Jimmy Burns's Blog, page 23

My Olympic favourites

My favourite London Olympic  moments  (updated and final list)

Opening ceremony-all of it.

More tickets being made available to ordinary public.

Boris dangling from a wire

Jessica Ennis clinching her gold in the heptathlon

Beach volley ball in Whitehall

Mo Farah  having the strength and love to embrace daughter  and wife after running 10,000 metres and winning the gold, and then doing it again with another race, and another gold.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s smile, win or lose

Joanna Rowsell celebrating her gold without her wig

Courteous attitude of an Olympic ‘volunteer’ at crowded Liverpool station

Union Jack and Argentine flags rising together at Wimbledon

Multi-cultural crowds outside Buckingham Palace applauding last of the Marathon runners

Pau Gasol in basketball final

Bolt-all of him

The word Freedom flashed around the stadium in the closing ceremony

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The music GB gives the world

There can be few constants in Britain’s contemporary history, than the high regard that its musicians are held by the rest of the world. So it was fitting that the closing  ceremony  of the hugely popular London Olympics should feature musicians and songs that have crossed boundaries and appealed to the varying rock and pop tastes of  the post-war generation.

Less radical  in its political and social narrative than  Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, this was  an evening that resonated with the universality of a nation’s achievement in having  music, like sport, break through prejudice and division – from gay rockers ( men and women) to rappers, from Beatles- evoked trips led by Lennon’s Imagine to Indian dance, punctuated by Eric Idle of Monty Python, from Pink Floyd and the Who to cockney rebels  and  the Spice Girls, via Waterloo Sunset. Team GB signed and sealed once again in its dynamic multi-cultural mix, and  its essential democratic spirit- summed up in the word ‘FREEDOM’ flashed across the stadium, as George Michael strutted his stuff.

The Rolling Stones were notable absentees as was Robby Williams who did not join Take That on the night- but then they might have tried to monopolise the evening in a  way that would have jarred with its collective spirit,  as George Michael came very close to doing. There was something deeply poignant  by contrast in Garry  Barlow’s appearance soon  after the loss of his and his wife’s baby daughter . The legacy of these Olympics should give us faith in the future, despite the setbacks of our lives.

 

 

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This Brazil falls well short of La Roja

I twittered at the beginning of the  London Olympics that the quality of national football squads should not be judged by the performance of the teams  attending . I had in mind Spain as I suspected   the non-informed might have been under the misapprehension  they were about to see a repeat gala by the team that won the Euro 2012. As it turned out  the   Spain that  came to the London Olympics  had mostly different players, a different manager, a dysfunctional team, and yes- as Jorge Valdano had accurately  predicted-did not even win a medal.

Somewhat different was the case of Brazil. Their Olympic team was not a second best, but the real winning formula or so it was conceived- made up of the best the country could offer, an enterprise already being oiled and branded for a starring performance as the host country of the 2014 World Cup. Here were not just the young bloods who had succeeded a generation of those  burnt out too early (the likes of Ronaldinho, Kaka etc) , but the best that could be brought in from some of the top European clubs- the likes of Rafael, Pato, Marcelo. And at the heart of it all was the great hyped up potential of football today, by the name of Neymar, the 20 year old from Santos whose price value tag was expected to rise still further this summer amid an endless round of rumours linking him to FC Barcelona.

But for a few flashes of genius, the 20 year old Neymar has failed to star in these Olympics.  In many ways he has personified a team that deservedly  lost today’s final against Mexico, lacking coherence, spirit, or sufficient  creativity and skill to overcome a very ordinary opponent. Barca, who is trying to reign in on reckless spending, must be struggling now to figure out just what is this player’s real worth, and indeed is he worth it-although it must tempting to think that Neymar could flourish, as he matures,  surrounded by a different set of players at club level, just as Messi has.

Relative youngsters  like Neymar remain Brazil’s great bet for the future- the calculation being that by 2014 they would have moulded and matured sufficiently to be the key to World Cup success. But this is a team that on its performance in the Olympics  would have struggled  to get through the group stage of Euro 2012. It is a measure of the huge challenge it will face in dethroning Del Bosque’s La Roja, a project of football excellence that has yet to reach the end of its era. Two years seems  a short time for this Brazil to achieve greatness.

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The human factor of the London Olympics

If the London Olympics have generated so much love  it is because they have reminded us how sportsmen and women can transcend politics, culture, and race, to give us a sense of nobility and the common good.

