Olympic Opening Ceremony Celebrates NHS- Americans baffled?

[bradleybadly]

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

Glad to have hit a nerve with you, patel. My post was sarcastic so I guess I deserve that nintendo comment, and there's no way you could know that I'm a father of two kids. I actually wanted the British to succeed in pulling off an epic opening ceremony. I'll still be rooting for them to do something halfway decent for the closing. Sydney, Athens, and Beijing were all class acts when they had their chance to entertain the world. None of them forced the rest of the world to admire their govt. entitlement programs. The NHS portion of the show was a very small bit of what was just absolutely dull. It was a horrible opening, and it's unfortunate because Britain had so much more to offer. I realize that the Brits on this site feel like they have to defend what was done at the opening - any country's citizens would probably feel the same.

[saxitoxin]

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.

I did, previous page.

I could provide even more references to what a third world petrie dish of bacteria NHS hospitals are (even UK media regularly bemoan all the people keeling over dead from MRSA infections by dirty, toothless, Brit doctors who don't know how to use soap and who reuse surgical gloves), however, every time I do you loudly declare "facts don't matter!"

This is how you've reacted in this thread, and is how you've reacted in previous threads.

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.

The Jubilee was your Bread & Circus distraction to stave-off the annual summer riots.

The Opening Ceremonies of an event of the International Olympic Movement are intended to be a celebration of world sport that brings the globe together.

If Britain is too loaded up with small-minded, insular, local yokels to understand this, perhaps the once-every-60-years formula used to determine how often the UK is permitted to host an Olympiad is too generous.

[Phatscotty]

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.

Nice post

[saxitoxin]

one of these things is not like the others, one of these things it does not belong ...

• 2004 Opening Ceremonies (Athens) -
  reflections on the growth of human civilization from ancient times to the mapping of the human genome, told in the context of Greek myth
  
  2006 Opening Ceremonies (Turin) -
  tribute to the birth of Renaissance and Baroque artistic and scientific developments
  
  2008 Opening Ceremonies (Beijing) -
  tribute to the "Four Great Inventions" of China - compass, gunpowder, papermaking, printing
  
  2010 Opening Ceremonies (Vancouver) -
  depiction of the mythology and spiritual traditions of the Coast Salish aboriginal people
  
  2012 Opening Ceremonies (London) -
  tribute to the senior political leadership of the Central Secretariat of the UK Ministry of Health's National Health Service collective insurance programme

[saxitoxin]

World Agrees - Games are a Bust

The UK newsmagazine The Economist just reinforced what I've been saying about the role the robotic, rictus-grinned, automatons, mindlessly waving at the Ruling Family was intended to accomplish ...

These institutions are certainly worth celebrating. But it was one of the many instances where there seemed to be a tension about who the audience for this show really was: the world being welcomed to London or a cynical nation of Brits being convinced that the Olympics was part of their life too.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/ ... g-ceremony

and Forbes ...

Unlike the awesome (and a bit terrifying) display of synchronized drumming and acrobatics from the Beijing games in 2008, that attempted to symbolize the entire Chinese industrial economy, there was no obvious talent or social organization in the London mob. The overwhelming feeling was of a desperate mediocrity. And it was boring.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosn ... =statusnet

Of course, official state media BBC have been breathlessly broadcasting to the North Sea island-state that all the world are falling over themselves in love with the opening ceremonies, versus the reality of confused bemusement.

Desperate Seat-Stuffing Strategy Uses Soldiers to Fill Empty Bleachers


It's now the second day of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games ... but all anyone seems able to talk about are the empty seats everywhere. Yesterday, Britain's culture secretary Jeremy Hunt called the swathes of empty seats "very disappointing." London's Olympics organizers, still smarting from the whole GS4 security debacle, quickly launched an investigation while devising a seat-stuffing strategy that uses soldiers, security personnel, and local students.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/em ... izers.html

[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.

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'm not sure how any of that disagrees with what I said.

[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.

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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

[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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

NHS led to the Industrial Revoluion?

