People who need to stay home

There are people out there who come to the US repeatedly (masochists?) and then return to their Utopias to complain that the airport treated them like “terrorists”.  Every national that comes to visit the US on vacation is apparently suspected of being a minion of Osama Bin Ladin.

A renowned world traveler just recently visited Lima, Peru, and she reports back:

The flight was very straightforward and laid-back. By that, I mean that we didn´t have to remove our shoes, throw away lighters, matches, liquids and water bottles, that we were not questioned endlessly by immigration service and that we had real cutlery on board. No paranoia here and it was very nice to fly without feeling like potential terrorists.

Anyone with 1/4th of a functioning brain knows very well that this woman was talking about the United States. More evidence of the country in question can be found here:

Borders… sorry to say but it’s not just me or just a bad experience. US borders suck. Never seen that anywhere in the world and I traveled quite a bit. Nowhere on earth do people get questioned, searched, profiled and verbally abused. Happened to me when I was in transit several times. Hello, I’m 20 yrs old, I have a valid French passport, return ticket to Canada, sufficient funds etc. — what else do you want from me? I don’t even want to go to the US — I’m in f&?%$ transit here waiting for my next plane!

My hubby always has trouble as well… how many times was he accused of having a fake passport… he was born in China, raised in Canada, speak perfect English (spent his whole life here). Yet when he cross the border, his passport is held on the side. Fake. Er… no.

Backpackers usually don’t like going through the US immigration border. Pain in the ass. Australian can be tough as well but not as much.

Am I denying these claims? No. Could there be a possibility that some people are just way too sensitive, spoiled, and call out “verbal abuse” at the drop of a  hat? Most definitely. Could there be a bit of hyperbole? Why, of course!! How else could one garner the sympathy of other non-Americans who are also petrified that the big fat elephant is “out to get them”?

Yes, the same people calling the US paranoid, are the ones who are equally or even more paranoid.

“They’re out to get me because I’m a foreigner and they hate all foreigners” — is the mindset here that I am challenging today in this post.

Treating this situation with the urgency and seriousness it deserves, I would suggest that those people who hate being accused of  being part of the Taliban network and/or suspected of being a suicide-bombing-jihadist conspiring to wipe the US off of the map while you try to transit your way back to Toronto – to stay away from America – even in transit. People like me are tired of the incessant abuse of the “victim card” especially when Americans must go through the EXACT SAME process and be treated like “possible terrorists” too!!

Perhaps America needs to be a bit paranoid? Could customs, immigration and security be overly-paranoid? Absolutely. But I most certainly believe that we have reasonable cause to be paranoid following 9-11 as any other country in the world would REACT THE SAME! While I refuse to live my life in fear both religiously and politically or fear anybody for that matter, I find it quite the norm for countries to resort to inconvenient measures to do whatever they can to prevent future attacks. While I disagree with the Patriot Act, I agree that it was America’s shut eyes and feelings of invincibility that helped make 9-11 possible.

See, people like Zhu wish that America was as lax as it was prior to 9-11. (Do people like her even remember the old America before 9-11? Were we lax enough then?) More than likely, she advocated the terrorists boarding the plane with box cutters to achieve their goal. Why would she really give a rat’s ass, anyway? It’s not her country. Why would a terrorist attack anywhere have an effect on her? So long as one feels safe in their own cozy little well-to-do-daddy-will-pay-for-it cocoon, why would they give a flying freak what happens outside of it, and what happens as a result of what happens outside of it?

This is a phenomenon especially in young people and/or pollyannas. Naivete, innocence, and ignorance about the world doesn’t allow one to grasp complex ideas to work out why certain countries behave as they do. The USA airport security IS paranoid. And for a damn good reason. This doesn’t mean that I agree with the extremist approaches or the way they treat both Americans and foreigners. But some sense of watchfulness is EXPECTED.

And once again…

EVEN AMERICANS ARE TREATED AT THE AIRPORT in the exact same way.

Who knew?

Americans everyday are being questioned, “verbally abused”, fondled at the airport, interrogated, detained, their baggage and every little detail inside checked meticulously causing them to miss flights, and treated no differently than these little precious spoiled princesses that hail from other lands. If the same thing happens to Americans, why do these people feel so entitled to special treatment just on the grounds that they’re from another country?

My guess is that if say, Canada experienced a terrorist attack on a large scale, their airport as well would be having their passengers remove their shoes, throw away their lighters, chewing gum, maxi pads and water bottles. Their passengers would too be questioned “endlessly” by the “racist immigration service” and be detained on the premise and pre-conceived notions that all foreigners had real “cutlery” on board and found profiling justified. Canada as well, would be just as paranoid. So would Australia. So would China. So would Peru. So would India.

Get over it, you spoiled little brats! With that primadonna attitude, it is of no surprise that some get “verbally abused” by those bully AmeriKKKans.

Stay home.

If anyone scared of the big boogieman that is America, is reading this, do me a big favor:

• Ask Japan why non-Japanese have to be finger-printed at the airport to stay over there.
• Ask the Japanese why Koreans who were born and raised in Japan must carry around an “Alien Id”?
• Ask the Japanese why things like this are able to go on in their country.
• Ask Canada why Americans can’t go over there for skiing trips because Joe Blow smoked a joint back in 1975?
• Ask Russians why they shot at a commercial Korean Airlines jet crossing over in the 1980’s if it is just Americans that are paranoid.
• Ask Russians why must so many non-Russians be anally checked going in and out of their airport?
• Ask Russians why they still have surveillance in the hotel rooms and how travelers cannot get full privacy?
• Ask why foreigners are watched going to the bathroom in Russia?
• Ask Europe and Japan why foreign faces are being scanned now at European and Japanese airports for incoming and outgoing passengers?
• And then ask all those “xenophobic redneck Americans” that you met at the airport why the US is like this, and why the United States is the most racially and ethnically progressed nation in the world?

If you come from Europe and other places, you have no right to talk about how Americans treat other foreigners.

My advice: Clean up your own places first before you point your fingers.