a large nose giving him a rather stereotypically Jewish look. How you would have reacted to this would probably have revealed more about you than the ceremony organisers.
For example after finishing fifth in the women's 800m Polish runner Joanna Jozwik had a bit of a meltdown. She declared that she felt like she'd won the real silver medal because she was the second white person to finish and the three blacks that finished ahead of her could not be considered human let alone women.
I'm sure Poland's support for Shamali Province comes from a good place though.
Then of course there is that group of German immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the 1940's. Franz Stangl - head of the Sobibor and Treblinka death camps - was probably not the most forward thinking man when it came to Jews and the disabled. Let alone disabled Jews.
Coming on the back of references to Golems I think it was also a little bit of teasing of the UK's 2012 assertion that I am some sort of feeble-minded cripple that they can control as they like.
Brazilian popstar Lenine then performed his song "Jack Soul Brasileiro" in tribute and celebration of the volunteers.
Personally I found Lenine to be a little too mainstream for my tastes. In my experience Brazilians tend to be really into their heavy metal so I was expecting a performance by a band like "Sepultura." Judging by all the devil horns hand gestures and stuck out tongues amongst the athletes it looked like they were too.
During Lenine's performance giant cutouts of hands were waved both on stage and amongst the crowd. This seemed to be a play on that traditional sign of appreciation - the round of applause - which is sometimes referred to as; "Giving people a big hand."
However as with much else in this ceremony these giant hands struck a more personal note with me.
The Olympic Cauldron which was lit during the Opening Ceremony is designed to resemble a cooking pot - literally a cauldron.
This was a reference to efforts to reduce Climate Change in developing nations by replacing the traditional open fire they use to heat their one room huts with a metal stove. These stoves use far less wood and therefore lead to far less deforestation and fewer Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions by heating the metal of the stove and then using the stove to heat the room.
This is far from a new technology and one that I'm sadly all too familiar with.
It was first invented by Nobel prize winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalen who incorporated it into his "AGA" cooker. Although there are various varieties this is essentially a giant cast iron cabinet. You set a small fire of wood or coal in the base of the cabinet which causes it to heat up. This heated metal then serves as both a cook stove and a central heating system.
As a very young child I placed my hands on one of these cookers causing the skin on the palms of both hands to melt. They healed up in scar formation that give the appearance of there being holes in the centre of my hands similar to the "Stigmata" with which Jesus Christ was said to be nailed to the Cross. It really freaks people out. Particularly Catholics.
The AGA or technically Rayburn stove I burnt my hands on was in a farmhouse that wasn't connected to the natural gas or electricity grids. However they have become something of a must have fashion accessory for rich people who will pay upwards of USD8,000 to give their designer kitchens that authentic rustic look.
The fact that there are people in poor nations that can't afford what for them are necessities while people in rich nations will pay a large premium for what to them is a fashion accessory really serves to highlight the economic challenges in fighting Climate Change.
What a lot of people were hoping for from this new global Climate Change agreement was a mechanism that would allow poor nations and rich nations to cooperate to find solutions.
A prime example of this is that using rather made-up numbers lets say that it would cost a nation like the UK USD1million to cut ghg emissions by a single tonne. At the same time you've got a nation like Ethiopia that could cut ghg emissions by a tonne by spending USD100,000 to provide these stoves but can't afford it.
Surely then it would be better all round for the UK to spend USD100,000 buying Ethiopia those stoves to remove that one tonne. After all the atmosphere doesn't care where that 1 tonne of ghg is cut from just that it is removed.
Unfortunately in his rush to declare that he has once again Saved the World US President Obama at the last minute ordered all of those cooperation provisions to be stripped from the agreement.
As such you can see why a lot of people think that with very little effort we could achieve an awful lot more. In fact under the Paris Agreement we're doing a lot less than we were doing before.
While the giant hands were on stage and in the crowd on the floor of the arena a sort space themed display was being projected. This was another reference to China's quantum communications satellite QUESS.
The fact that China is able to launch the World's first quantum communication satellite yet is still classed as "Developing" under the Paris Agreement is just further testament to its failure.
At around 16:55 on 6/9/16 (UK date) I'll be back after dinner.
Edited at around 19:45 on 6/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
Fun With Flags: It is a matter of IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony features the raising of the national flag of Greece and a performance of the Greek national anthem.
The Olympic flag is then lowered, the Olympic anthem performed before the Olympic flag is ceremonially handed over to the next Olympic host. In this case Japan.
Then the national flag of the next Olympic host is raised and their national anthem performed
Basically it's a lot of faffing about with flags.
As with the flag protocols in the Opening Ceremony the Brazilian hosts kept matters rather simple. The Greek flag was raised and a recording of the anthem played.
During the lowering of the Olympic flag the Olympic anthem was sung by a child's choir.
With how to combat child sexual abuse and child prostitution being such a big theme in the run-up to the games any use of children is going to carry with it those connotations. However unlike in the Opening Ceremony where the children were wearing virginal white not much was made of it here. The children were all dressed in blue T-shirts that at most I think signified water.
What I did notice is that unusually for a nation as ethnically diverse as Brazil all the children in this choir were black. However the children with the darkest skin had straightened Caucasian style hair while the children with the lightest skin had big Afros. This seemed to be a reference to the rather uniquely Brazilian phenomenon of racism being determined not by skin tone but by hair type.
As with all the other flag protocols both the Greek national flag and the Olympic flag were carried by Brazilian soldiers in what passes for Brazilian dress uniform. This references the military dictatorship that the US imposed on Brazil between 1964 and 1985. However the fact that it was ruled by a military dictatorship for 21 years means that this is just how Brazil does things.
As is protocol during the ceremonial handing over of the Olympic flag the outgoing host is represented by the Mayor or Governor of the outgoing host city. In this case Mayor of Rio de Janerio Eduardo Paes. The IOC is represented by its President Thomas Bach. The incoming host city is represented by its Mayor. In this case the Governor of Tokyo prefecture Yurio Koike.
Although she was there simply in her capacity as Governor of Tokyo the fact that Yurio Koike is the Governor of Tokyo is in itself significant. Elected in July 2016 she is the first woman to hold a position of this magnitude anywhere in Japan.
This obviously reflects the fact that despite being extremely economically and technologically advanced by many western standards Japan still lags behind in many social areas - particularly women's rights. I think that based on the 2012 Gender Inequality Index Japan ranks 21st out of 136.
Improving gender equality may well be one of the issues that Japan chooses to focus on as it prepares to host the 2020 games in much the same way that Brazil has chosen to focus on preventing child sexual abuse.
The Japanese national flag was then raised on stage as a recording of the Japanese national anthem was played.
However you may have missed this because at the same time a giant version of the Japanese national flag was being video projected onto the floor of the arena. This marked the start of the Japanese produced segment of the ceremony.
It is here we hit something of an impasse. I've still not properly gone through the rest of the ceremony. The Para-Olympic Opening Ceremony starts in less than 23 hours.
20:35 on 6/9/16 (UK date).
Monday, 5 September 2016
The 2016 ISIL Games: Closing Ceremony Pt.5
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 4; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-isil-games-closing-ceremony-pt4.html
Following the Claykickers sequence the ceremony then dealt with some elements of protocol. Although this can be less than thrilling to watch it is often where much of the serious business is done.
