The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.2

A continuation of Part 1; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing.html

Flag & Anthem:

It is a matter of Olympic protocol that each ceremony must include a sequence in which the flag of the host nation is raised and its national anthem is performed. In closing ceremonies this is simply so it can be taken down again later.

It has become a tradition that during this sequence a large, unfurled flag is paraded around the arena before being raised. It is paraded by often six flag bearers who each have their own significance.

Here the South Koreans decided to break with that tradition and do something creative.

The flag was brought into the arena by Jang Sa-ik, a popular South Korean singer. He was accompanied by 23 elementary school aged children wearing adorable hat, scarf, mittens combinations which made then resemble Snow Tigers. Rather like the games mascot Soohorang.

In the UK we had a particularly nasty Member of Parliament (MP) by the name of Jo Cox. She abused her position to provide material and political support to Islamist terror groups in Syria. She was resolved on June 16th 2016 (16/6/16). The only downside being that it rather ruined the second half of the England v Wales Euro 2016 match.

Jo Cox's evil work was then picked up by her husband Brendan Cox. During the games on February 18th (18/2/18) Brendan Cox resigned from a number of charities. It had been revealed that like most Islamist terrorists in Syria he's just a vicious little rapist.

Both Jo Cox and Brendan Cox's favourite slogan was that we as humans have; "More in Common than Divides Us."

Although both of them liked to repeat this slogan ad nauseum it is clear that neither of them understood what the words actually mean.

One of the things that is common to all humans on Earth regardless of race, gender or religion is the fact that elementary school aged children are absolutely adorable.

There is something almost hardwired in our nature that we must feel immense affection for these mini-humans and do everything to nurture and protect them.

So if you were an Islamist terror group operating in Syria you would look to legitimise yourself by releasing pictures, videos and stories of children suffering. You might even go so far as naming them something like Omran Daqneesh or Bana Alabed. 

Likewise if you were an Islamist terror group operating in Florida, US you might conduct a gun attack on a school. You would then exploit the children killed and those who survived as part of your political campaign.

This type of Atrocity Propaganda using children is explicitly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions - the Laws of War. Therefore anyone engaging in it can legitimately be described as a War Criminal.

This hardwired, almost genetic impulse is also why crimes such as paedophilia are met with such rage and anger in society.

So if you were an intelligence service dealing with a dissident who is too high profile for you just to kill. Well, you could put around a rumour that they were a paedophile in the hope it would spur the public into killing them for you.

Anthropologists have suggested that the extreme protectiveness adults feel towards even other people's children has something to do with their physical appearance. Aside from being very small children tend to have very round faces, very flat features like noses and cheekbones and large eyes.

Other anthropologists have suggested it is the mimicking of those traits which has allowed our feline overlords to infiltrate our homes and force us to do their bidding. Domestic cats are also quite small and unlike dogs have very round faces, very flat features and large eyes.  

Members of the Asian race also tend to be quite small, have very round eyes, flat features and large eyes.

Amid certain sections of western men. Particularly American servicemen who served in Korea, Japan or Vietnam. There is a recognised sexual fetish for Asian women.

I think any fetish for a particular race is a little bit creepy. However with the similarity between children and the Asian appearance there is a certain talking point about this particular fetish and how it overlaps with paedophilia. Particularly as it seems to overlap with child sex tourism in South East Asia.

Curiously one group that doesn't seem to find Asian children to be in any way adorable are South Koreans of child bearing age.

In 2017 the RoK's birthrate plunged to a record low with just 360,000 babies being born. This has caused serious concern about a so-called; "Demographic Timebomb" with there not being enough of the new generation to sustain the existing generations who are all living longer.

Unlike in US TV Show; "The Handmaid's Tale" the main driving force behind the RoK's falling birthrate are economic and sociological factors. Some have even described it as a; "Birth Strike" with young South Koreans almost refusing to have children as a form of protest against government policy.

The problems begin almost from the point that South Korean children are born.

From that moment on South Koreans entire lives revolve around working extremely hard in highly disciplined conditions to do well in the Suneung or College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT). If they do well in that exam their lives start revolving around working extremely hard in highly disciplined conditions to do well at college.

