The Florida documentary was somewhat misleading because the title implied it concerned those Brits who’s American Dream had become a nightmare whereas, in fact, it was much more 50/50 focusing on as many successes as failures. It did bring home the fact that while the US and the UK “almost” share a common language they are very different societies, very different indeed! Until they hit on bad times I don’t think that the majority of the Brits realised quite what it means to live in a society that espouses, and practices, private health care and self reliance. If you get ill and can’t afford the treatment then TOUGH TITTY matey you’re on your own. Similarly, if you don’t earn your own money you don’t get to spend mine instead. In fact, even if you do earn your own money, but you’re not a US citizen, you can still get your Visa revoked if the US government decide that you don’t earn enough of it! In the US you can soar to incredible (indeed to what some would consider obscene) heights, of wealth and success but the corollary is that you can plunge to depths of hardship that are “supposedly” unknown and unthinkable in the UK. Even if the current coalition government, in the UK, manages to rein in the welfare state to the degree that it would like to the remaining provisions will still offer a far greater safety net to the disadvantaged than the existing system in the US does.
The Katrina documentary (which Nat and I watched together) also brought home these differences in particular how much underlying racism continues to exist in modern America. You couldn’t help but know that if the population of New Orleans, that was most affected by Katrina, had been white then much more and much more rapid help would have come their way. Indeed it was difficult not to get the impression that many white folks, especially rich white property developers, saw this as a heaven sent opportunity to gentrify the Big Easy by losing much of it’s” more ethnic” population. The actual flood footage provided a timely reminder, in view of what’s currently happening in Pakistan, of how incredibly powerful Katrina was; houses with only the very tops of their roofs above the water brought home the sheer extent of the devastation.
Afterward, I went to bed and slept until 6:00 when I woke, washed, ate and cycled to work. Halfway there I turned back for home having realised that while I’d washed and eaten I had in fact forgotten to get dressed. Despite the fact that it appeared that I had grown a perky set of bossoms (see below) and now possessed an anatomically correct lady's front bottom I decided it would probably be best if I returned home and got dressed!
No comments:
Post a Comment