Vancouver 2010, opening ceremony disgrace!

Opening Ceremonies a disgrace

The opening ceremonies of the Olympics were a disgrace. The natives were represented as a group of costumed dancers, doing whatever they wished, no explanation just hopping about. The 'immigrants' all in white, sometimes danced. sometimes not...all to their own beat. There was no mention of our founding cultures...just a mismash of quotes and bizarre effects. It began badly with a horrible jazz rendition of our national anthem. The national anthem is just that, a national anthem meant to be sung by the people. It is like a congregational hymn in a church. Yankofsy's antics and affectations made it impossible to understand whether she was singing in Polish, English, Cantonese or French and furthermore impossible to sing with. Nikki Yankofsy should stick to pop. In contrast soprano Measha Brueggergosman was amazing as was KD Lang. Measha should have sung both the national and the olympic anthems.

I was sorry to see the lamentable lack of French, given that this is a bilingual country and the marginalization of our first nations peoples. They welcomed us with plastic totem poles, but surely given the spirit of the Olympics a sweet grass ceremony and blessing would have been in order. They were marginalized in that they too, were part of the mixed up show, with no meaning just vague symbols. This was clearly designed by a committee: Lets have Capt Vancouver in there...how about Captain Cook....no no Captain Hook...gotta have canoes folks...oh yea and lets stick in some native guy...Chief Dan George.... The Olympic torch rose like a metal giant from the floor was broken and one of the arms did not deploy. It did not depict anything. It was like the plastic totem poles, devoid of symbols and meaning but surely representing something. The broken torch was surely a metaphor for the broken and disjointed opening ceremony!

The only good moments were 1) The respect paid to the fallen Georgian Luge athlete 2) KD Lang and Measha B.

Canada lost an opportunity to teach and to showcase to the rest of the world what is truly unique about us, namely our bilingual culture and welcoming and peaceful country.