As I've said the purpose of an Opening Ceremony is to introduce the host nation and the competitors to the World while trying to set the agenda for what is to come. A Closing Ceremony is much more about celebrating what has taken place and the people that made it happen.
Last night Brazil really took that idea and ran with it.
Obviously at the Para-Olympics many of the competitors have mobility problems. Not only that they have quite a wide variety of mobility problems. Coordinating several thousand people with differing levels on mobility into one place in a narrow window of time is an absolute nightmare. Therefore it is something of a tradition that for the Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony the competitors are brought into the arena beforehand.
This Closing Ceremony was no exception with the competitors all seated in the arena before the show started. Specifically they were seated in rows and blocks all across the arena floor in a layout similar to that you would get in a theatre or cinema. At one end of the arena there was a comparatively small stage where the action would take place.
That action was just a series of singers and bands turning the ceremony into a large concert with the competitors given front row seats. There was a smaller stage in the centre of the arena and some of the performers walked through the crowd as they sang. This made the competitors almost participants in what for them would have been a very visceral experience.
With the exception of one all of the acts were popular Brazilian singers and bands many of whom I sadly did not recognise. That is not to say that they're not famous - Irele Sangala who closed the show is extremely famous. However they're only really famous within Brazil and other Portuguese speaking nations rather than being World famous.
By contrast the 2012 London Closing Ceremony which Brazil picked the baton up from featured Coldplay, Jay Z and of course Rihanna. All three of these acts are so World famous that even if you don't like their music I think it is fair to assume that most people in the World will at least have heard of them.
This contrast gave the ceremony its main political/social theme. The language barrier as really the last barrier to globalisation.
The World now is an almost infinitely more globalised place than it was even as recently as the 1996 Atlanta games. A key driver of this has been the Internet. For example I can sit here writing this on a computer in the UK and as soon as I press the publish button it can be instantly read by people in Brazil, China, South Africa or anywhere else just as easily as if they were sitting in the next room to me. Likewise if there's a major news story in somewhere like New York City, US or anywhere else I can instantly be talking to the eyewitnesses on the ground.
The only barrier though is language. Although I can instantly speak to eyewitnesses in places like Russia, China, Israel or Brazil I can't understand a word they're saying to me and they can't understand a word I'm saying to them.
The Opening Ceremony touched on a play called "Rossum's Universal Robots." In part of that play some of the characters lament teaching the Robots a single global language rather than nationally specific languages. In the context of the play that's intended as an allegory for the way that nationalism is used to oppress the poor and the weak. Invented for the play the term "Robot" derives from the Czech word "Robotnik" which means "Slave." The word Slave derives from the word "Slav" or "Slavic" but I think I'm going off on a bit of a tangent there.
A large part of the reason why acts like Coldplay, Jay Z and Rihanna are globally famous is because they speak and perform in English. This has rather emerged as the dominant global language.
There are a number of reasons why the English language has become so popular. A significant one of these is the dominance of the British Empire which has really been carried on by Britain's former colony America. As a result English has become the language of business and politics.
I think another significant reason is that at a basic level English is actually a very simple language. For example if you wanted to thank a Brazilian person in their native Portuguese the word you'd use would depend on whether they were male (Obrigado) or female (Obrigada). Although it does have gender pronouns like he or she English doesn't have gender specific words making it much easier to learn.
Despite being easy to learn at a basic level English also manages to be quite a rich language that particularly lends itself to things like nuance and metaphor that are really useful in song lyrics and poetry. English also strongly encourages the people speaking it to add to it by making up new words. For example every year the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that people have simply made up over the previous year. Some of this year's examples include; "Clickbait" and "Slacktivist."
This dominance of the English language is particularly on display at the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Up until, I think, 2005 nations had to perform in their own language. Then they changed the rules so nations could compete in any language they liked. This has pretty much meant that everybody now performs in English.
A nation that is extremely protective over its language is France. Not only do they defiantly insist on singing in French and insist that everything at Eurovision must be done in English and then again in French the French Ministry of Culture actually sets quotas of the number of songs played on the radio and movies shown in cinemas that must be in the French language.
At the 2016 Song Contest France broke with this tradition and performed a song that was largely in English. This was intended to signal that France might be reconsidering its aggressively secular laws that force immigrants to adapt to French culture in favour of the more flexible approach of Multiculturalism. This issue has been a big one over the summer with the Burkini issue.
Also I should probably point out that I've finally found out why the Eurovision Song Contest has got so much attention at these games. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that stages the Song Contest has for the first time partnered with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). As a result the games have been available to broadcast in all of the EBU's 50+ member nations.
Video Sequence and Countdown: It is a longstanding tradition that both Olympic and Para-Olympic ceremonies begin with a short video sequence featuring a prominent 10 to 1 countdown. This is to allow all the broadcasters who are carrying the official feed live to calibrate their coverage to make sure they don't miss the start of the ceremony.
At these games Brazil has broken with and played about with this tradition. This was done to promote discussion about whether advances in broadcasting technology mean that this tradition is no longer relevant. In turn that leads into a discussion of whether the Olympic movement is no longer relevant as a political spectacle.
This ceremony continued that theme. Just before the ceremony began a 10 to 1 countdown was featured on big screens inside the stadium. This was visible on the wide, aerial shot of the stadium the official feed was showing at the time. The ceremony itself then began with a video sequence that didn't feature a countdown.
This video sequence featured a man who I presume to be deaf speaking both in Portuguese and in sign language. To further aid deaf or hearing impaired viewers and non-Portugese speakers this video sequence was also subtitled in English.
Despite disability being a major feature of both disabled sport and the Para-Olympic movement hearing impairment or deafness is one major disability that tends to get overlooked. That's because hearing impairment doesn't have any real impact on sporting ability so there are no hearing impaired classifications at the Para-Olympics.
However a degree of hearing impairment is a somewhat common element of other impairments - particularly neurological conditions such as Cerebral Palsy. For example the head injury that impaired UK soccer captain Jack Rutter's mobility also left him fully hearing impaired in one of his ears. That though has no impact on his ability to play football.
Ironically it was at this point my father who has been hearing impaired since a childhood case of Measles and now due to age is just deaf decided to wake up and start engaging me in conversation. As if I wasn't already trying to do several other things at that point.
However I've since gone back and checked the recording and discovered that the man in this video was Armaund Marcel. He was talking about what inspired him to set up his "Silent Drummers" project.
This is a project to teach deaf and hearing impaired people to drum. Being unable to hear they instead use vibration and a system of lights to see and feel what others hear. So for example a loud drum beat would be represented by a white light while a soft drum beat would be represented by a green light.
This picks up on the discussion of how human senses work - particularly in conditions like Synesthesia - that featured in the Opening Ceremony. It also touches on the issue of the language barrier because generally pictures unlike words are understood by people regardless of what language they speak. I would point out though that different cultures have different visual styles that almost constitute a language. Those differences are much more subtle though.
Marcel and group of his hearing impaired drummers known as Mestre Batman then performed on the stage in the arena. They were joined by famous Brazilian popstar Gabby Amarantos who lead the crowd in a 10 to 1 countdown that was shown on a giant video screen behind the stage.
This screen was particularly important throughout the ceremony because it was used to show anything the stadium announcer said in written form to aid the hearing impaired. The style of the graphic used for this subtitling seemed very much intended to resemble a computer. For example it had the little microphone symbol on the screen. This obviously picked up on the theme of technological solutions to the limitations of disability that featured so heavily in the Opening Ceremony.
As it has with other aspects of our lives advances in computer technology have really improved the range of technological solutions to disability. For example voice recognition software has made it much easier and therefore cheaper to subtitle TV programs. As such many more TV programs are now subtitled. It also works in the reverse with software that can recognise written words and convert them into speech for visually impaired people. People with extremely limited mobility including to their speech like Stephen Hawking can now use computers to allow them to talk.
I think the specific type of computer these graphics were trying to mimic was Apple's "Siri" system. This is actually a rudimentary from of Artificial Intelligence so it brings in all the discussions about Artificial Intelligence that is sort of a hot topic in science and technology generally at the moment.
However Artificial Intelligence does have specific applications for people living with disability. For example in the Opening Ceremony I mentioned an Israeli start-up "UPnRIDE" who are developing a type of vertical wheelchair that allows the user to stand up on an platform. In order to maintain balance this relies heavily on Artificial Intelligence.
This reference to Siri was particularly unfortunate because one of the Para-Olympics main sponsors is Samsung. The recent launch of their iPhone rivalling S7 smartphone has not gone well.
At around 16:50 on 19/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner although I have probably already covered about 80-85% of the politics of the ceremony.
Edited at around 19:00 on 19/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
Guitar Heroes: Rather than featuring a single Brazilian band this next sequence featured a one off performance of several Brazilian guitar heroes.
This was begun by Armandiho. He's famous for playing a special Brazilian type of guitar known as a Boha. This is essentially a small, electric guitar. Armandiho was joined by Andreas Kisser who is part of the Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura. Although I wouldn't say that I was a fan this is one Brazilian band I have most certainly heard off. I'm a bit surprised they didn't feature in some of the earlier ceremonies because they are World famous although in the admittedly small world of heavy metal.
Armandiho and Kisser were then joined by Jonathan Bastos. This extremely talented Brazilian musician was born without arms. So very much in keeping with the spirit of the Para-Olympics he taught himself to play a number of musical instruments with his feet. Here he was obviously playing the guitar but in the "Yes I Can" Para-Olympic trailer he played the piano.
As the three thrashed away on their guitars they were joined on stage by a number of dancers with mobility problems. Primarily these were wheelchair users but others were able to dance on their arms and balance on each other's shoulders in a very acrobatic performance.
Brazilian Flag & Anthem: The concert then took a break while IPC President Phillip Craven was quickly introduced and the Brazilian flag was raised while the Brazilian anthem was performed as per IPC protocol.
The flag was brought in by the same Firefighter flag detail that featured in the Opening Ceremony. As the flag was being raised the anthem was performed live by Brazilian singer Saulo Laucus (I will need to check that spelling) who was accompanied by a Harp.
Laucus is both severely visually impaired and suffers from Autism. I think only indentified in the 1940's Autism has been one of the more fashionable developmental disorders in recent years as more research is done and more is learnt about it. Despite all that research the Anti-Vaxxer movement still claim that vaccines - particularly the combined Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine - cause Autism.
However as with hearing impairment Autism doesn't really affect athletic performance so there is no Para-Olympic class for people with Autism. However in some severe cases Autism can affect balance and coordination so you do occasionally get Autistic athletes competing in the neurological impairment class although no-one immediately springs to mind.
Obviously having spent the previous 10 days talking about the disorders and impairments that are included in the Para-Olympics it's quite nice to have an opportunity to discuss one that isn't. However this ceremony didn't really do anything more that shout; "Autism. Discuss."
On the giant video screen an animation inspired by astrophysics showing things like star constellations and the atom structures was being played. This was a reference to China's Quantum communication satellite QUESS that featured heavily in the initial Closing Ceremony. Dotted around the arena amid the crowd were what I assume were performers wearing smart fabrics that light up in white light. That too was a major feature of the initial Closing Ceremony.
However the fact that I can't be sure about any of this really highlights what was so different about this Closing Ceremony.
Normally these type of ceremonies are designed from the perspective of the TV viewer at home. As a result if you're actually in the arena it can be quite difficult to follow what's going on. This ceremony was very much designed from the perspective of the competitors sitting in the arena. So they actually had the best view and by the looks of things really enjoyed themselves while I as a TV viewer felt a bit left out.
Parade of Nations: Although the competitors had made their way into the arena before the ceremony began the flags of the competing nations were still paraded into the arena. They were largely carried by a competitor from that nation accompanied by a guide. They made their way in from the opposite end of the arena to the stage and made their way down the central gangway before being ushered off to the sides.
The British flag was carried by Kadeena Cox. She was selected as a reference to a topic that's sort of being floating around in the background of these games. Euthanasia or assisted suicide.
This was touched upon in the September 2nd (2/9/16) Heritage flame lighting ceremony were Kelly Gallagher appeared dressed up to resemble the Emilia Clarke character from Game of Thrones. As I mentioned at the time Emilia Clarke has gone on to do a movie called "Me Without You." This centres around a man who decides that his life is not living and he must commit suicide because he was paralysed in a motorcycle accident.
Just on Saturday (17/9/16) it was announced that Canadian author of "Shoeless Joe" which became the movie "Field of Dreams" W.P Kinsella had been euthanised the previous day although no further details were given. Also on Saturday Belgium announced that the first child under the age of 18 had been euthanised under a law that was passed in 2014. Again though no further details were given.
The Para-Olympic movement was born out of the Second World War. Its purpose was to convince these big strong soldiers who'd be paralysed that there was no need to kill themselves simply because they could no longer walk. Instead they can still live a long an fulfilling life doing things like archery. They just need to get up out of their beds and stop feeling sorry for themselves.
As such euthanasia is very much against the spirit of the Para-Olympic movement.
However there is a small group of competitors with degenerative disorders which get progressively worse who may consider it. Kadeena Cox is one such athlete.
In these games Cox competed in both track events and cycling events
winning two Gold, one Silver and a Bronze medal in the process. The
reason she is competing in so many events is she knows that by the 2020
Tokyo games her condition - Multiple Sclerosis - may have deteriorated
to the point that she's not able to compete in any event. Eventually
euthanasia might be a dignified alternative to a painful and inevitable
death.
Another example is Belgian wheelchair racer Marieke Vervoort who suffers from a degenerative spinal condition that is so rare it doesn't appear to have a name. In an interview at the games Vervoort announced that she had applied for and been granted permission to be euthanised and was planning to do so very soon.
Needless to say this kind of bummed everyone out. After all even at the Para-Olympics; "So are you planning to kill yourself?" is not considered a polite greeting.
Of course not all of the national flags were carried by competitors from that nation. Some nations opted to allow their flags to be carried by the local Brazilian volunteers or games makers. One such nation was Saudi Arabia.
I noticed the particular volunteer the Brazilians chose to carry the Saudi flag very closely resembled that possibly Jewish, possibly disabled volunteer who featured so prominently in the initial Closing Ceremony. With Saudi Arabia being one of the nations that would definitely fail that kind of anti-Semitism test that could well have been intended as an insult.
One of the things the Saudis may have done to annoy the hosts is that during the initial Opening Ceremony one of their delegation kept trying to muscle his way past the stewards onto the runway during the Parade of Nations. This was done to boost Saudi Arabia's screentime and very nearly led to an Egyptian athlete being expelled for waving a Saudi flag and nearly started a punch-up with the Iranian delegation.
It seems that Saudi Arabia had not learnt its lesson and again during this Parade of Nations one of their delegation was trying to muscle his way past the stewards. This time to take photographs. Well I assume he was Saudi he was wearing traditional white Saudi robes and headdress and spent most of his time with his back to the camera. So he could have been one of Saudis Gulf neighbours making a point about Saudi Arabia's poor behaviour. Then again he may have been French, Dutch, Belgian or from any other non-Gulf State nation.
What I found amusing was that on either side of the gangway there were two groups of people who were clearly friends. So they started playing this game where they threw paper aeroplanes and balled up scraps of paper across the aisle. As the game went on these paper projectiles were getting progressively closer to this photographers head. Eventually he got the message and backed off.
The Parade of Nations ended with a short firework display.
This wasn't as spectacular as the sequence in the initial Closing Ceremony that I've still not got around to covering. However rather than being just a simple firework display this used different colours and patterns in an attempt to convey a message. That message was simply; "RIO 2016."
This obviously again touched on the Synesthesia theme. Also using light to convey a message is a rudimentary example of quantum communication which uses sub-atomic particles like photons to transmit data rather like fibre optics just without the cabling.
21:00 on 19/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 16:25 on 20/9/16 (UK date) to add: I wasn't even close on that guy's name was I.
Monday, 19 September 2016
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.6
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 5; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening_19.html
Torch Relay & Cauldron Lighting: The highlight of any Opening Ceremony is of course the end of the torch relay and the lighting of the Para-Olympic cauldron.
This sequence began with a video montage showing the "Heritage Flame" as it is now known making its way from the September 2nd (2/9/16) lighting ceremony in Stoke Mandeville hospital, UK to Rio. Due to the constraints of time and budget this did not begin as a physical torch relay but a virtual one. From the lighting ceremony it was passed via social media across the globe to Brazil where it became a physical relay.
I did notice that this video montage showed the closing song from the lighting ceremony. This is the bit that Channel 4 News didn't bother cover because they thought it was more important to cut to a panel discussion and a weather report. They were though the only broadcaster to cover any of the ceremony live.
The flame was brought into the arena by Brazilian sprinter Antonio Souza.
As a single below the elbow amputee Souza competed in the T46 class indicating that he is a Track athlete who an impairment to his upper limbs (4) and that impairment is moderate-to-light (6). Being rather good in this discipline Souza won silver in the men's 400m in the 2000 Sydney games and gold in the 2004 Athens games in both the 400m & 200m.
Souza then handed the torch to Marcia Malsar. She is the one that you've all heard of because she fell over.
Despite falling over in an Opening Ceremony Marcia Malsar is also reasonably famous as a Brazilian sprinter who has won four Para-Olympic medals. Most notably Sliver in the women's 1000m and Gold in the women's 200m in the 1984 games. Although the 1984 Olympics were held in Los Angeles that year's Para-Olympics were held all the way across the US in Long Island, New York.
Malsar used to compete in the C6 class. This indicates that she has an impairment of the Cerebellum and that impairment is moderate-to-light (6) in severity. But closer to the moderate (5).
Traditionally the C class only applied to people with Cerebral Palsy. This is a congenital condition (birth defect) in which the brain does not properly communicate with the nervous system as it connects to the Spinal Column via the Cerebellum and Brain Stem. With these areas of the brain being particularly responsible for automatic processes such as balance and movement this can cause those with the condition or twitch or fall over as their muscles experience what are know as; "Spastic contractions."
