The Winter Olympics have officially began, and like all Olympics, they started with an opening ceremony. Most of the articles about the ceremonies are about the glitch at the end of the ceremony. What happened is that there were supposed four poles that rose out of the ground to form around the Olympic torch. Only three rose out of the ground. The athletes that were supposed to light the torch just awkwardly stood there for a short time. They finally jst lit the torch with just three poles instead of four.

It is unfair for anyone to focus on this one glitch during the opening ceremony. With the daunting task of following the spectacular opening ceremony in Beijing, the Canadians did brilliantly. Instead of trying to compete with the 300 million dollar show in Beijing they decided to focus on the individual and show an intimate look at Canada. They began, before the parade of nations, with welcoming the native tribes from all over Canada. In fact the whole ceremony tried to show all of Canada. They had sections displaying all of the areas of Canada. From the icy Inuit to the french speaking province of Quebec, and back to Vancouver. They even had a youtube sensation read his poetry.

So are these games as all encompassing as they seemed? There were men and women, native Canadians and french Canadians, young and old, and even a para-Olympian helped light the Olympic torch. How are these people treated outside of the Olympic games. Unlike these Ceremonies I doubt that the native Canadians are always the center of attention in the country. Most likely they are pushed around and mistreated like many of the tribes in America. On an international level Taiwan is still not allowed to march in the parade with their own flag. Is there really this peace and acceptance throughout the world? When a song like We are the World, by Michael Jackson a huge part of the Olympics in order to make money for Haiti many of us would like to think the world has achieved world peace and equality. I am still not sure we have, but events like this certainly do help.

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/2010wintergames/Opening+ceremony+done+right/2560946/story.html