If they do well at college South Koreans lives start to revolve around working extremely hard in the highly disciplined conditions of one of the giant Chaebol corporations like Samsung.

When they do finally reach the world of employment South Koreans work the third longest hours of any nation on Earth. That leaves very little time for a social life let alone a romantic life or family life.

Another significant problem is that South Korean society is still very much set in the traditional belief that men go out to work while it is women's work to raise children. Therefore few men are prepared to help around the home and few companies provide parental leave let alone child care.

The problem is that while much of society still functions like that many South Korean women view themselves as empowered and want to choose their own lives and careers. So forced to choose between children and their jobs more South Korean women are choosing not to bother with children.

Some Feminist commentators have also suggested that it is part caused by a gender-pay gap. This issue of women being paid less then men is something of a fascination amongst western Feminists at the moment.

However I should point out that it was the Feminist school of thought which led to me dropping out of my degree in human geography. In order to pass I had to pump out essays explaining how the building of phallic skyscrapers was contributing to a rape culture in a patriarchal society.

As I was being forced to write this sort of women's studies drivel I could feel the braincells dying.

Japan has a similar problem with falling birthrates and demographic concerns. However with Japan being the RoK's great rival I've certain their problem is much worse.

At the strange convergence of children who look like cats and falling birthrates you have the Japanese island of Tashirojima.

In the 1950's Tashirojima was a thriving fishing community. One day someone decided to introduce cats to the island to control the rodent population. 

Since the 1950's the human birthrate on Tashirojima's - like Japan's as a whole - has collapsed. Those children who are being born grow up to move away and live in cities. 

The island's only elementary school was closed in 1989 and it has been classed as a; "Genkai shuraku" or; "Terminal Village" meaning that more then 50% of the population are aged over 65 years.

Meanwhile the island's cat population has continued to grow and thrive. 

So at this point Tashirojima is pretty much just an island ruled by cats.

The 23 children used in this sequence symbolised the 23 Winter Olympics that have taken place. Although I didn't catch the names they actually came from two different Elementary Schools. Symbolising the two Koreas.

As the flag was being raised by the Royal Guard Jang Sa-ik led these two unified school choirs in singing the South Korean national anthem. 

Meet The New Boss:

This sequence centred around the 13 year old Yang Tae-Hwan playing a rock guitar interpretation of "Winter" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

This obviously fitted with the stated theme of this Winter Olympic ceremony of the combination of old and new.

It also showed a South Korean child being thrust into a very adult role. Almost as soon as they are born South Korean children are thrust into the adult work ethic by being forced to prepare for the Suneung.

Yang Tae-Hwan's performance could invoke memories of many guitar rock gods. Queen guitarist and Doctor of Astrophysics Brian May playing a solo on the roof of Britain's Buckingham Palace in 2002 for example.

Mainly though it seemed intended to invoke memories of the British rock band; "The Who." They of course famously headlined the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, UK.

The Who also became something of a talking point during the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia. Their song; "Baba O'Reilly" is influenced in part by Russian polka music. 

The London 2012 ceremonies were quite aggressive in nature. 

They seemed centred around a sort of psychological shock and awe intended to confuse and disorientate those who experienced it. If you are familiar with Russian polka music you would know that Russia certainly had that sort of weapon in its arsenal. But as good hosts chose not to use it.

Through their song; "Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who also seem to have written the soundtrack for the Turkish-led Muslim Brotherhood's wars against particularly Egypt and Syria. With lyrics such as;

"They're fighting in the streets
With their children at their feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song."

With his military style jacket Yang Tae-Hwan may also have reminded you of that son of a former British Ambassador to Turkey Joe Strummer and his band; "The Clash." Their song; "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" was quite the anthem of the gay-rights-for-gays protests at Sochi.

Well, in Burton suits the American snowboarders certainly thought it was funny. Turning rebellion into money.

Yang Tae-Hwan performed his guitar solo at the base of the Olympic Cauldron. I think I've mentioned how proud the South Koreans are that this resembles a "Martian War Machine" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Wells.

