The opening ceremony for the twenty-first winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was a glittery, awe-inspiring, magical display of dance, acrobatics, music, lights, pyrotechnics and lighting, but was it really an accurate depiction of the culture of southwest Canada? The parade of Indian tribes native to Canada in their traditional garb was a beautiful introduction to the many native peoples but it left me wondering was a glamourous representation better than none? Would the average Olympic viewer stop watching if there weren't flashy lights projecting Native Canadian abstract glyphs? The ideals of the Olympics are to focus on the internationality of good sportsmanship, not the skaters sexy costumes.
Ninety percent of all Canadians live within a hundred miles of the U.S. border. So it would be a fair assumption to say the most Canadians probably have fairly accurate view of American culture. We like it glamourous down here in the U.S., its fair to say, we like our athletes in sparkly unitards, our opening ceremony uniforms designed by fashions elite, and flashy attention getting graphics on our downhill equipment. Is there anything wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that but where is line drawn between packaging a culture, a people, a nation to make it look its best?
When the Chinese hosted the summer Olympics there was an incredible amount of bad press surrounding human rights violations occurring there. The press struggled to portray athletes in a positive light while avoiding the bitter side of training in a communist nation. But, darn it all, if that opening ceremony didn't rock! The thousands of dancers moved in perfect unison, there were no safety infractions, the athletes appeared happy and healthy, to the world everything appeared fine in Beijing. What the viewers didn't see is what I wonder.
One can only assume that exposing the world to the highlights of your nation, showing them what you'd like to portray is better, in some cases, than showing them nothing. Viewers love inspiring stories, beautiful vistas, charming native tunes, and indigenous exotic cultures, and there is nothing wrong with that. Before these games some viewers probably never knew what snowboard cross was, much less that there were Native Indian tribes in Canada. Maybe the Olympics are the time and place to put all things political aside and just enjoy the beauty and athleticism of people from all over the world.
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