If Bolt has emerged as the most popular athlete it is because of his refreshingly relaxed attitude to his own unrivalled talent, and his ability to connect with a universal audience. He will always be remembered for his good humour both prior and after his events, in contrast to the self-absorbed, obsessive looks of some of his rivals.

Other moments there have been, when the event itself has managed to produce extraordinary images of reconciliation, to the point of  mutual respect between nations locked in enduring disputes. I am thinking here as one of the more striking instances that of the Argentina and British flags flying side by side at the medals ceremony for the tennis  and hockey , or the Cuban and US athletes competing on an equal playing field.

History shows us how fleeting these moments of levelling can be and how easily they can be severed  by conflict and division beyond the game.  In WW1, thousands died in the trenches after Germans and British soldiers briefly celebrated a Christmas truce, playing football on no-man’ss land.  And in Peter Weir’s film  Gallipoli, the vibrant athletic bond at the heart of the friendship of two young Australian soldiers, is snapped when one of them is cut down by a machine gun.

And yet the world we live in would be so much a better place if we did not simply surrender to narrow national self-interest and other baser instincts, but held on to the positive manifestations of our God-given humanity and turned them into  an essential building block for future peaceful co-existence  not just a passing entertainment.

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Neymar and the 2012 Olympics

Olympic  games are not generally remembered for their football, and when they are, it is usually for the performance of a player rather than a team.

Way back in 1924, Uruguay’s Gold medal in the Paris Olympics –before FIFA’s World Cup competition had been created- marked the beginning of a new era of South America dominance. La Celeste as the Uruguayan team led by Jose Leandro Andrade –the first black player to earn respect at an international  level- became a legend in its time, going on to winning the Olympic  gold again in 1928 and the World Cup in 1930.

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics , the Spanish football  clinched a gold medal.  Among the players in the winning team was a twenty year old called Pep Guardiola, whose contribution to the subsequent success of  Spanish club and national team football has been huge. Fast forward to the Beijing Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and it was the individual brilliance of one Lionel Messi –a player groomed by Guardiola at Barca- that dominated sports headlines for the first time when Argentina  clinched the gold.

The 2012 Olympics football games have drawn increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds to the selected stadiums around the country .  The excitement in the first week was prompted by the somewhat absurd expectation that the football players of TeamGB would show the same excellence and team ethos as the British participants in other categories and  grab a gold, or at least a medal. But the enduring interest even after Team GB has been knocked out, has underlined the global popularity of a sport that is now stirring genuine interest in the US after conquering Asia.

Within the games so far, no other footballer has generated as much interest as the young Brazilian  Neymar.   The football world- and by that I include sponsors, advertisers,  agents, clubs, and fans- are watching not just to see if Brazil can clinch its first ever gold medal, but the extent to which such a victory might be personified in its best known star. A positive  outcome will delight not just Brazilians, but all those who plan to make as much as money as possible from the World Cup of 2014. It might also enthuse a lot of fans for whom the prospect of Brazil, with a majority of its players in these Olympics,  emerging as the main challenger in two years time to Spain’s La Roja is mouth watering

The jury remains out on whether Neymar deserves such interest. While Neymar has made  a significant contribution to his team’s Olympian success so far, scoring three goals in four matches and creating most of the team’s scoring chances, he has met with a hostile reaction from British fans, who dislike the ease with which he dives and see little Olympian spirit in his egocentric exhibitionism.

Prior to these Olympics, Neymar has fallen short of matching Messi’s international status, or Ronaldo’s for that matter. Last year he was eclipsed when Barca thrashed Santos 4-0 in the World Cup of Clubs, and less than impressive in June this year during Brazil’s friendly against Argentina which they lost 3-4, with Messi  scoring a hatrick.

Nonetheless the 20 year old Neymar da Silva Santo Junior has an extrovert character and flashes  of genius when it comes to ball control and  goal scoring (“I want to show happiness with the ball”, he says) that has made him a hugely marketable commodity, with top European clubs seriously holding him in their sights,  and Brazilian clubs seeing their own revenues boosted thanks to a growing renewed global interest in the country that lays claims to ‘beautiful football’.

While such interest has seen Neymar’s transfer value soar, the  question is whether he is capable of maturity as a player into the Pele of the 2014 World Cup or whether his potential is overhyped. Ramon Besa of the Spanish newspaper El Pais, one of the  most insightful football commentators I know, asks the question today : “Who can be sure that Neymar will not end up somewhere  between Ronaldinho and Beckham?”.