More recently though the C class has grow to include competitors with neurological symptoms causing impairment similar to Cerebral Palsy. This definition can include any one or a combination of literally thousands of medical conditions including being punched in the head really hard (Concussion). Apparently it takes at least 7 years to qualify as an actual, proper doctor.
However as the developed world in particular has become increasingly interested in the type of disability associated with ageing bodies the oft talked about type of neurological impairment are those associated with Stroke.
The not strictly speaking medical term "Stroke" refers to any failure of blood flow to the brain resulting brain cell death. The two main types are "Ischemic" when blood vessels get blocked or "Hemorrhagic" when the blood vessels burst and all the blood leaks out into places it shouldn't be rather than the places it should be.
What neurological damage is done by a stroke really depends on two things. How long it lasts for and what area of the brain it effects.
Hemorrhagic strokes tend to be catastrophic. They can last for as long as it takes for someone to cut into the brain and surgically patch up the burst blood vessel. Untreated Hemorrhagic strokes are often fatal.
Ischemic strokes can be every bit as catastrophic as Hemorrhagic strokes. However they tend to effect smaller blood vessels such as capillaries rather than arteries and can often clear themselves. This is known as a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) or mini-stroke. These often pass after a couple of hours without the need for medical intervention.
Whatever the type of stroke cutting off the supply of blood and therefore oxygen to any brain cells causes them to die. What level of neurological impairment this causes depends on where in the brain those cells are located. Despite all the advances of science we're still not exactly sure what each brain cell does. Not least because brain cells not only seem able to do more than one job they also seem able to change their purpose to compensate for any cells that have been lost.
Apart from death a common consequence of catastrophic strokes is paralysis of part or all of the body. Curiously the side of the body affected is opposite to the hemisphere of the brain affected. So if someone has a stroke in the left side of their brain it will be the right side of their body affected. The paralysis of the facial muscles - particularly around the mouth - are a big clue that someone has suffered a stroke.
More minor consequences - particularly of TIA's - can include minor loss of co-ordination, memory loss and loss of cognitive function and reasoning skills. On a day-to-day basis the progression of this impairment may be imperceptible to the naked eye in much the same way you can't really notice someones hair growing millimetre by millimetre.
The exact nature of Marcia Malsar's medical condition would be extremely helpful in determining why she fell. After all the important thing to remember about people with Cerebral Palsy is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their brains.
For example in 2012 Britain was represented in the Equestrian events by Sophie Christiansen who has Cerebral Palsy. She is not competing in Rio because she felt it was more important to put her Masters degree in Mathematics to work as a statistical analyst for Goldman Sachs.
Therefore it is entirely possible that Marcia Malsar fell over on purpose to provide us with a talking point.
However that is not to say that she faked her fall. Merely that she agreed to participate in the relay knowing that her impairment meant that it was more likely than not that she would fall over.
At around 21:40 on 13/9/16 (UK date) the exact nature of that talking point will have to wait until tomorrow. Because as the second glass of wine goes down I've got a feeling this isn't going to get more coherent.
Edited at around 14:25 on 14/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The talking point Marcia Malsar's fall provided us with is how do you react when a disabled person does something embarrassing like falling over?
Answering this is quite difficult because asking what the disabled think is about as much use as asking what the Muslims think or what the Blacks think. It turns out that they're all individuals each with their own opinion.
Generally what a lot of disabled people complain about though is people fussing over them. That is to say when they fall over everyone rushes towards them with tears in their eyes and tries wrapping them in a cotton wool blanket before urgently calling an ambulance to take them to hospital.
After all if you've got an impairment that causes balance problems you may well fall over a couple of times a day. Therefore you get very good at landing without injuring yourself and getting yourself back up again.
A somewhat interesting example is UK powerlifter Ali Jawad. Apart from having a big Persian nose and big, pointy Persian ears he is also a double above the knee amputee. However rather than using prosthetics or a wheelchair he just charges about on his stumps. If he wants to get on or off a chair he'll simply swing on his arms like some sort of angry monkey. As a powerlifter he clearly doesn't need you to pick him up. Plus you probably couldn't even if you tried.
Of course the fact that Ali Jawad has also grown a beard like the Genie from Disney's "Aladdin" suggests we're dealing with a bit of a character.
However if someone - disabled or not - does fall over right next to you it is only polite to ask if they would like your help getting back up.
So when Marcia Malsar fell no-one came rushing over to help her. Two people did rush over but that was only to pick up the torch to stop the flame going out. Nor did the next person in the relay rush on to pick up the torch and cut short Malsar's section of the relay.
Instead everyone just waited until she'd picked herself up, dusted herself down and carried on with her section of the relay as normal.
During this time the crowd in the arena all rose to their feet to cheer and applaud. I personally found that a little condescending as if Malsar as an accomplished runner deserved applause simply for standing up. However it was certainly better than standing there in shocked silence or letting out a horrified gasp.
What I personally tend to do in this type of situation - particularly if I'm around friends rather than say work colleagues - is crack a little joke to break the tension and then just carry on. It was German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche who said that; "A joke is an epigram (epitaph) on the death of an emotion." That reflects the way that a joke can been used as a way to process and reject all those feelings of hurt or embarrassment.
I suspect the Brazilian hosts understood that the joke often made when someone falls over is that lumberjack's cry of; "TIMBER!!!!" That of course touches on that Climate Change issue of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+).
Malsar than passed the torch to Brazilian runner Adria Santos.
Born blind Adria Santos has won 12 Para-Olympic medals in total starting with Silver in the 100m at the 1996 Atlanta games. Most notably though she won Gold in the 100m in the 1992 Barcelona games, Gold in both the 100m and 200m at the 2000 Sydney games and Gold in the 100m at the 2004 Athens games.
In the 1996 Atlanta games up until the 2000 Sydney games Santos competed in the B2 class. This indicates that she is Blind and that impairment is medium to severe. However at the 2000 games the IPC changed the classification system and from then on Santos competed in either the T11 or T12 class.
This indicates that she is a Track athlete with an impairment affecting her vision (1) and that impairment is either severe (1) or medium to severe (2). However these days all visually impaired runners tend to wear blindfolds so they all compete in the T11 class regardless of whether they've got perfect eyesight.
Finally Santos passed the torch to Clodoaldo Silva.
Silva is something of a Brazilian swimming legend. At the time of the torch relay he had won 12 Para-Olympic medals beginning with three Silvers and a Bronze at the 2000 Sydney games in the 100m freestyle, 4x50m medley, 4x50m freestyle and 50m freestyle. He as also set five Para-Olympic and four World records.
So far in these games Silva has already won Silver in the mixed 4x50m freestyle. I'm a bit worried he might win more medals while I'm writing this.
Silva competes in the S5 class. This indicates that he is Swimmer and that he suffers from a moderate impairment of his mobility. Silva's specific impairment comes from Cerebral Palsy and primarily affects his lower body. As a result when Silva is not in the pool he uses a wheelchair.
This presented a huge problem when he came to the base of the protocol island which had the cauldron at its summit.
The design of the protocol island seemed based on the Inca temples and it was a giant rectangular monolith with steps all the way down its front. Although technically the Inca are from Brazil's neighbour Peru this seemed to be a little nod to Brazil's indigenous tribes. If they'd used something specifically Brazilian it's unlikely people would have recognised it and all the other tribes would have been offended.
The geometrically perfect steps at the front of the island were very reminiscent of the Modernist school of architecture founded by famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. It is this Niemeyer influence you can see in the Brutalist City Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.
No matter how fascinating these steps were to students of architecture they were most certainly not wheelchair accessible so Clodoaldo Silva was left looking dejected, unable to reach the cauldron he needed to light.
Then suddenly and mechanically sections of the steps pushed outwards to form a wheelchair ramp.
This was intended to highlight the sort of problems that disabled people experience in everyday and how easy it is to solve them if only we were a little more thoughtful. Although this is a global issue it is one that is particularly relevant to Rio's favelas.
Built without planning on land no-one else wants favelas tend to be built on the side of hills meaning that they are essentially all stairs. Not only does this make them completely inaccessible to wheelchair users even fully able bodied people find living in favelas physically exhausting.
As part of the preparations for these games Rio built a Gondola or cable-car system linking the Alemao favela with the city centre to save people the effort of walking up and down all those stairs.
Having reached the summit of the protocol island Silva lit the cauldron. This was the same cauldron used in the previous games. However due to budgetary constraints the stadium where that cauldron is located is closed during the games. So we have to make do with a smaller copy placed outside the Candelaria Church in Rio itself.
The ceremony ended with a performance by Brazilian pop Samba singer Seu Jorge. During this song all the performers returned to the arena floor to dance and enjoy a party atmosphere.
There was then the traditional firework display.
16:15 on 14/9/16 (UK date).
Torch Relay & Cauldron Lighting: The highlight of any Opening Ceremony is of course the end of the torch relay and the lighting of the Para-Olympic cauldron.
This sequence began with a video montage showing the "Heritage Flame" as it is now known making its way from the September 2nd (2/9/16) lighting ceremony in Stoke Mandeville hospital, UK to Rio. Due to the constraints of time and budget this did not begin as a physical torch relay but a virtual one. From the lighting ceremony it was passed via social media across the globe to Brazil where it became a physical relay.
I did notice that this video montage showed the closing song from the lighting ceremony. This is the bit that Channel 4 News didn't bother cover because they thought it was more important to cut to a panel discussion and a weather report. They were though the only broadcaster to cover any of the ceremony live.
The flame was brought into the arena by Brazilian sprinter Antonio Souza.
As a single below the elbow amputee Souza competed in the T46 class indicating that he is a Track athlete who an impairment to his upper limbs (4) and that impairment is moderate-to-light (6). Being rather good in this discipline Souza won silver in the men's 400m in the 2000 Sydney games and gold in the 2004 Athens games in both the 400m & 200m.
Souza then handed the torch to Marcia Malsar. She is the one that you've all heard of because she fell over.
Despite falling over in an Opening Ceremony Marcia Malsar is also reasonably famous as a Brazilian sprinter who has won four Para-Olympic medals. Most notably Sliver in the women's 1000m and Gold in the women's 200m in the 1984 games. Although the 1984 Olympics were held in Los Angeles that year's Para-Olympics were held all the way across the US in Long Island, New York.
Malsar used to compete in the C6 class. This indicates that she has an impairment of the Cerebellum and that impairment is moderate-to-light (6) in severity. But closer to the moderate (5).
Traditionally the C class only applied to people with Cerebral Palsy. This is a congenital condition (birth defect) in which the brain does not properly communicate with the nervous system as it connects to the Spinal Column via the Cerebellum and Brain Stem. With these areas of the brain being particularly responsible for automatic processes such as balance and movement this can cause those with the condition or twitch or fall over as their muscles experience what are know as; "Spastic contractions."
More recently though the C class has grow to include competitors with neurological symptoms causing impairment similar to Cerebral Palsy. This definition can include any one or a combination of literally thousands of medical conditions including being punched in the head really hard (Concussion). Apparently it takes at least 7 years to qualify as an actual, proper doctor.
However as the developed world in particular has become increasingly interested in the type of disability associated with ageing bodies the oft talked about type of neurological impairment are those associated with Stroke.
The not strictly speaking medical term "Stroke" refers to any failure of blood flow to the brain resulting brain cell death. The two main types are "Ischemic" when blood vessels get blocked or "Hemorrhagic" when the blood vessels burst and all the blood leaks out into places it shouldn't be rather than the places it should be.
What neurological damage is done by a stroke really depends on two things. How long it lasts for and what area of the brain it effects.
Hemorrhagic strokes tend to be catastrophic. They can last for as long as it takes for someone to cut into the brain and surgically patch up the burst blood vessel. Untreated Hemorrhagic strokes are often fatal.
Ischemic strokes can be every bit as catastrophic as Hemorrhagic strokes. However they tend to effect smaller blood vessels such as capillaries rather than arteries and can often clear themselves. This is known as a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) or mini-stroke. These often pass after a couple of hours without the need for medical intervention.
Whatever the type of stroke cutting off the supply of blood and therefore oxygen to any brain cells causes them to die. What level of neurological impairment this causes depends on where in the brain those cells are located. Despite all the advances of science we're still not exactly sure what each brain cell does. Not least because brain cells not only seem able to do more than one job they also seem able to change their purpose to compensate for any cells that have been lost.
Apart from death a common consequence of catastrophic strokes is paralysis of part or all of the body. Curiously the side of the body affected is opposite to the hemisphere of the brain affected. So if someone has a stroke in the left side of their brain it will be the right side of their body affected. The paralysis of the facial muscles - particularly around the mouth - are a big clue that someone has suffered a stroke.
More minor consequences - particularly of TIA's - can include minor loss of co-ordination, memory loss and loss of cognitive function and reasoning skills. On a day-to-day basis the progression of this impairment may be imperceptible to the naked eye in much the same way you can't really notice someones hair growing millimetre by millimetre.
The exact nature of Marcia Malsar's medical condition would be extremely helpful in determining why she fell. After all the important thing to remember about people with Cerebral Palsy is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their brains.
For example in 2012 Britain was represented in the Equestrian events by Sophie Christiansen who has Cerebral Palsy. She is not competing in Rio because she felt it was more important to put her Masters degree in Mathematics to work as a statistical analyst for Goldman Sachs.
Therefore it is entirely possible that Marcia Malsar fell over on purpose to provide us with a talking point.
However that is not to say that she faked her fall. Merely that she agreed to participate in the relay knowing that her impairment meant that it was more likely than not that she would fall over.
At around 21:40 on 13/9/16 (UK date) the exact nature of that talking point will have to wait until tomorrow. Because as the second glass of wine goes down I've got a feeling this isn't going to get more coherent.
Edited at around 14:25 on 14/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The talking point Marcia Malsar's fall provided us with is how do you react when a disabled person does something embarrassing like falling over?
Answering this is quite difficult because asking what the disabled think is about as much use as asking what the Muslims think or what the Blacks think. It turns out that they're all individuals each with their own opinion.
Generally what a lot of disabled people complain about though is people fussing over them. That is to say when they fall over everyone rushes towards them with tears in their eyes and tries wrapping them in a cotton wool blanket before urgently calling an ambulance to take them to hospital.
After all if you've got an impairment that causes balance problems you may well fall over a couple of times a day. Therefore you get very good at landing without injuring yourself and getting yourself back up again.
A somewhat interesting example is UK powerlifter Ali Jawad. Apart from having a big Persian nose and big, pointy Persian ears he is also a double above the knee amputee. However rather than using prosthetics or a wheelchair he just charges about on his stumps. If he wants to get on or off a chair he'll simply swing on his arms like some sort of angry monkey. As a powerlifter he clearly doesn't need you to pick him up. Plus you probably couldn't even if you tried.
Of course the fact that Ali Jawad has also grown a beard like the Genie from Disney's "Aladdin" suggests we're dealing with a bit of a character.
However if someone - disabled or not - does fall over right next to you it is only polite to ask if they would like your help getting back up.
So when Marcia Malsar fell no-one came rushing over to help her. Two people did rush over but that was only to pick up the torch to stop the flame going out. Nor did the next person in the relay rush on to pick up the torch and cut short Malsar's section of the relay.
Instead everyone just waited until she'd picked herself up, dusted herself down and carried on with her section of the relay as normal.
During this time the crowd in the arena all rose to their feet to cheer and applaud. I personally found that a little condescending as if Malsar as an accomplished runner deserved applause simply for standing up. However it was certainly better than standing there in shocked silence or letting out a horrified gasp.
What I personally tend to do in this type of situation - particularly if I'm around friends rather than say work colleagues - is crack a little joke to break the tension and then just carry on. It was German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche who said that; "A joke is an epigram (epitaph) on the death of an emotion." That reflects the way that a joke can been used as a way to process and reject all those feelings of hurt or embarrassment.
I suspect the Brazilian hosts understood that the joke often made when someone falls over is that lumberjack's cry of; "TIMBER!!!!" That of course touches on that Climate Change issue of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+).
Malsar than passed the torch to Brazilian runner Adria Santos.
Born blind Adria Santos has won 12 Para-Olympic medals in total starting with Silver in the 100m at the 1996 Atlanta games. Most notably though she won Gold in the 100m in the 1992 Barcelona games, Gold in both the 100m and 200m at the 2000 Sydney games and Gold in the 100m at the 2004 Athens games.
In the 1996 Atlanta games up until the 2000 Sydney games Santos competed in the B2 class. This indicates that she is Blind and that impairment is medium to severe. However at the 2000 games the IPC changed the classification system and from then on Santos competed in either the T11 or T12 class.
This indicates that she is a Track athlete with an impairment affecting her vision (1) and that impairment is either severe (1) or medium to severe (2). However these days all visually impaired runners tend to wear blindfolds so they all compete in the T11 class regardless of whether they've got perfect eyesight.
Finally Santos passed the torch to Clodoaldo Silva.
Silva is something of a Brazilian swimming legend. At the time of the torch relay he had won 12 Para-Olympic medals beginning with three Silvers and a Bronze at the 2000 Sydney games in the 100m freestyle, 4x50m medley, 4x50m freestyle and 50m freestyle. He as also set five Para-Olympic and four World records.
So far in these games Silva has already won Silver in the mixed 4x50m freestyle. I'm a bit worried he might win more medals while I'm writing this.
Silva competes in the S5 class. This indicates that he is Swimmer and that he suffers from a moderate impairment of his mobility. Silva's specific impairment comes from Cerebral Palsy and primarily affects his lower body. As a result when Silva is not in the pool he uses a wheelchair.
This presented a huge problem when he came to the base of the protocol island which had the cauldron at its summit.
The design of the protocol island seemed based on the Inca temples and it was a giant rectangular monolith with steps all the way down its front. Although technically the Inca are from Brazil's neighbour Peru this seemed to be a little nod to Brazil's indigenous tribes. If they'd used something specifically Brazilian it's unlikely people would have recognised it and all the other tribes would have been offended.
