Olympic Opening Ceremony Celebrates NHS- Americans baffled?

[Woodruff]

Are Americans actually watching the olympics?

I personally LOVE the Olympics. One of the heights of competition, in my opinion. I don't really care about the "my country against your country" stuff...but these are some of the best athletes in the world! I don't watch soccer or beach volleyball or badminton normally...but I'll absolutely take the time to watch whatever Olympic sport is on television because I love competition.

I see Saxi is devolving into his original trolling incarnation. That's unfortunate.

[Woodruff]

Just come out of surgery this week and I'm absolutely converted into an NHS lover. They were awesome from start to finish!

Timeline:
19:00 - accident playing soccer/football
20:00 - arrive at A&E (after much time wasted by my team assuring me I could wait until the game had finished)
20:15 - xray confirms wrist not just broken but completely f*cked up, knee also f*cked but not broken
20:45 - into cast, booked for next day surgery
--
14:00 - under knife, plates/pins inserted, wrist on the mend

Can't moan at that!

Obviously this is a lie. Nobody gets hurt playing soccer. <smile>

[Royal Panda]

Just come out of surgery this week and I'm absolutely converted into an NHS lover. They were awesome from start to finish!

Timeline:
19:00 - accident playing soccer/football
20:00 - arrive at A&E (after much time wasted by my team assuring me I could wait until the game had finished)
20:15 - xray confirms wrist not just broken but completely f*cked up, knee also f*cked but not broken
20:45 - into cast, booked for next day surgery
--
14:00 - under knife, plates/pins inserted, wrist on the mend

Can't moan at that!

Obviously this is a lie. Nobody gets hurt playing soccer. <smile>

Only idiots like me who forget how to fall properly when clattered

[saxitoxin]

I don't believe the ranking system took morality into account or the amount spent per capita.

Yes, German healthcare is immoral and Milton-Keynes is Europe's capital of culture.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's cool you threw yourselves a party to celebrate your Participation Trophy. As they say, to each according to his abilities ...

[laughingcavalier]

Gotta love Danny Boyle, spend an austerity fraction of what Beijing spent on their opening ceremony, and come up with a show that takes such displays out of the stadium & into the era of mass communication. Of course it helps if you've got a soundtrack like we have.

And we are leaving Saxi flailing round looking for footage of Queenie taking a helicopter flight she -der! - never took.

That is what I call the society of the spectacle.

PS Pander dont go into your tackles so hard.

[saxitoxin]

That is what I call the society of the spectacle.

MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!
MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!
MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!

[UhnTissBaby]

sax, you’re really sad. you don’t have to be a sheep dressed head-to-toe in union flags to be moved by a show that included tributes to those who died fighting in the world wars, those who died in terror attacks on London and people such as the Suffragettes who fought and died so that later generation can enjoy the political and social rights they have.

the UK is proud of its health system and we think that providing everyone in our country with free healthcare is something to celebrate. so what? the fact is that most of the world would kill to live in a country where even an unemployed person without a penny to their name can afford to walk into a hospital and have their broken leg fixed. you want to try living in real poverty and being the victim of real exploitation at the hands of your government before you sit around pissing all over the governments of the West.

i have a friend in a sub-saharan african country whose brother died because his family couldn’t afford the $500 they needed for lifesaving medicine (my calculations are rough, i think it was probably less). he lay on a bed in a ward without glass in the windows, in the cold, and died of a preventable disease. compared to that i think the NHS is a pretty fucking awesome achievement.

this isn’t about british people throwing themselves in puddles so that the queen can step on their backs and keep her feet dry. this is about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate our culture, history and values in front of the whole world. and it’s pretty sad that your only reaction is to shit all over it.

[laughingcavalier]

That is what I call the society of the spectacle.

MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!
MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!
MORE BREAD! BIGGER CIRCUSES!

Vraiment.

PS Aiden Burley + Saxitoxin 2 - Rest of the World 7 billion

[saxitoxin]

the UK is proud of its health system

Like I said, that's great. All I noted is it might look to some (not me, of course) as weird if your nation's proudest achievement - viewed by the local yokels as so monumental that it should be showcased to the world - is the worst healthcare system in western Europe. Norway is rated as a class "A" healthcare system (relative to Britain's class "D") and they didn't have dancing strippers in nurse costumes at the Lillehammer games but c'est la vie.

One should be proud of what one is able to achieve. If a class "D" healthcare system - one that's considered as bad as America's - is the height of what you're able to accomplish - feel free to sing about it. I would not disparage it in the same way I would not disparage the competitors in the paraolympics just because they don't have arms or legs. Britain has achieved what is within her capacity to achieve. Kudos to you all.

