Why are Americans so disliked worldwide?

Great Debates
41

Rainbowcsr, I like Coke and Pepsi and I guess some British people must like McDonald’s since there are so many of them over here.

Everybody complains about the public services in their own country. If you doubt me, just look at the number of complaints by Americans about America on this board.

I don’t doubt that some people from other parts of the world want to emigrate to America. Or Japan, or Britain, or Australia, or New Zealand. You get my point. NightGirl said that her European acquaintances without exception wanted to emigrate to the US. I have lived in Europe all my life and have never met anyone who expressed a desire to emigrate to the USA, though I have met several who wanted to emigrate to the Antipodes.

I addressed the point about international aid in my previous post: rich countries give aid to poor countries, not vice versa. The US is a rich country. So are most EU countries. Your point is?

The rest of your post, and to some extent NightGirl’s, contains the following basic error of reasoning: Some countries are worse than the US in some respects, ergo the US is the best country in the world. So your police aren’t as corrupt as the Mexican police? Big deal, very few police forces are. You give foreign aid? So do we. You’ve got better prisons than Turkey? Who hasn’t? You’ve got an excellent human rights record; free, universal health care and education; a highly-educated population and a long history of racial harmony? Well, alright, you might not have those things, but you’re Americans—you’ve got Pepsi and McDonald’s, baseball caps and training shoes. Who needs that stuff?

BTW, you’re not read your rights when you’re arrested in France (though you are in Britain) because you don’t have the same rights that you have in Britain or the US. The whole basis of the criminal justice system is completely different from the British and US system. Have you any idea where the practice of informing the accused of his rights, or any of the other civil rights you enjoy, originated?

You are unwilling or unable to distinguish between what is peculiar to America and what is common to all nations which enjoy pluralist democracy, the rule of law and a reasonably high level of economic development. It is axiomatic for you that the American way is the best way and you don’t really care about or understand the situation in the rest of the world. Not that it stops you mouthing off about it. It is, as I have said before, this kind of ignorant, chauvinistic attitude that makes Americans unpopular in the rest of the world.

If you two want to make fools of yourselves, you’re free to do so. But you’re in serious danger of making you compatriots look silly as well, which is a pity given the high quality of many if not most of the posts from Americans on this Board.

Of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’m consumed by jealousy.

42

I hereby pledge never to reply to another post by bj0rn.

Any of you other sick American with me?

43

TomH:

I don’t think the dislike is rooted in jealousy, only that jealousy amplifies the problem. If someone has something that you envy, you are more likely to believe the worst about that person… human nature.

I don’t know what it’s like to live for long times in other countries, but the way Americans are treated in the UK is not too dissimilar to the way blacks were treated in the mid 70s here in the US. There are many people who are culture-blind, there are some that quietly tolerate us, but would prefer it if we’d just go home, and there are some who will openly tell you that they would prefer you not be there.

A couple of stories:

I went to buy a major appliance and the store could not tell me when it was going to be delivered. In order to receive it, I had to take a week off of work. I mentioned that this seemed a bit extreme. The clerk’s contemptuous response: “Well, you’re not in America now, sir.”

I took the family out bowling and while I was away at the concessions, some guy came up and took my young daughter’s bowling ball. I went to ask for it back (it was the only one that fit her tiny fingers) and he said, “Why don’t you get another ball from the rack?” I said, “That sounds like good advice; why don’t you?” He started swearing and finally ended with, “Here take your f**king ball. You Americans think you own the whole G*ddamned world!”

Walking down the street, a lady stops me and asks me to sign a petition. I look at the cause… it’s about trying to stop American factories from pumping so much pollution into the atmosphere. “Excuse me. I’m an American and I happen to know something about about the air quality standards that American factories must conform to. I can assure you that the typical American factory produces less pollutants than the typical Brittish factory.” Her response: “Typical American capitalist rationalization. You only believe what you want to believe.” My response: “It goes both ways, lady.”

An exchange with an associate from work: “How many guns do you own?”, he asks. “None.”, I reply. “What!? How can you afford not to keep a gun for protection?”, he asks. “Protection from what?”, I ask back. “All of the muggers, burglers, and psychopaths have guns.”, he replies. “So if I owned a gun, I’d be just like them, wouldn’t I?”, I reply.