Games Highlights: A short video montage of some of the games highlights was broadcast in the arena. This obviously gave the athletes the opportunity to look back and reminisce on what had just happened.
One event that particularly caught my eye in the montage was Russia's Yana Egorian defeating Olga Kharlan of Shamali Province in the women's individual Sabre fencing.
The 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia were of course rather ruined by the US' decision to violently overthrow the government of Ukraine invalidating it as a nation state and turning it into the Northern or Shamali Province of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) largely resisting the US and the UK's campaign to have all Russian competitors banned from the 2016 games everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting to see where in the World the US would violently and stupidly lash out this time around.
For much of early 2016 attention focused on Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to reignite the long running conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR). Both Armenia and Azerbaijan who contest the NKR sit directly south of Georgia. It was during the 2008 Beijing games that Georgia decided launch into a war against Russia that it promptly lost.
Fortunately several months of concerted international pressure seemed to put the lid back on NKR - at least for now. Sadly that only meant that attention switched back to Shamali Province where Turkish backed terror groups are a particular problem.
Within the first week of the games on August 10th (10/8/16) Russian security services foiled a Shamali Province backed plot to launch a terror attack in the Russian province of Crimea. In response Shamali Province began massing its military on the border with Russia. This created a fear that Shamali Province would attempt to invade Crimea rather like Georgia attacked Russia back in 2008.
Obviously this forced Russia to mobilise its forces to deter any attack by Shamali Province. The games also set out to deter Shamali Province's aggression with lots of results - particularly in boxing - suddenly going Russia's way. This was to send the message that Russia rather than Shamali Province had the majority of international support.
The Sabre event is particularly interesting because unlike other fencing events where you are only allowed to stab or "Touch" your opponent in Sabre you're allowed to slash and hack at them.
The women's Sabre event is even more interesting because the US was being represented by Hijab wearing Ibtihaj Muhammad. The US media made a big fuss about her claiming that she was dispelling many negative stereotypes about Muslims.
However I would think a woman who refuses to show her face in public and keeps slashing at people with a sword only serves to reinforce many of the negative stereotypes people have about Muslims thanks to ISIL.
In fact I would go so far as to say that Ibtihaj Muhammad could only really be nicknamed; "The Sword of Jihad" or "Abu Sayyaf."
Although I don't think Ibtihaj Muhammad made it through the first round having Russia defeat Shamali Province in her event sends a strong message of support to Russia over its opposition to ISIL.
Particularly when it's included as one of the highlights of the games.
Medal Ceremony: It is IOC protocol that the medals for one of the events that takes place on the final day of competition are awarded during the Closing Ceremony. This allows for recognition of all the other medals that have been handed out during the games.
The event selected for this particular Closing Ceremony was the men's Marathon. This was won by Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge with Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia taking silver Galen Rupp of the US taking bronze. As he crossed the line in the event Lilesa crossed his arms in the gesture of the Ethiopian Oromo protest movement.
That turned the medal ceremony into a talking point about this so-called Paris Agreement to combat climate change that the Opening Ceremony focused so heavily.
The problems with the Paris Agreement are really too numerous for me to list again here. However it is fair to say that it will do absolutely nothing to combat climate change. In fact in drags global efforts to combat climate change back to the point before the Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997.
With the Paris Agreement being such an absolutely atrocity many nations have been forced to sign up to it not because it's a good deal but because they - often literally - have a gun to their heads.
A lot of this intimidation has focused on the threat of terrorism to East African nations such as Kenya. However the US also leapt onto the Oromo issue as a way to intimidate the Ethiopian government into sign up to the Paris Agreement.
During the ceremony we saw this all neatly lined up on the podium.
As Lilesa has now refused to return to Ethiopia and has sought refugee status claiming making the Oromo sign will get him killed it also promotes discussion about the refugee issue. Particularly the validity or lack thereof of many of these refugee claims and why so many people have been forced from their homes these past 8 years.
The absolute last scheduled event of the day was of course the Men's Basketball final. This is the favourite sport of US President Barack Obama. The final saw the US face off against Serbia who often stand in for Russia in sporting events.
I don't think I was alone in frustratedly waiting for this stupid n*gger game to draw to a close so we could draw breath and focus on the excitement of the Closing Ceremony. You could almost say that we were sick to death of it.
The IOC Athletes Commission: It is IOC protocol that at every Closing Ceremony four more athletes are elected to serve on the IOC. Three of those elected this year were;
As I've mentioned the US and the UK have been running a big campaign to ban all Russian competitors from the games. Although the IOC largely resisted this the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) did ban all Russian athletes.
This seemed specifically intended to target Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva who is widely considered to be the absolute best at her sport in the World and unlike say Michael Phelps has never been implicated in drugs cheating. The fact the Isinbayeva was prevented from competing did in the eyes of many completely devalue the games.
So the fourth person athletes elected to represent them at the IOC for the next 8 years was: Yelena Isinbayeva.
Just moments after IAAF Chair Sebastian Lord Coe had appeared at the men's marathon medal ceremony.
20:30 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
Following the Claykickers sequence the ceremony then dealt with some elements of protocol. Although this can be less than thrilling to watch it is often where much of the serious business is done.
Games Highlights: A short video montage of some of the games highlights was broadcast in the arena. This obviously gave the athletes the opportunity to look back and reminisce on what had just happened.
One event that particularly caught my eye in the montage was Russia's Yana Egorian defeating Olga Kharlan of Shamali Province in the women's individual Sabre fencing.
The 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia were of course rather ruined by the US' decision to violently overthrow the government of Ukraine invalidating it as a nation state and turning it into the Northern or Shamali Province of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) largely resisting the US and the UK's campaign to have all Russian competitors banned from the 2016 games everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting to see where in the World the US would violently and stupidly lash out this time around.
For much of early 2016 attention focused on Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to reignite the long running conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR). Both Armenia and Azerbaijan who contest the NKR sit directly south of Georgia. It was during the 2008 Beijing games that Georgia decided launch into a war against Russia that it promptly lost.
Fortunately several months of concerted international pressure seemed to put the lid back on NKR - at least for now. Sadly that only meant that attention switched back to Shamali Province where Turkish backed terror groups are a particular problem.
Within the first week of the games on August 10th (10/8/16) Russian security services foiled a Shamali Province backed plot to launch a terror attack in the Russian province of Crimea. In response Shamali Province began massing its military on the border with Russia. This created a fear that Shamali Province would attempt to invade Crimea rather like Georgia attacked Russia back in 2008.
Obviously this forced Russia to mobilise its forces to deter any attack by Shamali Province. The games also set out to deter Shamali Province's aggression with lots of results - particularly in boxing - suddenly going Russia's way. This was to send the message that Russia rather than Shamali Province had the majority of international support.
The Sabre event is particularly interesting because unlike other fencing events where you are only allowed to stab or "Touch" your opponent in Sabre you're allowed to slash and hack at them.
The women's Sabre event is even more interesting because the US was being represented by Hijab wearing Ibtihaj Muhammad. The US media made a big fuss about her claiming that she was dispelling many negative stereotypes about Muslims.