The geometrically perfect steps at the front of the island were very reminiscent of the Modernist school of architecture founded by famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. It is this Niemeyer influence you can see in the Brutalist City Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.
No matter how fascinating these steps were to students of architecture they were most certainly not wheelchair accessible so Clodoaldo Silva was left looking dejected, unable to reach the cauldron he needed to light.
Then suddenly and mechanically sections of the steps pushed outwards to form a wheelchair ramp.
This was intended to highlight the sort of problems that disabled people experience in everyday and how easy it is to solve them if only we were a little more thoughtful. Although this is a global issue it is one that is particularly relevant to Rio's favelas.
Built without planning on land no-one else wants favelas tend to be built on the side of hills meaning that they are essentially all stairs. Not only does this make them completely inaccessible to wheelchair users even fully able bodied people find living in favelas physically exhausting.
As part of the preparations for these games Rio built a Gondola or cable-car system linking the Alemao favela with the city centre to save people the effort of walking up and down all those stairs.
Having reached the summit of the protocol island Silva lit the cauldron. This was the same cauldron used in the previous games. However due to budgetary constraints the stadium where that cauldron is located is closed during the games. So we have to make do with a smaller copy placed outside the Candelaria Church in Rio itself.
The ceremony ended with a performance by Brazilian pop Samba singer Seu Jorge. During this song all the performers returned to the arena floor to dance and enjoy a party atmosphere.
There was then the traditional firework display.
16:15 on 14/9/16 (UK date).
Monday, 12 September 2016
The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.5
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 4; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening_12.html
Para-Olympic Flag & Anthem: As with the Olympics it is a matter of protocol that each Opening Ceremony features the raising of the Para-Olympic flag and a performance of the Para-Olympic anthem.
This sequence began with a short video introducing us to the work of Alexandria Falerios and his Projecto Buto No Mundo (Project Buto Worldwide).
This is a project dreamt up by the Brazilian fathers of children with severe disabilities affecting their mobility and balance. It sees the fathers strap their child into a special harness around their chests and tie the child's feet to their own feet. This allows the children to play football with their fathers acting as their legs and bodies.
It is an incredibly powerful thing to watch being a dramatic demonstration of that deep, unconditional love that a parent has for their children regardless of everything and anything. It is like the stereotypical image of a young daughter dancing on her father's feet at a wedding only on a much, much more intense emotional level.
It was these fathers and their children that carried the Para-Olympic flag into the arena.
As they made their way around the arena the stadium announcer introduced us to each child and told us a little bit about their disability.
With this being a project being set up parents with no previous medical experience rather than a therapy being devised by doctors there isn't any common theme to these disabilities. You can't even strictly speaking refer to them all as congenital or birth defects. Although certainly some of the children do suffer from disorders like Cerebral Palsy others were born prematurely or starved of oxygen at birth.
Collectively though they represented that shadow that has been hanging over these Brazilian games, particularly the Para-Olympics. The Zika virus and the birth defects it causes.
I should start by pointing out that for the vast majority of people Zika is in no way a serious medical condition. It might give you a bit of a rash and leave you feeling grotty for about a week but that is it. In some extremely rare cases it can trigger off other autoimmune diseases such as Encephalitis or Guilain-Barre syndrome. However that is true of all viral infections. Even the common cold.
The only group that Zika presents a significant risk to is pregnant women or more specifically their unborn children. However even within that very small sub-group of the population Zika only has serious consequences in less than 1% of cases.
Therefore I think there is a lot to be said for simply treating Zika as you would any host of childhood disease like Chicken Pox, Mumps or Rubella.
Catching any one of these diseases as an adult can have very serious consequences including death. As with Zika the risks are increased for pregnant women. As a result a lot of parents try and make sure their children catch these diseases before they reach puberty. That way they build up a natural immunity to the disease long before they're at risk of developing the more serious complications such as during pregnancy.
However in response to this Zika outbreak everyone seems to have completely lost any sense of perspective. US President Barack Obama in particular seems to view Zika as the next Ebola.
What Obama wants to do in response to the Zika outbreak is effectively carpet bomb the entire planet with an Organophosphate insecticide known as "Naled."
This is from the same family of chemicals as very serious Chemical Weapons such as Sarin and VX gas. Not only does it cause cancer in humans Naled also destroys the nervous system causing autoimmune diseases like Encephalitis and Guilain-Barre along with, well, death.
Naled also wipes out all insects including important pollinators such as honey bees and butterflies. In turn this causes a mass die-off of plants that require those pollinators to grow and animals that require those plants to live.
Obama also wants to rush through a Zika vaccine. There is a growing group of frankly conspiracy theorists who believe that vaccines cause other illnesses such as Autism who are known as "Anti-Vaxxers." I have absolutely no time for these people because before a vaccine hits the market it goes through years of extensive research and clinical trial to establish that it doesn't cause health problems.
However with the Zika vaccine Obama is talking about skipping many of these research and clinical trials in order to rush the vaccine onto the market. As far as I'm concerned the risk that presents is out of all proportion to the scale of the threat Zika itself poses.
Personally I consider the whole thing to be yet another example of Obama's extreme egomania. Like many of his arrogance he is absolutely terrified of anything that is bigger or more powerful than him. Such as nature.
Despite all these problems with Obama's Zika strategy back in June the US Congress authorised USD1.1bn to fund it. However Obama himself then vetoed that bill because he wanted an extra USD70m to abort babies whose mothers were infected with Zika. 99% of whom will have absolutely no health problems whatsoever.
Obama is now trying to claim that it was Congress that blocked Zika funding. Once again behaving like a petulant child.
Despite the extremely low risks - even to pregnant women - Zika has resulted in some 4000 babies being born in Brazil with a severe birth defect called "Microcephaly." It is worth pointing out though that is in a country of more than 200 million people.
Quite what the prognosis for those babies will be is hard to tell. Rather than being a disease or a disorder itself Microcephaly is merely a specific symptom. In Latin in literally means; "Small Headedness."
Microcephaly is defined by the skull failing to grow to its normal size. When this happens what tends to happen is that the brain - lacking space - also fails to develop. In some cases although shrunken the skull continues to grow as the rest of the body does. In other cases it does not grow at all.
Microcephaly is actually reasonably common in disorders such as Cerebral Palsy and Dwarfism. As a result at the Para-Olympics there are actually a number of competitors with mild forms of Microcephaly. For them it is not a serious problem and doesn't stop them from competing is sport at the international level.
However with Zika related Microcephaly the prognosis seems to be much worse. In the majority of those cases the stunted growth of the brain seems to primarily effect the Brain Stem and Cerebellum. These are the parts of the brain that deal with automatic biological processes such as breathing and regulating blood pressure and body temperature.
Unless these children's skulls do start growing again those parts of the brain will be crushed. This means that means that these children will probably die of natural causes such as respiratory failure either during or as they begin puberty at the age of around 10 years old.
With it being extremely unlikely that they will ever progress beyond the newborn stage of neurological development - essentially remaining giant babies all their lives - probably the most humane thing is just to let nature run its course and enjoy the time they have been given.
At around 17:35 on 12/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner.
Edited at around 20:05 on 12/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The children then handed the Para-Olympic flag to the same flag detail who raised the Brazilian flag. The flag detail then climbed all those stairs to the top of the protocol island and raised the flag.
As the flag was being raised a recording of the Para-Olympic anthem was played while we were shown a montage of the sporting highlights from the 2012 Para-Olympic games. If there was a significance to the people included in this montage it was lost on me.
The Para-Olympic oaths were then taken on behalf of all competitors, judges and coaches by the swimmer Philippe Andrews on behalf of the athletes. Boccia judge Racquel Daffre on behalf of the judges. And Amaurey Delissimon on behalf of the coaches.
Behold. Ironman: This sequence centred around American Para-Olympic snowboarder and double below the knee amputee Amy Purdy performing a dance routine. She was wearing a 3D printed dress by perhaps aptly named Israeli designer Danit Peleg. It was her dance partner that was the star of the show though - a giant robotic arm made by Kuka.
Kuka are actually a German robotics company. However they have a manufacturing subsidiary based in Brazil. If the fact that Brazil is home to the World's third largest aircraft manufacturer Embraer didn't dispel the notion that Brazil isn't a serious country this gave you an opportunity to check out their robotics industry.
This entire section was intended to promote discussion about the role of technology in overcoming the limitations of disability.
Although they're so simple and have been around for so long that we no longer think of them in that way even the humble wheelchair is an example of a technological solution to the limitations of disability. However the wheelchairs they use at the Para-Olympics - particularly in the Handcycling - are far from simple in their design.
Amy Purdy began her routine with wooden feet on the base of her prosthetics. In one dramatic moment in the dance she kicked off those wooden feet to reveal the type of carbon fibre blades used in the Para-Olympics - particularly by track & field athletes. The level of design and engineering that goes into these blades means that they are much, much more than simply carbon fibre peg-legs.
If you cast your mind back to the 2012 games you may remember that he who shall not be mentioned got into a massive argument with Brazil's Alan Oliveria. The complaint being that the design of Oliveria's running blades gave him an unfair advantage.
At this year's games we have single below the knee amputee Markus Rehm representing Germany in the long jump. He would very much have liked to compete in the Olympics themselves but the IOC refused on the grounds that for the specific task of long jump his blade is better than a human leg.
Outside disabled sport there seem to be every increasing technological solutions to the limitations of disability.
One that seems almost old fashioned these days is the Cochlear implant. This is an electronic device that is implanted into the skulls of deaf people. It simply bypasses the damaged ear feeding sound directly into the nervous system doing the job the ear should do.
For the visually impaired a system called "OrCam" has just reached the market. Being similar to the Cochlear implant this features cameras mounted on spectacles that feed electrical signals directly into the brain doing the job the eye should do.
Just yesterday (11/9/16) in the UK the first person to cross the finishing line of the Great North Run half-marathon in a staged photo-opportunity was a woman called Claire Lomas. Paraplegic since a horse riding accident in 2007 she can now walk on crutches with the aid of a bionic suit known as "ReWalk" which performs a similar function as the Project Buto fathers. However I suspect it will be a long time before the IPC start letting people race in motorised exoskeletons.
With this section of the Opening Ceremony starting off a bit of a bidding war the Israeli robotics start-up "UPnRIDE" would also really like you to know that they've developed a new type of wheelchair. Using similar robotic technology as ReWalk this allows people to stand up in a motorised wheelchair. The intention being to let them feel less alienated in everyday life. Getting things from the topshelf in a grocery store being a prime example.
Back in late 2015 the US military's mad science division - the Defence Advanced Research Projects (DAPRA) - who are also working on powered exoskeletons announced that they had developed a prosthetic limb that can be connected to the nervous system. That not only allows the prosthetic to have a sense of touch it also allows the wearer to control the movement of the prosthetic in the same way they would a limb.
At around 21:00 on 12/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at around 13:50 on 13/9/16 (UK date) to add;
This section also gives me an opportunity to discuss some of the tension I've been having with UK Para-Olympic broadcaster Channel 4 during the games so far.
Back in 2012 Channel 4 went into the Para-Olympics in a big way. A large part of their coverage then focused on the type of impairments affecting the competitors, what methods they use to overcome them and how that affects the way they are classified for competition. The Last Leg show even used the hashtag #IsItOk to allow people to ask the questions about disability that they otherwise felt stupid or embarrassed to ask.
In the four years since then Channel 4 has nurtured a fanbase for disabled sport. These people are obviously well versed in disability issues. As a result at these games Channel 4's coverage is focused much more on the competitors achievements and the aspects of their lives that have absolutely nothing to do with their impairment. The intention being to get viewers to see the person rather than the disability.
So every time I focus on a competitors impairment or the technology they use to overcome it Channel 4 tend to go into full Social Justice Warrior mode and start getting all snippy with me.
I'm not saying that the editorial line Channel 4 have taken is wrong. In fact for them it is probably exactly the right thing to be doing.
It's just that I - like the games themselves - am taking a more global perspective. That means constantly behaving as if this was someones first introduction to disabled sport or disability issues. In no small part due to the effort that Channel 4 put in back in 2012 a lot more broadcasters globally are covering these games. That means that for many it is actually their first introduction to disabled sport and disability issues.
Also one of the main advantages of the Para-Olympics is that it provides nations with an opportunity to gather together to discuss disabled sport and disability issues. This allows them to brainstorm and share ideas of how best to help people living with disability. Therefore I think it would be an opportunity missed not to discuss disability at all at the Para-Olympics.
There is of course a whole other subtext to this sequence though.
For a very long time in fiction and art Robots have been used as an allegory for authoritarian governments or more commonly authoritarian capitalists who are trying to destroy humanity and take over the World. Skynet from the "Terminator" franchise being a particularly high profile example.
In fact Robots have been used in fiction in this way for longer than Robots have actually existed.
The first use of the term "Robot" was in a 1920 play by Czech writer Karel Capek called; "Rossum's Universal Robots." This is about a greedy corporation that accidentally wipes out humanity by creating a race of out of control Robots. So when engineers invented Robots they actually took the name from science fiction.
If you've ever had the misfortune of discussing politics on the Internet with Hillary Clinton supporters eventually the term; "Hillbot" will come up. This reflects the way these seeming automatons will robotically recite the party line no matter how many facts are presented to contradict them.
The Kuka robot used in this sequence is simply a type of hydraulic arm. This is a common design used in a vast array of roles. For example on Friday (9/9/16) a group of British surgeons - perhaps taking things a little too literally - announced that they'd cured a blind man by using a much smaller version of this type of robot to operate on his eye.
However I think the use that most people at these games will be most familiar with is the hydraulic arm on the type of bomb disposal robot that is used to fight terrorism.
For example on the track Britain is being represented by David Henson. He served with a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan until - to quote his Twitter bio - he; "had and bad day at work."
Friday's (9/9/16) men's 100m final was slightly spoilt when part of the stadium had to be evacuated due to a bomb scare. A bomb scare that had accidentally been caused by The Last Leg presenter Johnny Vegas. The first couple of days of the previous games were marred by the Brazilian military having to use bomb disposal robots to carry out several controlled explosions.
Then of course there was the July 7th (7/7/16) terror attack in Dallas, Texas, US that was carried out by US President Obama's Black Lives Matter group. Although this was a shooting attack it was somewhat controversially brought to an end using a bomb disposal robot.
If you weren't paying full attention - perhaps because it was 2AM and you were a bit drunk - it would be very easy to mistake Amy Purdy for Aimee Mullins. Another famous American double below the knee amputee Aimee Mullins competed in the 1996 Atlanta games and was leader of the US team at all of the 2012 London games.
Aimee Mullins was probably the first Para-Olympian to cross over into the mainstream. First as a fashion model from 1999 and then as an actress from 2002. She currently features in the much talked about Netflix series "Stranger Things." Amy Purdy has - for want of a better term - tried following in Aimee Mullins' footsteps by appearing on "Dancing With the Stars" where she learnt to dance.
After being in a longterm relationship Aimee Mullins married (technically British) actor Rupert Friend earlier this year. Friend is probably most famous for his role in "Homeland." However prior to that he played a journalist in the movie "5 Days of War." The fourth season of Homeland had great fun making coded reference to his role in that movie.
Sometimes called "5 Days in August" 5 Days of War is set during the war Georgia started with its neighbour Russia during the 2008 Beijing games. It frequently complains that no-one was covering that war because they were distracted by the Olympics.
As a low budget war movie 5 Days of War is rather good. It's use of computer animated tanks, helicopters and soldiers rather than props and armies of extras is certainly worthy of a mention in any discussion of that topic.
However as an account of what happened during that war it is utterly appalling. For example it starts in the middle of the war. How the war started is never mentioned. We just have to hate the Russians without question.
It is so bad that in the final edit they decided to open it with famous; "The first casualty of war is truth" quote as if to say; "There is the truth of what happened in that war. But here's our film."
The moment when Amy Purdy kicks off her wooden feet to reveal her blades is accompanied by the dramatic opening bars of "Barrando" by Sergio Mendes. This seems to be a reference to another movie; "Kingsman: The Secret Service." Best described as a parody of James Bond-style spy movies this truly terrible film features an amputee assassin who uses actual blades on her prosthetics to kill people.
As such this sequence also seems to be a reference to the US & UK's seeming desire to destroy humanity in all its forms by supporting groups like ISIL and the Sultan Mehmed division. Russia's exclusion from these games is a key part of that support.
Last night (12/9/16) the new season of Dancing With the Stars opened with disgraced US Olympic swimmer and renowned liar Ryan Lochte being ambushed by protesters.
I'm guessing they're not happy about one of their alumni being tricked into participating into this sequence condemning the US war machine.
16:00 on 13/9/16 (UK date).
Para-Olympic Flag & Anthem: As with the Olympics it is a matter of protocol that each Opening Ceremony features the raising of the Para-Olympic flag and a performance of the Para-Olympic anthem.
This sequence began with a short video introducing us to the work of Alexandria Falerios and his Projecto Buto No Mundo (Project Buto Worldwide).
This is a project dreamt up by the Brazilian fathers of children with severe disabilities affecting their mobility and balance. It sees the fathers strap their child into a special harness around their chests and tie the child's feet to their own feet. This allows the children to play football with their fathers acting as their legs and bodies.
It is an incredibly powerful thing to watch being a dramatic demonstration of that deep, unconditional love that a parent has for their children regardless of everything and anything. It is like the stereotypical image of a young daughter dancing on her father's feet at a wedding only on a much, much more intense emotional level.
It was these fathers and their children that carried the Para-Olympic flag into the arena.
As they made their way around the arena the stadium announcer introduced us to each child and told us a little bit about their disability.
With this being a project being set up parents with no previous medical experience rather than a therapy being devised by doctors there isn't any common theme to these disabilities. You can't even strictly speaking refer to them all as congenital or birth defects. Although certainly some of the children do suffer from disorders like Cerebral Palsy others were born prematurely or starved of oxygen at birth.