The podium where the cauldron stands is connected to the main arena floor by a ramp.

While Yang Tae-Hwan was playing performers appeared on this ramp held in place by horizontal cables. Light projected moving vertical lines along the ramp. This made it resemble a fretboard of a guitar.

The arena then became the guitar body. Here a large numbers of performers were playing this version of Vivaldi's Winter on Geomungo's. A traditional Korean stringed instrument.

This further emphasised the theme of the combination of old and new.

In the centre of the arena there was a recessed inner circle. This represented the sound hole of a guitar.

From it rose the South Korea post-rock band; "Jambinai" playing their song; "Time of Extinction." You could describe the Birth Strike as the other Extinction Level Event facing the RoK.

The Birth Strike is of course in part the result of the conflict of old South Korean attitudes to family life and the young South Korean women adopting the new idea of female empowerment.

The arena became filled with dancers performing a very graceful, classic dance routine. This was a nod to the figure skaters. It is their presence which makes the Winter Olympics the far classier of the two Olympics.

Not growing up in a particularly cultured environment I know that if I say I like figure skating I'm going to get beaten up for one of two reasons.

Watching men prance about in frilly costumes obviously means I'm gay.

Alternatively watching 15 year old Russian Gold Medal winner Alina Zagitova means that I'm a paedophile.

What those people don't realise is that figure skating combines the non-sexual beauty of art with the non-sexual beauty of physical perfection. You could almost describe it as the beauty of life itself.

Above the arena there was a structure resembling a multi-level roof of a Pagoda.

For reasons I will go into in more detail in the next instalment an episode of the US TV Show; "The Unit" entitled; "In Loco Parentis" has featured heavily at these games. In early shots the school building portrayed in the show seems to be influenced by this Asian architecture style.

Also the Opening Ceremony featured the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great. A copy of this known as the; "Friendship Bell" sits in the Korean Pagoda in Angel's Gate Park in the US city of Los Angeles, California.

The BBC commentator at the Opening Ceremony at least seems to need to be reminded of that. He still seems convinced it was the Japanese; "Peace Bell" which hangs in a peace garden at the UN headquarters in the US city of New York, New York.

The Opening Ceremony of course dealt heavily with Korea's traditional Animist religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. During the games on February 18th (18/2/18) there was a small fire at the ancient Tibetan Buddhist Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, China.

There were two noteworthy things about the way that this was reported.

Firstly Americans CNN network first reported on it on February 20th (20/2/18). They actually described the events of two days ago as; "Breaking News."

China's Xinhua News reported on it as it happened. They described it as a Tibetan Temple. This is unusual. China is normally very sensitive about the use of the word Tibet.

Emphasising that a good Olympic Ceremony can allow you to spiral off into pretty much any topic of conversation this point is demonstrated by the 2016 US movie; "Doctor Strange."

In the Marvel comic book version of Doctor Strange one of the key characters is a Tibetan mystic. In the movie version though this is changed to a Celtic mystic played by Tilda Swinton. The reference to Tibet was removed to allow the movie to be widely distributed in China.

In the last few years the Oscars like much of American society has become obsessed with race and the thought crimes of; "Cultural Appropriation" and "Whitewashing."

Curiously nobody seemed to notice or be bothered by the whitewashing in Doctor Strange.

They were though utterly furious about white actor Matt Damon being cast as a Chinese character in the 2016 movie; "The Great Wall."

What everyone seemed to fail to realise is that The Great Wall is a Chinese movie produced by a Chinese company. They insisted on having a well known American actor as their lead to allow the movie to be more widely distributed in America.

The growing role of China as both a consumer and producer of movies is actually quite a major topic within the movie industry.

Throughout this sequence LED lights attached to seats in the stadium flashed as if little particles of light. They were sequenced to make them appear as if they were soundwaves.

This was a reference to the concept from Quantum Physics called; "Wave, Particle Duality."

If you start Googling it now there's a chance you might get your head around it by the time it becomes a major feature. 

17:20 on 27/2/18 (UK date).