However I would think a woman who refuses to show her face in public and keeps slashing at people with a sword only serves to reinforce many of the negative stereotypes people have about Muslims thanks to ISIL.
In fact I would go so far as to say that Ibtihaj Muhammad could only really be nicknamed; "The Sword of Jihad" or "Abu Sayyaf."
Although I don't think Ibtihaj Muhammad made it through the first round having Russia defeat Shamali Province in her event sends a strong message of support to Russia over its opposition to ISIL.
Particularly when it's included as one of the highlights of the games.
Medal Ceremony: It is IOC protocol that the medals for one of the events that takes place on the final day of competition are awarded during the Closing Ceremony. This allows for recognition of all the other medals that have been handed out during the games.
The event selected for this particular Closing Ceremony was the men's Marathon. This was won by Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge with Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia taking silver Galen Rupp of the US taking bronze. As he crossed the line in the event Lilesa crossed his arms in the gesture of the Ethiopian Oromo protest movement.
That turned the medal ceremony into a talking point about this so-called Paris Agreement to combat climate change that the Opening Ceremony focused so heavily.
The problems with the Paris Agreement are really too numerous for me to list again here. However it is fair to say that it will do absolutely nothing to combat climate change. In fact in drags global efforts to combat climate change back to the point before the Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997.
With the Paris Agreement being such an absolutely atrocity many nations have been forced to sign up to it not because it's a good deal but because they - often literally - have a gun to their heads.
A lot of this intimidation has focused on the threat of terrorism to East African nations such as Kenya. However the US also leapt onto the Oromo issue as a way to intimidate the Ethiopian government into sign up to the Paris Agreement.
During the ceremony we saw this all neatly lined up on the podium.
As Lilesa has now refused to return to Ethiopia and has sought refugee status claiming making the Oromo sign will get him killed it also promotes discussion about the refugee issue. Particularly the validity or lack thereof of many of these refugee claims and why so many people have been forced from their homes these past 8 years.
The absolute last scheduled event of the day was of course the Men's Basketball final. This is the favourite sport of US President Barack Obama. The final saw the US face off against Serbia who often stand in for Russia in sporting events.
I don't think I was alone in frustratedly waiting for this stupid n*gger game to draw to a close so we could draw breath and focus on the excitement of the Closing Ceremony. You could almost say that we were sick to death of it.
The IOC Athletes Commission: It is IOC protocol that at every Closing Ceremony four more athletes are elected to serve on the IOC. Three of those elected this year were;
- Britta Heidemann - A German Fencer,
- Ryu Seung-min - A South Korean table tennis player,
- Daniel Gyurta - A Hungarian swimmer.
As I've mentioned the US and the UK have been running a big campaign to ban all Russian competitors from the games. Although the IOC largely resisted this the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) did ban all Russian athletes.
This seemed specifically intended to target Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva who is widely considered to be the absolute best at her sport in the World and unlike say Michael Phelps has never been implicated in drugs cheating. The fact the Isinbayeva was prevented from competing did in the eyes of many completely devalue the games.
So the fourth person athletes elected to represent them at the IOC for the next 8 years was: Yelena Isinbayeva.
Just moments after IAAF Chair Sebastian Lord Coe had appeared at the men's marathon medal ceremony.
20:30 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
How Stupid Can One Man Be.
I'm not sure I want to be writing this. Let alone going into too much detail.
Sadly though there are some amongst us who are incapable of picking up on hints - both subtle and not so subtle. Instead they seem to need to have things explained to them really slowly and really clearly. Ideally with lots of pictures.
Key to the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is the cutting of their supply lines into Turkey - their main sponsor. Since the summer of 2015 that supply line has been reduced to an area roughly 100km (60 miles) wide. This stretches from Azaz in the west to the Euphrates River in the east and is referred to as either "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road."
Certainly since the eastern border of this supply line has come under pressure in the east around the Tishrin Dam and the city of Manbij Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been desperate to invade this area. The intention being to reinforce it with Turkish tanks and troops in order to keep supplies flowing back and forth between Turkey and ISIL forces in both Aleppo City and the group's de facto Syrian capital Raqqa.
That Turkey is able to intervene in Syria or anywhere else to support ISIL is not something that Erdogan should even be able to entertain. However on August 25th (25/8/16) the US gave Turkey permission to launch such an invasion. This permission was given on the strict understanding that Turkey would limit itself to a very narrow area of operations and all Turkish forces - both regular and irregular - would be withdraw from Syria by a pre-arranged date.
In little more than a day Turkish forces had completely disregarded their narrow area of operations. As such US President Obama's meeting with Erdogan on Sunday (5/9/16) at the G20 Summit was seen as critical. It would be here that Obama would chastise Erdogan for disregarding the agreement a secure an enforceable pledge that Turkish forces would withdraw by the agreed date.
It shocked everyone then when Obama completely failed in this task and appears to have given Erdogan his full backing to support ISIL indefinitely.
Obama has attempted to justify this unforgivable decision by claiming that if he'd told Erdogan to end his support for ISIL Erdogan would start a trade war between the US and Turkey that would destroy the US economy.
That Erdogan would try and bully the US using trade is a reasonable assumption. After all Erdogan has previously used trade to try and bully other nations. However that track record gives us a clear indication of how successful Erdogan has been in those efforts.
In 2010 Turkey sent a flotilla of militants to attempt to break the naval blockade of Gaza imposed to stop arms smuggling. In response to Israel stopping that flotilla Erdogan announced that Turkey was breaking off all economic and political ties with Israel. At the time bilateral trade between Turkey and Israel was around USD6bn per year.
This Turkish economic and political blockade was accompanied by an increase in arms shipments to militant groups in Gaza. This caused Israel to fight two wars in the autumn of 2012 and the summer of 2014.
Despite this Israel - a nation of just 8.5 million - did not collapse either economically nor politically.
In June of this year Erdogan was forced to back down and restore economic and political links with Israel.
In November of 2015 Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 over Syria. In response Erdogan announced that it was breaking off economic and political ties with Russia. At the time bilateral trade between Turkey and Russia was worth around USD23bn per year.
The Russian economy of course was already struggling due to a combination of low oil prices and the sanctions the US had imposed over Russia's opposition to ISIL.
Despite this though Turkey couldn't sustain a trade war with Russia for more than a few months. So also in June Erdogan backed down and restored economic and political links with Russia. This included a full personal apology by Erdogan to Russian President Putin for shooting down the aircraft.
Turkey is the US 34th largest trading partner with trade between the two nations valued at just USD1.8bn. To put that in perspective total US trade is valued at around US2.3tn of which trade with Turkey is around 0.07%. However trade with the US makes up around 0.1% of Turkey's entire economy.
Therefore it is abundantly clear that even if Erdogan did not back down a trade war between the US and Turkey would have a negligible impact on the US economy but a significant impact on the Turkish economy.
Added to that if Erdogan wanted to start a trade war to support ISIL they'd be plenty of other nations queuing up to impose sanctions against Turkey. It only seems to be Obama's protection of Erdogan that is stopping them.
So simply put Obama's reasoning for allowing Erdogan to continue supporting ISIL just does not hold water.