[pmchugh]

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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

NHS led to the Industrial Revoluion?

Oh wow NS, way to totally read and understand players post

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.

I did, previous page.

I could provide even more references to what a third world petrie dish of bacteria NHS hospitals are (even UK media regularly bemoan all the people keeling over dead from MRSA infections by dirty, toothless, Brit doctors who don't know how to use soap and who reuse surgical gloves), however, every time I do you loudly declare "facts don't matter!"

This is how you've reacted in this thread, and is how you've reacted in previous threads.

You mean when you pull out ranking systems which vary radically in their assessment and which are almost certainly biased in some way? Where upon 14th position is supposed to be the worst among developed countries?

How about we look at this instead:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... world.html

And I may present my case in a rather silly manner, but the NHS clearly provides high levels of satisfaction for our citizens. Also, I think it is more important to show how our system deals with our own problems rather than comparing it to different nation states which have different economical climates, population etc. All previous attempts at privatising parts of the NHS have failed rather horribly (which does not bode well for our current government).

[saxitoxin]

the NHS clearly provides high levels of satisfaction for our citizens

We agree on this point and I don't doubt it for a second.

Similarly, people who have only been to the Milton-Keynes Museum of Art probably think it's the best art museum in the world.

[Symmetry]

the NHS clearly provides high levels of satisfaction for our citizens

We agree on this point and I don't doubt it for a second.

Similarly, people who have only been to the Milton-Keynes Museum of Art probably think it's the best art museum in the world.

Yup- Dentistry is the area of medicine in the UK that is closest to the American system. When the system went over to the NHS, many dentists kind of opted out and went private. There are a lot of NHS dentists (I've never had any trouble), but sometimes finding an NHS dentist can be difficult.

I'm kind of impressed that you saved that picture though.

[saxitoxin]

image: a collage of mindless gap-toothed dolts robotically waving - faces fixed in weird rictus grins - at a billionaire cigarette company shareholder flying by them at 700 kph

"Oi, mum, I did see me da Queen today, I dids! Me life be complete now, mum! I can settle down and have twelve kids and celebrate my 9th birthday in style!"



meanwhile, the producer of this cringe-inducing spectacle - state television (BBC) - rants like a madman whenever DPRK citizens so much as flash a grin during an appearance by a Worker's Party of Korea functionary

typical Brit militant cultural imperialism and double-standards - it gets even madder the tinier and tinier the slice of territory they get crammed into ... if the Scots dismount their sheep long enough to declare independence, expect the collective national insanity to hit a full-on 11

[Symmetry]

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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

NHS led to the Industrial Revoluion?

Nah, dude, watch the whole thing. The ceremony celebrated the industrial revolution, and a lot of aspects of British history and culture. You were incorrect to think that the NHS and Children's literature were celebrated as the "two greatest accomplishments". They were celebrated, sure, but a great deal of other stuff was celebrated too, including, as Player pointed out, the Industrial revolution.

Take a look at it as a whole. I can see that the NHS bit might have been confusing though.

[saxitoxin]

Russel Brand on the importance of maximizing Bread & Circuses to stave-off the annual summer riots in the UK ...

[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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

NHS led to the Industrial Revoluion?

Nah, dude, watch the whole thing. The ceremony celebrated the industrial revolution, and a lot of aspects of British history and culture. You were incorrect to think that the NHS and Children's literature were celebrated as the "two greatest accomplishments". They were celebrated, sure, but a great deal of other stuff was celebrated too, including, as Player pointed out, the Industrial revolution.

Take a look at it as a whole. I can see that the NHS bit might have been confusing though.

I DID watch the whole thing. And the coverage we had stated that the producer's goal in that segment was to showcase the two most lasting British contributions to the world: children's literature and socialized medicine. That was after they showed the British leading the world out of an agrarian society into the industrial revolution.

[saxitoxin]

Take a look at it as a whole. I can see that the NHS bit might have been confusing though.