 

 

 

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My olympic top ten

My favourite Olympic  moments so far…as the games enter second week

Opening ceremony-all of it.

More tickets being made available to ordinary public.

Boris dangling from a wire

Jessica Ennis clinching her gold in the heptathlon

Beach volley ball in Whitehall

Mo Farah  having the strength and love to embrace daughter  and wife after running 10,000 metres and winning the gold.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s smile, win or lose

Joanna Rowsell celebrating her gold without her wig

Courteous attitude of an Olympic ‘volunteer’ at crowded Liverpool station

Union Jack and Argentine flags rising together at Wimbledon

Multi-cultural crowds outside Buckingham Palace applauding last of the women Marathon runners

 

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Th real value of our Parks (part two)

The River of Music concert at Battersea Park was one of the occasions that local residents and nature lovers by instinct dread. As I noted in my previous blog, my apprehension about the event , both as local resident and nature lover, grew in the days leading up to it as I witnessed the setting up of metal fencing and  occupation by security staff, scaffolders,  and heavy vehicles.

But I am not a complete NIMBY and it would have been silly of me to stay away from the event on a point of principle. If I had stayed away, I would not have been able to reach a true judgement of whether  all had been worth it. I am a trained journalist, after all, and I owe it to my readers to be as objective as possible.

So here are some thoughts on the two-day festival.

a.The organisers seemed to have gone out of their way to minimise permanent ecological damage and noise pollution. Area of turf that were water-logged had been carefully fenced off to prevent further damage. There were a generous array of  litter bins, as well as sufficient staff collecting stray litter to keep things tidy. Stage and sound system were constructed in a way that those in the concert enclosure could hear the music well-but in a miracle of controlled acoustics, the music did not reverberate in nearby streets as has happened in the past with events in the park and in the nearby Power Station site.

b. Security was efficient without being oppressive. Concert goers were frisked with metal detectors and their tickets scanned by private security staff  in a pleasant, unobtrusive manner. As for the police, I spotted only  a handful of uniformed officers. The Met clearly is focused on other parts of London.

c. The crowd attendance –less than 5,000 at any one point- was nowhere near that of the Jubilee celebrations which might have meant less money for the organisers but proved a blessing for everybody else. It meant the concerts took place without a heaving mass of people trampling over each other and the park in the process. Numbers tripled on the second day-a Sunday-I guess because more people  were off work, the weather was great, and the music more popular-but it was still a great atmosphere through the weekend, with people of all ages and cultural backgrounds enjoying a collective chill out. Food stands on offer  ranged from paella and iced yoghurt to Thai and ‘jerk’ chicken, all reasonably priced, although still too expensive for some in this lean times. Many  people chose to bring their own picnic lunches and early suppers and I saw no one drunk, drugged out, or disorderly. And that was thanks to a  well chosen programme of ambitious , although not generally too eclectic cross-cultural  music which proved popular with the audience.

d. While on the subject of the music, the billing of it  as a “A weekend of FREE music from all of Asia” was misleading.  The Kronos Quartet, which  overextended themselves playing somewhat too self-indulgent compositions on both days, is a US string quartet based in San Francisco. More of  Asia  included some inspired Indo-Jazz by the hugely talented clarinettist and composer Arun Gosh (conceived in Calcutta, bred in Bolton, matured in Manchester and now living in London). He was, in my view, one of the  star acts of the festival that drew justified approval from the crowd. Directing a collective of musicians ranging from his own sextet to an orchestra of London school children, while playing himself, Gosh’s performance was both charismatic and mesmerising. In my view he was certainly one of the best acts of the festival.

The other was Transglobal Underground- another UK-based collective drawn mainly from musicians with roots in the  Persian Gulf but who between them play as many currents of world music that would make a WOMAD.  Late on Sunday afternoon, as the dipping sun cast colourful shades and shadows across the park, TGU stirred and shaked and produced the kind of music you can forget your worst days with.

The music was not FREE. Tickets had to be booked online in advance and cost £3- but that turned out to be a great bargain for world music lovers and even park users who had never heard world music like this-while perhaps keeping out free-loading rioters. It helped of course that it not only did not rain, but was beautifully sunny for much of the time. Had it rained, the park’s turf  would have been wrecked and much of the festival’s music would have struggled to retain an audience.

