IT DID not look as gory as though the defending titlist had faltered and fallen at the first hurdle, but the International Olympic Committee, starring its stern-faced president Jacques Rogge, did balk and fumble at the opening of the 2012 London Games.
The unforgivable miscue was not viewed by the over a billion spectators that stayed up through the charming novel of a poignant pageant, which also starred Queen Elizabeth II.
But the false start—make it read a foul take-off—was so bloody jarring it should hound the Olympic movement until proper amends are made.
Rogge committed a dirty foul, the worst of its kind in Olympic history.
He bluntly refused the request for a minute of silence and prayer for the 11 Israelis killed in the Olympic Village terror attack by the Black September Movement during the 1972 Summer Games in Munich.
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So what’s a minute of silence among peace-seeking friends?
At least, the invisible snub did not take sheen from the glittering opening-day show.
The camera eye provided a glorious fairytale guide for the viewing world that retold the story of Great Britain, a classic (at times comic) retelling from pastoral meadows, the smokestacks of the industrial age, through Winston Churchill, the Beatles, James Bond, Mr. Bean, Internet, and other spectacles played out through a movie masterpiece.
The production was in truth a great, unforgettable theater it should be a hands-down choice for Oscar nomination and a knighthood for its genius of a director Danny Boyle.
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It’s also one big step forward for mankind.
It’s faster, higher, stronger, and definitely a lot smarter.
However, based on the Olympic movement snub of orphaned and grieving Israelis, it’s not, in any way, kinder.
Wrote the multiawarded columnist Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times:
“The ceremony was even deft enough to embarrass the mighty IOC. Early in the evening, the London folks requested a moment of silence for deceased relatives and friends of, well, everyone. Later in the evening the IOC Pesident Jacques Rogge again refused to request a similar moment of silence for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics.”
“The IOC, “Plaschke added, “refused the humane gesture for fear of upsetting the several dozen Arab and largely Muslim countries entered in the Games.”
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Meanwhile, during his speech, the IOC chief said that “character counts far more than medals.”
“Jacques Rogge, you have let terror win today,” said one woman who lost her husband in that darkest moment in Olympic history.
Living Beatle Paul McCartney did the classic “Hey Jude”, another first-class thrill, for a closing number.
But there were also those who thought John Lennon’s immortal “Imagine” was the more fitting song for the evening.
“Imagine there’s no heaven/ And no religion, too/ Imagine all the people/ Living life in peace.”
Yes, the Poet Laureate of World Peace said that he might just be a dreamer, but he’s not the only one.
“If you join me, then the world will be as one.”
Commissar Jacques Rogge ripped it wide, wide apart for the peace-praying world.
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(ADVICE TO BARRIGA: Mike Pangilinan, intrepid sports spectator, says there’s only one way boxer Mark Anthony Barriga could advance in the Olympics. “Small as he is, he should do whirlwind fighting, rain punches incessantly right at the first bell,” said Pangilinan, who said he had also offered coaching help to his cousin, super tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan.)