2012 Paralympic Games Open in London

The Russian team at the Paralympics… it’s time to back the homeboys…

______________________________

On Wednesday night, the opening ceremony for the 14th Summer Paralympic Games was held at London’s Olympic Park, and who better to help welcome the Paralympians than a scientist who showed the world that physical limitations don’t limit human potential? “Enlightenment” was the theme, physicist Stephen Hawking the guide, and Olympic Stadium the venue, as London welcomed 4,200 athletes from 166 nations and territories to the 2012 Paralympic Games. The extravaganza, directed by Bradley Hemmings and Jenny Sealey, included 73 deaf and disabled professional performers and 68 disabled people among its 3,250 volunteers.

Over the next 11 days, Paralympic athletes will contest 503 sets of medals in 20 sports, including archery, cycling, rowing, equestrian, sailing, sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis, and wheelchair basketball. Wheelchair basketball, shooting, swimming, and track cycling are amongst the events set to feature on the opening day. Queen Elizabeth declared the London 2012 Paralympics officially open, during a spectacular opening ceremony watched by some 80,000 spectators.

Britain’s first Paralympic Games gold medallist, Margaret Maughan, 84, had the honour of lighting the cauldron. Paralympics chief Lord Coe told the crowd, “Prepare to be inspired, prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be moved”. Earlier, athletes paraded around the Olympic Stadium. Professor Hawking and actor Sir Ian McKellen played prominent roles in the ceremony, which also featured a host of deaf and disabled artists, local children, and performers newly-trained in circus skills.

Some 3,000 volunteers took part in the event, which organisers entitled Enlightenment and said was “profoundly about science and humanity”. Throughout the ceremony, Prof Hawking acted as a guide to Miranda… a character from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, who was central to the show… whilst Sir Ian played Prospero, another character from the play. Inspired by uncertain British weather, umbrellas were also a big theme in the ceremony, which was described as “both spectacular and deeply human” by organisers.

Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, welcomed the Queen before members of the British forces carried the Union Flag into the stadium. It’s the first time a British monarch officiated at the openings of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In a statement released before she opened the Games, the Queen said, “It’s with tremendous pride that the people of London and the United Kingdom welcome the world to the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The Games are returning to the country where they first began, more than 60 years ago”.

30 August 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_30/2012-Paralympics-open-in-London/

Editor’s Note:

In case you didn’t know, Russian Paralympians are eligible for the titles of Master of Sport, International Master of Sport, and Honoured Master of Sport, just as Olympians are. In short, this is the real deal, it’s recognised as such by the state; it ain’t no sorry-ass Special Olympics…

BMD

Advertisement

19 May 2012. A Little Something from RTÉ on Maggie Thatcher… and How the Queen Mum Reacted to Her “Reforms”

In this super cartoon by Martin Rowson from Tribune, Gordon Brown‘s attempting to repair a monument to Margaret Thatcher with plaster. The statue is beyond repair, however, and it seems a hopeless task. An inscription on the base of the monument reads “She Vanquished The Miners And Brought Freedom And Prosperity” (oh, the irony!). A dog cocks its leg and urinates on the step, whilst a chav in a hoodie smokes a joint. The meaning seems clear enough… Mrs Thatcher‘s legacy lies in ruins, despite Gordon Brown’s futile attempts to preserve it. It’s the end of Neoliberal “conservative” laissez-faire capitalism as we know it.

______________________________

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

The Gospel according to St Matthew 19.23-24

******

A friend sent me a quote from an RTÉ show (no, I ‘m sorry, I don’t have a URL or video link):

According to leaks from the Royal Household Staff, more than once, The Queen and Thatcher had vociferous “discussions” on the PM‘s conservative “reform” policies. Her Majesty… who together with the Queen Mother had political memory and experience reaching back into the 19th Century… sternly argued for strong Trades Unions and social welfare benefits. The Queen Mum especially feared a return to the blight and poverty that these two movements had successfully stemmed. Both queens remembered the poverty of the pre-War time, especially that of the Welsh miners and Scottish urban dwellers. Furthermore, the Queen absolutely felt it was such poverty and exploitation that wrenched Ireland out of the UK and led so many Irish to repudiate the United Kingdom. The secession, in both queens’ opinion, would never have occurred if the necessary political and social reforms had been implemented. But Thatcher’s ideological precursors had scuttled that. And the high price was paid.

If Thatcher’s policies took hold it would be only years, maybe decades, the Queen said, before poverty and unemployment would haunt the land, virulent nationalisms would fester (including in England), and Scotland and Wales, too, would rise against the Union. She was right. Thatcher once howled, “That woman! Thank God, she isn’t allowed the vote. Why, she’d vote Socialist Labour! I just know it! Disgusting!”

******

You can have rightwing punks such as Dropout Scott Walker and Miss Maggie… or you can have human beings like the Queen Mum. I’m certain that had he lived on, St Nikolai Aleksandrovich would’ve agreed with Her Highness… NOT Saggy Maggie. After all, he was a ROYAL (and a good example of the breed)… not a grubby counting-house mercantile sort (don’t forget, Saggy Maggie’s father ran a VERY modest grocery shop… it’s the source of her money-grubbing and philistine habits, to be sure). Orthodox people should know that St Aleksei Toth blessed his parishioners to join the Wobblies. So, on two grounds, all decent people should reject the godless nostrums of the Republican Party… firstly, it’s wrong to take bread from the workers and stuff it in the boodle bags of the oligarchs, as the Queen Mum observed. Secondly, it’s right to for working people to band together and fight for their rights, as St Aleksei recognised through his blessing.

God is NOT the Protector and Benefactor of the Wealthy… don’t forget, Our Lord Christ CHOSE to be incarnate in the family of a carpenter… NOT in a lawyer’s family… NOT in a priest’s family… NOT in a landowner’s family… NOT in a merchant’s family… do ponder that. I seem to remember something about a camel and an eye of a needle…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 19 May 2012

Albany NY