29th July 2022 - Commonwealth Games ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written while listening to Ldbeth make use of openmic slot on aNONradio. Today was the first day of the Commonwealth Games. For those who don't know what they are, the Commonwealth is essentially a club of parts of the former British Empire. The Queen is the head and there are 56 members. There are a few oddities in there such as Rwanda, which was part of the French empire. It is a "free association of independant nation states." Anyhow, the games were started started in 1930 and are held every 4 years, with the event being held 2 years before/after the Olympics. The aim is the usual recognising achievements, encouraging members to learn about one another and encouraging peace. This time, the games are being held in Birmingham and so I am more interested than usual in them. Originally, the 2022 games were going to be held in Durban as they were the sole bidder. It would of marked the first time the games were held in Africa and the second time a republic had held the games. This was not to happen due to the root of all evil, money. This lead to a second round of bids where Liverpool and Birmingham submitted bids. Surprisingly Birmingham won. It is surprising as Birmingham is often the butt of the joke when it comes to cities. It may have helped that the proposal was to use venues all around the West Midlands instead of building new for everything. I think there has only been a new swimming centre built in Dudley and a much needed refresh of the Alexandra Stadium (athletics venue). There are events being held in Birmingham, Cannock Chase, Coventry, Dudley, Leamington Spa, Solihull, Warwick and Wolverhampton. There is also an event being held in London but we will ignore that.... Although it is criminal that there is a lack of a velopark anywhere closer! One thing I like about the Commonwealth games is the strange selection of sports. The Olympics seems to takes itself very seriously but the games seem to enjoy celebrating the unusual. The sports for these games are: Diving Swimming Athletics Badminton 3x3 basketball Beach volleyball Boxing T20 cricket Mountain biking Road cycling Track cycling Artistic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics Field hockey Judo Lawn bowls Netball Para powerlifting Rugby sevens Squash Table Tennis Triathlon Weightlifting Wrestling LAWN BOWLS!?!?!?!?!? BEACH VOLLEYBALL!?!??!?! There isn't a beach for 100 miles. That might not feel very far but that is ridiculous for an island nation. They have bunged some sand in the building site that is the old wholesale market and called it a day. I do love the inclusion of lawn bowls. During the opening ceremony, I was wondering why there were so many people who looked a bit old to be athletes marching behind their flags. Yep, it is for the lawn bowls. An interesting thing which has occurred with these games is how there are lots of mixed events and women only events. The T20 cricket is womens only for instance. I am not sure what to think about there being more opportunities for women to win medals over men. It feels a bit tokenistic but I do appreciate the increased number of mixed events. It would be nice to have a men's netball event to emphasise there is no such thing as female only sports. I do also appreciate that men have had more medal opportunities at events for too long too. I have noticed the city has become filled with colour, art and there is a sense of pride at being a host. The opening ceremony was a strange affair but it felt like it tried to show why Brimingham is an interesting city. There was some gumph about meteorite landing around the world, showing how the Commonwealth covers the globe, houses descended on the stadium representing all the different house types from around the Commonwealth and then some people appeared at the main focus point of the stage. It was a representation of a canal side... I got lost in the story at this point and the madness started. Cars of 3 colours appeared and parked in a specific pattern. Oh look the cars are red, white and blue. I wonder.... oh yes it is a union flag :O The cars were at least manufactured around the West Midlands at least. Then it was time for the historical bit. We had weird charactertures of Elgar (composer from Worcester), Samuel Johnson (created first dictionary, from Lichfield) and then William Shakespeare (playwright from Stratford-Upon-Avon). Then some books burnt as the first library in Birmingham had burnt down or something. Then we hit an interesting point. Malala Yousafzai appeared and made a great speech about how she arrived in Birmingham for treatment in the QE Hospital, having been shot for going to school by the Taliban in Pakistan and then fell in love with the city, studied and still lives here. If you are not aware of her work, it is worth looking her up. She is a great advocate for female rights to education and other things. Her words rang through that stadium as she said "Every child deserves a future. Every child deserves the change to pursue her wildest dreams." Pretty spot on really. Following Malala's speech there was a nod to Birmingham's industrial heritage. This was done through some grotesque circus with with nods to the Lunar Society, buttons, whistles, Baskerville font, and pen nibs. A drag queen, Ginny Lemon, sang a song about all of this from a hot air balloon. It felt truely bizarre. However, the next part beat this. A group of women appear dragging chains. They are meant to be chain makers and there was a nod to their making chains used for slaves. There was a strange comment about their being effectively slaves due to their working conditions. That felt odd and a bit forced. Turns out they are pulling a giant bull. A 10m tall bull which moves! This was brilliant and so evil looking. A wage strike freed the women and the bull is an angry beast. Turns out those crystals, remember those from the start?, can calm the beast with love and light or some other dross. As the bull crys, part of it's head flies off and it becomes a good bull. No idea what was going on with that. But now it was time for the athletes to parade around! One advantage of the Commonwealth games over the Olympics is that this is quicker. Still surprised by flags and countries of course. Still lots of fun and excellent flag waving. Each region was announced by a Birmingham 'celebrity'. The only one I recognised is the delightfully funny Joe Lycett who wore a rather great track suit with tutu material going down the arms and legs. It was rather great. He also got a great dig about welcoming foreigners unlike the UK government. Oh and I forgot at some point there was Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath, playing the guitar while the Birmingham Royal Ballet lot frolicked in the canal water. Not something I would recommend. Anyhow, we get to the point where Queen's baton has to arrive. This is a baton which the Queen sticks a speech in and then is carried through every member state of the Commonwealth and then brought back to her so she can read it. Well, so Charles can read it seeing as she has finally succombed to old age and decided to sit these things out. Who can blame her! Time for Charles to do some work. Its training seeing as he has been her apprentice for some 50 years or so. Any how, the baton involves a stream of former/non-competing atheletes who are more photogenic than the plebs who did it before the baton reached the stadium. One was Tom Daley, an openly gay diver who I have a strange irritating with. He is from Plymouth and filled Plymouth news for years. He is also a bit of a knob or certainly was one then. He knew he was a great diver and destined for greatness so that became his personality. I wish him all the best like but would rather less media attention on him. Anyhow, he had an important message as he ran with a number of LGBTQIA+ flags which represented the countries in the Commonwealth where homosexuality is still a criminal offence. Sadly, these are often laws put in place by the British. Hopefully this will not be required in future games. After all this, we get speeches from people and then the night is closed out by Duran Duran. They were a bit pants. Sound seemed lacking really but they looked great. I particularly liked Nick Rhodes' clothing choices. He seemed to be lighting the place up on his own. Not a bad opening ceremony and certainly better than I expected! I was ready for utter nonsense and drivel but got a fairly strange and weird delight for the senses. Birmingham did not embarass itself. Tomorrow, I will be going to my only event which is Women's T20 cricket. I am seeing England play Sri Lanka. It should be a great match and a fun evening. My plan is to visit the centre of Birmingham to see what madness is going on and enjoy the buzz. Well that and to enjoy some food and beer in some favourite pubs.