A friend once said, innocently, “You’re not nearly as rude as other Americans.” “Oh? Have you met many rude Americans?”, I asked. “Well, not personally, but we hear about them on the news all the time.”, she replied. “Well, there are quite a lot of us”, I reply. “And like any large population, the majority of the public is polite. Only a small portion is rude; it’s just that you typically remember the rude ones. Personally, I feel like there are a lot more rude people in the UK than in the US, but I realize that this is probably a cultural bias on my part.” “Oh no”, she replied, “I find people much more polite here in the UK.” I resisted the urge to point out that she had just admitted that she had never actually seen a rude American… The bias is culturally ingrained.

I went to a pub one night and I was wearing a pair of shoes that were basically casual loafers, but because they bore the Nike logo, the doorman wouldn’t let me into the pub. “Why not?”, I asked. “No trainers allowed.”, he replied. (Trainers is the UK word for sneekers) “They’re not trainers. They don’t even look like trainers.”, I replied. “They have the Nike logo - they’re trainers.”, he said. “We have a certain standard of dress that we want to maintain, here.” “But you just let that guy in front of me in, in his tattered jeans, T-shirt, and dirty hiking boots.”, I replied. “He didn’t have trainers.”, says the doorman. “No, but he was dressed a lot more scruffy than I am. It doesn’t appear that you’re maintaining ANY standard of dress EXCEPT no trainers.”, I said. “You Americans have no real fashion sense. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”, he rudely answered. “But I’m dressed just like everybody else here. How can you condemn my fashion sense?”, I ask. “Because you’re wearing trainers.”, he replied. “Now get the hell outta here. Jeez. Typical American. Always arguing. Always trying to get their way.” As I walked away, the 20 or so people that were with me turned to leave also. “Hey, where are you guys going?”, the doorman asked. One of my Scottish buddies turned and replied, “We’re with him and he’s buying… shite for brains.”

44

Hmph…well, since I now have a rude Icelander example, I’ll promptly change my stance on them…all of them.
:stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve also met some rude/stupid/(insert negative adjective here) people from England/Scotland/Australia/South Africa/Spain/(insert country here).

My reply to all these people who are sitting around getting “sick” over the thought of the U.S.- “Get over it.” Why is anyone spending any time festering about how much they hate Americans? Why is any American spending any time trying to either a)apologize for being American or b)inflate the “greatness” of the U.S. so that he/she doesn’t feel like a rude meanie.

Bjorn…if you hate the U.S. so much, why don’t you boycott us? It might make you feel better.

45

Rainbowcsr,

You wrote:

In the UK, you can be arrested for suspicion and held nearly indefinitely without evidence. Their search and seizure laws seem to be a lot more relaxed than ours. You can be arrested for past crimes on the basis that circumstances are such that you might be tempted to commit them again. For instance, football hoodligans (people who get into fights at soccer games) can be arrested before a big game, to insure that they won’t attend the game and start any fights. But the worst thing is when there is a rape and the police are lacking anything but DNA evidence, the police have the right to collect DNA samples from the population at large, in hopes of finding a match.

Yeah, as bad as some of the laws are in the U.S., I’d have to admit that I think the laws protect the people a lot better here.
corvidae wrote:

While I was living in the UK, a man there was talking about all the trouble we have in America with blacks and crime. At first, I didn’t know what to say because the man who said this was black himself. I asked if he thought that black people were more likely to commit crimes and how he could believe this, being black himself. “Well, I meant black Americans.”, he said, “The blacks in this country are more affluent and more accepted as part of the society.” I informed him that there were many affluent blacks in the US and that there were also many lower income white people who were just as likely to commit crimes as blacks. He remained unconvinced…
TomH wrote:

I’ve met hundreds of Europeans that want to immigrate to the US. None of them cite American freedoms, social services, etc., however. The overwhelming reason to come from Europe to the US seems to be to make lots more money.

BTW, my family and I loved our stay in the UK. As with any place, I suppose, there are some negatives, but a lot more positives. In general, we found people in Scotland to be very friendly (in a quiet sort of way) and we are seriously considering retiring to the Isle of Skye (if we can afford to live there).