Collectively though they represented that shadow that has been hanging over these Brazilian games, particularly the Para-Olympics. The Zika virus and the birth defects it causes.
I should start by pointing out that for the vast majority of people Zika is in no way a serious medical condition. It might give you a bit of a rash and leave you feeling grotty for about a week but that is it. In some extremely rare cases it can trigger off other autoimmune diseases such as Encephalitis or Guilain-Barre syndrome. However that is true of all viral infections. Even the common cold.
The only group that Zika presents a significant risk to is pregnant women or more specifically their unborn children. However even within that very small sub-group of the population Zika only has serious consequences in less than 1% of cases.
Therefore I think there is a lot to be said for simply treating Zika as you would any host of childhood disease like Chicken Pox, Mumps or Rubella.
Catching any one of these diseases as an adult can have very serious consequences including death. As with Zika the risks are increased for pregnant women. As a result a lot of parents try and make sure their children catch these diseases before they reach puberty. That way they build up a natural immunity to the disease long before they're at risk of developing the more serious complications such as during pregnancy.
However in response to this Zika outbreak everyone seems to have completely lost any sense of perspective. US President Barack Obama in particular seems to view Zika as the next Ebola.
What Obama wants to do in response to the Zika outbreak is effectively carpet bomb the entire planet with an Organophosphate insecticide known as "Naled."
This is from the same family of chemicals as very serious Chemical Weapons such as Sarin and VX gas. Not only does it cause cancer in humans Naled also destroys the nervous system causing autoimmune diseases like Encephalitis and Guilain-Barre along with, well, death.
Naled also wipes out all insects including important pollinators such as honey bees and butterflies. In turn this causes a mass die-off of plants that require those pollinators to grow and animals that require those plants to live.
Obama also wants to rush through a Zika vaccine. There is a growing group of frankly conspiracy theorists who believe that vaccines cause other illnesses such as Autism who are known as "Anti-Vaxxers." I have absolutely no time for these people because before a vaccine hits the market it goes through years of extensive research and clinical trial to establish that it doesn't cause health problems.
However with the Zika vaccine Obama is talking about skipping many of these research and clinical trials in order to rush the vaccine onto the market. As far as I'm concerned the risk that presents is out of all proportion to the scale of the threat Zika itself poses.
Personally I consider the whole thing to be yet another example of Obama's extreme egomania. Like many of his arrogance he is absolutely terrified of anything that is bigger or more powerful than him. Such as nature.
Despite all these problems with Obama's Zika strategy back in June the US Congress authorised USD1.1bn to fund it. However Obama himself then vetoed that bill because he wanted an extra USD70m to abort babies whose mothers were infected with Zika. 99% of whom will have absolutely no health problems whatsoever.
Obama is now trying to claim that it was Congress that blocked Zika funding. Once again behaving like a petulant child.
Despite the extremely low risks - even to pregnant women - Zika has resulted in some 4000 babies being born in Brazil with a severe birth defect called "Microcephaly." It is worth pointing out though that is in a country of more than 200 million people.
Quite what the prognosis for those babies will be is hard to tell. Rather than being a disease or a disorder itself Microcephaly is merely a specific symptom. In Latin in literally means; "Small Headedness."
Microcephaly is defined by the skull failing to grow to its normal size. When this happens what tends to happen is that the brain - lacking space - also fails to develop. In some cases although shrunken the skull continues to grow as the rest of the body does. In other cases it does not grow at all.
Microcephaly is actually reasonably common in disorders such as Cerebral Palsy and Dwarfism. As a result at the Para-Olympics there are actually a number of competitors with mild forms of Microcephaly. For them it is not a serious problem and doesn't stop them from competing is sport at the international level.
However with Zika related Microcephaly the prognosis seems to be much worse. In the majority of those cases the stunted growth of the brain seems to primarily effect the Brain Stem and Cerebellum. These are the parts of the brain that deal with automatic biological processes such as breathing and regulating blood pressure and body temperature.
Unless these children's skulls do start growing again those parts of the brain will be crushed. This means that means that these children will probably die of natural causes such as respiratory failure either during or as they begin puberty at the age of around 10 years old.
With it being extremely unlikely that they will ever progress beyond the newborn stage of neurological development - essentially remaining giant babies all their lives - probably the most humane thing is just to let nature run its course and enjoy the time they have been given.
At around 17:35 on 12/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up after dinner.
Edited at around 20:05 on 12/9/16 (UK date) to add;
The children then handed the Para-Olympic flag to the same flag detail who raised the Brazilian flag. The flag detail then climbed all those stairs to the top of the protocol island and raised the flag.
As the flag was being raised a recording of the Para-Olympic anthem was played while we were shown a montage of the sporting highlights from the 2012 Para-Olympic games. If there was a significance to the people included in this montage it was lost on me.
The Para-Olympic oaths were then taken on behalf of all competitors, judges and coaches by the swimmer Philippe Andrews on behalf of the athletes. Boccia judge Racquel Daffre on behalf of the judges. And Amaurey Delissimon on behalf of the coaches.
Behold. Ironman: This sequence centred around American Para-Olympic snowboarder and double below the knee amputee Amy Purdy performing a dance routine. She was wearing a 3D printed dress by perhaps aptly named Israeli designer Danit Peleg. It was her dance partner that was the star of the show though - a giant robotic arm made by Kuka.
Kuka are actually a German robotics company. However they have a manufacturing subsidiary based in Brazil. If the fact that Brazil is home to the World's third largest aircraft manufacturer Embraer didn't dispel the notion that Brazil isn't a serious country this gave you an opportunity to check out their robotics industry.
This entire section was intended to promote discussion about the role of technology in overcoming the limitations of disability.
Although they're so simple and have been around for so long that we no longer think of them in that way even the humble wheelchair is an example of a technological solution to the limitations of disability. However the wheelchairs they use at the Para-Olympics - particularly in the Handcycling - are far from simple in their design.
Amy Purdy began her routine with wooden feet on the base of her prosthetics. In one dramatic moment in the dance she kicked off those wooden feet to reveal the type of carbon fibre blades used in the Para-Olympics - particularly by track & field athletes. The level of design and engineering that goes into these blades means that they are much, much more than simply carbon fibre peg-legs.
If you cast your mind back to the 2012 games you may remember that he who shall not be mentioned got into a massive argument with Brazil's Alan Oliveria. The complaint being that the design of Oliveria's running blades gave him an unfair advantage.
At this year's games we have single below the knee amputee Markus Rehm representing Germany in the long jump. He would very much have liked to compete in the Olympics themselves but the IOC refused on the grounds that for the specific task of long jump his blade is better than a human leg.
Outside disabled sport there seem to be every increasing technological solutions to the limitations of disability.
One that seems almost old fashioned these days is the Cochlear implant. This is an electronic device that is implanted into the skulls of deaf people. It simply bypasses the damaged ear feeding sound directly into the nervous system doing the job the ear should do.
For the visually impaired a system called "OrCam" has just reached the market. Being similar to the Cochlear implant this features cameras mounted on spectacles that feed electrical signals directly into the brain doing the job the eye should do.
Just yesterday (11/9/16) in the UK the first person to cross the finishing line of the Great North Run half-marathon in a staged photo-opportunity was a woman called Claire Lomas. Paraplegic since a horse riding accident in 2007 she can now walk on crutches with the aid of a bionic suit known as "ReWalk" which performs a similar function as the Project Buto fathers. However I suspect it will be a long time before the IPC start letting people race in motorised exoskeletons.
With this section of the Opening Ceremony starting off a bit of a bidding war the Israeli robotics start-up "UPnRIDE" would also really like you to know that they've developed a new type of wheelchair. Using similar robotic technology as ReWalk this allows people to stand up in a motorised wheelchair. The intention being to let them feel less alienated in everyday life. Getting things from the topshelf in a grocery store being a prime example.
Back in late 2015 the US military's mad science division - the Defence Advanced Research Projects (DAPRA) - who are also working on powered exoskeletons announced that they had developed a prosthetic limb that can be connected to the nervous system. That not only allows the prosthetic to have a sense of touch it also allows the wearer to control the movement of the prosthetic in the same way they would a limb.
At around 21:00 on 12/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at around 13:50 on 13/9/16 (UK date) to add;
This section also gives me an opportunity to discuss some of the tension I've been having with UK Para-Olympic broadcaster Channel 4 during the games so far.
Back in 2012 Channel 4 went into the Para-Olympics in a big way. A large part of their coverage then focused on the type of impairments affecting the competitors, what methods they use to overcome them and how that affects the way they are classified for competition. The Last Leg show even used the hashtag #IsItOk to allow people to ask the questions about disability that they otherwise felt stupid or embarrassed to ask.
In the four years since then Channel 4 has nurtured a fanbase for disabled sport. These people are obviously well versed in disability issues. As a result at these games Channel 4's coverage is focused much more on the competitors achievements and the aspects of their lives that have absolutely nothing to do with their impairment. The intention being to get viewers to see the person rather than the disability.
So every time I focus on a competitors impairment or the technology they use to overcome it Channel 4 tend to go into full Social Justice Warrior mode and start getting all snippy with me.
I'm not saying that the editorial line Channel 4 have taken is wrong. In fact for them it is probably exactly the right thing to be doing.
It's just that I - like the games themselves - am taking a more global perspective. That means constantly behaving as if this was someones first introduction to disabled sport or disability issues. In no small part due to the effort that Channel 4 put in back in 2012 a lot more broadcasters globally are covering these games. That means that for many it is actually their first introduction to disabled sport and disability issues.
Also one of the main advantages of the Para-Olympics is that it provides nations with an opportunity to gather together to discuss disabled sport and disability issues. This allows them to brainstorm and share ideas of how best to help people living with disability. Therefore I think it would be an opportunity missed not to discuss disability at all at the Para-Olympics.
There is of course a whole other subtext to this sequence though.
For a very long time in fiction and art Robots have been used as an allegory for authoritarian governments or more commonly authoritarian capitalists who are trying to destroy humanity and take over the World. Skynet from the "Terminator" franchise being a particularly high profile example.
In fact Robots have been used in fiction in this way for longer than Robots have actually existed.
The first use of the term "Robot" was in a 1920 play by Czech writer Karel Capek called; "Rossum's Universal Robots." This is about a greedy corporation that accidentally wipes out humanity by creating a race of out of control Robots. So when engineers invented Robots they actually took the name from science fiction.
If you've ever had the misfortune of discussing politics on the Internet with Hillary Clinton supporters eventually the term; "Hillbot" will come up. This reflects the way these seeming automatons will robotically recite the party line no matter how many facts are presented to contradict them.
The Kuka robot used in this sequence is simply a type of hydraulic arm. This is a common design used in a vast array of roles. For example on Friday (9/9/16) a group of British surgeons - perhaps taking things a little too literally - announced that they'd cured a blind man by using a much smaller version of this type of robot to operate on his eye.
However I think the use that most people at these games will be most familiar with is the hydraulic arm on the type of bomb disposal robot that is used to fight terrorism.
For example on the track Britain is being represented by David Henson. He served with a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan until - to quote his Twitter bio - he; "had and bad day at work."
Friday's (9/9/16) men's 100m final was slightly spoilt when part of the stadium had to be evacuated due to a bomb scare. A bomb scare that had accidentally been caused by The Last Leg presenter Johnny Vegas. The first couple of days of the previous games were marred by the Brazilian military having to use bomb disposal robots to carry out several controlled explosions.
Then of course there was the July 7th (7/7/16) terror attack in Dallas, Texas, US that was carried out by US President Obama's Black Lives Matter group. Although this was a shooting attack it was somewhat controversially brought to an end using a bomb disposal robot.
If you weren't paying full attention - perhaps because it was 2AM and you were a bit drunk - it would be very easy to mistake Amy Purdy for Aimee Mullins. Another famous American double below the knee amputee Aimee Mullins competed in the 1996 Atlanta games and was leader of the US team at all of the 2012 London games.
Aimee Mullins was probably the first Para-Olympian to cross over into the mainstream. First as a fashion model from 1999 and then as an actress from 2002. She currently features in the much talked about Netflix series "Stranger Things." Amy Purdy has - for want of a better term - tried following in Aimee Mullins' footsteps by appearing on "Dancing With the Stars" where she learnt to dance.
After being in a longterm relationship Aimee Mullins married (technically British) actor Rupert Friend earlier this year. Friend is probably most famous for his role in "Homeland." However prior to that he played a journalist in the movie "5 Days of War." The fourth season of Homeland had great fun making coded reference to his role in that movie.
Sometimes called "5 Days in August" 5 Days of War is set during the war Georgia started with its neighbour Russia during the 2008 Beijing games. It frequently complains that no-one was covering that war because they were distracted by the Olympics.
As a low budget war movie 5 Days of War is rather good. It's use of computer animated tanks, helicopters and soldiers rather than props and armies of extras is certainly worthy of a mention in any discussion of that topic.
However as an account of what happened during that war it is utterly appalling. For example it starts in the middle of the war. How the war started is never mentioned. We just have to hate the Russians without question.
It is so bad that in the final edit they decided to open it with famous; "The first casualty of war is truth" quote as if to say; "There is the truth of what happened in that war. But here's our film."
The moment when Amy Purdy kicks off her wooden feet to reveal her blades is accompanied by the dramatic opening bars of "Barrando" by Sergio Mendes. This seems to be a reference to another movie; "Kingsman: The Secret Service." Best described as a parody of James Bond-style spy movies this truly terrible film features an amputee assassin who uses actual blades on her prosthetics to kill people.
As such this sequence also seems to be a reference to the US & UK's seeming desire to destroy humanity in all its forms by supporting groups like ISIL and the Sultan Mehmed division. Russia's exclusion from these games is a key part of that support.
Last night (12/9/16) the new season of Dancing With the Stars opened with disgraced US Olympic swimmer and renowned liar Ryan Lochte being ambushed by protesters.
I'm guessing they're not happy about one of their alumni being tricked into participating into this sequence condemning the US war machine.
16:00 on 13/9/16 (UK date).
The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt. 4
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 3; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening_10.html
Opening Speeches and Declaration: As with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies it is a matter of International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) protocol that each Opening Ceremony must feature a speech from the head of the local organising committee and the President of the IPC. There must also be a declaration from the Head of State of the host nation that the games have officially been opened. This Opening Ceremony was no exception.
However I have discovered that the creative sequences of this type of ceremony flow much better if you've had a little drink. Sadly the opposite is true of the speeches.
So I could spend most of today wrestling with the speeches. Alternatively I could just leave it for now and press ahead with getting the rest of the ceremony done as quickly as possible.
Visually Impaired: With the earlier "Wheels Within Wheels" sequence taking a look at wheelchair sports and the "Clear Blue Water" sequence looking at swimming it was time to take a look at some more of the type of sports you will see during these games.
However rather than looking at a particular sport this sequence took a look at a particular type of disability - blindness. After all within the games you get many blind sports such as blind cycling, blind athletics and blind football. You even get blind shooting and blind archery although they're rarely as dramatic as they sound.
This sequence began with 400 performers dressed in black walking across the darkened arena floor. They were all carrying with them sticks that lit up white. This was a reference to the white stick that blind people traditionally use to navigate their way around the world without bumping into things.
As they reached the centre of the arena floor these performers formed an illuminated circle. This was obviously another reference to the rising sun at the centre of the flag of 2020 Summer Olympic host Japan.
However the performers then fanned to form the shape of a human eye. Particular attention was paid to the pupil of the eye that expands and contracts to allow differing amounts of light - often from the sun - into the eye forming the basis of sight. The light-sticks the performers were carrying were actually radio-controlled so they were lit up to differing degrees throughout the sequence. This obviously meant that the circle of light they projected onto the floor expanded and contracted in a sort of reverse of the function of the pupil.
After the eye had been formed the performers then broke apart as if the structure of the eye was being deconstructed in front of us.
The performers then formed up in a series of parallel, diagonal lines. These seemed to be a reference to the 120 million non-colour sensitive photoreceptors known as "Rods" that are in every healthy human eye. Colour perception comes from another group of roughly 7 million photoreceptors known as "Cones." I suspect though that people who were really into the geometry theme of the previous Opening Ceremony would have been busy trying to calculate the gradient of these diagonal lines.
Although the Para-Olympics uses the term "Blind" the more medically accurate way of describing people with sight problems is "Visually Impaired" or "Partially sighted."
That is because not only are there differing degrees of blindness there are also different types. Some people lack the edges of their vision leaving them seeing the world as is staring down a narrow tube. Other people lack the centre of their vision seeing everything partially obscured by a black blob in the centre of their eye. Others see the world as if through a white gauze meaning that they can see light and movement but can't see shape or colour.
The Opening Ceremony then emphasised this point further. On a special stage two dancers - Oscar and Renota - performed together. Oscar is totally blind with 0% of vision while Renota is only 80% blind with 20% of vision. Their dance routine was performed entirely through sound and touch.
It must be said though that after classifying them as "Blind" the Para-Olympics also assigns a number from 1 (the most severe) to 5 (least severe) to describe the specific nature and extent of the visual impairment. So you get competitors being described as; B1, B2, B3 etc.
Immediately prior to Oscar and Renota's dance the performers with their light-sticks formed what was intended to be a graphic equaliser commonly used on home stereo systems. On the wall behind the dance was projected images of raised dots rather like the "Pinscreen" toy invented by Ward Fleming. This seemed a reference to the Braille writing system used by blind people that was invented by Louis Braille back in 1824.
As the dance finished onto the screen was projected an image of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man." This was an attempt by Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio to use geometry to detail the proportions of the ideal human man. Although I think British cyclist Jody Cundy has an image of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man tattooed on his arm I think many disabled athletes would consider this offensive because they most certainly don't fit in to this ideal of what a man should look like.
