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Something which has come up a few times lately is people asking me to visit the USA. Visiting friends and family or conventions, that sort of thing. Now, it's not likely for reasons of time and cash, but there's another reason I'm reluctant to go, and that's because I decided a few years ago not to visit the US again for the forseeable future.
This might seem an odd decision to make; people who know me know I like the US and not just because of the notable efficacy of my dapper British accent in making the acquaintance of American ladies. As well as that it's actually rare I meet an American who I don't like. They tend to have a positive and friendly optimism, an 'I get knocked down, I get back up again' attitude which I like, I think we British could do well to aspire to emulating and which I attempt to emulate myself as much as possible. So it's nothing against the people when I say I probably won't visit the US again. I'm afraid it's their government, and moreover one specific policy.
It's the whole photographing and fingerprinting people on the way in thing that I object to. It might seem an odd, small thing, but I take issues of personal privacy and liberty very seriously. Here I am, a law abiding* citizen of the United States' closest ally and genuine friend of the US and this rather sorry tracking behaviour just isn't on, I'm afraid.
I've never been fingerprinted in my entire life except on my birth certificate. Not only because I may one day want to pursue a career as a catburglar but more importantly because if I've committed no crime then my identity is none of your damn business, and that goes for my increasingly obsessively Owellian and micromanaging government as much as it does that of the US - I've just got no option regarding interacting with my government because the hard-of-thinking kept bloody electing them.**
With the US Dollar being worth only slightly more than confetti on the international markets at the moment you'd think that the US government would be more keen to encourage free spending foreigners like me to visit. With my mighty British Pounds I could pay off the USA's $368,000,000,000 national debt just by buying a few Hershey bars and tipping heavily so being a little more accomodating - and not treating me like a potential beardy psychopath bent on Grand Theft Aero - is in order.
This came up last night when a friend of mine asked if I fancied visiting Cuba. "Sure", I said, with almost no thought. "It'd probably be quite interesteing and fun."
Then it struck me. I never thought I'd regard Fidel Castro as being more amenable to my individual liberty and privacy than the President of the United States of America, but it appears that day has come.
*In that I don't have a criminal record
**Although I work very hard on having as little to do with the Machinery of State as I possibly can.
This might seem an odd decision to make; people who know me know I like the US and not just because of the notable efficacy of my dapper British accent in making the acquaintance of American ladies. As well as that it's actually rare I meet an American who I don't like. They tend to have a positive and friendly optimism, an 'I get knocked down, I get back up again' attitude which I like, I think we British could do well to aspire to emulating and which I attempt to emulate myself as much as possible. So it's nothing against the people when I say I probably won't visit the US again. I'm afraid it's their government, and moreover one specific policy.
It's the whole photographing and fingerprinting people on the way in thing that I object to. It might seem an odd, small thing, but I take issues of personal privacy and liberty very seriously. Here I am, a law abiding* citizen of the United States' closest ally and genuine friend of the US and this rather sorry tracking behaviour just isn't on, I'm afraid.
I've never been fingerprinted in my entire life except on my birth certificate. Not only because I may one day want to pursue a career as a catburglar but more importantly because if I've committed no crime then my identity is none of your damn business, and that goes for my increasingly obsessively Owellian and micromanaging government as much as it does that of the US - I've just got no option regarding interacting with my government because the hard-of-thinking kept bloody electing them.**
With the US Dollar being worth only slightly more than confetti on the international markets at the moment you'd think that the US government would be more keen to encourage free spending foreigners like me to visit. With my mighty British Pounds I could pay off the USA's $368,000,000,000 national debt just by buying a few Hershey bars and tipping heavily so being a little more accomodating - and not treating me like a potential beardy psychopath bent on Grand Theft Aero - is in order.
This came up last night when a friend of mine asked if I fancied visiting Cuba. "Sure", I said, with almost no thought. "It'd probably be quite interesteing and fun."
Then it struck me. I never thought I'd regard Fidel Castro as being more amenable to my individual liberty and privacy than the President of the United States of America, but it appears that day has come.
*In that I don't have a criminal record
**Although I work very hard on having as little to do with the Machinery of State as I possibly can.