46

Ummm… no idea what a football hoodligan is… make that football hooligans…

47

Joeyblades, Thanks. I see what you’re getting at, although we’ve all had the experience of stores offering inconvenient delivery “services” and nightclub/pub bouncers turning us away on some flimsy excuse. This falls into the general category of poor service which has been mentioned already. Likewise we’ve all been accosted by thugs and oafs and by over-zealous petitioners—I’m sure it happens in the US, too. What seems to me to be unreasonable on all these occasions is that they dragged your nationality into it, and you have every right to feel aggrieved.

You’re also right about the “rude Americans” stereotype, though I think it’s more a case of “brash” than outright rude. I think it’s a case of different cultural norms as to what constitutes politeness and rudeness.

As for the guns thing, I can kind of understand it. Handguns are completely prohibited here (since 1997) and other types of guns (mostly hunting rifles and shotguns) are rare and require a licence from a magistrate, which can be refused. As you know, the police do not routinely carry guns and there is very little gun crime. It is just difficult for us to imagine what it’s like in a country where the police routinely go armed and where private citizens are free to carry a gun on their person or keep one at home. Bear in mind that most Europeans’ exposure to America is through Hollywood movies (and news stories about crime IRL), and you’ll see why some of us think that everybody in the States is armed to the teeth. (BTW, we’re not all living under the iron fist of tyranny here because we aren’t allowed guns).

What I was really asking, however, is why you (or any of the other posters who have suggested that jealousy is a factor) think that we are jealous of you. What’s to be jealous of?

Rainbowcsr has set up a number of straw men with which to compare America favourably (I mean, “better prisons than Turkey”? Come on!). NightGirl has made some vague suggestions based on God knows what (sorry, I forgot: “long months of international E-mail and the prowling of foreign websites”), which I have debunked above. But nobody has presented any real evidence that we are jealous of Americans or any good reasons why we might be.

We have a term here, “Little Englander”. (Forgive me if you’re familiar with it) originally it meant somebody who wanted to restrict the responsibilities of the Empire, but it has now developed a broader meaning: somebody who can’t see any way but the British way and can’t see the value in anything that isn’t British, who has no experience of the world beyond his own back yard. I’m beginning to detect a strong whiff of “Little Americanism” in this thread.

48

Joeyblades, Thanks. I see what you’re getting at, although we’ve all had the experience of stores offering inconvenient delivery “services” and nightclub/pub bouncers turning us away on some flimsy excuse. This falls into the general category of poor service which has been mentioned already. Likewise we’ve all been accosted by thugs and oafs and by over-zealous petitioners—I’m sure it happens in the US, too. What seems to me to be unreasonable on all these occasions is that they dragged your nationality into it, and you have every right to feel aggrieved.

You’re also right about the “rude Americans” stereotype, though I think it’s more a case of “brash” than outright rude. I think it’s a case of different cultural norms as to what constitutes politeness and rudeness.

As for the guns thing, I can kind of understand it. Handguns are completely prohibited here (since 1997) and other types of guns (mostly hunting rifles and shotguns) are rare and require a licence from a magistrate, which can be refused. As you know, the police do not routinely carry guns and there is very little gun crime. It is just difficult for us to imagine what it’s like in a country where the police routinely go armed and where private citizens are free to carry a gun on their person or keep one at home. Bear in mind that most Europeans’ exposure to America is through Hollywood movies (and news stories about crime IRL), and you’ll see why some of us think that everybody in the States is armed to the teeth. (BTW, we’re not all living under the iron fist of tyranny here because we aren’t allowed guns).

What I was really asking, however, is why you (or any of the other posters who have suggested that jealousy is a factor) think that we are jealous of you. What’s to be jealous of?

Rainbowcsr has set up a number of straw men with which to compare America favourably (I mean, “better prisons than Turkey”? Come on!). NightGirl has made some vague suggestions based on God knows what (sorry, I forgot: “long months of international E-mail and the prowling of foreign websites”), which I have debunked above. But nobody has presented any real evidence that we are jealous of Americans or any good reasons why we might be.

We have a term here, “Little Englander”. (Forgive me if you’re familiar with it) originally it meant somebody who wanted to restrict the responsibilities of the Empire, but it has now developed a broader meaning: somebody who can’t see any way but the British way and can’t see the value in anything that isn’t British, who has no experience of the world beyond his own back yard. I’m beginning to detect a strong whiff of “Little Americanism” in this thread.

