Text 7109, 50 rader
Skriven 2007-10-07 05:43:31 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av Carol Shenkenberger
Ärende: Re: Post 9/11
=====================
CS> Well, it wasnt that bad but I wonder how folks felt getting pictured and
CS> fingerprinted if they didnt know in advance?  I did note the non-USA
CS> lines moved faster than most such we've had to go through at countries
CS> where we werent citizens.  No picture or fingerprint for us although I
CS> was expecting that.  A few non-sensical questions on a form someplace
CS> but not too long or awkward to fill out.
 
Let me tell you this ... I've been in former European Communist countries as
well as Muslim countries and they were easier to get into than anytime the USA
ever since my first visit June 27 1972.
 
But the good days elsewhere are also over now.
 
I understand Brazil is fingerprinting and photographing US citizens, and only
US citizens, as a matter of 'You do this to us? We do this to you!" principle.
 
And this past week I read that Japan started to crumble and give-in to US
pressure. They will now also photograph and fingerprint visitors ... any
visitors.
 
And do I now really need to believe that all this is going to make travel
safer? Nope, it just is going to make things more expensive and create more
jobs for unschooled and untrained bums with a free ticket to annoy travellers.
On our last couple of pass-throughs through Delta's terminals 2 and 3 at
Kennedy I pointed some of the new security staff out to my daughter, sitting on
a chair all day next to a door, doing nothing, just sitting there staring in a
void trying not to fall asleep ... and they were earning their salary. The good
thing though is that at US airports security is not paid from taxes levied on
tickets but from the general US budget provided by the US taxpayer ... with an
economy in such a bad shape and a budget-deficit worse than the Congo one must
wonder how that is possible.
 
Security? On our last trip the TSA removed a stuffed Panda bear we got at the
Washington National Zoo. The kind you cannot buy but which is given away to
certain visitors. I wonder about the kind of threat posed by a stuffed Panda
bear?
 
It's legalised theft ... and we have to live with that?
 
Bob Bashe and others have frequently pointed out why they don't want to go to
the US anymore, even though in Bob's case it still is his home country with
relatives there. It's just that he doesn't understand how bad it has gotten
since his last visit.
 
Long live paranoia ...
 
 \%/@rd

--- D'Bridge 2.86
 * Origin: Many Glacier -o=O=o- Preserve - Protect - Conserve (2:292/854)