The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Finale Pt.3.

A direct continuation of Part 2; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/the-2018-eurovision-song-contest-grand_13.html

As I've said the main theme of the 2018 Song Contest was;

How Did We All Get It So Horribly Wrong?!

This general theme was best encapsulated by Australia. Their entry was "We Got Love" by Jessica Mauboy. 

This song was in the glitzy disco pop style that Jessica Mauboy is famous for. In terms of famous female Australian popstars Jessica Mauboy is probably second only to Kylie Minogue.

However if you are familiar with this style of music which is common at Eurovision this song seems very low energy in comparison. Depressed even.

It's summing up the mood of the contest by going; "I know that we've been terrible. But we can pull through this. We can do better. We've got heart. We've got moxy. We've got love."

The main part of Australia's act is actually Mauboy herself.

Jessica Mauboy is Aboriginal. Even the term "Aboriginal" is considered quite offensive. Despite the common misconception Indigenous Australians are not one uniform block. They're actually made up of various tribes and are limited not just to the Australian mainland but also the islands such as Indonesia and Portuguese speaking Timor.

The artist biography that Australia submitted as part of their entry makes a big point of the fact that Jessica Mauboy's mother is part of the Wakaman and Kuku Yalanji tribes which are native to northern Queensland. Her father is from Timor.

Australia's indigenous peoples were a big part of the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. This featured different tribes performing rituals from their different traditions.

Indigenous rights activists were apparently not happy about this. Protesting outside the stadium at what they saw as yet another example of European colonialists stealing their wealth and culture.

The reference to the Commonwealth here also gently touches on Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) - The "Brexit." One of the main advantages for Britain of leaving the EU is that it gives it the freedom to pursue trade agreements with Commonwealth nations such as Australia.

Jessica Mauboy also represents the hard road Australia has had to walk to get accepted into the Eurovision Song Contest.

Due to its strong links to the UK Australia has taken an interest in the Song Contest since the first one back in 1956. It was in I think the late 1970's or early 1980's that Australia started broadcasting the Song Contest live.

It immediately picked up a large following in Australia. Particularly amongst Australia's gay community. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that in Australia the Song Contest takes place first thing in the morning. Even I think the Eurovision Song Contest is a bit much over breakfast.

So Australia really spent the next 30 years knocking on the door of the EBU begging to be allowed to participate in the Song Contest. In 2014 the EBU finally relented and gave Australia a sort of Official Observer status.

This allowed Jessica Mauboy to perform at the 2014 Song Contest. However she was only allowed to perform as a interval act rather than as part of the competition itself. No-one was allowed to vote for her and no-one in Australia was allowed to vote in the contest.

2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the Song Contest. So as a special treat Australia were allowed to compete in the contest. People could vote for them and Australians could vote in the contest.

Despite 2016 supposedly being a one-off Australia were allowed to compete in 2017 and have competed ever since. Australia's main complaint about this is that the EBU are being to easy on them allowing them to compete without being full members of the EBU. Australia want to fully play their part taking on the responsibilities of being full EBU members.

In late 2016 the EBU decided to change their rules. The Song Contest is now open to not just full EBU members but also associate EBU members. There has already been significant interest from the Republic of Korea (RoK/South) and Brazil. Explaining why Portugal are hosting this year.

Having spent 36 years battling for inclusion in the Song Contest Australia has reasonably questioned whether the EBU are now perhaps making it too easy. Not that they're specifically opposed to other nations joining. They've got love for them.

This expansion issue is a really important part of Eurovision admin. However here it's quite a long tangent for me to be going off again. So I will return to this topic later.

The area where the Song Contest has really got things horribly wrong in recent years is in its relationship with Russia.

Of the 40 nations participating this year which aren't Russia 25 of them are also members of the 29 member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance. Two other NATO members - Turkey and Slovakia - are full members of the EBU and have a long history of participation in the Song Contest.

So in many ways this large bloc represents NATO. Just without the North American influence of the US and Canada.

As such the main sub-theme this year has been;

NATO's Relationship With Russia.

Particularly since 2013 the Song Contest has been used as a way to show who supports the US' interference in and creation of Shamali Province and who opposes it.

With the exceptions of Lithuania and Estonia that discussion has now given way to a universal acceptance that NATO's attitude towards Russia is wrong and unacceptable. This year people are examining the reasons why NATO has got its attitude towards Russia so horribly wrong.

What poisoned NATO's relationship with Russia was the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups. Both in Syria and Libya. Under former President Obama the US supported ISIL. Russia opposed them.