I assume that Obama must be aware of this. Therefore I can only conclude that Obama himself continues to support ISIL.
14:20 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:45 on 5/9/16 (UK date) to add;
As the day has progressed we've got more lame and empty excuses from the US. The latest being that the US can't tell Erdogan to stop supporting ISIL because that would undermine the US and Turkey's unity in fighting ISIL.
That exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of both the English language and diplomacy as a concept.
Officially at least the US is opposed to ISIL. However Erdogan fully supports ISIL. Therefore the US and Erdogan cannot cooperate on the ISIL because their objectives are the polar opposite of each other and in direct conflict.
Therefore in order for the US and Turkey to cooperate on the ISIL issue one of two things must happen.
Either the US reverses its position and adopts Erdogan's position of supporting ISIL. With ISIL being wholly committed to the destruction of the US and its values along with the values of its traditional allies in Europe that is simply not possible.
Alternatively US brings Turkey around to its position of opposing ISIL. The process of bringing Turkey around to the US' position on ISIL is what is known as diplomacy.
As such Obama's conduct this weekend represents not only a complete failure of US diplomacy but a personal abdication of responsibility by Obama.
If experience has taught us one thing it is that when diplomacy fails in this way war becomes inevitable.
Sadly though there are some amongst us who are incapable of picking up on hints - both subtle and not so subtle. Instead they seem to need to have things explained to them really slowly and really clearly. Ideally with lots of pictures.
Key to the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is the cutting of their supply lines into Turkey - their main sponsor. Since the summer of 2015 that supply line has been reduced to an area roughly 100km (60 miles) wide. This stretches from Azaz in the west to the Euphrates River in the east and is referred to as either "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road."
Certainly since the eastern border of this supply line has come under pressure in the east around the Tishrin Dam and the city of Manbij Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been desperate to invade this area. The intention being to reinforce it with Turkish tanks and troops in order to keep supplies flowing back and forth between Turkey and ISIL forces in both Aleppo City and the group's de facto Syrian capital Raqqa.
That Turkey is able to intervene in Syria or anywhere else to support ISIL is not something that Erdogan should even be able to entertain. However on August 25th (25/8/16) the US gave Turkey permission to launch such an invasion. This permission was given on the strict understanding that Turkey would limit itself to a very narrow area of operations and all Turkish forces - both regular and irregular - would be withdraw from Syria by a pre-arranged date.
In little more than a day Turkish forces had completely disregarded their narrow area of operations. As such US President Obama's meeting with Erdogan on Sunday (5/9/16) at the G20 Summit was seen as critical. It would be here that Obama would chastise Erdogan for disregarding the agreement a secure an enforceable pledge that Turkish forces would withdraw by the agreed date.
It shocked everyone then when Obama completely failed in this task and appears to have given Erdogan his full backing to support ISIL indefinitely.
Obama has attempted to justify this unforgivable decision by claiming that if he'd told Erdogan to end his support for ISIL Erdogan would start a trade war between the US and Turkey that would destroy the US economy.
That Erdogan would try and bully the US using trade is a reasonable assumption. After all Erdogan has previously used trade to try and bully other nations. However that track record gives us a clear indication of how successful Erdogan has been in those efforts.
In 2010 Turkey sent a flotilla of militants to attempt to break the naval blockade of Gaza imposed to stop arms smuggling. In response to Israel stopping that flotilla Erdogan announced that Turkey was breaking off all economic and political ties with Israel. At the time bilateral trade between Turkey and Israel was around USD6bn per year.
This Turkish economic and political blockade was accompanied by an increase in arms shipments to militant groups in Gaza. This caused Israel to fight two wars in the autumn of 2012 and the summer of 2014.
Despite this Israel - a nation of just 8.5 million - did not collapse either economically nor politically.
In June of this year Erdogan was forced to back down and restore economic and political links with Israel.
In November of 2015 Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 over Syria. In response Erdogan announced that it was breaking off economic and political ties with Russia. At the time bilateral trade between Turkey and Russia was worth around USD23bn per year.
The Russian economy of course was already struggling due to a combination of low oil prices and the sanctions the US had imposed over Russia's opposition to ISIL.
Despite this though Turkey couldn't sustain a trade war with Russia for more than a few months. So also in June Erdogan backed down and restored economic and political links with Russia. This included a full personal apology by Erdogan to Russian President Putin for shooting down the aircraft.
Turkey is the US 34th largest trading partner with trade between the two nations valued at just USD1.8bn. To put that in perspective total US trade is valued at around US2.3tn of which trade with Turkey is around 0.07%. However trade with the US makes up around 0.1% of Turkey's entire economy.
Therefore it is abundantly clear that even if Erdogan did not back down a trade war between the US and Turkey would have a negligible impact on the US economy but a significant impact on the Turkish economy.
Added to that if Erdogan wanted to start a trade war to support ISIL they'd be plenty of other nations queuing up to impose sanctions against Turkey. It only seems to be Obama's protection of Erdogan that is stopping them.
So simply put Obama's reasoning for allowing Erdogan to continue supporting ISIL just does not hold water.
I assume that Obama must be aware of this. Therefore I can only conclude that Obama himself continues to support ISIL.
14:20 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:45 on 5/9/16 (UK date) to add;
As the day has progressed we've got more lame and empty excuses from the US. The latest being that the US can't tell Erdogan to stop supporting ISIL because that would undermine the US and Turkey's unity in fighting ISIL.
That exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of both the English language and diplomacy as a concept.
Officially at least the US is opposed to ISIL. However Erdogan fully supports ISIL. Therefore the US and Erdogan cannot cooperate on the ISIL because their objectives are the polar opposite of each other and in direct conflict.
Therefore in order for the US and Turkey to cooperate on the ISIL issue one of two things must happen.
Either the US reverses its position and adopts Erdogan's position of supporting ISIL. With ISIL being wholly committed to the destruction of the US and its values along with the values of its traditional allies in Europe that is simply not possible.
Alternatively US brings Turkey around to its position of opposing ISIL. The process of bringing Turkey around to the US' position on ISIL is what is known as diplomacy.
As such Obama's conduct this weekend represents not only a complete failure of US diplomacy but a personal abdication of responsibility by Obama.
If experience has taught us one thing it is that when diplomacy fails in this way war becomes inevitable.
Friday, 2 September 2016
The 2016 ISIL Games: Closing Ceremony Pt.4
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 3; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-2016-isil-games-closing-ceremony-pt3.html
A Moment of Reflection: It has become something of a tradition that at least one ceremony features a short sequence that allows us to reflect on those that we have lost.
Generally this sequence is not officially dedicated to anyone in particular. This leaves you as the viewer free to use this time to reflect on loved ones you personally may have lost. However in this particular ceremony I think that many people's minds will have been drawn to Stefan Henze - the 35 year old German Canoe Slalom coach who was killed in a car crash in Rio on August 12th (12/8/16).
Coming on the 40th anniversary of the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics the moment of reflection in the 2012 London games was particularly poignant. However the hosts did rather spoil it by seeming to imply that the 52 people killed in the July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) terror attacks on London, UK were somehow more important. Those attacks occurred of course the day after London was awarded the 2012 games.
