Graphic projections of world cities being swamped by rising seas set Rio de Janeiro’s otherwise fun and festive gala apart from other Olympic openers.
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Overall, the atmosphere in the Maracana was celebratory, as a succession of actors, dancers and musicians raced through routines meant to showcase Brazil’s culture, diversity and history, even finding time for a brief lecture on environmental issues.
The team marched during the opening ceremony dressed in beige trousers and blue blazers while waving flags to the crowd in Rio which welcomed them affectionately.
After Brazil’s most famous athlete – soccer star Pele – said he would not appear due to ill health, the Olympic mystery of who might light the cauldron remained intact.
With a limited budget, the outcome of a biting recession that roiled preparations for South America’s first Olympics, Brazil laced its high-energy opening party for the games of the 31st Olympiad with a sobering message of the dangers of global warming.
The budget for the ceremony had been slashed in half and the restrictions of the venue made this a more low-fi affair than Danny Boyle’s London 2012 spectacular, or the awesome son et lumiere expression of Chinese state power in Beijing in 2008.
But even the joys of the elite sports competition to come and the opening ceremony extravaganza failed to dispel gloom over Brazil’s parlous political and economic situation, with boos and jeers breaking out as interim president Michel Temer declared South America’s first Olympic Games open. Hundreds of drummers donned their colours and played out Brazil’s trademark beat, as athletes from over 200 countries tried out their first steps of samba.
Temer took over when impeachment proceedings started against President Dilma Rousseff, whose supporters accuse him of plotting against the suspended leader.
IOC President Thomas Bach in his opening address said “This is the moment of the cidade maravilhosa”. The peace symbol, tweaked into the shape of a tree, was projected on the floor of the stadium where Germany won the World Cup in 2014.
Indigenous Brazilians then performed dances before creating huge “Ocas” or native huts in the center of the stage. The loudest cheers of the parade were reserved for the refugees’ team and the Brazil contingent.
It started with the beginning of life itself in Brazil, and the population that formed in the vast forests and built their communal huts, the ocas. Then a voice asks if “there is a way out” of the trouble, and then a colorful display explodes and melds together as a Brazilian actress declares, “Here’s to diversity!”
The ceremony instead featured those troubles more palatable to the developed world: global warming and damage to the country’s magnificent Amazon rainforest.
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“In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got”. The cartridges will be taken to Deodoro and form what will be called the Athletes’ Forest.
