The London Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012 - Orderly Chaos?

I once heard it said, 'The British love to complain about the weather, but take offense if  non Brits join them in doing so'. One naturally assumes therefore, that the offense taken would be greater when the Brits themselves are full of praise for something local and non Brits think otherwise. I therefore tread with caution as I air my views on the London Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012.

The ceremony reminded me a bit of jumble sales or car boot sales where you can find anything and everything . A bit of this and a bit of that, with no real theme or coherence but with hidden gems sprinkled somewhere in the haphazard arrangements. While it has been described by the  media as 'spectacular', 'amazing', 'a feast for the senses' and 'a celebration of British culture and history', I'm seriously wondering if this was the same ceremony I  watched. The one I watched was disjointed and uncoordinated but with lots of sparkle and amazing effects - like the beautiful lush green English countryside pastures, the fascinatingly breathtaking  chimneys and of course the cringe-worthy act with 'The Queen' jumping out of a helicopter....seriously??? Apparently HRH actually enjoyed watching 'herself' pulling off such a stunt and so if it was good enough for The Queen, there must have been something about it that I missed or am still trying to get. But then again the sparkle and grandness of the whole event is understandable given that the budget was a whooping  £27million!

The cast assembly was overcrowded and tedious to keep track of. Were they trying to fit everything they possibly could cram into the show while the eyes of the world were on them? Or maybe it was the chaos of it all that made it visually compelling and somewhat intriguing? Maybe the haphazardness was intentionally structured that way, orderly artistic chaos perhaps? I do not know if the athletes themselves were inspired or if the cuisine was palatable enough for the tastes of the billions who were watching that night. As Marina Hyde put it across in a local newspaper article, 'Tonight was Britain's opportunity to speak directly to the world, and -as befits a nation that declines to learn other languages - it did so in English'. This certainly was a different type of English. 'The kind of English' during the recent Jubilee Celebrations was more understandable and entertaining.  Thankfully, Mr Bean probably brought a little more universal humor to the whole 'circus', although one could also ask about the relevance of his appearance on this particular occasional.

Putting together an opening ceremony to be viewed by billions around the globe is undoubtedly daunting. In this case it seems this opportunity to shine led to the cramming of everything British into a mushy blend of chaos in an attempt to showcase all the talent in existence in these Isles. In contrast, we can look at the not -so-distant past when South Africa hosted the World Cup. The songs chosen were in keeping with the theme of the event. Songs like 'Sound Of Victory' and 'Waka Waka' whose lyrics were befitting of a sporting event of that magnitude. The Chinese Opening Ceremony too was also spectacular and mesmerizing and understandable for billions. Maybe the question to ask is what kind of an opening ceremony would one put up for a worldwide audience given a budget of   £27million?. Thankfully the ceremony was just a few hours long and theres more to the olympics than the opening night :)

BMT

People often talk about life as being 'a journey'. A journey that allows the travellers to learn and develop through a lot of different ways, one of which is through observation. Recently I literally went on a journey and made a few observations that left me wondering and thinking.

My most recent travels saw me headed to Zimbabwe from England via Nairobi in Kenya. My flight was from Heathrow airport and anyone who has ever gone through this airport knows how busy it is! With this bit of handy knowledge I decided to plan my trip in such a way that I would be at the airport at least three hours before my flight and this worked out really well. There was literally no queue when my kids and I got to the counters and we decided to first use the self service check in points before proceeding to the counter. By the time we checked our luggage in  there was a queue starting to form.  As this was a flight to Africa, I naturally was a bit perplexed as to why there were no other black people at all in the queue apart from us.

We hung around that area for a bit wondering what to do with all the extra time we had before boarding. Sure enough the queue was getting longer and still there was not a single black person in sight. It didnt bother me of course but I just found it quite interesting. We decided to sit in a cafe and just chill out before going through security. We had our refreshments and I found a beareau to do my currency conversions. The queue at the check in desk had moved fast and as I looked they were just serving the last person (or so I thought).


I took my kids to the bathroom and decided it was now almost time for us to go through security. As we came out of the restrooms I was shocked by what I saw....a queue was beginning to form again at the check in point for my flight  but this time it was an 'all black' queue! In fact it was unbelievably long and I could not help but notice the family that sprinted in through the doors ,heading for that same Nairobi bound flight and both husband and wife had heaps of luggage in tow and  looked frazzled. I wondered. How was it possible that ALL the white people (who did not know each other) had arrived early and checked in at a leisurely pace while on the other hand the black people had rushed in at the last hour , some with excess luggage which we saw them unloading and trying to squeeze into their hand luggage or even putting on some extra layers of clothes (true story!) just to 'distribute' some of the weight. What could be the reason behind this 'Black Man's Time' concept. Just thinking aloud. Any  thoughts?