homeland security
the yanks have gone crazy. starting with the opening and searching of each individual piece of luggage at papeete, it was clear that security measures to get into the land of the free were going to be fairly stringent. this paranoia reached ludicrous levels on the flight, where we were informed of a new directive that forbade us from 'congregrating around the restrooms': cue machievellian scheming and numerous games of aisleway chicken when rushing to any available toilet.sadly, the best security theory can be let down by application. we were required to fill out a form giving our specific address on our first night in the states: when i said i had absolutely no idea other than somewhere in la, the chap started getting very flustered and started berating me in french. so, i had a bit of bluesky think, and dashed down newport beach, orange county... not only did this dupe the guy in tahiti, it got waved through in la too! god bless the ubiquity of american tv: not only does the oc bring us marissa, it's also a passport into the motherland.
at least the immigration staff were friendlier than i'd heard. the dude who checked my passport looked me up and down and asked me if i'd been on hij. hij, i replied, thinking this was some kind of secret test. hij he repeated, as i looked more and more perplexed and worried about the prospect of a spell at guantanamo. i finally worked out that he meant haj: he'd looked up, seen brown, assumed muslim, and was just trying to be friendly! ignorant, but well meaning, it was pretty much an adumbration of many of the americans i was to run into.
i was however perturbed by the fact that you have to give your fingerprints to enter the states... i'm no fan of liberty and their ilk, but this did strike me as a gross invasion of my civil liberties: we have no way of knowing how long the prints will be kept, and who they will be accessible to: nor do you have any hope of refusing, unless you want to get straight on an outbound flight.
still, i swallowed my annoyance and made it through, settling down in lax to wait for floydie's flight to arrive. during the hours i was there i heard numerous announcements warning people not to give money to solicitors, but to be honest no one was even offering me any... maybe when i start work proper i'll be in line for free handouts at airports. sweet!
posted by bicrom @ 10:54 am
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