by Oliver Robinson




Last night I navigated my way through the huge Coca-Cola advertisement, formerly known as The Place, to CJW where sports brand Puma were presenting the Jamaican Olympic delegation to Beijing. When I say Beijing, I mean any one who had tickets to the event (those pretty-looking people who seem to only exist at opening parties and functions where there's free booze and photographers) and the smug folk who you see sauntering around town with those silly passes hanging around their necks.




The majority of the Jamaican athletes were in attendance, though kept themselves to themselves in a cordoned-off VIP area, "guarded" by two rather befuddled baoan. Messrs Powell and Bolt, however, were conspicuously absent.

Proceedings started with Sichuan bianlian – traditional Sichuan face-changing opera – before the dancers cast off all their robes revealing themselves to be hot hip-hop babes. Who would have thought?! The transformation (with the help of a Sean Paul soundtrack) got the athletes going, before the vibe was subdued by the introduction of Scottish crooner Paolo Nutini (despite the Italian mantle, he's apparently from Paisley). Hitherto, I've never heard of him (nor, I suspect, had anyone else in the room), but apparently he has a song about shoes, which was enough for Puma to use it on their ads. Still, having a Scotsman sing bouncy Britpop was a little incongruous with the Jamaican theme of an event, which was in part a celebration of Jamaican Independence Day.




CJW will host most of the Jamaican team's events, though most are invite only. However, the embassy has assured us that there will be a number of reggae gigs open to the public. Keep an eye on the Beijinger blog and our 7 Days e-mail newsletter for updates.