This particular sequence was inspired by the Portuguese word; "Saudade" which describes a sense of deep melancholy for those who have died, moved away or are simply missing.
Therefore it seemed intended to invoke memories of the some 80,000 people across Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela who simply disappeared during "Operation Condor" which was conducted by America and the military dictatorships it backed across Latin America during the so-called "Dirty War" against Communism between 1968 and 1989.
Probably of the most famous of those affected by Saudade caused during the Dirty War are the so-called "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo." These were the mothers of the disappeared who gathered week-in-week-out in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina outside the Presidential Palace of dictator Jorge Rafael Videla to demand to know what had happened to their children.
The NATO "Gladio" strategy that brought Videla to power in Argentina is of course the same one that created the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and their paramilitary wing the "Grey Wolves" in Turkey. Perhaps inspired by the ceremony on August 30th (30/8/15) Turkey called on its supporters to launch a social media day of action for Syria's "disappeared." I suspect they rather missed the point.
During this sequence which was essentially darkness, sombre music and silence the word "Saudade" was repeatedly projected onto the area floor.
This projection also included lines and shapes that were intended to reference the stars and constellations of space. In turn this invoked the religious concept of Heaven. Even those without a religious concept of heaven may well find that staring out into the vast expanse of the universe gives them some consolation from their grief.
The way that these words, lines and shapes also seemed to invoke the way that chemical formula are written down.
Within astrophysics it is established that neither energy nor matter can be created nor destroyed - the famous E=MC^2 equation. Therefore all those people who have lived or will ever live continue to exist in some form within the universe. I personally find that comforting.
There is a particularly branch of Chemistry concerned with the way that energy transfers into the matter that makes up all the organisms around us known as "Quantum Chemistry." That obviously references China's Quantum Satellite "QUESS" that was referenced earlier in the ceremony.
Probably the World's most famous Quantum Chemist is German Head of Government (Chancellor) Angela Merkel. The obvious intelligence that it required for her to achieve her PHD in such a complex field obviously makes her complete inability to respond to Europe's migration crisis all the harder to explain.
For me this entire sequence was completely ruined by the fact that the British team had been seated almost centre stage between the camera and the action. They of course chose to wear these rather silly shoes with bright flashing lights in them as a reference to the current fashion for smart fabrics.
So during this very sombre sequence the British athletes were all sitting there - front and centre - looking like they were at some terrible youth club disco.
I'm sure though that Britain's positioning at the top of the medal table at the ISIL games was entirely complementary though.
At around 20:45 on 2/9/16 (UK date) I seem to have run out of talent for such melancholy so I'll pick this up once the weekend is done.
Edited at around 15:25 on 5/9/16 (UK date) to add;
As the moment of silence itself drew to a close performers in oversized black lace dresses started to take to the arena floor. In many cultures the wearing of black lace - especially as a face veil - is considered a sign of mourning. Particularly by women who are mourning the husbands or children that they have lost.
One of the largest producers of high quality lace - of all colours - is Brazil's old colonial power Portugal. This was one of the many industries imported from Portugal to Brazil. Up until the 19th century this lace making was done by slave woman. It was one of the concessions leading up to the abolishment of slavery that these women were allowed to use their skills to make lace at home which they were allowed to sell on the streets during their free time.
This was signified by a black woman sitting in the centre of the arena working away at one of the bobbins used to make lace.
The sequence ended with an intricate black lace design being projected onto the centre of the arena floor. The complexity of this design was obviously in keeping with the geometry theme of the Opening Ceremony.
I suppose though you could also interprete it as a reference to the World map at the centre of the United Nations (UN) flag. Unlike commonly used maps this is drawn from the perspective of being above the North Pole.
I though took it as a reference to a tattoo I've got on my back that played such a large part in the 2012 ceremonies. This tattoo is of a Pict tribal design known as an "Ulbster Cross." You can no doubt find many examples of it on the Internet. However it is an intricate circular design featuring interwoven knotworks. It has four points rather like a compass giving it a cross shape.
Claykickers: This next sequence lifted the sense of Saudade with an exhibition of Brazil's "Fomo" style of dance by a group called Parabello.
Although it has clear links with ballet and capoeira Fomo also has influences of Celtic dance styles - particularly with the music being used in this example. Being Scottish the BBC commentator Hazel Irvine likened this to Scottish Highland dancing. However I think an Irish person would liken it to traditional Irish dancing.
This obviously touched on the topic of the ancient tribes of Britain that was such a major theme of the 2012 Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony. This topic is particularly relevant to this year's hosts because amongst all their other ethnic groups Brazil actually has one of the largest ethnically Welsh, Welsh speaking populations outside of Wales. Along with the Irish and Scottish the Welsh are one of the nationalities that frequently get lumped together as; "Celtic."
I think the globally most famous example of Irish dancing is the stageshow "Riverdance." The rain had covered the stage in a thin layer of water giving the impression that Parabello were literally dancing in a river. Being fully aware that these Summer games were actually taking place in the depths of Rio's winter I suspect the show organisers were hoping for at least a little bit of rain.
As Parabello performed on stage the arena floor was filled with performers dressed up as clay figurines who began to dance with each other.
Officially this was a reference to the work of famous Brazilian sculptor Vitalino Perira dos Santos. Some of his work is on display at Rio's Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. As I'm sure these games have inspired you to visit Brazil you may wish to make a trip to that museum part of you upcoming holiday to Rio.
However this spectacle of clay figurines made me think of the Golem of Jewish folklaw. As with all fairytales there isn't a definitive version of the Golem story. However almost all of them talk of a clay figurine brought to life. People would write instructions on a piece of paper and drop them into the Golem's mouth. The Golem which had no mind of its own would then carry out those instructions often protecting people from evil forces.
During the 2012 London games the UK did rather seem to view me as its very own Golem. They would simply raise so issue for me and I would then go off unthinking and talk about it unquestionably doing their bidding. That idea didn't work out so well for the UK.
During their dancing these clay figures formed large "X" formations. This again made me think of my tattoo. This was done by a Brazilian artist under the supervision of my Israeli/British dual national ex-girlfriend although I think that's a little too formal a description.
The last I saw of the pair they were both heading off to Brazil for the Rio Carnival. However I have since heard very strong rumours that this ex returned to the UK before getting sucked down into Crack Cocaine addiction and prostitution although I haven't verified that for myself.
So how's that for slut shaming on a grand scale.
The kicks of the Fomo dancers along with all the clay made me think of the term; "Claykicker."
A big theme in the run-up to these games has been Brazil's attempts to tackle its problems with child sexual abuse and child prostitution that has made it a top destination for child sex tourists.
Child sexual abuse is of course something of an obsession for the UK seeming to feature in every BBC TV show made in 2015. One in particular that was discussed a lot at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is "Peaky Blinders."
The what I supposed you would term the origin story for Peaky Blinders is that some of the Shelby crime family served together in the British Army during the First World War. Specifically they served in engineering units that dug secret tunnels stretching under no-mans land beneath enemy trenches. These tunnels were then packed with explosives and used to blow up the enemy's trenches. These units were nicknamed Claykickers.
This tactic of digging long tunnels under enemy positions and then blowing them up has enjoyed something of a resurgence in the current war in Syria.
