Well done, America.
Jun. 6th, 2004 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingYou know, what outsiders experience most about a country, what makes the news, is generally about that country's politicians and bureaucrats. In this article, a UK journalist documents how she was interrogated, detained and deported for not having a journalists visa. One of the guards she encounters tells her she's lucky that she's not in "places like Iran". Her comment in the article:
The irony is that it is only "countries like Iran" (for example, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe) that have a visa requirement for journalists. It is unheard of in open societies, and, in spite of now being enforced in the US, is still so obscure that most journalists are not familiar with it. Thirteen foreign journalists were detained and deported from the US last year, 12 of them from LAX.
The American bureaucracy must be slowly throttling its tourist trade, because I for one have been very nervous at the thought of going to America -- not because I fear a "terrorist attack", but because of the atmosphere of fear post-9/11 (although us Aussies look at that and think, "What happened on the ninth of November?") that has caused a whole lot of public officials to treat everyone non-American (and probably somewho are) as not just a potential threat, but an actual one.
Brr. Howard may be a creepy bastard who's just legislated against gay marriage, but at least he hasn't instituted anything like this yet. So long as you're not arriving "illegally" in a boat (and the wrongness of our immigration policy is a whole 'nother rant), you're pretty fine.
The irony is that it is only "countries like Iran" (for example, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe) that have a visa requirement for journalists. It is unheard of in open societies, and, in spite of now being enforced in the US, is still so obscure that most journalists are not familiar with it. Thirteen foreign journalists were detained and deported from the US last year, 12 of them from LAX.
The American bureaucracy must be slowly throttling its tourist trade, because I for one have been very nervous at the thought of going to America -- not because I fear a "terrorist attack", but because of the atmosphere of fear post-9/11 (although us Aussies look at that and think, "What happened on the ninth of November?") that has caused a whole lot of public officials to treat everyone non-American (and probably somewho are) as not just a potential threat, but an actual one.
Brr. Howard may be a creepy bastard who's just legislated against gay marriage, but at least he hasn't instituted anything like this yet. So long as you're not arriving "illegally" in a boat (and the wrongness of our immigration policy is a whole 'nother rant), you're pretty fine.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 12:06 am (UTC)Having said that, I've been to the US since 9/11 (ninth of November? What happened then?) and entered at LAX, and had to go through scary customs and all that, carrying food and chocolate and all sorts of semi-illegal stuff, and had no problems at all. Everyone was actually really nice to me. Of course, I'm just a little white girl, no threat to anyone, but nor did I see anyone else being harassed or unfairly questioned. And I was watching closely while I was in line.
And boo Howard. I'd make that much more articulate, but I think I just used up all the intelligence I have on a Sunday afternoon.