you don't say...

"u.s. the most unfriendly country to visitors"

Rude immigration officials and visa delays keep millions of foreign visitors away from the United States, hurt the country's already battered image, and cost the U.S. billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The Discover America Partnership released the result of a global survey on November 20 which showed that international travelers see the United States as the world's worst country in terms of getting a visa and, once you have it, making your way past rude immigration officials.

The survey, of 2,011 international travelers in 16 countries, was conducted by RT Strategies, a Virginia-based polling firm, for the Discover America Partnership, a group launched in September with multimillion-dollar backing from a range of companies that include the InterContinental Hotels Group, Anheuser Busch and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

More than half of the travelers surveyed said U.S. immigration officials were rude and two-thirds said they feared they would be detained on arriving in the United States for a simple mistake in their paperwork or for saying the wrong thing to an immigration official.

The survey was taken between October 25 and November 9 against the backdrop of growing concern in parts of the U.S. business community over a steady decline in the number of foreigners visiting the United States.

-- Associated Press, November 06 --

i don't need a published survey to convince me that the us of a is THE unfriendliest place to visit. i experienced their brand of 'hospitality' first hand.

we were living in halifax for most of ramadhan and thought, "hey, since the weather's getting real crappy up north and since we have friends over in nyc, why not go visit them for hari raya?" anticipating rendangs and ketupats, we packed our bags, emptied our bowels and merrily skipped out the door. that happiness was... shortlived.

the first mistake we made was going through the u.s. immigration as husband and wife. he has p.r. status and i, well, i have yet to petition for mine so the fact that i wanted to get into their self-proclaimed 'great' land for a mere visit, was to them, highly suspicious. "you have a husband who is a permanent resident and you're NOT thinking of settling down and working in the states? something doesn't sound right here. we need to get to the bottom of this." yes, mr. bush and his loyal gate-keepers (a.k.a the immigration and naturalization service), with all of their pompous arrogance and illusions of grandeur, seem to believe that every single person who comes a-knocking, wants to call the u.s. 'home' and those who claim otherwise are simply, in their words, "hiding something."

we we held up for more than 6 hours at the halifax airport (u.s. immigration clearance was done there) without food nor water. no one asked whether we wanted to use the bathroom. a certain minah hitam who was given more power than she could muster, sat me down on the 'hot' chair and goaded me with her puffed up friendliness, hoping i could give the kind of statements she wanted to hear.

"why do you only have a few items of clothings?"
"i have more. you're not looking at the right places. let me show them to you."
"no, no, i know what i saw. i'm very perceptive."
"why don't you want me to show them to you?"
"i know what i saw."

i read 'my' written statement and was completely blown away. facts were wrong -- my birth date, my wedding date, my previous date of entry to the u.s. icing on the cake, she distorted and fabricated most of the information i provided in order to back her suspicion that i wanted to enter the states with the intention of illegally overstaying my visit. i had only one thought running in my head at that particular instance -- "thank God i know english." these people are damien evil, pure devil incarnates, they only see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe.

they decided to revoke my visa so yes, that's when all hell broke loose. i may look like a dim light bulb but trust me, they messed with the wrong 'alien.' am an honorable couch potato so i knew my rights. infront of her supervisor, i challenged the written statement and asked that she change her version or i wouldn't sign the damn papers. she balked, made faces but i stood my ground. trust me, i was scared to death, scared that they'll call my bluff and haul my ass straight to jail. but i looked her straight in the eyes and silently told myself, "you can do this, you can do this. you can't let them win."

neither of us won that day. my visa was left intact but i was still denied entry. my dignity was to say the least, left in smithereens, my energy drained. worst of all, i came away from that experience with a deep sense of hatred for the country i once respected. what is it about post 9/11 america -- who exactly gave them the right to assume that they are far superior than the rest of us mankind? what happy pill are they on to make them believe that even after the mess they've created in iraq, the world is still marching to the beat of THEIR drum? what makes them think that you and i are still willing participants in their war against terror? who exactly are they kidding?

"we are merely looking out for ourselves..." yes, i know you are. every tom, dick and sally seem to be looking out for their own 'behinds' these days. but here's a thought -- if you keep yourself so focused on what's behind, you may lose sight of what's ahead. and sometimes, we gotta move forward to be able to live the life we really want to live. without fear nor prejudice, free of arrogance and tyrants.

america needs to come down from their 'holier than thou' resting place. soon. maybe not today, or tomorrow, but at least soon enough before someone decides to once again, pull the cozy rug from under them. and if that happens, the u.s. will no longer be the most unfriendly country to visitors, it will be a country no one will ever want to go visit...

*for the record, we celebrated hari raya at an indian buffet in bermuda