CTV, the official video carrier in Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, has
reported that two-thirds of Canadian households watched the Opening Ceremonies last night. Twenty-three million people, as an audience, if that is the case, exceeds that of any viewing in Canada’s TV history.
Parts of the ceremonies were not as spectacular as, perhaps, the incredible start to the Beijing summer games has now led us to expect in such events. But after the elongated acknowledgments to the First Nations on whose lands the events were being held, the sight of a snow boarder coming out from the second story to land in the center of BC Place’s auditorium was a welcome start.
We then had the amazing rising of Spirit Bear from the floor, a huge marionette that seemed to move under its own power. The floor then turned into various forms of ocean and rivers with rising trees that seemed to self-immolate into nothing. But, undoubtedly, the most spectacular video image was that of orcas – our human-friendly neighbors in the Straits around our island – bursting through the surface of the water as they swam across the floor.
What technology they used for those spectacular video displays is, so far, beyond my understanding, particularly with the rectilinear shapes they managed to produce on the floor. I hope to see some kind of technical explanation for all those effects from somebody pretty soon. Please, readers!
There was too much lip-syncing of singers during the Opening Ceremonies: caused, no doubt, by the egos of the performers to sound like their expected, fully processed, selves. But at least, unlike Beijing, the voices did originally emanate from those singers. It was unfortunate, too, that one of the hydraulic systems to support and also light the Olympic Cauldron failed to deploy (always happens after four rehearsals?), but even that surely pales compared to the nightmare the indoor cauldron, in a stadium of 60,000+ people, must have been for the City of Vancouver Fire Marshal.
The opening evening was overshadowed by the
death of the Georgian luger, Nodan Kumaritashvili, who was killed after being thrown from the track at 144 km/h. Luge is a dangerous sport but it seems that this track, which has been safely in use since 2009, was too much for a late turn, and being under a body pressure of about 7g it was too much for a fairly inexperienced competitor. Rightly, during the Opening Ceremonies, a minute of silence was observed for the athlete, with both the Canadian and Olympic flag lowered to half staff.
And how can you compare such respect for a devoted competitor with the protestors on the streets of Vancouver? On the opening night the crowds were under control, with the lead sponsorship against the “capitalist” games coming from an outfit calling itself the
Olympic Resistance Network. It appears that the Network’s ISP has pulled its content (as of Saturday evening), but Google still has their top level in cache.
On Saturday things turned a little nasty and the media
reported that the group, as a whole, was out of control. If you watch video of the protests, it is clear that maybe between ten and fifteen of the protestors had donned balaclavas in order to attack shop windows – including the main retailer of Vancouver Olympics memorabilia, the Hudson’s Bay Company – to spray paint buses and other vehicles, overturn newspaper vending machines and post boxes, and likewise engage in vandalism.
These cowardly people were videotaped changing back into “regular” clothing behind garbage dumpsters, where the apparent leader of the group ordered his followers not to pepper spray the media: what a wise move not to give Vancouver police such criminal footage.
You may well think that the sponsorship of the games by the like of McDonalds, Chevrolet, Bell (yes, we still have one of them), Panasonic, and Harris (that one is truly a mystery to me) stinks of capitalism. But the other side of the coin is that, as amateurs, there is no way that many hundreds of the athletes performing for themselves and their countries could ever have been able to be in Vancouver – for the most important event, for many of them, in their lives.
We do not admire cowards who don threatening outfits to hide their identities: we detest them. And living only 50 km from the Vancouver Olympic sites (as one of our eagles would fly) we lean even more to the notion that the games are the most wonderful way for citizens of the world – whatever their politics, their religions, or their histories – to be a single community for excellence. And may the best athletes win.