The action then returned to the arena floor where there were six couples lying on the ground. All of these performers were dressed in costumes where one side was black while the other was white. As they were lying on the floor the performers arranged themselves into various geometric patterns in a sort of horizontal dance. Around them was video projected a complex and elaborate array of different geometric shapes that were primarily black and white but also featured splashes of colour - particularly red.
You could take this as a reference to all the other ways that geometry had been used in the previous ceremonies. However it was intended as an exploration of the way that the human senses work and one sense can be used to compensate for the loss of others.
A rather famous example of this is Helen Keller who was born deaf, blind and mute in Alabama, US 1880. By using touch to form out the shapes of letters on the palms of her hands Helen Keller was taught to read and write. From there she not only went on to attend university but to graduate to become a university lecturer and writer.
Another famous example is Louis Braille's system of writing. This uses raised bumps on a page rather than the reflected light from inkmarks to allow people without sight to read using the sensation of touch.
An example that I'm particularly familiar and most viewers will be familiar with too is subtitling or closed captioning. For people who are deaf this takes the speech of people on TV and in movies and translates it into the visual medium of written words on screen.
There is also Audio Description that is becoming increasingly common as broadcasting technology develops. For partially sighted people this takes the things they can't see on screen and converts it into the audio medium. It must be said that there are few things funnier in this life then listening to TV or movie sex scenes being audio described.
Although I've yet to hear of anyone achieving it there has long been talk of using radar technology to aid blind people. This involves a person wearing a headset that emits and then re-absorbs radio waves. This is then translated into audible sound allowing the person to build up an audio map of their surroundings rather like a bat.
There is also a rare but extremely interesting neurological condition known as; "Synesthesia." In this sufferers experience a sensory input in the form of the perception of another sense. So for example they might smell noise or hear colour. To them the noise of an Olympic crowd may appear in the form of the sort of the vast and chaotic colourful video projection like the one we've just been shown.
The way that Synesthesia sufferers brains get muddled has long fuelled a hope that the brain of a deaf person or a blind person can be rewired so their sense of sight becomes their sense of hearing or vice versa.
The Brazilian hosts are making this a big theme of the games by changing the design of the medals.
Para-Olympic medal have long featured Braille text on one side so they can be read by the blind. However the medals at this games also feature a compartment filled with small beads that make a noise when shaken. The Gold, Silver and Bronze medals all have different sized beads so different coloured medals all make different sounds allowing blind medal winners to tell them apart.
Perhaps to prove a point the UK broadcaster Channel 4 then decided to cut away from this sequence to go to a long commercial break. As a result I did not get to see the rest of the sequence.
I and no doubt other UK viewers now have a greater sense of empathy for those who are not able to see everything clearly.
The Agitos: As with the Olympics it is a matter of IPC protocol that every Opening Ceremony must featuring a revealing of the Agitos emblem of the Para-Olympic movement.
The word "Agito" is Latin for "I Move." However the emblem itself has no specific meaning. It is simply how the advertising agency Scholz & Friends interpreted this concept of movement back in 2003.
This organisers of this ceremony decided to interpret this concept of movement in the form of a sail that uses the wind to move a ship. Specifically they used the fan-type sail synonymous with the ancient Chinese "Junk" type ship. However I think the only significance of this was that this type of sail design is much easier to use to form the flowing lines of a the Agitos than the rectangular design used on western sailing ships.
So dozens of performers all carried their white 'sails' around the arena floor until the wind blew them together in the centre where they formed a circle that again resembled the pupil of an eye. They then placed their sails together to form the Agitos which was then lit up in the traditional red, blue and green prompting fireworks to be set off around the arena roof.
This is actually the first time that the Agitos has been revealed in such a creative way. Normally they just have a sculpture of it nestling beneath a cover that is then pulled back for the big reveal.
As such this formed a small bit of Para-Olympic history.
15:25 on 12/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:20 on 14/9/16 (UK date) to add: Can you believe that I forgot all about the medals. By getting bogged down amid the complex detail I seem to have missed the big and the obvious.
Opening Speeches and Declaration: As with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies it is a matter of International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) protocol that each Opening Ceremony must feature a speech from the head of the local organising committee and the President of the IPC. There must also be a declaration from the Head of State of the host nation that the games have officially been opened. This Opening Ceremony was no exception.
However I have discovered that the creative sequences of this type of ceremony flow much better if you've had a little drink. Sadly the opposite is true of the speeches.
So I could spend most of today wrestling with the speeches. Alternatively I could just leave it for now and press ahead with getting the rest of the ceremony done as quickly as possible.
Visually Impaired: With the earlier "Wheels Within Wheels" sequence taking a look at wheelchair sports and the "Clear Blue Water" sequence looking at swimming it was time to take a look at some more of the type of sports you will see during these games.
However rather than looking at a particular sport this sequence took a look at a particular type of disability - blindness. After all within the games you get many blind sports such as blind cycling, blind athletics and blind football. You even get blind shooting and blind archery although they're rarely as dramatic as they sound.
This sequence began with 400 performers dressed in black walking across the darkened arena floor. They were all carrying with them sticks that lit up white. This was a reference to the white stick that blind people traditionally use to navigate their way around the world without bumping into things.
As they reached the centre of the arena floor these performers formed an illuminated circle. This was obviously another reference to the rising sun at the centre of the flag of 2020 Summer Olympic host Japan.
However the performers then fanned to form the shape of a human eye. Particular attention was paid to the pupil of the eye that expands and contracts to allow differing amounts of light - often from the sun - into the eye forming the basis of sight. The light-sticks the performers were carrying were actually radio-controlled so they were lit up to differing degrees throughout the sequence. This obviously meant that the circle of light they projected onto the floor expanded and contracted in a sort of reverse of the function of the pupil.
After the eye had been formed the performers then broke apart as if the structure of the eye was being deconstructed in front of us.
The performers then formed up in a series of parallel, diagonal lines. These seemed to be a reference to the 120 million non-colour sensitive photoreceptors known as "Rods" that are in every healthy human eye. Colour perception comes from another group of roughly 7 million photoreceptors known as "Cones." I suspect though that people who were really into the geometry theme of the previous Opening Ceremony would have been busy trying to calculate the gradient of these diagonal lines.
Although the Para-Olympics uses the term "Blind" the more medically accurate way of describing people with sight problems is "Visually Impaired" or "Partially sighted."
That is because not only are there differing degrees of blindness there are also different types. Some people lack the edges of their vision leaving them seeing the world as is staring down a narrow tube. Other people lack the centre of their vision seeing everything partially obscured by a black blob in the centre of their eye. Others see the world as if through a white gauze meaning that they can see light and movement but can't see shape or colour.
The Opening Ceremony then emphasised this point further. On a special stage two dancers - Oscar and Renota - performed together. Oscar is totally blind with 0% of vision while Renota is only 80% blind with 20% of vision. Their dance routine was performed entirely through sound and touch.
It must be said though that after classifying them as "Blind" the Para-Olympics also assigns a number from 1 (the most severe) to 5 (least severe) to describe the specific nature and extent of the visual impairment. So you get competitors being described as; B1, B2, B3 etc.
Immediately prior to Oscar and Renota's dance the performers with their light-sticks formed what was intended to be a graphic equaliser commonly used on home stereo systems. On the wall behind the dance was projected images of raised dots rather like the "Pinscreen" toy invented by Ward Fleming. This seemed a reference to the Braille writing system used by blind people that was invented by Louis Braille back in 1824.
As the dance finished onto the screen was projected an image of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man." This was an attempt by Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio to use geometry to detail the proportions of the ideal human man. Although I think British cyclist Jody Cundy has an image of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man tattooed on his arm I think many disabled athletes would consider this offensive because they most certainly don't fit in to this ideal of what a man should look like.
The action then returned to the arena floor where there were six couples lying on the ground. All of these performers were dressed in costumes where one side was black while the other was white. As they were lying on the floor the performers arranged themselves into various geometric patterns in a sort of horizontal dance. Around them was video projected a complex and elaborate array of different geometric shapes that were primarily black and white but also featured splashes of colour - particularly red.
You could take this as a reference to all the other ways that geometry had been used in the previous ceremonies. However it was intended as an exploration of the way that the human senses work and one sense can be used to compensate for the loss of others.
A rather famous example of this is Helen Keller who was born deaf, blind and mute in Alabama, US 1880. By using touch to form out the shapes of letters on the palms of her hands Helen Keller was taught to read and write. From there she not only went on to attend university but to graduate to become a university lecturer and writer.
Another famous example is Louis Braille's system of writing. This uses raised bumps on a page rather than the reflected light from inkmarks to allow people without sight to read using the sensation of touch.
An example that I'm particularly familiar and most viewers will be familiar with too is subtitling or closed captioning. For people who are deaf this takes the speech of people on TV and in movies and translates it into the visual medium of written words on screen.
There is also Audio Description that is becoming increasingly common as broadcasting technology develops. For partially sighted people this takes the things they can't see on screen and converts it into the audio medium. It must be said that there are few things funnier in this life then listening to TV or movie sex scenes being audio described.
Although I've yet to hear of anyone achieving it there has long been talk of using radar technology to aid blind people. This involves a person wearing a headset that emits and then re-absorbs radio waves. This is then translated into audible sound allowing the person to build up an audio map of their surroundings rather like a bat.
There is also a rare but extremely interesting neurological condition known as; "Synesthesia." In this sufferers experience a sensory input in the form of the perception of another sense. So for example they might smell noise or hear colour. To them the noise of an Olympic crowd may appear in the form of the sort of the vast and chaotic colourful video projection like the one we've just been shown.
The way that Synesthesia sufferers brains get muddled has long fuelled a hope that the brain of a deaf person or a blind person can be rewired so their sense of sight becomes their sense of hearing or vice versa.
The Brazilian hosts are making this a big theme of the games by changing the design of the medals.
Para-Olympic medal have long featured Braille text on one side so they can be read by the blind. However the medals at this games also feature a compartment filled with small beads that make a noise when shaken. The Gold, Silver and Bronze medals all have different sized beads so different coloured medals all make different sounds allowing blind medal winners to tell them apart.
Perhaps to prove a point the UK broadcaster Channel 4 then decided to cut away from this sequence to go to a long commercial break. As a result I did not get to see the rest of the sequence.
I and no doubt other UK viewers now have a greater sense of empathy for those who are not able to see everything clearly.
The Agitos: As with the Olympics it is a matter of IPC protocol that every Opening Ceremony must featuring a revealing of the Agitos emblem of the Para-Olympic movement.
The word "Agito" is Latin for "I Move." However the emblem itself has no specific meaning. It is simply how the advertising agency Scholz & Friends interpreted this concept of movement back in 2003.
This organisers of this ceremony decided to interpret this concept of movement in the form of a sail that uses the wind to move a ship. Specifically they used the fan-type sail synonymous with the ancient Chinese "Junk" type ship. However I think the only significance of this was that this type of sail design is much easier to use to form the flowing lines of a the Agitos than the rectangular design used on western sailing ships.
So dozens of performers all carried their white 'sails' around the arena floor until the wind blew them together in the centre where they formed a circle that again resembled the pupil of an eye. They then placed their sails together to form the Agitos which was then lit up in the traditional red, blue and green prompting fireworks to be set off around the arena roof.
This is actually the first time that the Agitos has been revealed in such a creative way. Normally they just have a sculpture of it nestling beneath a cover that is then pulled back for the big reveal.
As such this formed a small bit of Para-Olympic history.
15:25 on 12/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:20 on 14/9/16 (UK date) to add: Can you believe that I forgot all about the medals. By getting bogged down amid the complex detail I seem to have missed the big and the obvious.
Saturday, 10 September 2016
The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.3
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 2; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening_8.html
National Flag and Anthem: The Life's a Beach sequence ended with all the beachgoers turning to face one end of the stadium to salute a projected red, circular sun as it set behind the seats.
The previous Closing Ceremony of course featured the national flag of Brazil being lowered and the national flag of Japan - with a red, circular sun at it's centre - being raised in its place. This saluting of the sun seemed to a lighthearted way for the Brazilian hosts to say that they're now going to take down the Japanese flag and raise their own flag in its place.
Amid the crowd of beachgoers emerged a single flagbearer carrying a neatly folded Brazilian flag. This woman was Rosanne Miccolis. She is the daughter of Aldo Miccolis who was a keen advocate of the Para-Olympics and played a key role in developing disabled sport within Brazil.
Miccolis climbed all those stairs on to what I think is termed the "Protocol Island" where she was met by a pianist sitting at his piano, some flagpoles and what is termed a flag detail. Their job is to unfold the flag and then raise it up one of the flagpoles.
During the previous Brazil ceremonies the flag details were made up of members of the Brazilian military in full dress uniform. If you've ever seen the soldiers guarding Britain's Buckingham Palace or Swiss Guard at the Vatican City you would know that military dress uniforms can get quite theatric. The Brazilian military dress uniform is very simple though made up of the working uniform of camouflage fatigues, a beret and combat boots along with a shiny white leather "Sam Brown" belt.
This flag detail was much more smartly dressed. They wore shiny well polished boots, neatly pressed trousers and equally well pressed shirts adorned with different medal ribbons and insignia. They also wore garrison caps. They actually reminded me of the US military service uniforms of the 1960's. The maroon cravat or dickie they wore actually reminded me of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers.
These are paramedics who parachute out of aeroplanes or more commonly these days helicopters to treat and then rescue battlefield casualties - particularly downed aircrews. Quite why the service uniform of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers is stuck in my head remains a bit of a mystery even to me. However all these references to Paramedics, Parachutists and Paramilitaries seem rather appropriate at the Para-Olympics.
It turns out though that the men making up this flag detail weren't in the military at all. Instead they were civilian firefighters. Quite why they were wearing winged parachute insignia indicating they'd qualified as Paratroopers is something I still don't quite understand.
Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil was run by a military dictatorship that the US imposed in the "Brother Sam" operation to fight Communism.
As a result the military has seeped into Brazilian culture influencing a wide array of areas of public life. Prior to the games I was absent mindedly watching a news report on anti-terror drills Brazil was conducting in preparation for the games. I remember being taken aback by the fact that even Brazil's ambulance drivers sill look quite a bit like they're in the military.
Due to the history of the military dictatorship the role of the military within public life is still a controversial one in Brazil. Obviously no-one really minds them doing flag ceremonies and colour parades at this type of national event. After all that's the sort of thing the military spend a lot of time practising and are very good at.
However a lot of people are less keen on Brazil's Military Police. In the US or the UK when you talk about the Military Police you're talking about a police force that polices members of the military. In Brazil you are talking about members of the military who are being used to police civilians. They were formed during the military dictatorship and up until very recently were paid a bonus for every suspect they killed rather than arrested.
This is actually a situation that is far from unique to Brazil. The French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri are both paramilitary police forces that technically fall within the military rather than the civilian command structure. You can see why then every time US President Obama gets on his Black Lives Matter hobby horse and starts ranting about America's militarised police no-one can take him seriously.
This is one of the areas I would have liked to have been able to research in more detail prior to the games. But generally speaking using the military to police civilians never ends well. Military police tend to treat crime as a military problem. That means they storm an area with troops to eliminate the enemy and then withdraw. Policing civilians more requires building up a relationship with the local community.
So rather than having heavily armed troops smashing their way into the neighbourhood in armoured cars whenever there's a crime you have lightly armed officers patrolling the streets of a neighbourhood day-in-day-out regardless of whether there is crime being committed. This allows them to get to known the local residents building up trust and deter crime from happening in the first place.
Through their neighbourhood pacification units the Brazilian authorities do seem to have begun to understand this. As such a key part of that strategy is the building of local police stations with the same local officers in high crime areas when they can afford to do so. It must be said though that such is the level of violence in some of Brazil's Favelas it is often closer to a military issue than a policing one.
As the Brazilian flag was being raised the Brazilian national anthem was played on the piano. The pianist was the extremely famous Brazilian Joao Carlos Martins. A renowned interpreter of the works of Bach Martins has worked with a number orchestras worldwide including the Boston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic both in the US. He was also Brazil's Secretary of State for Culture under the military dictatorship in 1981.
Unfortunately disability forced Martins to give up playing the piano professionally. So he simply reinvented himself as a conductor. Although I don't have his medical notes in front of me I gather he suffered a brain injury as the result of a mugging that partially paralysed his right arm. Then an unsuccessful surgery robbed him of sensation in all but the thumb and one finger of his right hand.
Looking at the clumping of Martins' knuckles I would also guess that some form of arthritis is also playing a role as he reaches 76 years of age.
This adds another element to the discussion about the types of disability that was begun with Aaron Fotheringham's fiery 'birth' during the opening countdown. As well as people who are born with disability or acquire disability through accidents there are also the disabilities of ageing bodies such as worn out hips and knees.
As the actual flag was being raised and the national anthem performed the beachgoers who were still in the arena turned their parasols upside down to form a giant Brazilian flag covering the arena floor.
At around 16:25 on 10/9/16 (UK date) I'll be back after a long dinner break.
Edited at around 20:00 on 10/9/16 (UK date) to add;
Parade of Nations: This is by far the most important section of any Opening Ceremony. It allows the competitors without whom there wouldn't be a games to take centre stage and be introduced to the World.
However as I said about the previous Opening Ceremony unless someone falls over there's not really much for me to write about. At the Para-Olympics someone falling over is a very real possibility.
Take for example the British flag carrier Lee Pearson. This Equestrian rider suffers from a condition called Arthrogryposis. This is defined by muscle shortening which prevents the joints from extending and contracting across the normal range of mobility.
Therefore as he attempts to walk the joints in Lee Pearson's legs such as his ankles or knees may well lock at a critical moment causing him to lose balance and fall over. That can be annoying and somewhat embarrassing. Particularly when it happens in public.
So as he was carrying the British flag Lee Pearson was wearing callipers to support his legs and was riding on one of those "Rascal" mobility scooters that are normally used by fatties.