So have I changed my mind? Well yes, and no. I am glad this concert took place. It brought people together in a fitting symbol of the universality of the Olympics, listening to music from Saudi Arabia to Japan.But Battersea Park’s prime purpose must be as an oasis of tranquility and nature. It was never conceived as  a permanent concert site, nor would its vegetation and wildlife long survive if it became one. Concerts like those promoted as part of the Olympics Festival of Music serve a particular time and occasion, but  however much fun, should be occasional rather than regular events. In the spirit of democratic debate, I encourage Wandswoth Council to inform Londoners how much it cost to organise, who paid for what, who made what money, and how much of it, if any, will go towards enhancing the Park’s beauty.

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The real value of our Parks

My early morning walk in Battersea Park proved quite a challenge today- my quest for some measured, free-roaming exercise and tranquility amidst nature turning early on into an endurance test , once I had entered through the Sun Gate. (see my photographs posted on facebook).

Preparation  for this weekend of open-air concerts has involved an invasion of heavy vehicles, security staff, scaffolding, and metal fencing and transformed one of the most leisurely open spaces in the capital into a cross between Salisbury plain during  a busy military exercise and Guantanamo base. It was also a very soggy scene, given the wet weather. Tracts of green turf are now a mud bath, made worse by predators.

The concerts, according to advertising circulated by Wandsworth Council,  promise a weekend of FREE music from all of Asia-part of the Olympics’ River of Music festival-in fact it will cost you £3 just to find a squeeze yourself place to stand and watch.

We are told that events like these will help draw Londoners together and get the capital into the celebratory spirit of the Olympics. Hyde Park  which has a long history of ‘mass gigs’ dating back to the Stones in the Park presumably makes a lot of money out of such events which it needs for its upkeep.

Hyde Park is managed by The Royal Parks, an executive agency of the Department for  Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS). The FT informed us earlier this week that  London’s eight Royal Parks (of which Hyde Park is the flagship) have for the first time generated more money than they receive in grants from government, in a sign that events such as  Tuesday’s Madonna concert in Hyde Park are becoming  important revenue earners for the agency.

My former colleague James Pickford, the FT’s London correspondent,  reported: Income from events, cafés and other sources reached £18.7m in 2011-12, against £16.4m in government grants. In the previous year grants came to £17m against £13.8m in self-generated income. Fees from events alone made £4.8m in 2011-12, up from £3.2m. However, tensions between the park’s role as a public green space and a big-ticket entertainment venue came to the fore last weekend when organizers pulled the plug on Bruce Springsteen, the US rock star, and Sir Paul McCartney, a guest performer at the concert, after they overshot the curfew.”

Among those incensed by the organizers respect for local residents was one Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist in Mr Springsteen’s E-Street band, who  took to Twitter to complain that England had become a “police state”.

Well, Steve, man , I’m an old rocker myself and enduring  fan of Bruce and Paul, but over the years I have come to realise that  the worst repression begins with  stamping our right, as urban dwellers,  to our own genuinely ‘free’ space and peace, and polluting the precious green spaces we have in our cities with noise and commerce and mindless mass adulation.

As Simon Jenkins argued in the Guardian on Wednesday, this craving for massive live events-recently  under the cover of the Olympics-surrenders to  circus economics that did no good for Nero’s Rome and today belongs to a Big Brother society not a democracy.  London Mayor Boris Johnson thinks this is all jolly good fun,  and enhances London’s and our sense of proud nationhood.  But as Jenkins puts it, “the commercialism, the heavy-handed security , the ostentatious plutocracy and phony patriotism of the modern Olympics are out of all proportion to the cause.”

For myself, one of the initiatives I feel most proud to have been  part of  is in helping found, back in the mid 1980’s,  the charity, The Friends of Battersea Park to help maintain and improve this historic and very popular green space as an oasis of tranquility, natural beauty, and recreation. If this charity  has grown as an organization and won increasing respect in the local community it is because it acts as a responsible conduit between the wishes and interests of  park users and the park’s manager Wandsworth Council.

Such civil cooperation has extended to the private sector and has shown up in some positive developments in the park such as the creation of a beautiful Winter Garden, and a new avenue of trees. It is a pity that the Council resists our demands for a regular and detailed  update of income and expenditure in the park, so that rate payers could get a better sense of how important commercial events like this weekend’s help pay for maintaining trees, plants, and wildlife, at a time  of stringent public sector cuts.

