The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.6

A continuation of Part 5; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing_17.html

Fun With Flags:

It is IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony must include a sequence marking the transition from one Olympic host to the next. This must be done through a lot of mucking about with flags.

The Greek national flag is raised while their national anthem is performed. Next the Olympic anthem is performed. The Olympic flag is then taken down and handed to a representative of the next Olympic host. The flag of that nation is then raised and their national anthem performed. Finally the flag of the existing host nation is taken down.

If nothing else this proves why during an Olympics you shouldn't take anything at face value.

The first Olympics took place in the village of Wenlock in the UK in 1850. They were organised by British surgeon William Brooks and French Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

However at every games they raise the Greek national flag in an effort to convince us that the Olympics began in Ancient Greece.

Also its claimed that the five rings of the Olympic logo represent all five continents. There are seven continents.

During this sequence the flag detail was provided by the South Korean Royal Guard.

A recording of the Greek national anthem by the London Symphony Orchestra was played.

The Olympic anthem was performed by Oh Yeon-joon. An 11 year winner of the RoK's version of; "The Voice" talent show.

His appearance provided another example of how adorable Korean children are. In the hope of inspiring any South Koreans watching to produce more of them. The ceremony's main theme of the Birth Strike was intended to promote discussion of the issue amongst primarily a domestic audience.

The RoK were represented by Mayor of PyeongChang County Shim Jae-kook. He passed the Olympic flag to China's representative Mayor of Beijing Chen Jining.

As the national flag of the People's Republic of China was raised its anthem was performed by a choir representing China's 56 recognised ethnic groups.

Quite how you get recognised as an official ethnic group in China is a topic in itself.

China's Bit:

It is IOC protocol that each Closing Ceremony includes a sequence produced by the next Olympic host. In this case China. The purpose is to briefly introduce us to that nation and identify the topics which will likely come up in the next four years preparing for their games.

In Asia the Chinese have a reputation for being what in the UK would be called; "Country Bumpkins." That is to say poorly educated, not particularly sophisticated and generally lacking in good manners and good breeding.

This reputation of mainland Chinese people even extends to other Chinese people living outside of the mainland. Such as Hong Kong.

This became something of an issue within China is 2014. Particularly on social media.

A mainland Chinese mother was visiting Hong Kong when her two year old daughter needed to use the bathroom. So the mother simply made the girl squat down and urinate in the middle of the street. Much like they would do at home. Local Hong Kong residents were appalled by this behaviour.

The day after the Closing Ceremony (26/2/18) the issue again hit social media. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security posted footage of an elementary school aged boy urinating on the buttons in an elevator in Chongqing Province. This caused the elevator to breakdown and the boy had to be rescued by firefighters.

On this occasion many mainland Chinese also seemed to appalled by the idea of public urination.

Asians attitudes towards the Chinese is really illustrated by a sketch in the US TV Show; "Family Guy." In case you've not worked it out yet that, like; "The Simpsons," is animated in the RoK.

If you like you can watch the clip here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTjFbKJYkkw

However it depicts the boardroom at a big, successful Japanese company. The boss announces that there is a Chinese hiding amongst them. The camera then pans around the Japanese board members in their sharp suits.

Finally it comes to rest on a bucktoothed fool wearing a farmer's hat, carrying a hoe over his shoulder and holding the reigns to a Water Buffalo. He is very obviously the Chinese.

You particularly see this contrast between South Koreans and Chinese in the electronics industry.

It is the South Koreans (and definitely not the Japanese, they're rubbish) who have the big ideas designing these amazing new products. It then falls to the strong backs and nimble fingers of the Chinese to actual manufacture the finished products.

As it grows its economy China is trying move away from this. Rather then simply providing cheap labour to build other people's designs they are trying to move towards developing designs of their own.

In doing this China's actions have sometimes been legally questionable. They have frequently been accused of what is known as; "Intellectual Property Theft." In short stealing other people's ideas.

In the Opening Ceremony I said that if you're reading this on an electronic device the chances are that device was made in the RoK.

