Right in the centre - Olympics opening ceremonies not surprising but very disappointing

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Published on Saturday, August 3, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

The world was looking forward to seeing the beginning of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It’s still a great show but the opening was severely smeared by a crude and lewd portions of the Opening Ceremonies.

There has been enough attention given to the very bad taste shown on the stage but safe to say, the boat loads of athletes going down the Seine River was impressive but there was, well, a lot of bad stuff interspersed.

My father’s generation was not impressed with France because of their lack of courage in WWII. It’s not talked about very much but, had France stood up to Hitler’s Germany in 1939, WWII might never have happened. The French leadership of that era had a much more powerful army than Germany but they were afraid to take a stand. Their lack of courage cost the Allies a lot of lives, injuries and money. My father’s generation had a hard time with that.

I also have some trouble with the French as thousands of Canadians fought to get France and General  Charles de Gaulle back onto French soil in 1944 with the Normandy invasion and the subsequent freeing of France from the Nazis. Only 23 years after Canadians died to get France back in de Gaulle’s hands, insulted Canada. In 1967, now French President de Gaulle proclaimed Vive, Quebec Libre!”, words that helped fire up Quebec separatism. He was a visitor to Canada, president of a country that Canada helped get back into French control and he had the audacity to try and inspire French Canadians to leave Canada.  I have visited Quebec a few times and fortunately there is still a majority of Quebecers who see it as best that they stay in Canada. Well they should, as like Manitoba, it’s richer Canadian provinces that heavily subsidize Quebec and Manitoba. Left to their own resources, both Quebec and Manitoba would be bankrupt.

But all that considered, why are people, French and others, so infatuated with the lewd things in life. The French government and the Olympic officials “apologized to anyone who was offended.” That is political speak for, “I am sorry I got caught.” If you have ever watched the movie, Cabaret, you will see similar trends in moral lacking among the people of 1930s Berlin.

Maybe there is pattern here. Today’s French Olympic organizers and the Cabaret era 1930s Berlin organizers were purposefully hiding immorality behind a facade of artistic endeavours. What could be wrong with loud music and gaudy clothing, what indeed. Nothing I guess unless in the case of 1930s Berlin and 2024 Paris where every kind of immoral behaviour was wrapped up in bright colours and passed off as “artistic”. People were not to be fooled and God is not to be mocked. The surprise about the Paris thing is that the organizers are surprised at the reaction to their “art”. Lewd is lewd, crude is crude, sacrilege is sacrilege and the majority of people are not amused or comfortable.
We don’t want censorship but we do expect citizenship and we didn’t get it from the Olympic organizers in Paris.

Fortunately, the athletes from all countries are giving us quality citizenship, quality entertainment and true pride in our countries.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.