Along with the use of trench warfare and chemical weapons it is yet another sign of how that war is dragging us back to a time of Empire and constant war that few these days will remember and fewer still will want to return to.
16:35 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
A Moment of Reflection: It has become something of a tradition that at least one ceremony features a short sequence that allows us to reflect on those that we have lost.
Generally this sequence is not officially dedicated to anyone in particular. This leaves you as the viewer free to use this time to reflect on loved ones you personally may have lost. However in this particular ceremony I think that many people's minds will have been drawn to Stefan Henze - the 35 year old German Canoe Slalom coach who was killed in a car crash in Rio on August 12th (12/8/16).
Coming on the 40th anniversary of the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics the moment of reflection in the 2012 London games was particularly poignant. However the hosts did rather spoil it by seeming to imply that the 52 people killed in the July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) terror attacks on London, UK were somehow more important. Those attacks occurred of course the day after London was awarded the 2012 games.
This particular sequence was inspired by the Portuguese word; "Saudade" which describes a sense of deep melancholy for those who have died, moved away or are simply missing.
Therefore it seemed intended to invoke memories of the some 80,000 people across Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela who simply disappeared during "Operation Condor" which was conducted by America and the military dictatorships it backed across Latin America during the so-called "Dirty War" against Communism between 1968 and 1989.
Probably of the most famous of those affected by Saudade caused during the Dirty War are the so-called "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo." These were the mothers of the disappeared who gathered week-in-week-out in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina outside the Presidential Palace of dictator Jorge Rafael Videla to demand to know what had happened to their children.
The NATO "Gladio" strategy that brought Videla to power in Argentina is of course the same one that created the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and their paramilitary wing the "Grey Wolves" in Turkey. Perhaps inspired by the ceremony on August 30th (30/8/15) Turkey called on its supporters to launch a social media day of action for Syria's "disappeared." I suspect they rather missed the point.
During this sequence which was essentially darkness, sombre music and silence the word "Saudade" was repeatedly projected onto the area floor.
This projection also included lines and shapes that were intended to reference the stars and constellations of space. In turn this invoked the religious concept of Heaven. Even those without a religious concept of heaven may well find that staring out into the vast expanse of the universe gives them some consolation from their grief.
The way that these words, lines and shapes also seemed to invoke the way that chemical formula are written down.
Within astrophysics it is established that neither energy nor matter can be created nor destroyed - the famous E=MC^2 equation. Therefore all those people who have lived or will ever live continue to exist in some form within the universe. I personally find that comforting.
There is a particularly branch of Chemistry concerned with the way that energy transfers into the matter that makes up all the organisms around us known as "Quantum Chemistry." That obviously references China's Quantum Satellite "QUESS" that was referenced earlier in the ceremony.
Probably the World's most famous Quantum Chemist is German Head of Government (Chancellor) Angela Merkel. The obvious intelligence that it required for her to achieve her PHD in such a complex field obviously makes her complete inability to respond to Europe's migration crisis all the harder to explain.
For me this entire sequence was completely ruined by the fact that the British team had been seated almost centre stage between the camera and the action. They of course chose to wear these rather silly shoes with bright flashing lights in them as a reference to the current fashion for smart fabrics.
So during this very sombre sequence the British athletes were all sitting there - front and centre - looking like they were at some terrible youth club disco.
I'm sure though that Britain's positioning at the top of the medal table at the ISIL games was entirely complementary though.
At around 20:45 on 2/9/16 (UK date) I seem to have run out of talent for such melancholy so I'll pick this up once the weekend is done.
Edited at around 15:25 on 5/9/16 (UK date) to add;
As the moment of silence itself drew to a close performers in oversized black lace dresses started to take to the arena floor. In many cultures the wearing of black lace - especially as a face veil - is considered a sign of mourning. Particularly by women who are mourning the husbands or children that they have lost.
One of the largest producers of high quality lace - of all colours - is Brazil's old colonial power Portugal. This was one of the many industries imported from Portugal to Brazil. Up until the 19th century this lace making was done by slave woman. It was one of the concessions leading up to the abolishment of slavery that these women were allowed to use their skills to make lace at home which they were allowed to sell on the streets during their free time.
This was signified by a black woman sitting in the centre of the arena working away at one of the bobbins used to make lace.
The sequence ended with an intricate black lace design being projected onto the centre of the arena floor. The complexity of this design was obviously in keeping with the geometry theme of the Opening Ceremony.
I suppose though you could also interprete it as a reference to the World map at the centre of the United Nations (UN) flag. Unlike commonly used maps this is drawn from the perspective of being above the North Pole.
I though took it as a reference to a tattoo I've got on my back that played such a large part in the 2012 ceremonies. This tattoo is of a Pict tribal design known as an "Ulbster Cross." You can no doubt find many examples of it on the Internet. However it is an intricate circular design featuring interwoven knotworks. It has four points rather like a compass giving it a cross shape.
Claykickers: This next sequence lifted the sense of Saudade with an exhibition of Brazil's "Fomo" style of dance by a group called Parabello.
Although it has clear links with ballet and capoeira Fomo also has influences of Celtic dance styles - particularly with the music being used in this example. Being Scottish the BBC commentator Hazel Irvine likened this to Scottish Highland dancing. However I think an Irish person would liken it to traditional Irish dancing.
This obviously touched on the topic of the ancient tribes of Britain that was such a major theme of the 2012 Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony. This topic is particularly relevant to this year's hosts because amongst all their other ethnic groups Brazil actually has one of the largest ethnically Welsh, Welsh speaking populations outside of Wales. Along with the Irish and Scottish the Welsh are one of the nationalities that frequently get lumped together as; "Celtic."
I think the globally most famous example of Irish dancing is the stageshow "Riverdance." The rain had covered the stage in a thin layer of water giving the impression that Parabello were literally dancing in a river. Being fully aware that these Summer games were actually taking place in the depths of Rio's winter I suspect the show organisers were hoping for at least a little bit of rain.
As Parabello performed on stage the arena floor was filled with performers dressed up as clay figurines who began to dance with each other.
Officially this was a reference to the work of famous Brazilian sculptor Vitalino Perira dos Santos. Some of his work is on display at Rio's Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. As I'm sure these games have inspired you to visit Brazil you may wish to make a trip to that museum part of you upcoming holiday to Rio.
However this spectacle of clay figurines made me think of the Golem of Jewish folklaw. As with all fairytales there isn't a definitive version of the Golem story. However almost all of them talk of a clay figurine brought to life. People would write instructions on a piece of paper and drop them into the Golem's mouth. The Golem which had no mind of its own would then carry out those instructions often protecting people from evil forces.
During the 2012 London games the UK did rather seem to view me as its very own Golem. They would simply raise so issue for me and I would then go off unthinking and talk about it unquestionably doing their bidding. That idea didn't work out so well for the UK.
During their dancing these clay figures formed large "X" formations. This again made me think of my tattoo. This was done by a Brazilian artist under the supervision of my Israeli/British dual national ex-girlfriend although I think that's a little too formal a description.
The last I saw of the pair they were both heading off to Brazil for the Rio Carnival. However I have since heard very strong rumours that this ex returned to the UK before getting sucked down into Crack Cocaine addiction and prostitution although I haven't verified that for myself.
