An American point of view
So what did our American neighbours think of our little Olympic opening show? Well, some were not terribly impressed. Americans have a habit of making most things bigger and better than everyone else which is one of the reasons we love ’em so much. But Canadians are a bit more reserved and do just enough to get the point across without being showoffs.
Let me put it this way, when Canada participates in global sporting events and wins a medal we’re happy but we don’t scream, we’re polite but not completely reserved and feel bad as heck for the losers. To prove the point, have a look at the picture below of Canadian Jenn Heil, book-ended by the American gold and bronze winners, accepting her silver medal for women’s moguls. It personifies our well known collective character and makes me glad I’m Canadian and not American…not that there’s anything wrong with them of course. I mean, we couldn’t ask for better neighbours, right?
Listen to a LA talk show discuss our cute little Olympic opening ceremony. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll squeeze your stress ball until it explodes.
Click Play Button to Listen
As far as I am concerned, the Olympics, including the opening ceremonies and all of the other ceremonies are completely blown out of any reasonable proportion. To compare one opening ceremony to another is pointless because they are all nutz.
The Olympics has been pumped to be the biggest event in the world, short of war and natural disasters.
Take a look at those huge heads on Easter Island and think about the now extinct societies that built them. Take a look at the Roman Empire. Take a look at other once powerful human cultures that are now extinct, and then take a look at us. The scary thing now is that we are one world culture, one world economy. If we are all distracted by the imbecility of the Olympics while the world goes to shit, in fact is propelled along the trajectory toward shit by things like the Olympics and everyone is quibbling about the quality of a moronic event, what hope do we have? I read today about the possibility that the aftermath of the Olympics in Greece could cause economic repercussions that can throw the world economy out of recovery back into recession. The world needs to give its collective head a shake. The Olympics is about corruption, robbery and economic destruction supported by imbecilic spectacle.
As far as economic spin-off is concerned, look at Vancouver, the place is dead. Some retail businesses are off by as much as 80%. Granville Island is dead! All of the visitors are concentrated in a tiny area surrounding the “steaming cauldron”.
It’s interesting to note that the original booster of the games in Vancouver was then Premier Glen Clark, the same guy who is always blamed for Vancouver’s biggest mega project failure, the “fast ferries”.