Arguably, there is a fine balance to be struck between the need to protect our parks and for those responsible for their management to find ways of raising  money which may put the quality of the environment at risk.

However I remain committed to valuing and defending my local park as a unique  open and green space in the midst of our hectic urban setting. Community spirit and sustainability must be inseparable priorities of  whatever is planned. Battersea  Park, with its wonderful variety of  natural life and free leisure opportunities,  is a vital respite from the stress that lies beyond its gates.

 

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Mourinho’s amnesty

The Spanish Federation has amnestied Jose Mourinho, and Barca fans are up in arms- well, all it seems, with the exception of Joan Laporta. The former Barca president said the federation chief Angel Maria Villar used his prerogative as newly re-elected president of the Federation to act on the side of generosity.
One can only presume that Laporta speaks as he does because he suffers from selective memory failure. The Federation it was that eventually turned a conciliatory blind eye to Barca when the club was sanctioned, then forgiven, for allowing a pig’s head to be thrown at Figo as he took a corner kick for Real Madrid at the Camp Nou some years back-not the gesture of a club that claims to be democratic.

The incident of the pig’s head is on  a rather small in  scale, nevertheless than Mourinho’s assault on Tito Vilanova,(the kind of incident  that would have been severely sanctioned in Rugby Union Football)  and the general psychological warfare he provoked at the highest level of Spanish football. I am referring not just to setting out to fuel the historic rivalry between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, but to turn this into an ugly brawl on and off the pitch.

Mourinho , a Portuguese national, believes that causing  controversy and taking responsibility for it motivates his players, and turns them into winners. Under him, Real Madrid have regained their status as one of the strongest and most successful teams in Europe. But his actions two seasons  ago came close to undermining the unity and team spirit that Vicente del Bosque had patiently develop.

Repeat performances by Mourinho of his role as agent provocateur can be expected in the upcoming season- but the Federation will lose all credibility if it turns a blind eye.

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Why La Roja is more than just a football team

Of La Roja’s victory over Italy in the final of Euro 2012, much has been written already and having not kept  silent  myself during the tournament (blogs, twitters, articles, interviews) I would like to simply conclude my coverage with a few points of my own.

La Roja is much more than a football achievement. It is a political, social and cultural phenomenon which Spaniards should recognise and take pride in.

A country that has suffered the humiliation of being reduced to being one of the beggars of the Euro crisis, and surrendering its sovereignty to the markets and Berlin, has produced something which in its excellence leaves all other countries in shadow.

Let us set aside once and for ever the flippant, ill-informed comments of those who criticised the Spanish team as ‘boring’, suggested players like Xavi and Iniesta were past their well-by date, and predicted that Germany, or Portugal, or Italy would bring to an end this transitory era of Spanish conquest.

La Roja on Sunday simply showed what it can do best, and that is better than anybody else in the globe, past or present, endure and prevail with a collective effort of sublime quality, beating Italy that in turn had crushed Germany. Let us not forget that the Brazil of Pele ran out of steam after four years, and even Guardiola’s Barca buckled before Mourinho’s  Real Madrid and a Chelsea with Mourinho’s  imprint written all over it.

If  La Roja boosted TV viewers around the world, and generated more following among Spaniards than any  previous national team, it is because this is part of an ongoing story of evolution that began in the 1970’s with the alchemy produced between Dutch and Spanish players following the arrival of Johan Cruyff, at a time when the years of Franco and La Furia were drawing to an end.

Spanish football  was transformed into an art form just as Spain buried its dictator. But La Roja has today taken players to another level where they have become a model of what Spain can still become. A wise-man from Salamanca- conciliatory, but clear-headed-has forged Spaniards from all regions and from two of the biggest rival clubs in the world, into a cohesive yet ever-creative unit, an example to the world, where each player plays not for himself but for the other, one for all, all for one. The future is written in la Roja.

On Sunday night, as the players celebrated their victory, we got a glimpse of players and fans at peace with themselves-tolerant in their celebration, united in self-belief that went beyond partisan interest. I am thinking here of two Barca players placing a Catalan flag by the trophy, of a Real Madrid player  from Andalucía showing off his bullfighting passes, and a tall blond Spanish export  who plays for Chelsea and has been saved from the narcissism of Beckham and Ronaldo, showing off his two small children in red, like any proud dad, like one more Spanish fan.  From  here on, Spaniards should expect better things from its politicians or else suggest that Vicente Del Bosque become prime-minister.