So how's that for slut shaming on a grand scale.
The kicks of the Fomo dancers along with all the clay made me think of the term; "Claykicker."
A big theme in the run-up to these games has been Brazil's attempts to tackle its problems with child sexual abuse and child prostitution that has made it a top destination for child sex tourists.
Child sexual abuse is of course something of an obsession for the UK seeming to feature in every BBC TV show made in 2015. One in particular that was discussed a lot at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is "Peaky Blinders."
The what I supposed you would term the origin story for Peaky Blinders is that some of the Shelby crime family served together in the British Army during the First World War. Specifically they served in engineering units that dug secret tunnels stretching under no-mans land beneath enemy trenches. These tunnels were then packed with explosives and used to blow up the enemy's trenches. These units were nicknamed Claykickers.
This tactic of digging long tunnels under enemy positions and then blowing them up has enjoyed something of a resurgence in the current war in Syria.
Along with the use of trench warfare and chemical weapons it is yet another sign of how that war is dragging us back to a time of Empire and constant war that few these days will remember and fewer still will want to return to.
16:35 on 5/9/16 (UK date).
Thursday, 1 September 2016
Operation Featherweight: Month 26, Week 2, Day 3.
Last Wednesday (25/8/16) Turkey launched an invasion of Syria focused on the
border town of Jarablus using a mixture of both regular and irregular
troops.
Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quite clear that this operation - named "Euphrates Shield" - was protect Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions west of the Euphrates River.
This would be done by defeating the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) who had liberated the city of Manbij from ISIL on August 13th (13/8/16). Manbij sits around 35km (20 miles) south of Jarablus on the western bank of the Euphrates.
With Turkish troops, tanks and aircraft rushing to their aid ISIL obviously celebrated this invasion. On Friday (27/8/16) they released in which they executed Sunni Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shia Arabs.
Entitled "The Nations Are Uniting Against You" this was intended to show that through Turkey ISIL now had the full backing of the World powers as it set out to cleanse the Levant of all those groups and more.
Alarmingly what has become clearer since then is that ISIL were not merely celebrating Erdogan's invasion. The two forces were actually operating in concert with each other.
It of course took the Turkish force less then 12 hours to fully liberate the town of Jarablus. That is because the roughly 1,400 ISIL fighters stationed there simply left having received advanced warning of the arrival of Turkish and knowing that they had nothing to fear from ceding territory to those Turkish forces.
This is far from the first time we have seen this type of coordination between ISIL and Turkey.
Back in August 2015 Erdogan wanted to invade Syria to defend ISIL's supply lines in an area between the town of Marea to the west and the Euphrates to the east. This area is referred to as either; "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road."
Erdogan decided the best way to do this was to allow ISIL to move right up to the Turkish border so he could claim the invasion was needed to eliminate the ISIL threat. So Erdogan simply instructed the Al Qaeda-led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition to cede Marea to ISIL without a fight.
In December 2015 it had become increasingly apparent that Erdogan would not be given permission to invade Syria and the SDF had crossed the Euphrates at the Tishrin Dam. So Erdogan simply ordered ISIL to cede Marea to irregular Turkish forces known as the Syrian Turkmen Brigades (STB). ISIL promptly complied.
In April of 2016 Erdogan attempted to use the STB to attack the SDF from the west in order to protect Garvaghy Road. So he ordered ISIL to cede control of the town of Cobanbey to the STB. This sits roughly 45km (30 miles) west of Jarablus right on Syria's border with Turkey. Obviously ISIL immediately complied.
It was then made clear to Erdogan that under no circumstances would the STB be allowed to advance to Jarablus in order to attack the SDF. So Erdogan simply ordered the STB to cede control of Cobanbey back to ISIL.
Not only did ISIL coordinate the handing over Jarablus to Turkish forces they used it as an opportunity to launch a series of offensives against the SDF.
The first of these came against the town as Al-Shadadi. This sits roughly 50km (30 miles) from Syria's border with Iraq around 100km (60 miles) north-west of Deir er-Zour and roughly 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Hasakah. Fortunately this attack was repelled by Friday (27/8/16).
The much more serious ISIL attack was launched against SDF positions in Manbij. Following the handover of Jarablus Turkish forces began advancing south towards the SDF controlled city of Manbij being stopped around the village of Bir al-Kusa which sits roughly 13km (8 miles) south of Jarablus. At roughly the same time ISIL launched an offensive against SDF positions in and around Manbij from the south.
This placed the city and the SDF in the jaws of a classic military pincer movement. It showed the clear coordination between Turkey and ISIL with Turkish forces forming the northern jaw of the pincer and ISIL its southern jaw.
What the US-led coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) should have done is deliver a swift uppercut to this offensive in the form of intense airstrikes to the southern jaw. If this prevented Turkey from providing air cover to the northern jaw. Well that would just help to underline to Erdogan where he sits in the CJTFOIR pecking order.
Unfortunately the US did what is always seems to do these days - call a Time Out and try to preserve the status quo. Even if that status quo is trench warfare and genocide.
Under CJTFOIR supervision the SDF and Turkish forces agreed a temporary truce halting the Turkish advance on Manbij on Tuesday (30/8/16) morning. Turkey denies this.
At the same time the US has been trying to coax the Turkish forces to move west and attack the town of Al-Bab. This sits around 40km (25 miles) south-west of Manbij. With Al-Bab being a critical supply ISIL node not only for Raqqa - their de facto capital in Syria - but also Aleppo City you would no more want it under Turkish control than you would Manbij.
While the US was trying to do this things got even more embarrassing for them on Tuesday (30/8/16) at the other end of Garvaghy Road. In Aleppo City Russian airstrikes killed ISIL commander Abu Muhammad al-Adnani.
Although it might seem hard to believe before joining ISIL al-Adnani was Al Qaeda's poet in residence. This way with words and oratory style meant that not only was al-Adnani part of the inner-circle of ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi he was the group's main spokesman and propagandist.
In the wake of the July 14th (14/7/16) terror attack in Nice, France many media commentators made reference to an ISIL message to its supporters instructing them to carry out terror attacks. This told them that if they didn't have a gun they should use a knife and if they didn't have a knife they should use a stone.
This message was written and delivered al-Adnani. Therefore his death will have a significant impact on ISIL's ability to inspire its followers to launch that type of lonewolf attack in the future.
This is hugely embarrassing for the US because certainly since July 2016 they have been loudly demanding that Russia stops conducting airstrikes in Aleppo City. The fact that they have been making these calls in order to protect people like al-Adnani and allow them to go about their evil business unhindered is certainly hard to explain.
It is particularly hard for the French government to explain its decision to join the US in these calls for the al-Adnani's of this world to be protected. Not least because as the Russians were killing al-Adnani France was suffering yet another terror attack carried out by one of his followers. This time against police officers in Toulouse.
So as the news of al-Adnani's death broke the US responded by accusing all those saying he'd been killed in Aleppo City liars. Instead the US claimed al-Adnani had been killed in a US airstrike in Al-Bab - some 40km (25 miles) away. That of course provided an excellent excuse as to why on earth the US was conducting airstrikes in Al-Bab rather than around Manbij.