As they entered the stadium the competitors were paraded around a central square with their route being marked out by stewards who were dressed to resemble clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky.
I suspect that the stewards outfits featured a hooded top was another reference to the Islamic dress issue. After all in the previous Opening Ceremony the Swedish flag carrier Therese Alshammar did wear a hooded dress. This resembled the dress worn by Jamela as she represented Shamali Province in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest which was hosted by Sweden.
However it was two of these stewards who were particularly important.
The Rio games obviously pick up from the 2012 London games. As part of their coverage the host broadcaster Channel 4 put on a special show called; "The Last Leg." Broadcast live at the end of each day's events this show featured three comedians - well two comedians and Alex "Work Experience" Brooker - taking a light hearted look at what happened that day. This show was a huge hit particularly amongst competitors staying at the athletes village.
Having being forced to miss the 2014 Sochi games because the British security services could no longer guarantee their safety The Last Leg has returned. It is being broadcast live from Rio both in the UK and into the athletes village on a sort of CCTV system.
Nestled away among all these stewards was two of The Last Leg's presenters - Josh Widdecome and Alex Brooker. While they were pratting about in the arena the third presenter Adam Hills was in the commentary box presenting Channel 4's coverage of the ceremony.
Following yesterday's show I think we need to have a little bit of a stewards inquiry into The Last Leg.
Representing New Zealand in the Track 43 (T43) sprinting events we have double below the knee amputee Liam Malone. Following his 100m heat on Thursday (8/9/16) a reporter went straight up to Malone to interview him about how the race went.
Still pumped up from the race Malone was in what can only be described as; "Full Beast Mode." He then proceeded to give this really intense interview in which he described the competition as being kill or be killed and said he'd set out to eat his opponents alive.
Being hilarious to watch this is exactly the sort of thing The Last Leg covers and they featured it on Friday's (9/9/16) show. However the presenters seemed to be mocking Malone telling him to calm down because this was the Para-Olympics. Not the Hunger Games.
About three hours later Malone won Silver in the 100m final. In this post race interview he seemed quiet, nervous and almost apologetic. It was as if all the jokes about his previous interview had got inside his head.
Gold was won by Britain's Johnny Peacock who The Last Leg were rooting for. As a result you can't help but wonder if there's been a wee bit of mind games going on. Particularly with Adam Hills being an Australian.
The only real controversy from the Parade of Nations was Belorussian official Andrei Fomochkin who waved a Russian flag. Russia of course has been banned from these Sultan Mehmed games. Almost immediately Fomochkin was also expelled from the games.
This over-reaction suggests to me that significance of International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven having his flight cancelled and then being exiled to Belem/Bellend in the opening video sequence was not understood by all. As a result the games seem to be proceeding in a manically reckless anti-Russian frenzy.
If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had conducted itself in the same way it would have had to immediately expel the Egyptian competitor who waved the flag of Saudi Arabia during the opening Parade of Nations.
The IOC would then also have had to expel all members of the Saudi delegation who were throwing their flags about in the first place. Along with all the members of the Iranian delegation who started throwing their flags about in response.
The IOC would then have had to expel any competitor wearing the Hijab. America's Ibtihaj Muhammad in particular was extremely clear about the fact she viewed her wearing to the Hijab to be both a religious and political statement. A clear violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter.
Highlighting the political importance of the games Craven's frankly deranged behaviour seems to be having very real and serious consequences. Just (technically) this morning Russia seemed to indicate that in retaliation it is going to give ISIL and Al Qaeda the free run of Syria. As they're forced to deal with that I suspect that the US and in particular European nations won't be finding their Para-Olympic medals quite so shiny.
They will though likely be able to send very large teams to the 2020 Tokyo games. After all you should see what the 7/7 London bombings did for the British sitting volleyball squad.
As they paraded into the arena each nation carried with them a sign bearing the name of their nation in the form of a jigsaw puzzle piece. As they handed their national flag to be placed on the protocol island they handed this jigsaw piece to be placed in the square in the centre of the arena.
As the parade ended the camera pulled back and revealed the finished jigsaw. It showed the faces of all the competitors in the games. A giant anatomically correct beating human heart was then video projected onto the jigsaw.
Officially this was to send the message that the disabled are people too. They all have human hearts and emotions and are just as deserving of our respect as anybody else.
For someone like me who is already extremely familiar with not only disabled sport but disability issues in general this message might seem rather trite and somewhat stating the obvious. However in parts of Africa you still have Albino children being murdered so their bones can be used in witchcraft rituals.
Therefore as a global event it is very important that the Para-Olympics promotes this type of message no matter how obvious it might seem to some.
To me though these black & white photographs of the competitors seemed to very much resemble the photographs of "The Missing." It was those missing that the Suadade sequence of the previous Closing Ceremony was dedicated to.
Within Latin America "The Missing" refers to the upwards of 80,000 people were simply disappeared by fascist dictatorships in numerous countries including Brazil but particularly Chile and Argentina. Commonly referred to as; "The Dirty War" these disappearances took place as part of what is officially known as; "Operation Condor" which took place between 1968-1989.
Operation Condor was conducted with the full backing of the US with America training many of the Paramilitary death squads at The School of the Americas. It was largely conducted under the supervision of then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Particularly Argentina's "Triple A" death squad.
Henry Kissinger has just endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.
Some of the most powerful opposition to Operation Condor came from an Argentinian group that became known as; "The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo." I did briefly touch upon them during the Closing Ceremony but being rushed for time I far from did them justice.
What the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo would do is gather together one day a week - I think a Friday - outside Argentina's Presidential Palace on the Plaza de Mayo. They would then simply stand there in complete silence each holding a framed black & white photographs of the son or daughter who had simply disappeared.
The fact that the military dictator Jorge Videla outside whose Palace they were standing employed death squads should tell just how dangerous this type of protest was.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo are absolutely legendary amongst the history of social and political protest and across Latin America generally. The photographs of their protests are every bit as iconic as that footage of a man standing in front of a tank in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
I was even considering comparing them to that iconic "Napalm Girl" photograph from the Vietnam war of a fully nude 9 year old girl running away from a Napalm strike. Her back horribly burned. However I personally would class that as an image of war rather than an image of protest.
Those who are trying to tear Syria apart such as Turkey's Sultan Mehmed Brigades clearly looked at the Suadade sequence of the Closing Ceremony and saw a full endorsement of their cause. So on August 30th (30/8/16) they launched another social media campaign bombarding people with gory images of people they claimed had been disappeared by Syria government death squads.
However the message I took away from the Suadade sequence was that there are people across Latin America who have really lived through what Turkey etc is claiming is happening in Syria. Therefore they can see instantly where the Erdogans of this world are so clearly lying.
The message that I took away from this Parade of Nations sequence is that anyone with a heart would call out those hateful lies loudly and clearly any time they're given voice.
22:05 on 10/9/16 (UK date).
National Flag and Anthem: The Life's a Beach sequence ended with all the beachgoers turning to face one end of the stadium to salute a projected red, circular sun as it set behind the seats.
The previous Closing Ceremony of course featured the national flag of Brazil being lowered and the national flag of Japan - with a red, circular sun at it's centre - being raised in its place. This saluting of the sun seemed to a lighthearted way for the Brazilian hosts to say that they're now going to take down the Japanese flag and raise their own flag in its place.
Amid the crowd of beachgoers emerged a single flagbearer carrying a neatly folded Brazilian flag. This woman was Rosanne Miccolis. She is the daughter of Aldo Miccolis who was a keen advocate of the Para-Olympics and played a key role in developing disabled sport within Brazil.
Miccolis climbed all those stairs on to what I think is termed the "Protocol Island" where she was met by a pianist sitting at his piano, some flagpoles and what is termed a flag detail. Their job is to unfold the flag and then raise it up one of the flagpoles.
During the previous Brazil ceremonies the flag details were made up of members of the Brazilian military in full dress uniform. If you've ever seen the soldiers guarding Britain's Buckingham Palace or Swiss Guard at the Vatican City you would know that military dress uniforms can get quite theatric. The Brazilian military dress uniform is very simple though made up of the working uniform of camouflage fatigues, a beret and combat boots along with a shiny white leather "Sam Brown" belt.
This flag detail was much more smartly dressed. They wore shiny well polished boots, neatly pressed trousers and equally well pressed shirts adorned with different medal ribbons and insignia. They also wore garrison caps. They actually reminded me of the US military service uniforms of the 1960's. The maroon cravat or dickie they wore actually reminded me of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers.
These are paramedics who parachute out of aeroplanes or more commonly these days helicopters to treat and then rescue battlefield casualties - particularly downed aircrews. Quite why the service uniform of Vietnam-era US Pararescue jumpers is stuck in my head remains a bit of a mystery even to me. However all these references to Paramedics, Parachutists and Paramilitaries seem rather appropriate at the Para-Olympics.
It turns out though that the men making up this flag detail weren't in the military at all. Instead they were civilian firefighters. Quite why they were wearing winged parachute insignia indicating they'd qualified as Paratroopers is something I still don't quite understand.
Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil was run by a military dictatorship that the US imposed in the "Brother Sam" operation to fight Communism.
As a result the military has seeped into Brazilian culture influencing a wide array of areas of public life. Prior to the games I was absent mindedly watching a news report on anti-terror drills Brazil was conducting in preparation for the games. I remember being taken aback by the fact that even Brazil's ambulance drivers sill look quite a bit like they're in the military.
Due to the history of the military dictatorship the role of the military within public life is still a controversial one in Brazil. Obviously no-one really minds them doing flag ceremonies and colour parades at this type of national event. After all that's the sort of thing the military spend a lot of time practising and are very good at.
However a lot of people are less keen on Brazil's Military Police. In the US or the UK when you talk about the Military Police you're talking about a police force that polices members of the military. In Brazil you are talking about members of the military who are being used to police civilians. They were formed during the military dictatorship and up until very recently were paid a bonus for every suspect they killed rather than arrested.
This is actually a situation that is far from unique to Brazil. The French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri are both paramilitary police forces that technically fall within the military rather than the civilian command structure. You can see why then every time US President Obama gets on his Black Lives Matter hobby horse and starts ranting about America's militarised police no-one can take him seriously.
This is one of the areas I would have liked to have been able to research in more detail prior to the games. But generally speaking using the military to police civilians never ends well. Military police tend to treat crime as a military problem. That means they storm an area with troops to eliminate the enemy and then withdraw. Policing civilians more requires building up a relationship with the local community.
So rather than having heavily armed troops smashing their way into the neighbourhood in armoured cars whenever there's a crime you have lightly armed officers patrolling the streets of a neighbourhood day-in-day-out regardless of whether there is crime being committed. This allows them to get to known the local residents building up trust and deter crime from happening in the first place.
Through their neighbourhood pacification units the Brazilian authorities do seem to have begun to understand this. As such a key part of that strategy is the building of local police stations with the same local officers in high crime areas when they can afford to do so. It must be said though that such is the level of violence in some of Brazil's Favelas it is often closer to a military issue than a policing one.
As the Brazilian flag was being raised the Brazilian national anthem was played on the piano. The pianist was the extremely famous Brazilian Joao Carlos Martins. A renowned interpreter of the works of Bach Martins has worked with a number orchestras worldwide including the Boston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic both in the US. He was also Brazil's Secretary of State for Culture under the military dictatorship in 1981.
Unfortunately disability forced Martins to give up playing the piano professionally. So he simply reinvented himself as a conductor. Although I don't have his medical notes in front of me I gather he suffered a brain injury as the result of a mugging that partially paralysed his right arm. Then an unsuccessful surgery robbed him of sensation in all but the thumb and one finger of his right hand.
Looking at the clumping of Martins' knuckles I would also guess that some form of arthritis is also playing a role as he reaches 76 years of age.
This adds another element to the discussion about the types of disability that was begun with Aaron Fotheringham's fiery 'birth' during the opening countdown. As well as people who are born with disability or acquire disability through accidents there are also the disabilities of ageing bodies such as worn out hips and knees.
As the actual flag was being raised and the national anthem performed the beachgoers who were still in the arena turned their parasols upside down to form a giant Brazilian flag covering the arena floor.
At around 16:25 on 10/9/16 (UK date) I'll be back after a long dinner break.
Edited at around 20:00 on 10/9/16 (UK date) to add;
Parade of Nations: This is by far the most important section of any Opening Ceremony. It allows the competitors without whom there wouldn't be a games to take centre stage and be introduced to the World.
However as I said about the previous Opening Ceremony unless someone falls over there's not really much for me to write about. At the Para-Olympics someone falling over is a very real possibility.
Take for example the British flag carrier Lee Pearson. This Equestrian rider suffers from a condition called Arthrogryposis. This is defined by muscle shortening which prevents the joints from extending and contracting across the normal range of mobility.
Therefore as he attempts to walk the joints in Lee Pearson's legs such as his ankles or knees may well lock at a critical moment causing him to lose balance and fall over. That can be annoying and somewhat embarrassing. Particularly when it happens in public.
So as he was carrying the British flag Lee Pearson was wearing callipers to support his legs and was riding on one of those "Rascal" mobility scooters that are normally used by fatties.
As they entered the stadium the competitors were paraded around a central square with their route being marked out by stewards who were dressed to resemble clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky.
I suspect that the stewards outfits featured a hooded top was another reference to the Islamic dress issue. After all in the previous Opening Ceremony the Swedish flag carrier Therese Alshammar did wear a hooded dress. This resembled the dress worn by Jamela as she represented Shamali Province in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest which was hosted by Sweden.
However it was two of these stewards who were particularly important.
The Rio games obviously pick up from the 2012 London games. As part of their coverage the host broadcaster Channel 4 put on a special show called; "The Last Leg." Broadcast live at the end of each day's events this show featured three comedians - well two comedians and Alex "Work Experience" Brooker - taking a light hearted look at what happened that day. This show was a huge hit particularly amongst competitors staying at the athletes village.
Having being forced to miss the 2014 Sochi games because the British security services could no longer guarantee their safety The Last Leg has returned. It is being broadcast live from Rio both in the UK and into the athletes village on a sort of CCTV system.
Nestled away among all these stewards was two of The Last Leg's presenters - Josh Widdecome and Alex Brooker. While they were pratting about in the arena the third presenter Adam Hills was in the commentary box presenting Channel 4's coverage of the ceremony.
Following yesterday's show I think we need to have a little bit of a stewards inquiry into The Last Leg.
Representing New Zealand in the Track 43 (T43) sprinting events we have double below the knee amputee Liam Malone. Following his 100m heat on Thursday (8/9/16) a reporter went straight up to Malone to interview him about how the race went.
Still pumped up from the race Malone was in what can only be described as; "Full Beast Mode." He then proceeded to give this really intense interview in which he described the competition as being kill or be killed and said he'd set out to eat his opponents alive.
Being hilarious to watch this is exactly the sort of thing The Last Leg covers and they featured it on Friday's (9/9/16) show. However the presenters seemed to be mocking Malone telling him to calm down because this was the Para-Olympics. Not the Hunger Games.
About three hours later Malone won Silver in the 100m final. In this post race interview he seemed quiet, nervous and almost apologetic. It was as if all the jokes about his previous interview had got inside his head.
Gold was won by Britain's Johnny Peacock who The Last Leg were rooting for. As a result you can't help but wonder if there's been a wee bit of mind games going on. Particularly with Adam Hills being an Australian.
The only real controversy from the Parade of Nations was Belorussian official Andrei Fomochkin who waved a Russian flag. Russia of course has been banned from these Sultan Mehmed games. Almost immediately Fomochkin was also expelled from the games.
This over-reaction suggests to me that significance of International Para-Olympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven having his flight cancelled and then being exiled to Belem/Bellend in the opening video sequence was not understood by all. As a result the games seem to be proceeding in a manically reckless anti-Russian frenzy.
If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had conducted itself in the same way it would have had to immediately expel the Egyptian competitor who waved the flag of Saudi Arabia during the opening Parade of Nations.
The IOC would then also have had to expel all members of the Saudi delegation who were throwing their flags about in the first place. Along with all the members of the Iranian delegation who started throwing their flags about in response.
The IOC would then have had to expel any competitor wearing the Hijab. America's Ibtihaj Muhammad in particular was extremely clear about the fact she viewed her wearing to the Hijab to be both a religious and political statement. A clear violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter.
Highlighting the political importance of the games Craven's frankly deranged behaviour seems to be having very real and serious consequences. Just (technically) this morning Russia seemed to indicate that in retaliation it is going to give ISIL and Al Qaeda the free run of Syria. As they're forced to deal with that I suspect that the US and in particular European nations won't be finding their Para-Olympic medals quite so shiny.
They will though likely be able to send very large teams to the 2020 Tokyo games. After all you should see what the 7/7 London bombings did for the British sitting volleyball squad.
As they paraded into the arena each nation carried with them a sign bearing the name of their nation in the form of a jigsaw puzzle piece. As they handed their national flag to be placed on the protocol island they handed this jigsaw piece to be placed in the square in the centre of the arena.
As the parade ended the camera pulled back and revealed the finished jigsaw. It showed the faces of all the competitors in the games. A giant anatomically correct beating human heart was then video projected onto the jigsaw.
Officially this was to send the message that the disabled are people too. They all have human hearts and emotions and are just as deserving of our respect as anybody else.
For someone like me who is already extremely familiar with not only disabled sport but disability issues in general this message might seem rather trite and somewhat stating the obvious. However in parts of Africa you still have Albino children being murdered so their bones can be used in witchcraft rituals.
Therefore as a global event it is very important that the Para-Olympics promotes this type of message no matter how obvious it might seem to some.
To me though these black & white photographs of the competitors seemed to very much resemble the photographs of "The Missing." It was those missing that the Suadade sequence of the previous Closing Ceremony was dedicated to.