The truth is that device was probably designed in the RoK. Then made in China. Either under license from a South Korean company. Or by a Chinese company that had stolen South Korean technology.

As China has tried to move away from being the so-called; "Workshop of the World" the US under particularly former President Obama has been trying to undermine its entire economy.

This has very real implications to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) nuclear weapons program. And by extension the RoK.

Obama's big effort to contain the rise of China was his; "Pivot Towards the Pacific" policy. This had two tracks.

The first was security. In short aiding the DPRK to develop its nuclear weapons program. This created a threat which the US then offered protection against bringing nations in the region under US influence rather than Chinese influence.

The second was economic. In short lifting sanctions on rogue nations in the region. Myanmar (Burma) being the most extreme example. This opened up a new pool of low skilled workers.

This forces China to either lose business to those nations or cut wages. Or at least stop wages rising as the cost of living increases. Leading to some very unhappy Chinese workers.

The sequence began with performers on inline roller skates dressed as Pandas.

China is very famous for Pandas. It actually owns all the Pandas in World. They hand them out to other nations in what is known as; "Panda Diplomacy." The Opening Ceremony focused on the issue of; "Soft Power." I think China's Pandas are an example of; "Soft & Cuddly Power."

The Pandas were joined by many other performers on inline roller skates. All the performers were dressed in what are known as; "Smart Fabrics." Fabrics that include electronics which warm them, charge cellphones or in this case light up.

This is a technique the South Koreans used themselves throughout the games. However China's version deliberately didn't seem quite as good. Just sort of cheaper and as not as high quality.

While this was going on lights were projected in the form of waves on the arena floor. This directly references the scientific concepts of; "Wave-Particle Duality" and "The Doppler Effect" which the South Koreans had employed earlier in this ceremony.

This allowed nuclear armed China to show off its scientific knowledge and understanding of physics. It also allowed China to show that it knew exactly what the South Koreans had planned. Alongside Intellectual Property Theft China has quite the reputation for computer hacking and spying.

The light projection then showed Winter Olympic sports being played. Specifically Ice (or in this case Air) Hockey and Curling. All the skaters of course took care of the skating events.

At around 21:05 on 1/3/18 (UK date) I will pick this up tomorrow.

Edited at around 14:30 on 2/3/18 (UK date) to add;

China then brought out the centrepiece of its presentation. A number of large TV's which were wheeled around the arena in various formations.

These resembled the wheeled doorways in the "Beaten Black & Blue" sequence in the Opening Ceremony. Their initial formation resembled the railway train carriage also used in that sequence.

At the time I decided that didn't need further clarification. So China bringing it up again was a poorly educated, unsophisticated Bumpkin type of move.

The sequence then moved into what I don't think China will have any problem with me describing as a complete counterfeit of commercials from the Japanese Sony Bravia TV commercials. Highlighting the issue of Intellectual Property Theft.

Light projection then showed the skaters carving out gold lines on the arena floor. This was a reference to the gold conductive tracks you find on printed circuit boards. Highlighting China's role in physically manufacturing electronic goods such as Sony Bravia TV's.

Finally the conductive tracks became an image of a rising Dragon. Symbolising China's desire to advance their economy from simply being the Workshop of the World.

The TV's then arranged themselves in a Taoist or Animist circle at the centre of arena. Fans of the war in Syria would've noticed the wreath of Olive Branches forming an inner ring to the circle.

Within the centre of the circle a projected animation showed the International Space Station (ISIS) and then the Earth as if viewed from orbit. This referenced the concepts of the Doppler Effect and Time Dilation that the South Koreans had used in an earlier sequence of this ceremony.

That allowed nuclear armed, QUESS satellite launching China to show that it certainly has the scientific knowhow to move beyond being the Workshop of the World. While raising further questions about how they found out the South Koreans were going to include that sequence.

The arena then collapsed into graphics representing computer code. The green 1's and 0's of Binary code etc.

This really focused in on the issue of Chinese computer hacking.

In 2012 the Chinese government gave a lavish gift to the African Union (AU). A purpose built Headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The building was constructed and paid for by the Chinese State Construction Engineering Corporation. It was equipped with all the latest electronics supplied by the Chinese Huawei corporation.