[Phatscotty]

What thee hell does Britain's healthcare system have to do with the Olympics anyways?

How bizarre

[saxitoxin]

Britain was so frantically obsessed with what Americans would think, they couldn't be bothered to read about the baffled reactions the rest of the world had to the weird militant flag-fest ...

Commenters on Der Spiegel (Germany's healthcare system is rated two levels superior to the UK) criticized German live TV commentators for explaining to the German TV audience that the dancing nurses were a scene from a British orphanage ... the Der Spiegel commenters confidently believed it was, in fact, a tribute to Florence Nightingale!

Some pretty hilarious confusion in the comments, though, overall, the reaction seemed to be mildly positive - "not the best, a little strange, but a decent show."

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellscha ... 46887.html

[pmchugh]

The ceremony itself was half stupid, half brilliant. Still not sure what to make of it to be honest, personally I like the occasional waste of human resources in doing something utterly ridiculous.

I don't believe the ranking system took morality into account or the amount spent per capita.

Yes, German healthcare is immoral and Milton-Keynes is Europe's capital of culture.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's cool you threw yourselves a party to celebrate your Participation Trophy. As they say, to each according to his abilities ...

I met some very cultured people from Milton-Keynes, one of them swallowed a penny for no apparent reason. Unfortunately it didn't stay down.

Also saxi, leave the competing to the olympians. We love our NHS, even if some Canadians stuck a D next to its name. You keep saying that is OK, but then you keep ruining it by trying to argue it down. Learn to love us for who we are saxi, not for who you want us to be.

[PLAYER57832]

the UK is proud of its health system

Like I said, that's great. All I noted is it might look to some (not me, of course) as weird if your nation's proudest achievement - viewed by the local yokels as so monumental that it should be showcased to the world - is the worst healthcare system in western Europe. Norway is rated as a class "A" healthcare system (relative to Britain's class "D") and they didn't have dancing strippers in nurse costumes at the Lillehammer games but c'est la vie.

One should be proud of what one is able to achieve. If a class "D" healthcare system - one that's considered as bad as America's - is the height of what you're able to accomplish - feel free to sing about it. I would not disparage it in the same way I would not disparage the competitors in the paraolympics just because they don't have arms or legs. Britain has achieved what is within her capacity to achieve. Kudos to you all.

I think the key point is that Britains system might be " as bad as America'"... yet it is Americans who are disparaging the UK system.

ANY real system (skip the areas with no system, of course) is better than what we have here in the US. But Americans have been so well brain-washed into seeing any other system, but particularly the UK system as far inferior to their own that it confuses people immensely to see the system they have been taught to revile celebrated as a good thing.

The ceremony itself was half stupid, half brilliant. Still not sure what to make of it to be honest, personally I like the occasional waste of human resources in doing something utterly ridiculous.

A fair point...
That said, I actually enjoyed the show. Had fun trying to identify all the references.

[PLAYER57832]

What thee hell does Britain's healthcare system have to do with the Olympics anyways?

How bizarre

Its a celebration of national pride.. and standard for the show to celebrate what the country considers its best points.

[saxitoxin]

the UK is proud of its health system

Like I said, that's great. All I noted is it might look to some (not me, of course) as weird if your nation's proudest achievement - viewed by the local yokels as so monumental that it should be showcased to the world - is the worst healthcare system in western Europe. Norway is rated as a class "A" healthcare system (relative to Britain's class "D") and they didn't have dancing strippers in nurse costumes at the Lillehammer games but c'est la vie.

One should be proud of what one is able to achieve. If a class "D" healthcare system - one that's considered as bad as America's - is the height of what you're able to accomplish - feel free to sing about it. I would not disparage it in the same way I would not disparage the competitors in the paraolympics just because they don't have arms or legs. Britain has achieved what is within her capacity to achieve. Kudos to you all.

I think the key point is that Britains system might be " as bad as America'"... yet it is Americans who are disparaging the UK system.

It seems you believe you're talking about Sweden. The UK is an island to the west of Sweden. They are, in fact, two separate nations with two different types of healthcare systems.

The UK single-payer NHS is consensus believed to be one of, if not the singularly, worst healthcare system in the developed world. Europe's multi-payer models are among the best. This is why Europeans were perplexed and confused at why the British held up a steaming pile of shit to the world - weird, toothless, rictus grins affixed to their pale faces - not because Karl Rove brainwashed Berliners or whatever it is you're rambling on about. It's because the UK made themselves - on the world stage - look like a bunch of provincial, slackjawed retards who have never left the front garden.

[DangerBoy]

What thee hell does Britain's healthcare system have to do with the Olympics anyways?