Within Latin America "The Missing" refers to the upwards of 80,000 people were simply disappeared by fascist dictatorships in numerous countries including Brazil but particularly Chile and Argentina. Commonly referred to as; "The Dirty War" these disappearances took place as part of what is officially known as; "Operation Condor" which took place between 1968-1989.
Operation Condor was conducted with the full backing of the US with America training many of the Paramilitary death squads at The School of the Americas. It was largely conducted under the supervision of then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Particularly Argentina's "Triple A" death squad.
Henry Kissinger has just endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.
Some of the most powerful opposition to Operation Condor came from an Argentinian group that became known as; "The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo." I did briefly touch upon them during the Closing Ceremony but being rushed for time I far from did them justice.
What the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo would do is gather together one day a week - I think a Friday - outside Argentina's Presidential Palace on the Plaza de Mayo. They would then simply stand there in complete silence each holding a framed black & white photographs of the son or daughter who had simply disappeared.
The fact that the military dictator Jorge Videla outside whose Palace they were standing employed death squads should tell just how dangerous this type of protest was.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo are absolutely legendary amongst the history of social and political protest and across Latin America generally. The photographs of their protests are every bit as iconic as that footage of a man standing in front of a tank in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
I was even considering comparing them to that iconic "Napalm Girl" photograph from the Vietnam war of a fully nude 9 year old girl running away from a Napalm strike. Her back horribly burned. However I personally would class that as an image of war rather than an image of protest.
Those who are trying to tear Syria apart such as Turkey's Sultan Mehmed Brigades clearly looked at the Suadade sequence of the Closing Ceremony and saw a full endorsement of their cause. So on August 30th (30/8/16) they launched another social media campaign bombarding people with gory images of people they claimed had been disappeared by Syria government death squads.
However the message I took away from the Suadade sequence was that there are people across Latin America who have really lived through what Turkey etc is claiming is happening in Syria. Therefore they can see instantly where the Erdogans of this world are so clearly lying.
The message that I took away from this Parade of Nations sequence is that anyone with a heart would call out those hateful lies loudly and clearly any time they're given voice.
22:05 on 10/9/16 (UK date).
Thursday, 8 September 2016
The 2016 Sultan Mehmed Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.2
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 1; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/the-2016-sultan-mehmed-games-opening.html
Clear Blue Water: Throughout the ceremony the organisers seemed to try and introduce the viewer to some of the different types of Para-Olympic sport. The Wheels Within Wheels sequence looked at wheelchair sports and cycling. Now it was the turn of swimming.
For this the entire floor of the arena was turned into a giant Olympic swimming pool. Swimming across this pool was local hero Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias.
A double below the elbow and single below the knee amputee Dias will be competing in these games in the S.5 category which means that he has a medium level of physical impairment. More information about the rather complex classification system can be found on the IPC's website; https://www.paralympic.org/swimming/classification
Obviously they didn't actually fill the arena with water and Dias didn't actually swim across it. Instead it was a giant computer animation. In the TV broadcast this was interspersed with video of the actual Dias swimming in an actual pool. Putting together a computer animation on such a large scale is quite a complex task. As a result it provided Brazil with a bit of an opportunity to show off.
The clear, crisp blue water of the 'pool' obviously raised all the water pollution issues regarding the sailing and rowing venues that were much discussed in the lead up to the games. The hosts of course addressed these issues further and turned them into a talking point about the effects of Climate Change by allowing the diving pools to turn green with algae during the ISIL games.
How they achieved that effect is that they simply stopped putting Chlorine into the water. That obviously touches on these Chlorine gas attacks we keeping hearing about in Syria.
As things stand Chlorine is not classed as a Chemical Weapon because its effect on human health is similar to that of CS/Tear Gas i.e non-lethal. Also Chlorine has a vast array of uses that go far beyond that of a weapon such as in swimming pools. Due to these claimed Chemical Weapon attacks not being Chemical Weapon attacks at all the people - such as the Sultan Mehmed Brigades - who are trying to exploit them for propaganda purposes have now launched a separate campaign to have Chlorine classed as a Chemical Weapon.
After all that is the only way their accusations of Chemical Weapons attacks will make any sense.
The ultimatum seeming to be discussed by certain parties on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at the moment is that all swimming pools everywhere in the World must turn green with algae or Turkey will be allowed to invade. Swimming is now banned!
Life's A Beach: The clear blue waters of the pool then began to recede to be partially replaced in the video projection by the golden sands of a beach. This could be a reference to any one of Rio's World famous beaches. However for the purposes of this ceremony I'm going to declare it to be the Copacabana beach.
The arena was then populated with performers - some real, some animated - doing all the things that people do around the beach. So we had surfers. We had paddle-boarders. We even had skateboarders. And of course we had sunbathers. So many sunbathers.
One group that caught my eye in particular were people playing a sport called "Matkot." Literally the Hebrew word for "Racquets" this a paddle-ball game similar to tennis that is often played on the beach. In fact it's sometimes known as "Beach Tennis." This is unofficially Israel's national sport. They have campaigned for years to have into included as an Olympic sport but keep being rejected on the grounds that not enough people play it globally.
As such it could have been included here as a sign of support for having into included in the Olympics by showing that Brazilians play it too. It could also be something of an anti-Semitism test because the Hijabs do seem to be taking over at this games and wow there are some strong views that often go along with that headgear. Then of course there's that wave of German immigration to Brazil in the mid-to-late 1940's that we prefer not to talk about. However it could just as simple as that's what people do on Rio's beaches.
This particular sequence highlights how annoying it is that I've not yet been able to fully cover the Closing Ceremony of the ISIL game. It seems to reference part of it - the inclusion of Rio's Internet famous dancing roadsweeper Renato Sorriso.
For part of their coverage 2012 host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast live from Copacabana beach every night. Due to the time difference this went out as sanitation workers were emptying the rubbish bins on the beach. This led to the #Copacabinmen as they become known gathering something of a cult following in the UK.
As news of their fame grew other people tried to get in on the action sneaking into the back of shot. At one point a very noisy hen party turned up and the presenter Dan Walker bravely invited the very drunk bride-to-be to present part of the show with him.
Things reached their peak in more ways than one when an exhibitionist couple decided to have sex on the beach right in front of the BBC's cameras. The look of terror on the very religious presenter's face was something to behold; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlodAfQWvp0
At around 21:25 on 8/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at 13:45 on 9/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
Internet Connection Shutdown at around 14:00 on 9/9/16 (UK date)
Internet Connection Reestablished at around 19:30 on 9/9/16 (UK date) as the Yanks finally worked out that me writing in Word is far more disruptive to both the Geneva talks and the UNSC session on the US sponsored nuclear test in North Korea then just permitting me to publish it.
So;
A giant movable sculpture of a man selling balloons then entered the arena. Dubbed the "Happiness Seller" he represented the array of hawkers and vendors who sell things on Rio's beaches. Amid the crowd mingled performers selling food, drink sunglasses, jewellery and such.
What really caught the eye though were a couple of parasols that were adorned with what were clearly women's bras. This was a reference to the fact that amid all the other things you can buy on Rio's beaches you can by bikinis and other swimsuits.
However it also seemed to be a reference to another of the elements of the Closing Ceremony of the ISIL games that I've not yet got around to covering. Attitudes towards sex and nudity.
The Rio games of course rather picked up the conversational baton from the 2012 London games. Throughout the latter part of 2015 and the early part of 2016 there has been a big discussion amongst British TV broadcasters about how much is acceptable in terms of sex and nudity to show on TV.
A big driver of this discussion has been the growing influence of the US TV market both in terms of American programs being imported and British programs being exported.
US TV is bound by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ridiculous "No Nipples" rule which forbids the showing of female nipples on TV. In practice this means that you can have fully nude actors simulating a whole range of sexual acts. However provided they do not show a female nipple the FCC does not consider such scenes to be sexual in nature.
This topic was picked up at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. There this discussion of attitudes to sex and nudity is a constant one with organisers constantly having to balance the concerns of conservative Arab nations such as Syria which for the purposes of the Song Contest is considered part of Europe with much more liberal European nations such Sweden, Germany and Italy who couldn't care less if performers turned up fully nude.
During the final carnival sequence of the Closing Ceremony the camera seemed to linger on one particular female dancer in who seemed to be engaged in a constant battle to keep her breasts within the confines of her blue costume. In the US there was a big scandal when Janet Jackson accidentally exposed her nipple during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl.
As a result you just know that the director of the US coverage of the Closing Ceremony spent this entire sequence with his finger nervously hovering over the "Cut to Commercial" button.
I think it is fair then to assume then that Brazil's attitude towards sex and nudity is the polar opposite of the US and their no nipple rule. In fact if Brazil competed in the Eurovision Song Contest they would firmly sit amongst the nations that couldn't care less is performers turned up fully nude.
At the Song Contest this usual discussion of what is acceptable in terms of sex and nudity took on special meaning as a way to discuss how to integrate large numbers of refugees from places like Syria into European nations such as Germany and France.
With France being historically terrible in terms of integration and social cohesion this discussion has manifested itself into this summer's controversy over the banning of Islamic swimwear termed "Burkinis" on French beaches.
During this sequence the Brazilian sunbathers were not wearing their usual array of thongs and little else. Instead they were wearing Victorian style knee-to-elbow covering swimming costumes.
The reason why this sort of topic is so popular at things like the Olympics and Eurovision is that it is absolutely impossible to come up with a definitive answer. While it is possible to have a specific, individual case put in front of you and then decide whether it is right or wrong it is impossible to come up with a strict set of rules to be applied to all people in all places equally.
Any politician who tells you otherwise is either lying or too stupid to grasp the complexity of the issues.
However in discussing France's Burkini ban I think it is important to look at the origins of Islamic modesty standards.
In the Qu'ran (24:30-31) the Prophet Muhammad instructs his female followers – the Salafi- that they must breasts and "Ornaments." We are close to the start of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Those making the pilgrimage must wear simple white robes known as Ihram like those worn in the Prophet's time. As you can see these a similar to the Togas worn in Roman and Greek times and are very prone to falling open.
Therefore this passage in the Qu'ran could well be the Prophet instructing his female followers not to wander the streets with their breasts and genitals exposed. Even in ancient Rome this wouldn't be a particularly controversial statement.
At no point does the Qu'ran say that women's hair must be covered by the Hijab let alone that they must wear fully body/face coverings such as the Abiya, Niqab or Burqa.
However later in the Qu'ran (33:59) the Prophet instructs both his male and female followers to wear a cloak to disguise themselves so the are not harassed. In short they are being told to disguise themselves.
The mistake a lot of people in western nations tend to make is to confuse the story of Jesus Christ with the story of the Prophet Muhammad. Jesus Christ was essentially a man of peace. The most violent of his recorded acts was turning over tables as he cleansed the Temple of money lenders (Matthew 21:12-17).
The Prophet Muhammad however was most certainly not a man of peace frequently using violence against people that opposed him. In turn those people would often use violence against the Prophet and his followers. That is why the Prophet’s followers show their support by wishing peace upon him.
The instruction for the followers of the Prophet to go about in disguise is very much part of this culture of violence.
I think it is also important to look at the way that Islamic modesty standards have been applied over the years in majority Muslim nations.
One of these I'm particularly familiar with is Egypt which is the most populous Muslim state in the Arab world. Prior to the 1970's only the most extremely devout women wore the Hijab. The Abiya let alone the Niqab or Burqa were simply not worn at all. Then Egypt lost two wars in quick succession in Yemen and against Israel in the Yom Kippur war.
Imans linked to Egyptian government began blaming these defeats not on the failure of the government but on the fact that God had abandoned the Egyptian people because they had abandoned God by allowing their women to be seen in public. Since then the wearing of the Hijab came back into fashion forcing the most devout to show their extra devotion by wearing the Niqab or Burqa.
Another important example is modern Turkey. This was formed from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire - the last Islamist Caliphate. This was a period of extreme violence by Turkish Muslims against religious and ethnic minorities. Particularly the 1915 genocide of Armenian Christians.
As a consequence one of the founding constitutional principles of modern Turkey is that it would be a secular state where symbols of extreme, Salafi forms of Islam such as the wearing of the Hijab were banned. This was done specifically by moderate Muslims in order to limit the influence and therefore power of Muslim extremists who were responsible for all the genocide.
Very recently Turkey's Islamist President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has violated the nation's constitution to allow female police officers to wear the Hijab whilst on duty. This is a further indication of how Erdogan is trying to destroy Turkey's police force as an independent civic institution and turn it into an armed wing of his Justice & Development Party (AKP).
The adoption of Islamic dress in Europe and the US is very much linked to the September 11th 2001 (11/9/01) terror attacks on the US and the US' response to them. When we were having these same discussions back in 2003/4 I seem to remember commenting that if you are going to declare war against an entire religion don't be at all surprised when members of that religion start reaching for their uniforms.
In all of these cultures it is well acknowledged that swimming whilst clothed is dangerous. Therefore it is exempted from usual Islamic modesty standards where they have been adopted.
Therefore there is a very strong theological basis both within Islamic teaching and practice to support France's ban on the Burkini and what are claimed to be other forms of Salafi dress such as the Niqab and Burqa.
France's constitutional court's decision to suspend the ban is legally a nonsense. It is unsupported by the religion that it is claiming to protect the freedoms of.
The argument for banning this type of dress is particularly strong in France because in recent years it has come under seemingly relentless attack by Salafi Islamist terrorist.
Back in January 2015 there was what is commonly referred to as the Charlie Hebdo attacks. This was actually a series of four attacks across multiple locations and two days that left 20 people dead.
Then on November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) there were the Paris Massacres. Here 130 people were murdered - some of them brutally tortured and horrifically sexually abused in the process - across 6 locations in France's capital city on a single night.
On July 14th 2016 (14/7/16) a truck was driven through a crowd celebrating France's equivalent of its Independence Day in the beach resort city of Nice murdering 86 people.
Just 12 days later on July 26th (26/7/16) an 85 year old Catholic Priest was murdered in an attempted beheading at the altar of his Church in Rouen, Normandy.
Just this past Saturday (3/9/16) French police uncovered a potential car bomb outside Paris' famed Notre Dame Catholic Cathedral. In arresting three women connected to the planting of the carbomb a police officer was stabbed yesterday (8/9/16). This evening Paris' Gare du Nore was evacuated and a controlled explosion carried out on a suspect package.
These are just some of the terror attacks happening in France that make the international news. On August 30th (30/8/16) a police officer was stabbed in Toulouse. Three days later another police officer was stabbed in throat in Paris. Don't even get me started on Belgium and Denmark.
On a visit to Bangladesh on August 30th (30/8/16) US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the only way to stop this terrorism was for journalists to stop reporting on it. I wonder if all those attacked in just the last 11 days feel less stabbed just because they weren't on the news.
If women - Muslim or not - don't want to wear skimpy bathing costumes there are a whole host of other options available to them and as those Victorian-style costumes demonstrate there have been a good 50 years prior to the invention of the burkini.
There was actually an interesting moment in the Para-Olympic pool last night where a Dutch swimmer appeared wearing the Keffiyeh scarf associated with Palestinian resistance. As she took it off I was so shocked by the way her modesty was torn away by her fully body swimming costume and swimming cap I almost fainted in shock(!)
The women who choose to wear the Burkini or the Niqab do so not out of modesty but to publicly show their support for the Salafi cause that has murdered so many. To do that in France - particularly at the scene of the crime such as Nice - is so offensive and distressing that it would likely see them torn limb-from-limb. Something they themselves advocated during the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
However France is a nation of laws. So the French government actually has an obligation to protect these women from themselves no matter how stupid, offensive and distressing their behaviour is.
That though does not mean that I support France's Burkini ban for a number of reasons.
Firstly Salafism does not encourage the reading or understanding of the Qu'ran. Instead it encourages the recitement of it like some sort of unthinking automaton. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's claim to be the Caliph of Islam is based entirely on the fact he has a degree in Qu'ranic recitement. Not Islamic studies or theology just the reading of things out loud.
Therefore it is highly likely that the majority of the women who dress in this way have such a poor understanding of Islam they have no idea what they are doing. However I would think that the offence their behavior causes should be obvious to even the slowest reader.
Secondly when you exclude people from society it simply forces them to celebrate their isolation. As many people have commented on since the Burkini ban was introduced sales of Burkinis have shot up and more Salafis reach for their uniforms.
The main objection though is that by targeting item of clothing all this rightful public anger is being so horribly misplaced.
Following the Paris Massacres French President Francois Hollande should have immediately invoked the Article 5 mutual defence clause of the NATO treaty. This would have obligated all NATO members - especially Turkey - to do everything in their power to defeat ISIL.
If we'd stamped down on Erdogan's support for ISIL there and then we certainly wouldn't be currently trying to navigate our way out of Erdogan's decision to invade Syria in support of ISIL. We may well have even won the war entirely by now.
Hollande however instead introduced UNSC resolution 2249 in an effort to weaken the existing Chapter 7 resolution 2170. This was effectively Hollande going to Erdogan; "You carry on supporting ISIL. We'll just bury our dead in silence as not to offend you."
Back on May 11th (11/5/16) Russia tabled a UNSC Resolution to designate two other Syria terror groups who fight alongside ISIL - the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) - as terrorist groups alongside ISIL.
I don't think I need to explain to you how the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant shares the same ideology as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Army of Islam have a reputation for beheading ISIL fighters because they consider ISIL to be too moderate.
However France along with the US and the UK actually used their UNSC vote to veto the resolution in order to protect Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam.
Following the Bastille day attack Hollande again should have - as he was entitled to do at any point since November 2015 - invoked NATO's Article 5. Given the events of the following day if that had happened we'd most likely now be talking about Erdogan in the passive past tense.
Even before the Bastille day attack - since early July - Hollande was demanding that a ceasefire be declared in Aleppo City.
On August 30th (30/8/16) Russian airstrikes killed ISIL commander Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in Aleppo City. It was al-Adnani who directed the Bastille day attack and all the other attacks France is currently experiencing.
