In a world that can sometimes
seem bleak in the face of atrocities, sport has the power to bring
people together and remind them of their common humanity.
And that is exactly what I witnessed at
the opening ceremony of London 2012. The spectacularly directed and
staged opening ceremony that included the RAF aerobatics, tributes and
performances from Sir Paul McCartney, Mr-Bean (Rowan Atkinson) and David
Beckham showcasing the best of British talent and skills was witnessed
by 62,000 people live and a further one billion people on Television.
The highlight was of course the Queen being escorted by the British
James Bond -Daniel Craig.
A lot can be said and described and we
can discuss the minor details of the costumes of the performers and can
go on and do an in-depth analysis of the ceremony and the speeches
made by the government officials. But it will not be of any real use as
the opening ceremony has been praised and criticised with the most
powerful microscopes of critics and journalists equally worldwide. To
me, there were a number of fascinating happenings at the opening
ceremony, and what truly captivated my imagination and curiosity were
some of the teams from the batch of 205 worldwide nations that were
present.
It all started when the Ethiopian team
walked out with their procession. The country is the second largest in
Africa and is also the second most populous state in the region. The
country has been suffering from the worst ever drought in 60 years and
the country is not expected to recover from the draught till late 2012. A
recent wave of ethnic violence has also un-settled the country and
along with poor resources and fewer facilities for the athletes it is a
no small feat to put together a team of athletes and swimmers that would
bring the nation a few smiles in these troubled times.
The next were the team of Syrians,
smiling and waving at their supporters who are in the middle of a civil
war. The fighting has intensified in the past few days, President Bashar
Al- Assad`s violent crackdown on democracy activists has been condemned
worldwide and the Olympic Chief of Syria was refused the UK Visa for
the same reason. There has been widespread international condemnation of
the Assad regime’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. The
UN says at least 10,000 people have died in Syria since the uprising
began in March 2011. The Syrians who have not taken part in the games
since Athens Olympics 2004 have put together a team of 10 athletes who
will compete in swimming, boxing, weight lifting, athletics and
shooting.
Next in line was Pakistan, the country
affected by terrorists attacks and suicide bombing since the 9/11 and
with rumours of another Military take-over the country is everything but
happy. Scarcely resourced when it comes to sports and heavily inclined
towards cricket (as most commonwealth nations are) the country has not
won a gold in a long time. In fact the last time they won gold was in
1992 Barcelona. It is again their field hockey team which is carrying
the hopes for medals.
The Greeks lead the parade of nations as
they walked in procession clad in blue suits. They were also the one
that amused me the most – I sat there watching their procession thinking
that who knew that eight years later the same country who was hosting
the Olympics (not to mention that also the ones who invented Olympics)
would be in a severe financial melt-down risking their European
membership and relying on the International Olympic Committee, private
sponsors and other institutions to pay for their pre-Olympic training.
“It was a tough preparation, the toughest we have ever had because of
the economic crisis,” said Greece` Olympic President Spyros Capralos.
The athletes will be fighting against grim mood spread by not just the
financial problems but also the recent ban of their two elite athletes
for racism and doping.
On came Palestinians with only three
athletes all of whom were selected with wild card entries as this is a
nation that has been in crisis for more than 20 years. Displaced by
inner conflicts and the neighbouring state Israel, Palestinians will not
be even close to winning a bronze, but representing their people and
letting them world know that they are there, participating and
celebrating along with the entire world is itself a soothing thought for
the crisis-ridden nation.
I have not mentioned all of the
countries here, as time and word limit does not allow me to do, but
there were other countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Tajikistan,
Haiti, Uganda and many others suffering from the same problems or even
greater as mentioned above. The point to note here is that it is hard to
put up a smiling face in front of thousands of people, when your mind
is pre-occupied with civil war, bombings and financial crises, even
harder to compete in sports with a focused mind when you have a lack of
preparation and near to none facilities. It takes great courage to
plunge into a world-wide event when the only complete thing is the faith
in oneself. It would be interesting to see how the gold medal winners
from the leading countries would react if put in the same environment
and given the same preparation as these athletes coming from the third
world. Even more amusing would be to see if they won anything.
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