Tiny, impoverished island to host Games

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guns Guns Guns
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BAN HAMMER said:
Really? What nation is it that you belong to? Certainly not England.
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Is formerly-Great Britain hoping an Olympian influx of tourist money will save their flagging economy?

Compare the attitude of the grateful English after being saved from Hitler with Tommy TuTu and LowestIQ's baseless envy of America today.

Athletes bought their own uniforms, and some their own food. They stayed in private homes, schools and military barracks.

If eggs appeared on the training menu, it was a cause for celebration.

When London hosted the Olympics in 1948, organizers did it on the cheap — and they made no apologies about it.

"We talk about austerity now, but it isn't anything like right after the war," said Janie Hampton, who recounted the joy and sacrifice of athletes in "The Austerity Olympics." ''They had to buy their own shoes, their own kit (clothing)."

The 1948 Games have been recalled often as the global banking crisis and the European debt crisis dogged the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

As pressures build on Britain's government to stay within its 9.3 billion pound ($14.6 billion) budget for the games, historians note that London in 1948 spent 730,000 pounds — roughly 20 million pounds in today's money, Hampton said.

But 1948 was a different, more innocent time. Britain's ability to stage an Olympics before wartime food rationing had ended says a lot about how the U.K. has often risen from impossible circumstances, banking on grit to make up for what it may lack in luster.

England was only barely ready for the Olympics in 1948, coming so soon after World War II. London itself was dotted by rubble. Milk and meat were luxuries.

"Nobody had cars. Nobody had television. Nobody had traveled," Hampton said. "It was real austerity."

Mindful of the scarcities, the Americans flew in steaks and fruit; the French red wine.

But the cash-strapped Brits attempted to make up in goodwill and chutzpah for what they lacked in funds.

In interviews with The Associated Press, many athletes who took part recalled those games warmly, not because of the facilities or even the competition, but because of the hospitality of people who had so little themselves.

"I admired the spirit of the people in London," said diver Sammy Lee, a gold medalist in 1948. "What got me, it was (people asking), 'Do you want a cup of tea?'"

World War II forced the cancellation of the games in 1940 and again in 1944.

But the nearly bankrupt British government agreed to support the games, in part hoping for the hard currency the tourists would bring in.




http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/2012/looking-at-britains-real-austerity-olympics-1948.html
 
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Damocles said:
What's this "we" stuff, does Hong Kong have a British turd in its pocket?
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We sent it to you and you used it as culture.
'We' are British. Do you change your nationality when you go abroad? I know many yanks don't even have passports but those who do, and use them, dont suddenly become Canadian, or Italian, or Mek Sickos when they land at foreign airports.
 
Lowaicue said:
We sent it to you and you used it as culture.
'We' are British. Do you change your nationality when you go abroad? I know many yanks don't even have passports but those who do, and use them, dont suddenly become Canadian, or Italian, or Mek Sickos when they land at foreign airports.
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LOL. And we then sold it back in the form of your own musical groups and Hollywood and y'all bought it and turned it into tasteless sausage. I'm sorry, that massive butt hurt of yours is so powerful you should claim it is a super power and start drawing comics about yourself.

When you live somewhere for a decade or more you haven't just traveled abroad... That you hold to that original claim is cute. God save the Queen and all that.
 
I don't know any Americans who hang around British political forums and run down the English.

Does anyone else?
 
Lowaicue said:
We sent it to you and you used it as culture.
'We' are British. Do you change your nationality when you go abroad? I know many yanks don't even have passports but those who do, and use them, dont suddenly become Canadian, or Italian, or Mek Sickos when they land at foreign airports.
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Since you live in Hong Kong, which is technically China, and China (along with most other eastasian countries) pretty much doesn't naturalize residents of foreign birth, I imagine your citizenship is still that of the United Kingdom.
 
Damocles said:
LOL. And we then sold it back in the form of your own musical groups and Hollywood and y'all bought it and turned it into tasteless sausage. I'm sorry, that massive butt hurt of yours is so powerful you should claim it is a super power and start drawing comics about yourself.

When you live somewhere for a decade or more you haven't just traveled abroad... That you hold to that original claim is cute. God save the Queen and all that.
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You appear to have something of a predilection for a certain part of the anatomy. The expression you use, 'butt hurt', is foreign to me and I can only guess at what you are attempting to say and what your various fetishes might be.
It looks to me as if you are getting a little upset. Unbecoming for the person we respect as the founder of this website.
You mention a decade as the defining point between travelling abroad and losing ones national identity (the last bit is something of a guess since you dont actually say so). However, the fact that you think it so does not necessarily mean that it will pass into international law or that it has any more worth than the turd you appear happy to play with (figuratively speaking of course).
We do not need to keep entreating god to save our queen as you like to do for America.
He already did.
 
Waterfart said:
Since you live in Hong Kong, which is technically China, and China (along with most other eastasian countries) pretty much doesn't naturalize residents of foreign birth, I imagine your citizenship is still that of the United Kingdom.
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You are correct. If I were to renounce my British citizenship and learn to read and write Chinese and comply with several other requirements I could take Chinese citizenship. It has been done, twice to my knowledge.
 
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