(no subject)
I had a debate at Dell's party last night. Friends list I'd like you to weigh in on a question:
When crossing from Quebec into the United states should the U.S. Border Patrol be required to speak French?
I think that they shouldn't have that requirement. It doesn't matter if you're coming from a bilingual country, you're going into their country, French is not an official language for them, ergo it doesn't matter where you're crossing from, they shouldn't be required to speak French.
Let's be hypothetical for a moment. Say Quebec seperates from Canada. Now I'm travelling from English Ontario in to French Quebec. As I cross into their country should their border be required to speak English to me? I think that the Francaphone population might not support that idea at all. So why should another country be required to speak their language?
That's as silly as me deciding that when I go to Europe someone should be available at all borders who can speak English for me. While that's not quite the same as we're not landlocked with Europe it's still the same basic argument. If you're going into someone's country you have to play by their rules.
The other spirited conversation which came from this was about the border guards being too tough and mean...
While I have found that for me going into the US can be intimidating that's their job. The whole point is to be intimidating and to rapid fire questions at you so that if someone screws up you can catch them lying. I'd far rather have a few minutes of slight unplesantness than have people making it accross the border on the bus or train or plane which I'm travelling on with let's say, a bomb. Do I want to be on a vehical which is going to blow up? Not so much.
Even I found that going up the Empire State Building was tough. The security there is intense. However I respect that, and when you're coming back down their very nice people. But they have to screen you as you go up their national landmark and intimidation works well to weed out some people.
I think really the argument is here that we're dealing with nice people who can't see the reason for being inconvienced. They aren't planning to bomb anything or cause any trouble ergo it's harder to imagine that other people are spending their lives doing exactly that and it's for those people that the rules are in place.
Sometimes it can get intense but who knows, perhaps that guard who is extra mean when you're going through the border is the one who found someone smuggling weapons or drugs the day before. I think that as long as you really have nothing to hide it's not a horrible process. At least I've never found it to be unbearable.
So there we have it, I sided with America twice last night. Odd.
When crossing from Quebec into the United states should the U.S. Border Patrol be required to speak French?
I think that they shouldn't have that requirement. It doesn't matter if you're coming from a bilingual country, you're going into their country, French is not an official language for them, ergo it doesn't matter where you're crossing from, they shouldn't be required to speak French.
Let's be hypothetical for a moment. Say Quebec seperates from Canada. Now I'm travelling from English Ontario in to French Quebec. As I cross into their country should their border be required to speak English to me? I think that the Francaphone population might not support that idea at all. So why should another country be required to speak their language?
That's as silly as me deciding that when I go to Europe someone should be available at all borders who can speak English for me. While that's not quite the same as we're not landlocked with Europe it's still the same basic argument. If you're going into someone's country you have to play by their rules.
The other spirited conversation which came from this was about the border guards being too tough and mean...
While I have found that for me going into the US can be intimidating that's their job. The whole point is to be intimidating and to rapid fire questions at you so that if someone screws up you can catch them lying. I'd far rather have a few minutes of slight unplesantness than have people making it accross the border on the bus or train or plane which I'm travelling on with let's say, a bomb. Do I want to be on a vehical which is going to blow up? Not so much.
Even I found that going up the Empire State Building was tough. The security there is intense. However I respect that, and when you're coming back down their very nice people. But they have to screen you as you go up their national landmark and intimidation works well to weed out some people.
I think really the argument is here that we're dealing with nice people who can't see the reason for being inconvienced. They aren't planning to bomb anything or cause any trouble ergo it's harder to imagine that other people are spending their lives doing exactly that and it's for those people that the rules are in place.
Sometimes it can get intense but who knows, perhaps that guard who is extra mean when you're going through the border is the one who found someone smuggling weapons or drugs the day before. I think that as long as you really have nothing to hide it's not a horrible process. At least I've never found it to be unbearable.
So there we have it, I sided with America twice last night. Odd.