Becoming The Muse

Coffee With Olympics in Seine

If you were having coffee with me I would be happy to have you visit my tangle of words. Put you feet up and tell me how you been. Have you been watching the Olympics?

The 2024 Olympics started off in Seine…. That’s wild, cause it sounds like I said the Olympics started off insane doesn’t it?…. Maybe that’s the intention…. Team Zimbabwe caused a bit of a media stir for having a delegation of 67 officials alongside 7 athletes…

The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee has refuted these allegations and clarified that the official delegation is made up of 7 athletes, 5 coaches, 4 managers, 2 ZOC officials and 1 country delegation giving a total of 19. However they also acknowledged that there could be other country officials and dignitaries at Olympics in various capacities which ZOC cannot account for or comment on….

According to the perm sec of information, “The Minister of Sport is a member of IOC so she is there in that role. The VP is there for the official opening and other business and is not part of the Olympics Delegation.” There is a bit of distinction there, though we might have an Olympic representation that is top heavy, the media and its consumers love sensational news.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you some in Seine sensational news, where the opening ceremony generated outrage for its interpreted parody of The Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci and by extension a mockery of Christianity.

The Olympics spokesperson Anne Descamps speaking a press conference to address the issue, apologised for any offence caused and insisted that the ceremony intended to ‘celebrate community tolerance’.

Meanwhile the Artistic Director behind the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly has denied being inspired by The Last Supper painting. He told the press that his intentions had never been to “to be subversive, mock or shock” but rather capture France in all its diversity.

 There’s Dionysus, the god of celebration in Greek mythology arriving at the table and the tableau is called ‘Festivity’ He is also the god of wine, which is also one of the jewels of France, and the father of Séquana, the goddess of the river Seine. The idea was to depict a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics.”

Some theories suggest that the theme was inspired by The Feast of the Gods by 17th Century Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert. Don’t know if that makes it any better to accept…

If we went back to the ancient Olympics which had naked athletes participating in celebration of the Greek gods… it would make what we have modest, considering the Olympic… spirit…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that it was an amusing distraction to see the DoggFather Snoop Dogg, carrying the Olympic Torch, lighting it up… If he didn’t light a blunt with Olympic flame I bet he certainly thought about it….

Bringing it back home, while all eyes and resources were on the Olympics, the Zimbabwe Rugby team known as the Sables won the finals to become the champions in the 2024 Africa Cup Rugby… I wonder how much resources we had invested in our rugby team compared to what was directed towards the Olympics, and now that they have won, if more support will go towards nourishing our sport.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish posted videos from her trip to Zimbabwe which have caused quite the stir.

In a video in which she mentions she loves demystify things, Tiffany was showing how a grocery store in Harare is exactly like one…. elsewhere. Some who missed the stereotypical busting nuance of the video were outraged asking where one would think we get our groceries, or if people expected to find us hunting and gathering….

@tiffanyhaddish

#Harar #zimbabwe #africa

♬ original sound – TIFFANY HADDISH

If you were having coffee with me, I would ask if you were affected by the CrowdStrike outage that took out Microsoft services, resulting something straight out of a Y2K bug scare, except it actually happened. I only had a minor challenge with Microsoft Teams meeting but otherwise hardly noticed the incident..

Generally, here, we weren’t severely impacted, I mean our esteemed Minister Of ICT was busy herding the Presidential Goat Rearing Pass-on Scheme… insane right? Sometimes we make it hard to beat the stereotypical allegations….

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods?

~B