So now apparently all of NATO has to hate Russia because ISIL are such a likable and humane organisation.

So within the discussion about NATO's relationship with Russia there is frequent discussion about the wars in Syria. Libya and Shamali Province. Along with the problems they have created for Europe such as terrorism and the migrant/refugee crisis. 

Opening the discussion and almost the Song Contest itself there is NATO member Iceland. With their song; "Our Choice" by Ari Olafsson.

During the Cold War Iceland was a massively strategically important country. Located almost directly on the North Pole if the US and the Soviet Union were going to start a nuclear war those missiles and bombers would all fly over Iceland.

As Obama's hostility towards Russia grew he announced in 2015 that the US would re-open the Cold War Keflavik Air Base in Iceland. Obama claimed this was necessary to guard against Russia aggression. As if Russia were suddenly going to start firing missiles over Iceland at the US again.

Obama's designated successor for President Hillary Clinton ran her entire campaign based on the conspiracy theory that her opponent Donald Trump was some sort of Russian agent. Since Trump defeated Clinton the US Democrats and their dedicated followers in the US media have really ramped up this conspiracy theory.

Even before President Trump took up office in January 2017 the US media circulated an entirely false story that Trump was planning to hold a Cold War style summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Iceland. The implication being that Trump planned to thank Putin for rigging the US election so he would we.

Both in 2015 and now Iceland are putting their hand up and going; "Erm. As a sovereign nation in our own right don't we get a say in this?"

Having rapidly decided that Iceland and other European NATO members definitely do get a say in this the song goes on to call on European nations to disagree with the US and choose another path.

The general tone of the song is; "If Obama wants to fight with Russia and turn America into a failed state that's fine. We do not have to follow him."

This has become particularly relevant due to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Trump finished making that announcement at around 18:20 GMT. Iceland took to the stage at around 19:10 GMT.

In a concept which is very familiar to the Eurovision community when we talk about Iran's nuclear weapons program we're not really talking about Iran's nuclear weapons program. Instead we're talking about the conventional weapons it supplies to groups such as Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

These weapons are supplied via complex smuggling routes across the Persian Gulf, East African nations like Sudan and Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Keeping track of these weapons shipments requires an equally complex network of spies and secret agents.

There is one US TV Show in which this is a major theme. "NCIS: Los Angeles."

One of the main characters in the show is "Sam Hanna" played by LL Cool J. He is a former Navy SEAL who keeps talking about his time serving in Sudan. Periodically he gets loaned out to other agencies like the CIA to continue his work on arms control in East Africa.

In real life we would reveal these secret networks and get the Sam Hanna's of this world killed if we referred to them directly. So instead we use Iran's nuclear weapons program as a coded metaphor.

The problem is that successive US President's and EU leaders have treated the conflict between Israel and Palestine as if it were some sort of toy for them to play with. Obama has been particularly bad in this respect.

In his first year in office he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama took this to mean that he was going to be one to solve this conflict which has been running longer then the Song Contest.

However Obama couldn't be bothered to learn the complexities of the conflict. Such as what we really mean when we talk about Iran's nuclear weapons program.

So Obama simply shut down all that complexity by getting the EU along with Russia and China to impose vice-like sanctions on Iran over its nuclear weapons program. Killing the conversation stone dead.

Eventually the US along with the EU, Russia and China realised this was a horrifying mistake. So they began negotiations for the Iran Nuclear Agreement as a way for them to lift the sanctions on Iran while still being able to save face.

So the issue has never been the Nuclear Agreement. Instead it's been the fact that the EU, Russia and China were stupid enough to follow Obama's idiotic lead by placing sanctions on Iran in the first place.

With President Trump pulling the US out of the Nuclear Agreement the EU, Russia and China is once again faced with that choice. Do they idiotically follow the US or do they choose the sensible path.

Iceland's message is also timely because of the opening today of Trump's Embassy to nowhere in Jerusalem. Europe most certainly does not have to follow the US' idiotic lead.

Although I think with the US' UN Security Council veto being overturned by the UN General Assembly Europe, like much of the rest of the World has made its position on that issue quite clear.

Iceland has also long toyed with the idea of joining the EU. They are members of the wider European Economic Area (EEA). They were on course to become full EU members until in 2013 they suspended their membership application. A decision which produced almost as big a shock to the EU as Britain deciding to leave.

So while it isn't their main point Iceland's decision not to join the EU is a sort of sub-plot to "Our Choice."

Frustratingly I don't think I'll be able to continue this until Wednesday (16/2/18) at the earliest.

17:30 14/5/18 (UK date).