49

TomH: About the whold jealousy thing…I think non-American people get annoyed because Americans think we’re so great (as evidenced in some previous posts)and so they put us down. It’s not envy of what we have, but a desire to put us back in our place. I think this is misconstrued as jealousy by some Americans…they think people who do this are only trying to cut us down because they are secretly envious. Culturally, Americans tend to revere people who have made more money, bought fancier cars, etc. (I think it has something to do with the whole pioneer/go better, farther, faster mentality). It’s confusing when someone criticizes us for being proud of that. The first reaction is that the criticizer must be jealous…otherwise, why would they care?

I don’t think that most Americans have such a Pollyanna view of the U.S. and think we’re infallible. I just think that when people criticize us, our natural instinct is to defend, and to defend means to list the good points. Also, it means to back up those good points with opinions of people who aren’t American. Then, non-Americans think we’re whining braggarts, criticize us, and we think they’re jealous!

It’s all a big circle.

50

Just a nit, Tom: I’m sure that you realize that in general, private citizens in the US are not free to carry a gun on their person. The laws vary by state, but you generally need a special permit. We don’t all go around armed to the teeth.

I agree that the gun laws in the US are much more permissive than those in the UK (way too lax, imo, but that’s for another thread), but it’s not that bad here, honest!

51

Slight diversion here:

Roughly 50,000 green cards a year available through a lottery system. It’s called the Diversity Visa, because people from countries which are considered “high admission” (i.e. there’s too many of them here already :)) are not allowed to take part. The list of high admission countries is updated every year. I believe there’s a minor processing fee for those who win the lottery, but apart from that yes it is free.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

52

The very jealous Icelander said:

“yes, thats true. but more than that you copy yourselves more than anyone else. that is one reason so many hate america, but the stupid people that copy you just cant see that simply because they are stupid.”

Hey look, I am just like me…I am copying myself…woooohoooo. I am wearing the same type of clothes that I wear…

And look, that guy dresses like me, he must be stupid…

amazing how we stupid Americans are running the world now. Look, If you people from other countries are smart, you will NOT copy ANYTHING we do. Instead, look to the ungodly success of…(drum rolllllll) ICELAND!

Do not, I repeat, do not have a COke and a smile.

53

I’ve been around, … a lot and have found visiting other countries fascinating, rewarding, interesting, charming and educational but I’m always glad to come home to the States.

In most ‘modern’ countries like the UK, Sweden, Norway, France, Canada, Australia, Italy, Spain and Japan I have found good and bad things BUT I still enjoy the civil rights and various constitutional freedoms allowed here in the US. We have our problems, but we’re working on them and WE are made up of all other nations.

Aside from Russia, we are the biggest single nation in the world, a concept that some of us forget when we go over seas and can drive across a country in a day. Our land is one of the most varied in the world, with different topographical features scattered across several different climatic zones ranging from the Grand Canyon to the swamps.

America DID REFUSE to sign the United Nations Pollution Control Pact, for what reason I do not know, probably due to the influence of big business, but our business practices are not as bad as many across the globe.

Sweden is under fire for helping the Nazi’s steal Jewish gold and for restricting assistance from the Red Cross to Christian children and less for the Jewish ones. The South American government allows massive drug cartels to flood the world with drugs because they want the billions involved. Plus, they are doing little to control the destruction of the rainforest because they don’t want to help their people out. China values human life at about the level of bugs. The Japanese are so image controlled that their work ethic is producing more burn outs and psychotics than anywhere else. In the Middle East, religious fanatics dictate the life and styles of their people, restricting the freedoms of women and trying real hard to blend traditional ways with modern society and failing miserably. Education is restricted and access to outside, world news sources is limited.

In Africa, people die by the thousands because the governments cannot get past ‘tribal’ opinions and cooperate with each other. Life there is cheap. People in New Zealand dislike people in Australia and vise versa. In Northern Ireland, they squabble over different CHRISTIAN religions to the extent of blowing each other up. The Brits still have a tendency to act like the old Empire is still around and the French, as was mentioned before by someone, dislike nearly everyone. Many Germans want to go to the US but cannot afford it. Their cost of living is enormous compared to us. India is still in the throes of trying to dissolve the cast system, struggling against a male oriented society, and, in the meant time, getting ready to get into a spitting fight with Pakistan, while thousands die from disease and crime in the streets. (As I said before – DO NOT touch waters from the Ganges River.) The Indians are busily conning each other with so called fake ‘Holy Men’ using tricks and gimmicks to fool the ignorant and breeding themselves out of their food supply.