In January 2018 the Headquarters of the African Union was closed down. This was due to the discovery of surveillance equipment suggesting China had constructed the building simply so it could spy on the AU by copying all the data on the Huawei communication systems directly to Shanghai.

On February 7th (7/2/18) - during the games - US Senators introduced a bill banning the US government or its suppliers from using Huawei or ZTE equipment. Specifically over these spying fears.

The UK has a more relaxed attitude towards China. The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station which was approved in 2016 will in part be funded by China's state owned General Nuclear Power Group.

Shortly after the Closing Ceremony there was a large explosion on Hinkley Road in the UK city of Leicester. It seems to be the result of either someone trying to bypass a natural gas meter to obtain energy for free or someone simply stealing metal pipes.

The computer code reassembled itself into an animated email invitation. This travelled off into a video welcoming you to China.

This included lots of footage of things that China is famous for. Such as the Great Wall and food. So much food.

It also showed a lot of people enjoying winter sports. Despite them being awarded the 2022 games Chinese people are not famous for having any interest whatsoever in winter sports. This creates concerns over ticket sales for the games. The legacy element of which will be increasing Chinese interest in winter sports.

Included in the Chinese people doing winter sports was the current Chinese Women's Speed Skating team. They were the ones who were told to tone down the bullying of Britain's Elise Christie during these games.

The only other things of note I spotted were wind turbines. These have been used extensively by the South Koreans to reference efforts to combat Climate Change.

The major flaw with former US President Obama's Paris Agreement is that it doesn't obligated anyone to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (ghg) emissions. The vital step needed to combat Climate Change.

Worse then that it doesn't even place an expectation on China - as the World's second largest emitter of ghg's - to stop increasing their emissions.

In short discussions about the Paris Agreement and combating Climate Change are two entirely separate things.

Also there were shots of the orange bicycles of China's  largest bike-sharing scheme; "Mobike."

The 2012 Olympic host London made a lot of its bike-sharing scheme. These were dubbed; "Boris Bikes" after Boris Johnson the London Mayor who introduced them.

This scheme administered by the local government body "Transport for London (TfL) allowed users to rent a bicycle for a small fee. They could pick up the bike for a rack that was convenient for them. The deposit the bike at another rack convenient for them when they'd finished.

A number of Chinese Internet start-ups including Mobike have leapt on this idea. Setting up their own bike racks across many World cities. However they have done this without consultation with local authorities.

This has led to a high degree of chaos. Rather being deposited back into racks the bikes are often stolen or dumped in the streets and in rivers. Causing quite a bit of environmental pollution.

Europe's cycling capital Amsterdam in the Netherlands has banned these companies. As has Beijing itself with many other cities threatening to follow suit. At least one of the companies; "Bluegogo" has gone bust after all their bikes were stolen.

The video sequence ended with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping welcoming everyone to his games.

Premier Xi's message was entirely innocent. However if you are a powerful figure with command of nuclear weapons. Well any time you appear on a giant screen you are going to resemble a Bond Villain. Or something from the 1949 George Orwell novel; "1984."

China decided to play up on this image. In the hours before the Closing Ceremony they announced a consultation of scrapping term limits allowing Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely.

That caused speculation about the creation of a sort of Xi Dynasty. Like the Chinese Dynasties of old. That has obvious implications for the Mount Paektu Dynasty in the DPRK.

It also has implications for the Clinton/Obama Dynasty the US Democrat Party have been trying to build. Despite the election of US President Trump.

As a general rule if China is able to score points of you in the sphere of rule of law & democracy your country is in an absolute mess.

The sequence ended with the email invitation returning to the arena. English numerals then counted up showing the years between now and the 2022 Winter Olympics.

As this was happening the wheeled TV screens in the arena were joined by a huge number of projected TV screens. Creating a sort of multi-multi-screen effect.

That promoted discussion about how the 2022 Winter Olympics will be broadcast. Even Internet streaming platforms may be a thing of the past by then.

15:50 on 2/3/18 (UK date).