Concerns were expressed concerning the role of a 'disabled person' in London's contribution to last night's Olympic Closing Ceremony.
The 8-minute spot, which is reported to have cost around ￡2.5 million, was a surreal montage of London icons based around a bus queue of typical Londoners and a classic London double-decker bus, which transformed itself into a very impressive military vehicle.
But not all of the watching Britons were impressed by the spectacle. On the BBC and the newspaper blogs after the event, many were overtly critical. The performance was described as ''embarrassing rubbish'' by one contributor. ''What an appalling waste of time and money!'' commented another. ''How dire was Britain's 8-minute presentation?'' asked a third.
There was particular concern about the role of one of the performers who appeared in a wheelchair at the start of the performance, creating the impression that she was disabled. Later on she was thrown high in the air by one of her companions, leading to the conclusion that she was in fact able-bodied.
China's Opening Ceremony was heavily criticized by some sections of the Western media for the use of simulation and special effects, for example where the video of the firework footprints from Tian'anmen to the Bird's Nest was in fact digitally-produced, and when some of the singing was pre-recorded and mimed rather than being performed live.
''How can we criticize the Chinese for simulation, and then go ahead and do the same thing ourselves?'' asked a commenter on a newspaper blog. ''And what kind of message does this send? Surely the purpose of the performance was to highlight the importance of inclusiveness. Using an able-bodied performer to represent a disabled person in such a context is worse than excluding the disabled altogether.''
(China.org.cn by David Ferguson August 25, 2008)