by Simon 45 Replies latest social current
How to win friends and influence people? ... NOT !
As if US customs weren't unpleasant enough already ... now they will make everyone feel like a criminal. I hope we follow the lead of Brazil and do the same to all US visitors coming over here.
Your country is turning into a police state. It won't be long before they start fingerprinting YOU.
They already did, and that damn ink they use gave me a rash...............
Maya
How to win friends and influence people? ... NOT !
You mean like this?:
Your country is turning into a police state. It won't be long before they start fingerprinting YOU.
Ye gods Simon, just what is it with you lately?
Right or wrong, people will not generally except anything other than the mildest criticism of their own country from an outsider.
It's a basic law of nature.
Englishman.
I am with you 100 % Simon. I do hope that Britain and France will institute the same checks for Americans entering these countries.
I am mad, because I need to renew my passport, and because of this new procedure, I am supposed to obtain a "Secure" passport or whatever term they use, meaning that I have to present myself at the French Consulat, instead of doing it by mail as I have always done. For me it is an 8 or more hours trip, and I don't see how I can do that. So I have no valid passport right now...
Simon,
I hope we follow the lead of Brazil and do the same to all US visitors coming over here.
I suspect it's inevitable, not as an act of political tit-for-tat, but for highly practical security reasons.
To be brutally honest, so long as any country contains a significant Muslim population, such measures will be necessary for visitors entering from that country, as there is no simple way to differentiate between the 'moderate Muslim' and the 'Islamic terrorist.'
And it would hardly be 'politically correct' to apply these measure only to non-white citizens of these countries...
Regards,
Ken
You say not politically correct to apply to non-whites only, well the truth is that is exactly how it works in England. I have been passing freely between England and France with seemingly no customs or checks what-so ever, or so I thought, until last time there was one black person amoung the foot passengers and the imigration officials came down like the gestapo, I felt sorry for him. But it occurred to me you ARE actually being watched when you enter England and you will be judged purely by your skin colour as to whether you should be questioned or not.
OH MY GOD! This is just the WORST possible thing that could happen...the sky is falling the sky is falling. My basic human and civil rights are being violated because the US wants to take my picture and finger print me...all electronically.
Geesh...let's whine a bit. Simon...what's YOUR solution to border security then? Real easy to criticize...let's her suggestions.
I think this is smoke and mirrors to fool the public into believing that "something is being done" by an administration that didn't do enough when it should have.
How will this improve security? Really? Didn't the Sep 11 hijackers have visa's?
"Sir, hijackers have flown planes into sky-scrapers!" ... "it's ok, we have their fingerprints and a picture".
Wow.
What is needed is proper intelligence and not the make believe hi-tech intelligence that has been relied on so far that makes money for some companies but doesn't deliver. You need contacts on the ground who know what's going on. Hell, the US doesn't even have enough translators to listen in on things, never mind people who have a clue.
Flying spyplanes and launching satellites is all very well but it tells you nothing of what is really happening. There is no point gearing up for the "big war" with anti-missile defense systems and the like when the threat is a guy from the sticks with a rucksack on a bus.
On this scale, alienation of people is exactly the opposite of what you need. You want to have people wanting to come forward with information and not being estranged.
If the debarcle over WoMD and Iraq has taught us anything it's that the current "military intelligence" (surely and oxymoron) is inadequate as it couldn't even verify the information that was being collected and means that our countries are open to being used by people feeding misinformation OR the processes are not transparent enough that people can decide policy based on what they want to do rather than what the truth is and what is needed.
What is needed is proper intelligence
I will be happy to be finger printed and my picture taken when or if I visit another country. That's already happened to me twice when I was in the military. Can't for the life of me see as how I've been hurt by a bit of ink on my fingers.
As far as intelligence is concerned, it could be better, but if you mean perfect intelligence when you say "proper" intelligence, well, ain't gonna happen. Never has, never will. Bug
Yeru: no, the sky is not falling.... but americans travellers must be willing to have the same done to them in these countries... France and Britain are allowed to secure their borders too, and they should in this case. There are millions of Muslims in the US...