How bizarre

If the American-hosted Olympics ever subcontracted the Brits to produce our opening ceremonies, I'm sure there would be a celebration of the social security administration.

[Army of GOD]

Are Americans actually watching the olympics?

I personally LOVE the Olympics. One of the heights of competition, in my opinion. I don't really care about the "my country against your country" stuff...but these are some of the best athletes in the world! I don't watch soccer or beach volleyball or badminton normally...but I'll absolutely take the time to watch whatever Olympic sport is on television because I love competition.

I see Saxi is devolving into his original trolling incarnation. That's unfortunate.

olympic soccer is shit. Beach volleyball and badminton, ok, but because they're highly obscure, but the World Cup is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better competition for soccer.

[luns101]

The NHS thing was weird imo. That being said, the ceremony was simply boring. I kept telling myself to just hang in there...it'll get better. For me, it was just one huge disappointment. At least the fireworks were impressive.

[pmchugh]

The UK single-payer NHS is consensus believed to be one of, if not the singularly, worst healthcare system in the developed world.

Not true. I think you are going to need to back that up with facts.

Are Americans actually watching the olympics?

I personally LOVE the Olympics. One of the heights of competition, in my opinion. I don't really care about the "my country against your country" stuff...but these are some of the best athletes in the world! I don't watch soccer or beach volleyball or badminton normally...but I'll absolutely take the time to watch whatever Olympic sport is on television because I love competition.

I see Saxi is devolving into his original trolling incarnation. That's unfortunate.

olympic soccer is shit. Beach volleyball and badminton, ok, but because they're highly obscure, but the World Cup is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better competition for soccer.

I agree. I actually dislike olympic football, especially the fact we have a joint team in it. I love watching sports that you would never care about in any other circumstances, like the swimming and other more obscure shit like beach volleyball and water polo.

[Royal Panda]

People who put down or big up a country's healthcare system having never experienced them are simply moronic. Also, people must realise that the NHS system is an option, for those who can't afford healthcare. Many many people chose other systems in this country. I see no need personally as I've only ever experienced top-class treatment from the NHS.

As for the ceremony, it was very British, and we near-unanimously loved it. Other nationalities were obviously going to think WTF during much of it, but we didn't really care. By Brits, for Brits.

[bradleybadly]

The issue isn't whether or not Brits love their NHS. It's inserting it into an Olympic opening ceremony. The UK is boring enough already and the ceremony just highlighted that fact. Celebrating an entitlement program during the opening was just a very small part of what made it horrible. Damn, I wish they just would've replayed the 2008 Chinese production again instead of watching the 2012 ceremony.

[john9blue]

how dare those british people try to turn everything into a political debate! clearly scotty must be taking lessons from them.

[patels shop]

celebrating the NHS is nothing like celebrating america’s social security system. the NHS is considered to be uniquely British and is something that we feel says a lot about our national values and societal development. kinda like the way americans love their constitution or the statue of liberty.

bradley, i’m sorry but most people over the age of 8 need more than just big bangs and flashing lights to be entertained. but hey, look on the bright side: every time your dad takes your nintendo ds off you and tells you to be polite at the table you’re learning how to behave with a grown-up level of respect, which can’t be a bad thing

[Phatscotty]

The issue isn't whether or not Brits love their NHS. It's inserting it into an Olympic opening ceremony. The UK is boring enough already and the ceremony just highlighted that fact. Celebrating an entitlement program during the opening was just a very small part of what made it horrible. Damn, I wish they just would've replayed the 2008 Chinese production again instead of watching the 2012 ceremony.

oh my chuckles.

Imagine this for a moment....I know this is very very very very unlikely to happen, but lets just say a couple more European countries join Greece in their Great Depression, and, let's just go waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy out on a limb, and imagine that causes the Euro to collapse. Britain joins the rest of Europe in a severe debt-spiraling recession and hyper-inflation by the end of the year, and there just aren't any jobs to be had, thus no tax revenues churning into the NHS......

Now, think about the irony of looking back 6 months to the manner in which they celebrated their social program

It would be used as a marker for history and the photograph would be in every history textbook around the world, alongside this photo from the Wiemar Republic



History may very well look back at this moment as the highly publicized symbolic death of the NHS. The sheeple never know what's really going on.

[Night Strike]

What thee hell does Britain's healthcare system have to do with the Olympics anyways?

How bizarre

Its a celebration of national pride.. and standard for the show to celebrate what the country considers its best points.

I thought the fact that they celebrated NHS and children's literature as their two greatest accomplishments at the same time was quite telling: the country lives in a fantasy land.