So as far as I'm concerned this Burkini ban is just the sort of nonsense that politicians throw out in an effort to distract voters and keep them off their backs.
After all in democracies politicians who side with foreign terrorists against their own citizens have a nasty way of being rapidly separated from the power they seek to abuse.
21:45 on 9/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:50 on 10/9/16 (UK date) to add;
Finally from amid the crowd of beachgoers a group of drummers who I think are called "Afrolala." However I may not only have misheard that but also written it down wrong in my notes. Whatever the groups what is significant about them is that they could not afford drums so simply made their own from recycled material such as plastic pots.
This is just another example of the sort of thing people get up to on Brazil's beaches. Even when I was living in Brighton, UK drum circles on the beach was a bit of a stereotype. It also of course references the issue of pollution and recycling. Just on September 3rd (3/9/16) the UK government announced that it is going to ban plastic microbeads from 2017 in an effort to combat plastic pollution in the World's oceans.
Mainly though I think it was an effort to keep the mood light in a sequence that dealt with some pretty heavy topics.
14:55 on 10/9/16 (UK date).
Clear Blue Water: Throughout the ceremony the organisers seemed to try and introduce the viewer to some of the different types of Para-Olympic sport. The Wheels Within Wheels sequence looked at wheelchair sports and cycling. Now it was the turn of swimming.
For this the entire floor of the arena was turned into a giant Olympic swimming pool. Swimming across this pool was local hero Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias.
A double below the elbow and single below the knee amputee Dias will be competing in these games in the S.5 category which means that he has a medium level of physical impairment. More information about the rather complex classification system can be found on the IPC's website; https://www.paralympic.org/swimming/classification
Obviously they didn't actually fill the arena with water and Dias didn't actually swim across it. Instead it was a giant computer animation. In the TV broadcast this was interspersed with video of the actual Dias swimming in an actual pool. Putting together a computer animation on such a large scale is quite a complex task. As a result it provided Brazil with a bit of an opportunity to show off.
The clear, crisp blue water of the 'pool' obviously raised all the water pollution issues regarding the sailing and rowing venues that were much discussed in the lead up to the games. The hosts of course addressed these issues further and turned them into a talking point about the effects of Climate Change by allowing the diving pools to turn green with algae during the ISIL games.
How they achieved that effect is that they simply stopped putting Chlorine into the water. That obviously touches on these Chlorine gas attacks we keeping hearing about in Syria.
As things stand Chlorine is not classed as a Chemical Weapon because its effect on human health is similar to that of CS/Tear Gas i.e non-lethal. Also Chlorine has a vast array of uses that go far beyond that of a weapon such as in swimming pools. Due to these claimed Chemical Weapon attacks not being Chemical Weapon attacks at all the people - such as the Sultan Mehmed Brigades - who are trying to exploit them for propaganda purposes have now launched a separate campaign to have Chlorine classed as a Chemical Weapon.
After all that is the only way their accusations of Chemical Weapons attacks will make any sense.
The ultimatum seeming to be discussed by certain parties on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at the moment is that all swimming pools everywhere in the World must turn green with algae or Turkey will be allowed to invade. Swimming is now banned!
Life's A Beach: The clear blue waters of the pool then began to recede to be partially replaced in the video projection by the golden sands of a beach. This could be a reference to any one of Rio's World famous beaches. However for the purposes of this ceremony I'm going to declare it to be the Copacabana beach.
The arena was then populated with performers - some real, some animated - doing all the things that people do around the beach. So we had surfers. We had paddle-boarders. We even had skateboarders. And of course we had sunbathers. So many sunbathers.
One group that caught my eye in particular were people playing a sport called "Matkot." Literally the Hebrew word for "Racquets" this a paddle-ball game similar to tennis that is often played on the beach. In fact it's sometimes known as "Beach Tennis." This is unofficially Israel's national sport. They have campaigned for years to have into included as an Olympic sport but keep being rejected on the grounds that not enough people play it globally.
As such it could have been included here as a sign of support for having into included in the Olympics by showing that Brazilians play it too. It could also be something of an anti-Semitism test because the Hijabs do seem to be taking over at this games and wow there are some strong views that often go along with that headgear. Then of course there's that wave of German immigration to Brazil in the mid-to-late 1940's that we prefer not to talk about. However it could just as simple as that's what people do on Rio's beaches.
This particular sequence highlights how annoying it is that I've not yet been able to fully cover the Closing Ceremony of the ISIL game. It seems to reference part of it - the inclusion of Rio's Internet famous dancing roadsweeper Renato Sorriso.
For part of their coverage 2012 host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast live from Copacabana beach every night. Due to the time difference this went out as sanitation workers were emptying the rubbish bins on the beach. This led to the #Copacabinmen as they become known gathering something of a cult following in the UK.
As news of their fame grew other people tried to get in on the action sneaking into the back of shot. At one point a very noisy hen party turned up and the presenter Dan Walker bravely invited the very drunk bride-to-be to present part of the show with him.
Things reached their peak in more ways than one when an exhibitionist couple decided to have sex on the beach right in front of the BBC's cameras. The look of terror on the very religious presenter's face was something to behold; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlodAfQWvp0
At around 21:25 on 8/9/16 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at 13:45 on 9/9/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
Internet Connection Shutdown at around 14:00 on 9/9/16 (UK date)
Internet Connection Reestablished at around 19:30 on 9/9/16 (UK date) as the Yanks finally worked out that me writing in Word is far more disruptive to both the Geneva talks and the UNSC session on the US sponsored nuclear test in North Korea then just permitting me to publish it.
So;
A giant movable sculpture of a man selling balloons then entered the arena. Dubbed the "Happiness Seller" he represented the array of hawkers and vendors who sell things on Rio's beaches. Amid the crowd mingled performers selling food, drink sunglasses, jewellery and such.
What really caught the eye though were a couple of parasols that were adorned with what were clearly women's bras. This was a reference to the fact that amid all the other things you can buy on Rio's beaches you can by bikinis and other swimsuits.
However it also seemed to be a reference to another of the elements of the Closing Ceremony of the ISIL games that I've not yet got around to covering. Attitudes towards sex and nudity.
The Rio games of course rather picked up the conversational baton from the 2012 London games. Throughout the latter part of 2015 and the early part of 2016 there has been a big discussion amongst British TV broadcasters about how much is acceptable in terms of sex and nudity to show on TV.
A big driver of this discussion has been the growing influence of the US TV market both in terms of American programs being imported and British programs being exported.
US TV is bound by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ridiculous "No Nipples" rule which forbids the showing of female nipples on TV. In practice this means that you can have fully nude actors simulating a whole range of sexual acts. However provided they do not show a female nipple the FCC does not consider such scenes to be sexual in nature.
This topic was picked up at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. There this discussion of attitudes to sex and nudity is a constant one with organisers constantly having to balance the concerns of conservative Arab nations such as Syria which for the purposes of the Song Contest is considered part of Europe with much more liberal European nations such Sweden, Germany and Italy who couldn't care less if performers turned up fully nude.
During the final carnival sequence of the Closing Ceremony the camera seemed to linger on one particular female dancer in who seemed to be engaged in a constant battle to keep her breasts within the confines of her blue costume. In the US there was a big scandal when Janet Jackson accidentally exposed her nipple during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl.
As a result you just know that the director of the US coverage of the Closing Ceremony spent this entire sequence with his finger nervously hovering over the "Cut to Commercial" button.
I think it is fair then to assume then that Brazil's attitude towards sex and nudity is the polar opposite of the US and their no nipple rule. In fact if Brazil competed in the Eurovision Song Contest they would firmly sit amongst the nations that couldn't care less is performers turned up fully nude.
At the Song Contest this usual discussion of what is acceptable in terms of sex and nudity took on special meaning as a way to discuss how to integrate large numbers of refugees from places like Syria into European nations such as Germany and France.
With France being historically terrible in terms of integration and social cohesion this discussion has manifested itself into this summer's controversy over the banning of Islamic swimwear termed "Burkinis" on French beaches.
During this sequence the Brazilian sunbathers were not wearing their usual array of thongs and little else. Instead they were wearing Victorian style knee-to-elbow covering swimming costumes.
The reason why this sort of topic is so popular at things like the Olympics and Eurovision is that it is absolutely impossible to come up with a definitive answer. While it is possible to have a specific, individual case put in front of you and then decide whether it is right or wrong it is impossible to come up with a strict set of rules to be applied to all people in all places equally.
Any politician who tells you otherwise is either lying or too stupid to grasp the complexity of the issues.
However in discussing France's Burkini ban I think it is important to look at the origins of Islamic modesty standards.
In the Qu'ran (24:30-31) the Prophet Muhammad instructs his female followers – the Salafi- that they must breasts and "Ornaments." We are close to the start of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Those making the pilgrimage must wear simple white robes known as Ihram like those worn in the Prophet's time. As you can see these a similar to the Togas worn in Roman and Greek times and are very prone to falling open.
Therefore this passage in the Qu'ran could well be the Prophet instructing his female followers not to wander the streets with their breasts and genitals exposed. Even in ancient Rome this wouldn't be a particularly controversial statement.
At no point does the Qu'ran say that women's hair must be covered by the Hijab let alone that they must wear fully body/face coverings such as the Abiya, Niqab or Burqa.
However later in the Qu'ran (33:59) the Prophet instructs both his male and female followers to wear a cloak to disguise themselves so the are not harassed. In short they are being told to disguise themselves.
The mistake a lot of people in western nations tend to make is to confuse the story of Jesus Christ with the story of the Prophet Muhammad. Jesus Christ was essentially a man of peace. The most violent of his recorded acts was turning over tables as he cleansed the Temple of money lenders (Matthew 21:12-17).
The Prophet Muhammad however was most certainly not a man of peace frequently using violence against people that opposed him. In turn those people would often use violence against the Prophet and his followers. That is why the Prophet’s followers show their support by wishing peace upon him.
The instruction for the followers of the Prophet to go about in disguise is very much part of this culture of violence.
I think it is also important to look at the way that Islamic modesty standards have been applied over the years in majority Muslim nations.
One of these I'm particularly familiar with is Egypt which is the most populous Muslim state in the Arab world. Prior to the 1970's only the most extremely devout women wore the Hijab. The Abiya let alone the Niqab or Burqa were simply not worn at all. Then Egypt lost two wars in quick succession in Yemen and against Israel in the Yom Kippur war.
Imans linked to Egyptian government began blaming these defeats not on the failure of the government but on the fact that God had abandoned the Egyptian people because they had abandoned God by allowing their women to be seen in public. Since then the wearing of the Hijab came back into fashion forcing the most devout to show their extra devotion by wearing the Niqab or Burqa.
Another important example is modern Turkey. This was formed from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire - the last Islamist Caliphate. This was a period of extreme violence by Turkish Muslims against religious and ethnic minorities. Particularly the 1915 genocide of Armenian Christians.
As a consequence one of the founding constitutional principles of modern Turkey is that it would be a secular state where symbols of extreme, Salafi forms of Islam such as the wearing of the Hijab were banned. This was done specifically by moderate Muslims in order to limit the influence and therefore power of Muslim extremists who were responsible for all the genocide.
Very recently Turkey's Islamist President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has violated the nation's constitution to allow female police officers to wear the Hijab whilst on duty. This is a further indication of how Erdogan is trying to destroy Turkey's police force as an independent civic institution and turn it into an armed wing of his Justice & Development Party (AKP).
The adoption of Islamic dress in Europe and the US is very much linked to the September 11th 2001 (11/9/01) terror attacks on the US and the US' response to them. When we were having these same discussions back in 2003/4 I seem to remember commenting that if you are going to declare war against an entire religion don't be at all surprised when members of that religion start reaching for their uniforms.
In all of these cultures it is well acknowledged that swimming whilst clothed is dangerous. Therefore it is exempted from usual Islamic modesty standards where they have been adopted.
Therefore there is a very strong theological basis both within Islamic teaching and practice to support France's ban on the Burkini and what are claimed to be other forms of Salafi dress such as the Niqab and Burqa.
France's constitutional court's decision to suspend the ban is legally a nonsense. It is unsupported by the religion that it is claiming to protect the freedoms of.
The argument for banning this type of dress is particularly strong in France because in recent years it has come under seemingly relentless attack by Salafi Islamist terrorist.
Back in January 2015 there was what is commonly referred to as the Charlie Hebdo attacks. This was actually a series of four attacks across multiple locations and two days that left 20 people dead.
Then on November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) there were the Paris Massacres. Here 130 people were murdered - some of them brutally tortured and horrifically sexually abused in the process - across 6 locations in France's capital city on a single night.
On July 14th 2016 (14/7/16) a truck was driven through a crowd celebrating France's equivalent of its Independence Day in the beach resort city of Nice murdering 86 people.
Just 12 days later on July 26th (26/7/16) an 85 year old Catholic Priest was murdered in an attempted beheading at the altar of his Church in Rouen, Normandy.
Just this past Saturday (3/9/16) French police uncovered a potential car bomb outside Paris' famed Notre Dame Catholic Cathedral. In arresting three women connected to the planting of the carbomb a police officer was stabbed yesterday (8/9/16). This evening Paris' Gare du Nore was evacuated and a controlled explosion carried out on a suspect package.
These are just some of the terror attacks happening in France that make the international news. On August 30th (30/8/16) a police officer was stabbed in Toulouse. Three days later another police officer was stabbed in throat in Paris. Don't even get me started on Belgium and Denmark.
On a visit to Bangladesh on August 30th (30/8/16) US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the only way to stop this terrorism was for journalists to stop reporting on it. I wonder if all those attacked in just the last 11 days feel less stabbed just because they weren't on the news.
If women - Muslim or not - don't want to wear skimpy bathing costumes there are a whole host of other options available to them and as those Victorian-style costumes demonstrate there have been a good 50 years prior to the invention of the burkini.
There was actually an interesting moment in the Para-Olympic pool last night where a Dutch swimmer appeared wearing the Keffiyeh scarf associated with Palestinian resistance. As she took it off I was so shocked by the way her modesty was torn away by her fully body swimming costume and swimming cap I almost fainted in shock(!)
The women who choose to wear the Burkini or the Niqab do so not out of modesty but to publicly show their support for the Salafi cause that has murdered so many. To do that in France - particularly at the scene of the crime such as Nice - is so offensive and distressing that it would likely see them torn limb-from-limb. Something they themselves advocated during the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
However France is a nation of laws. So the French government actually has an obligation to protect these women from themselves no matter how stupid, offensive and distressing their behaviour is.
That though does not mean that I support France's Burkini ban for a number of reasons.
Firstly Salafism does not encourage the reading or understanding of the Qu'ran. Instead it encourages the recitement of it like some sort of unthinking automaton. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's claim to be the Caliph of Islam is based entirely on the fact he has a degree in Qu'ranic recitement. Not Islamic studies or theology just the reading of things out loud.
Therefore it is highly likely that the majority of the women who dress in this way have such a poor understanding of Islam they have no idea what they are doing. However I would think that the offence their behavior causes should be obvious to even the slowest reader.
Secondly when you exclude people from society it simply forces them to celebrate their isolation. As many people have commented on since the Burkini ban was introduced sales of Burkinis have shot up and more Salafis reach for their uniforms.
The main objection though is that by targeting item of clothing all this rightful public anger is being so horribly misplaced.
Following the Paris Massacres French President Francois Hollande should have immediately invoked the Article 5 mutual defence clause of the NATO treaty. This would have obligated all NATO members - especially Turkey - to do everything in their power to defeat ISIL.
If we'd stamped down on Erdogan's support for ISIL there and then we certainly wouldn't be currently trying to navigate our way out of Erdogan's decision to invade Syria in support of ISIL. We may well have even won the war entirely by now.
Hollande however instead introduced UNSC resolution 2249 in an effort to weaken the existing Chapter 7 resolution 2170. This was effectively Hollande going to Erdogan; "You carry on supporting ISIL. We'll just bury our dead in silence as not to offend you."
Back on May 11th (11/5/16) Russia tabled a UNSC Resolution to designate two other Syria terror groups who fight alongside ISIL - the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) - as terrorist groups alongside ISIL.
I don't think I need to explain to you how the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant shares the same ideology as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Army of Islam have a reputation for beheading ISIL fighters because they consider ISIL to be too moderate.
However France along with the US and the UK actually used their UNSC vote to veto the resolution in order to protect Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam.
Following the Bastille day attack Hollande again should have - as he was entitled to do at any point since November 2015 - invoked NATO's Article 5. Given the events of the following day if that had happened we'd most likely now be talking about Erdogan in the passive past tense.
Even before the Bastille day attack - since early July - Hollande was demanding that a ceasefire be declared in Aleppo City.
On August 30th (30/8/16) Russian airstrikes killed ISIL commander Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in Aleppo City. It was al-Adnani who directed the Bastille day attack and all the other attacks France is currently experiencing.
So as far as I'm concerned this Burkini ban is just the sort of nonsense that politicians throw out in an effort to distract voters and keep them off their backs.
After all in democracies politicians who side with foreign terrorists against their own citizens have a nasty way of being rapidly separated from the power they seek to abuse.
21:45 on 9/9/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:50 on 10/9/16 (UK date) to add;
Finally from amid the crowd of beachgoers a group of drummers who I think are called "Afrolala." However I may not only have misheard that but also written it down wrong in my notes. Whatever the groups what is significant about them is that they could not afford drums so simply made their own from recycled material such as plastic pots.
This is just another example of the sort of thing people get up to on Brazil's beaches. Even when I was living in Brighton, UK drum circles on the beach was a bit of a stereotype. It also of course references the issue of pollution and recycling. Just on September 3rd (3/9/16) the UK government announced that it is going to ban plastic microbeads from 2017 in an effort to combat plastic pollution in the World's oceans.
Mainly though I think it was an effort to keep the mood light in a sequence that dealt with some pretty heavy topics.
14:55 on 10/9/16 (UK date).
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