In their rush to claim responsibility for killing al-Adnani the US blurted out that they believed he had ordered the shooting down of a Russian Su-24 over Syria on November 24th 2015 (24/11/15) and its aircrew be machine gunned as they ejected.
The problem with this is that we all know who carried out the shooting down of that Su-24. It was Turkey.
We also know that the machine gunning of the aircrew was carried out by a group called the Sultan Mehmet Division. Named after the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror that group is part of the STB. Its spokesman Alparslan Celik is from the Turkish city of Keban.
The fact that Turkey gives ISIL orders and the STB carry out ISIL orders rather underlines the entire problem with this Turkish invasion of Jarablus.
20:30 on 1/9/16 (UK date)
Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quite clear that this operation - named "Euphrates Shield" - was protect Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions west of the Euphrates River.
This would be done by defeating the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) who had liberated the city of Manbij from ISIL on August 13th (13/8/16). Manbij sits around 35km (20 miles) south of Jarablus on the western bank of the Euphrates.
With Turkish troops, tanks and aircraft rushing to their aid ISIL obviously celebrated this invasion. On Friday (27/8/16) they released in which they executed Sunni Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shia Arabs.
Entitled "The Nations Are Uniting Against You" this was intended to show that through Turkey ISIL now had the full backing of the World powers as it set out to cleanse the Levant of all those groups and more.
Alarmingly what has become clearer since then is that ISIL were not merely celebrating Erdogan's invasion. The two forces were actually operating in concert with each other.
It of course took the Turkish force less then 12 hours to fully liberate the town of Jarablus. That is because the roughly 1,400 ISIL fighters stationed there simply left having received advanced warning of the arrival of Turkish and knowing that they had nothing to fear from ceding territory to those Turkish forces.
This is far from the first time we have seen this type of coordination between ISIL and Turkey.
Back in August 2015 Erdogan wanted to invade Syria to defend ISIL's supply lines in an area between the town of Marea to the west and the Euphrates to the east. This area is referred to as either; "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road."
Erdogan decided the best way to do this was to allow ISIL to move right up to the Turkish border so he could claim the invasion was needed to eliminate the ISIL threat. So Erdogan simply instructed the Al Qaeda-led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition to cede Marea to ISIL without a fight.
In December 2015 it had become increasingly apparent that Erdogan would not be given permission to invade Syria and the SDF had crossed the Euphrates at the Tishrin Dam. So Erdogan simply ordered ISIL to cede Marea to irregular Turkish forces known as the Syrian Turkmen Brigades (STB). ISIL promptly complied.
In April of 2016 Erdogan attempted to use the STB to attack the SDF from the west in order to protect Garvaghy Road. So he ordered ISIL to cede control of the town of Cobanbey to the STB. This sits roughly 45km (30 miles) west of Jarablus right on Syria's border with Turkey. Obviously ISIL immediately complied.
It was then made clear to Erdogan that under no circumstances would the STB be allowed to advance to Jarablus in order to attack the SDF. So Erdogan simply ordered the STB to cede control of Cobanbey back to ISIL.
Not only did ISIL coordinate the handing over Jarablus to Turkish forces they used it as an opportunity to launch a series of offensives against the SDF.
The first of these came against the town as Al-Shadadi. This sits roughly 50km (30 miles) from Syria's border with Iraq around 100km (60 miles) north-west of Deir er-Zour and roughly 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Hasakah. Fortunately this attack was repelled by Friday (27/8/16).
The much more serious ISIL attack was launched against SDF positions in Manbij. Following the handover of Jarablus Turkish forces began advancing south towards the SDF controlled city of Manbij being stopped around the village of Bir al-Kusa which sits roughly 13km (8 miles) south of Jarablus. At roughly the same time ISIL launched an offensive against SDF positions in and around Manbij from the south.
This placed the city and the SDF in the jaws of a classic military pincer movement. It showed the clear coordination between Turkey and ISIL with Turkish forces forming the northern jaw of the pincer and ISIL its southern jaw.
What the US-led coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) should have done is deliver a swift uppercut to this offensive in the form of intense airstrikes to the southern jaw. If this prevented Turkey from providing air cover to the northern jaw. Well that would just help to underline to Erdogan where he sits in the CJTFOIR pecking order.
Unfortunately the US did what is always seems to do these days - call a Time Out and try to preserve the status quo. Even if that status quo is trench warfare and genocide.
Under CJTFOIR supervision the SDF and Turkish forces agreed a temporary truce halting the Turkish advance on Manbij on Tuesday (30/8/16) morning. Turkey denies this.
At the same time the US has been trying to coax the Turkish forces to move west and attack the town of Al-Bab. This sits around 40km (25 miles) south-west of Manbij. With Al-Bab being a critical supply ISIL node not only for Raqqa - their de facto capital in Syria - but also Aleppo City you would no more want it under Turkish control than you would Manbij.
While the US was trying to do this things got even more embarrassing for them on Tuesday (30/8/16) at the other end of Garvaghy Road. In Aleppo City Russian airstrikes killed ISIL commander Abu Muhammad al-Adnani.
Although it might seem hard to believe before joining ISIL al-Adnani was Al Qaeda's poet in residence. This way with words and oratory style meant that not only was al-Adnani part of the inner-circle of ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi he was the group's main spokesman and propagandist.
In the wake of the July 14th (14/7/16) terror attack in Nice, France many media commentators made reference to an ISIL message to its supporters instructing them to carry out terror attacks. This told them that if they didn't have a gun they should use a knife and if they didn't have a knife they should use a stone.
This message was written and delivered al-Adnani. Therefore his death will have a significant impact on ISIL's ability to inspire its followers to launch that type of lonewolf attack in the future.
This is hugely embarrassing for the US because certainly since July 2016 they have been loudly demanding that Russia stops conducting airstrikes in Aleppo City. The fact that they have been making these calls in order to protect people like al-Adnani and allow them to go about their evil business unhindered is certainly hard to explain.
It is particularly hard for the French government to explain its decision to join the US in these calls for the al-Adnani's of this world to be protected. Not least because as the Russians were killing al-Adnani France was suffering yet another terror attack carried out by one of his followers. This time against police officers in Toulouse.
So as the news of al-Adnani's death broke the US responded by accusing all those saying he'd been killed in Aleppo City liars. Instead the US claimed al-Adnani had been killed in a US airstrike in Al-Bab - some 40km (25 miles) away. That of course provided an excellent excuse as to why on earth the US was conducting airstrikes in Al-Bab rather than around Manbij.
In their rush to claim responsibility for killing al-Adnani the US blurted out that they believed he had ordered the shooting down of a Russian Su-24 over Syria on November 24th 2015 (24/11/15) and its aircrew be machine gunned as they ejected.
The problem with this is that we all know who carried out the shooting down of that Su-24. It was Turkey.
We also know that the machine gunning of the aircrew was carried out by a group called the Sultan Mehmet Division. Named after the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror that group is part of the STB. Its spokesman Alparslan Celik is from the Turkish city of Keban.
The fact that Turkey gives ISIL orders and the STB carry out ISIL orders rather underlines the entire problem with this Turkish invasion of Jarablus.
20:30 on 1/9/16 (UK date)
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