A "bit" confusing? The ZDF-TV commentators in Germany described the Artistic Tribute to the Central Administrative Secretariat of the National Health Service Collective Insurance Programme as "scenes from a 19th century British orphanage." No one on the planet Earth had the slightest clue what was going on. It was so far out of right field relative to every other Olympics opening ceremonies in history it was just utterly bizarre.

Granted, though, at least it wasn't totally classless like opening it up with a fantasy action movie hero who has - in film - killed the soldiers of a third of the countries competing in the Olympics. It most of the civilized nations didn't already despise Britain for its classless colonialism on issues like Las Malvinas, they sure do now after turning the opening ceremonies into a spectacle of militarism.

[Army of GOD]

through all of this I realize how boring British culture is. I mean they have great writers and musicians, but other than that they're pretty lame.

[Symmetry]

I DID watch the whole thing. And the coverage we had stated that the producer's goal in that segment was to showcase the two most lasting British contributions to the world: children's literature and socialized medicine. That was after they showed the British leading the world out of an agrarian society into the industrial revolution.

You saw the rest of it, about Britain's contribution to music, and the centrepiece of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world-wide web? The tribute to British film? Did you see the Rowan Atkinson bit paying tribute to classical music and British comedy, as well as British athletics.

[Woodruff]

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.

Seems you skipped a few steps, (no surprise). Their "fantasy land" also led to much of the industrial revolution as well as a few other "small" details.

NHS led to the Industrial Revoluion?

Nah, dude, watch the whole thing. The ceremony celebrated the industrial revolution, and a lot of aspects of British history and culture. You were incorrect to think that the NHS and Children's literature were celebrated as the "two greatest accomplishments". They were celebrated, sure, but a great deal of other stuff was celebrated too, including, as Player pointed out, the Industrial revolution.

Take a look at it as a whole. I can see that the NHS bit might have been confusing though.

I DID watch the whole thing. And the coverage we had stated that the producer's goal in that segment was to showcase the two most lasting British contributions to the world: children's literature and socialized medicine. That was after they showed the British leading the world out of an agrarian society into the industrial revolution.

This highlights how you seem to form most of your opinions - broadcasters tell you what they are.

[saxitoxin]

[Army of GOD]

doesn't he kill a Frenchman in Casino Royale?

[Symmetry]

doesn't he kill a Frenchman in Casino Royale?

He kills an English guy in Goldeneye, but he was a Lienz Cossack too.

[Night Strike]

I DID watch the whole thing. And the coverage we had stated that the producer's goal in that segment was to showcase the two most lasting British contributions to the world: children's literature and socialized medicine. That was after they showed the British leading the world out of an agrarian society into the industrial revolution.

You saw the rest of it, about Britain's contribution to music, and the centrepiece of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world-wide web? The tribute to British film? Did you see the Rowan Atkinson bit paying tribute to classical music and British comedy, as well as British athletics.

Yes, I watched the entire opening ceremony. The "music party" was pretty boring to me, and they completely left out Elton John. What did he do to piss off the producer? The Rowan Atkinson section was hilarious while the WWW section was simply a token moment instead of an actual centerpiece of value. My favorite effect was the forging of the ring, while the Bond/queen segment was very entertaining.

This highlights how you seem to form most of your opinions - broadcasters tell you what they are.

Considering I didn't have the show-notes sitting next to me during the show like the broadcasters did, then yes, they are necessary to state why sections were included in the program.

[Army of GOD]

doesn't he kill a Frenchman in Casino Royale?

He kills an English guy in Goldeneye, but he was a Lienz Cossack too.

Yea but most (er, all) of Trevelyn's associates are Russian.

[saxitoxin]

The poms bitch and moan and roll around on the ground in a complete tantrum when Argentina produces a :30 ad entirely for domestic consumption about defeating the British, but then turn around and open an Olympiad on world television with a movie character whose role is that of an assassin who goes around slaughtering Russians, Chinese and Koreans.

I've given up on that country. Their insular, ignorant, provincialism knows no limits. It is truly unbelievable to me that anyone could so totally lack a sense of basic self-awareness.