Should I go on?

American goods are world wide. American music covers the globe. American medicine is in all nations. (You can buy freely various prescription medicines in other nations BUT the quality is often poor and the dosages not exact.) Doctors in many poorer nations have an elitist attitude, where they actually care little about the patient or his/her suffering and their techniques are not up to par. There are few if any legal recourses for a person to take if given the wrong treatment. In some nations, if you have an education equivalent to that of a Registered Nurse here, you can be a ‘doctor.’

I’ve been in several countries where one can bribe ones way out of almost any jam with the police and in those where an American will be arrested quickly because they can afford to pay a high fine. The Mexican police and military are a joke but then the major politicians there are among the most corrupt in the world. In some countries, if you are ignorent of their religious laws, you can be killed because there is no excuse, in their eyes, for ignorence.

One might not carry a gun in England, but they sure as hell carry knives and clubs and have no problem with beating a person half to death. Which is worse? Besides, over there as here, thugs can get any weapon they want illegally.

I own several guns and to date they have only been used for some casual target shooting. The few times I have been attacked and had to defend myself from muggers was overseas, and one of those places was England.

In the military, our soldiers, the English and the Australian are among the most discaplined and professional of the world. We also tend not to torture prisoners of war in prison camps.

We aint perfect, but I would not want to live in any other nation. We take hard knocks but we’ve got broad shoulders.

I, Sir, am an American and my people also came from overseas, seeking a better life. They found it.

54

Ethnocentricism and culturalcentricism. Blatant ignorance and a self perceived beliefs that OUR way is the only way, and everyone else is ass backward. Which is related to my thread on did the US push Moscow. We impose OUR ways and will on others, and then they get nukes. Then we placate them, until we get anti-nuke systems. Then we are back to business as usual. We are attempting New Colonialism through attempting to “Americanify” everyone and their beliefs.

-G

55

bump :slight_smile:

56

Thanks for all your replies.
After reflecton on the responses, I am lead to believe that a large amount of the negativity directed towards Americans is born out of their early socialization.
I always laugh my ass off at TV quiz shows where Americans are asked who the tallest American president is or, who was the only president with both top and bottom wooden teeth… who gives a rats’ arse?..the Americans must, they usually get it right!
Yet, ask many Americans if they’ve been to Canada and they’ll ask you where it is or, “is that a State?”. Given that Canada shares the largest unguarded border in the world with the US, they are each others greatest trade partners and, Canada is the second largest country you would believe Americans might have a foggy idea. But, watch an America weather brodcast… there is nothingness north of the border as far as the Amercians are concerned.
There are many intelligent and insightful Americans(some using this site), but generally Americans are socialized that anything unAmerican is apolitical, out of style, unsexy, and irrelevant.
Ask an American how much world history they were exposed to during their years of public education…it won’t include anything that didn’t directly involve the Americans.
Americans treat their historic figures as religious icons and their presidents (especially past) as papal figures(no offence to the pope).
NIGHTGIRL and RAINBOWCSR prove my point. They provide evidence that the Macdonaldization of industry, the Wal-Marts of retail, their sick healthcare system, tainted foreign policy ie.free Kuwait vs peacekeep Rwanda and their discrimnatory social programs are the hallmark of a better way of going about life.
The world does see the narrow-mindedness that some Americans exibit and this will evoke the negativity that they endure abroad.

