Opening Ceremony At Rio Is Stunning And Powerful

The Olympic Games in Rio officially began last night with a pretty spectacular and beautiful opening ceremony, considering the supposedly limited budget the organizers were working with. The artistic vision and creativity of the folks who put these kind of huge extravaganzas together is quite amazing. The theme of the ceremony was to illustrate the history of Brazil from the creation of the rain forests to the modern day country that it is today. And, frankly, the story told was incredibly honest about the various influences that created the country, much more so than many other ceremonies have done so in the past. There were clear depictions of European settlers driving the indigenous tribes out, the importation and use of slaves, and the battles between rich and poor and among the diverse races and classes that make up  the country. And then there was the music. By the time the ceremony was starting to end, it looked like much of the stadium was on their feet, singing and dancing in the aisles.

And then the heresies began. First, in a depiction of what Brazilians claim was the first real flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft, Alberto Santos-Dumont took off in his self-designed and built 14-bis. The reality is that this was done in front of huge crowds in Paris in October, 1906 and was the first flight of its kind in Europe. Needless to say, this created a tweet-storm from outraged Americans pointing out that the Wright brothers were “First in Flight” based on the short flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. But, of course, as any proper resident of Bridgeport knows, the first flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft was actually made by our native son Gustave Whitehead in 1901 and 1902 and there are many contemporaneous accounts to support this claim.

But if you think questioning the Wright brothers’ place in history created a firestorm, then nothing could compare to the final segment of the opening ceremony which was dedicated to the impact of climate change and showing ongoing efforts at replanting and reforestation to counter the threat. Using an animation that showed the increase in global temperatures, pictures of the shrinking Arctic ice cap, and projections of large parts of major global cities that will become underwater as the melting glaciers raise global sea levels, the segment was an incredibly powerful statement. And it obviously drove the climate change deniers absolutely crazy.

It was a beautiful and powerful opening ceremony. Now let the Games begin.