THE BIRMINGHAM 2022 Commonwealth Games kicked off with a show-stopping Opening Ceremony at the newly redeveloped Alexander Stadium to a live audience of over 30,000 and a global audience of over a billion on July 28.
The Opening Ceremony welcomed this year’s athletes with a theatrical narrative exploring the rich and diverse history, culture and identity of Birmingham and the West Midlands. From early manufacturing and industry, through to innovation and cultural revolution, Artistic Director Iqbal Khan challenged not only conventional expressions of storytelling, but also the way Birmingham sees itself.
Brought to life by ‘Stella and the Dreamers’ – a group of young athletes from around the 72 Commonwealth nations and territories – the Opening Ceremony recounted the city’s past experiences and how it continues to move forward, responding to new cultural and generational influences.
Featuring over 1,500 professional and volunteer cast members, the Opening Ceremony evolved over 10 moving scenes beginning with the gathering of the Commonwealth’s ‘Shards’ – symbols of hopes and dreams, illuminated by 18,480 LED lights.
In a memorable tribute to Her Majesty The Queen, Birmingham Conservatoire graduate and mezzo-soprano Samantha Oxborough performed the National Anthem, supported by the celebrated City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under acclaimed conductor Alpesh Chauhan, while musicians from The Royal Marines deliver a rousing trumpet fanfare.
Bringing together the vibrancy of Birmingham and what it stands for, musical performances included multi-Grammy winning Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), acclaimed saxophonist Soweto Kinch, RnB vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi, Grammy-award winning percussionist Lekan Babalola, vocalist Ranjana Ghatak, shawm player Jude Rees, bagpiper Chris Crouch, Djembe player Abraham Paddy Tetteh, The Destroyers, Critical Mass, City of Birmingham City Orchestra, acapella group Black Voices and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Mass Choir.
Special guest appearances were also seen from the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Elmhurst Ballet School, as well as from Ginny Lemon, ‘Charlie Chaplin’ and a 10-metre high Bull – representative of Birmingham’s historic Bullring Market.
These rich musical moments and cultural stories set the stage for iconic British band, Duran Duran to draw the Opening Ceremony to a close, performing four much-loved tracks from their remarkable catalogue.
Throughout its history, Birmingham has been enriched by its embrace of generations of Commonwealth communities, emerging as the multicultural city that it is today. The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ Opening Ceremony was full of moments of inspiration and wonder, celebrated together with friends from across the Commonwealth in a reminder that there is truth and delight in challenging yesterday’s version of events in order to be fully and authentically ourselves.
The Opening Ceremony signals the start of 11 days of spectacular sport, with 4,500 of the Commonwealth’s finest athletes competing across 19 sports and eight para sports, in the largest event ever to be staged in the West Midlands region.
The Closing Ceremony will take place on Monday, 8 August at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium in a further celebration of the Commonwealth Games and its 2022 host region.
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The Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony reports the Voice states, “Throughout its history, Birmingham has been ENRICHED by its embrace of generations of Commonwealth Communities, emerging as the multicultural city that it is today.”
Voice Reader, as some one who lived in Birmingham during the 1970s & 80s, when “West Indians” referred to Birmingham as “Apartheid Birmingham,” there is no truth in this rosy Left-wing, lets love the minorities being projected by the Commonwealth Games’ Artistic Director Iqbal Khan.
Labour and the political Left keep telling us how “enriched” they are by having commonwealth Subjects.
However, Labour and the Left do not want you to talk about, report or remember the role of Labour and the Left in transforming working-class Birmingham and the West Midlands, into a mirror image of Apartheid South African; with Handsworth becoming a mirror image of South Africa’s Soweto.
Unemployment for West Indian youth in Birmingham was as high as 60 percent. The “colour-bar” was comprehensive and included Social Clubs, Churches, Public Houses and Birmingham Cities leading employers. An unknown number of West Indian youth were imprisoned by corrupt Police Constables from the West Midland’s Serious crime Squad; who would frequently remind West Indian youth that a jury would accept the word of a Police Constable over the word of a “nigger.”
West Indian young women had their uterus removed if they sought treatment for heavy or painful periods, by skin-colour prejudice NHS Doctors.
Birmingham’s All Saints Mental Hospital is today infamous for diagnosing most of its West Indian patients as having “ganja psychosis;” and this diagnosis was largely based on the colour of the West Indian’s patients’ skin.
Even Lord Rocker, the Labour MP for Perry Barr, blamed the Handsworth protest in the 1980s on the “criminal” West Indian youth.
The reason Voice Reader, that Labour and the Left are determined to re-cast Birmingham’s history into a city that was “enriched” by multicultural Commonwealth Subjects is because LABOUR voters treated West Indian Subjects with severe and violent apartheid-like rejection and hostility.
West Indian people need to remember that for twenty years Birmingham was a hostile place whereby West Indian Subjects were not welcomed.
Labour maybe uncomfortable with how Labour and the Left treated West Indian Subjects during the 1970s & 80s. However, I and many other West Indian Subjects are a witness to the comprehensive exclusion West Indian Subjects endured in Labour controlled Birmingham in the 1970 & 80s.
The doors of opportunity refused to open to West Indian youth; and our lives in many cases have never recovered because we had the wrong skin-colour and heritage.
Good Afternoon
I was wondering if I could still get the opening commonwealth newspaper for 29/07/22 and the closing 9/08/22 please.