57

Thanks for all your replies.
After reflecton on the responses, I am lead to believe that a large amount of the negativity directed towards Americans is born out of their early socialization.
I always laugh my ass off at TV quiz shows where Americans are asked who the tallest American president is or, who was the only president with both top and bottom wooden teeth… who gives a rats’ arse?..the Americans must, they usually get it right!
Yet, ask many Americans if they’ve been to Canada and they’ll ask you where it is or, “is that a State?”. Given that Canada shares the largest unguarded border in the world with the US, they are each others greatest trade partners and, Canada is the second largest country you would believe Americans might have a foggy idea. But, watch an America weather brodcast… there is nothingness north of the border as far as the Amercians are concerned.
There are many intelligent and insightful Americans(some using this site), but generally Americans are socialized that anything unAmerican is apolitical, out of style, unsexy, and irrelevant.
Ask an American how much world history they were exposed to during their years of public education…it won’t include anything that didn’t directly involve the Americans.
Americans treat their historic figures as religious icons and their presidents (especially past) as papal figures(no offence to the pope).
NIGHTGIRL and RAINBOWCSR prove my point. They provide evidence that the Macdonaldization of industry, the Wal-Marts of retail, their sick healthcare system, tainted foreign policy ie.free Kuwait vs peacekeep Rwanda and their discrimnatory social programs are the hallmark of a better way of going about life.
The world does see the narrow-mindedness that some Americans exibit and this will evoke the negativity that they endure abroad.

58

Sorry about the multiple post, people (damn British-made computer).

Joeyblades, Of course, you’re right about immigration. I just resented the suggestion by
some of the earlier posters that emigration to the US was a widespread aspiration. It’s true:
I really haven’t met anybody who’s said they’d like to do it, though I know a few people who’ve
moved to other European countries and one who’s gone to Australia.

You’re wrong about the state of the law here. You can be arrested for suspicion (surely
you can in the States as well?) but you can’t be held indefinitely without any evidence. We
still have habeus corpus in this country.

As for being arrested for past crimes on the basis that circumstances are such that you might be
tempted to commit them again: that only applies to convicted football hooligans and your
account is not quite right. You can be excluded from going within so many miles of a football
ground on a match day and if you do you can be arrested. I don’t see that that’s any different
from the kind of restraining orders that are routinely issued in harassment cases both here and in
the US.

There was a high-profile rape case, I think in Wales, a few years ago (perhaps during your time
here?) which the police solved by taking DNA samples from all the men in a particular village,
but the samples were given voluntarily. They have no right to take any sample at all (even
fingerprints) without reasonable grounds for suspicion that you have committed an offence.

C3, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. The USA is a great country but idiots who go
round shouting about how it’s so much better than anywhere else in the world just make
Americans look dumb, especially when it’s done from a position of almost total ignorance about
the rest of the world (cf my comments on NightGirl and Rainbowcsr above
and on Sentinel below).

CatInHat, I do realise that (apart from anything else, I’ve read some of the gun control
threads here), but lots of English people don’t. As I said, Hollywood movies aren’t necessarily
your best ambassadors.

Sentinel, Read my responses to NightGirl and Rainbowcsr on page 1 of this thread.
You’re making exactly the same mistake they are.

Citizens of the “modern” countries you refer to all have similar rights and freedoms to citizens
of the USA, so what’s your point?

China is bigger in terms of both population and area.

A ringing endorsement, no?

South America is a continent. It doesn’t have a government.

Ever heard of NORAID?

I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that you are making the basic error of assuming
that everything which is good about America is unique to America. That goes for
anybody else who wants to argue that the US is the best country in the world because it’s richer
than Chad, affords its citizens more civil liberties than North Yemen and has more motor cars
per capita than Uzbekistan.

59

Tom sain

No, we are richer than everyone, have more civil Liberties than anyone and we invent more usefull stuff than anyone:

The internet, the computer, universal parts, the lightbulb, the television (Farnsworth) the telephone and on and on and on.

Not that that makes us the “best” . Who is “best” depends on what is important to you. But you have to admit, we are a pretty fuckin’ great country.

“Hi diddley ho, neighborino! What’s with the lead pipe? a floggin for my noggin?” --Ned Flanders

60

I’ve taken crap for being an American during visits to several foreign countries, (incl. Hawaii, where a mainlander is considered from a foreign country). I never took offense in a patriotic manner; I just figured that I’d met up with a power-drunk doorman / scamming cabbie / crooked cop, same as I could’ve had I stayed home. I can drive forty minutes north into Seattle and be treated like a lower life form for living in Tacoma. If I stay on I-5 another hour or so into Canada I can be treated poorly there, alone or along with the person from Seattle who wouldn’t piss on me if I were on fire. The real problem isn’t anti-Americanism; its people who think they’ve accomplished something superior to others merely by having been born in a certain geographic location.

Your deep sea diving suit is ready, me brave lad.