Appreciating What You’ve Got
“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.”
T.S.Elliot (I discovered this inscription on a feature at Baylands Country Park, Sunnyvale, California)
You know, we take a lot for granted in Britain. We complain about how bad things are, but there are a few things we’ve got really right. I lived in America for 4 years, and much as I enjoyed that time, it gave me a new perspective on my home country.
One thing we got relatively right is the National Health Service, free at the point of delivery. OK, it has its problems, but when is the last time you thought twice about going to see the doctor? When is the last time you worried about how to pay for your healthcare? Imagine you turn up at A&E, you already have a big bill for the ambulance ride, now the nurse wants to see your insurance papers before they will treat you. Just at the time you are weak and vulnerable, the system puts pressure on you. The theory is that you have healthcare insurance, but the reality is that many people can’t afford it or think they don’t need it. Americans are just starting to wake up to this, as the healthcare industry has weaselled its way to the point where many middle-class Americans can no longer afford decent healthcare plans, or the ones they have are junk.
Second on my list is ‘aunty’. The British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC, because of the unique way it is funded, is one of the very few companies that is actually in the business of delivering quality TV and radio programmes. Almost all the other channels are in a different business – that of delivering an audience to advertisers. Even organisations like NPR (National Public Radio) in America have to constantly tout for donations to keep running. Things are no different on the Internet, where users have a love-hate relationship with the ad-funded business model. The BBC is one of the world’s last bastions of advertising-free content. We must hang on to this institution at all costs, because institutions like this can only be created under special circumstances. Once lost, an organisation like the BBC will probably never arise again.
There are other things, too, like democracy and freedom of speech, social security, relatively open government, consumer protection laws, a police force relatively free from corruption, a reasonable justice system, real ale, aversion to GM crops and so on. None of these items I list is perfect by any means, but compared to what some countries have, I’ll take it. Rule, Britannia!