(no subject)
Where to begin. I've been avoiding the topic of the hurricane devastation for a reason. It's an incredible disaster, it's tragic, and on the other side of the world the magnitude is difficult to comprehend. So I've been keeping quiet.
But I know this. I'm not coming to the states anytime soon.
Why not? Because I think I'll get hit by a natural disaster? Hardly.
I do generally like to boycott countries with which I have a serious ethical problem. I was brought up to refuse to eat groceries from South Africa when that country was still under apartheid, and as attractive as I find many countries in the Middle East, I would never visit them. I try not to support the export industry of countries I find ethically unacceptable, and in the same way I do not wish to support the tourism industry of these countries. Quite often I don't think I'm doing very well, but it's continuously at the back of my mind.
But that's not the reason either, really. The current US administration sickens me, but there is more to the country than its government.
I started reading some articles on the hurricane from the list of links on aralinde's journal. In particular, this one. The US authorities evacuating people from hotels and guest houses before Katrina hit left behind a seven year old boy. They decided there were other people better worth rescuing. Because the seven year old boy was British, not American. These things matter to the US authorities when it comes to actively picking out who gets to be left behind to fend for themselves, possibly to starve to death.
In the aftermath, US phone operators are refusing to accept collect calls from stranded Britons.
Don't justify this to me. They had the opportunity to get a child out of this disaster and they passed on it. Even if it's possible to justify it, which I doubt, I don't want to hear it. It won't make any difference to me. It boils down to the fact that it isn't safe for non-Americans in the US. When something goes wrong, and things frequently go wrong when anybody travels, the answer of the US authorities to non-Americans is that they. Don't. Care.
Dangerous.
Here's another article that's been stuck in my mind ever since I read it. Which is over a year ago, so you know it really upset me. I want to visit my friends in the US. I really really do. But the US authorities act like they're constantly playing a game of bureaucratic target practice. And I may not be marked bullseye, but I can't get away from the feeling that I'm in the general direction in which they're firing.
Altogether unwelcoming. I'll meet you in Canada, but I'm afraid I'm not going to make it to the US.
But I know this. I'm not coming to the states anytime soon.
Why not? Because I think I'll get hit by a natural disaster? Hardly.
I do generally like to boycott countries with which I have a serious ethical problem. I was brought up to refuse to eat groceries from South Africa when that country was still under apartheid, and as attractive as I find many countries in the Middle East, I would never visit them. I try not to support the export industry of countries I find ethically unacceptable, and in the same way I do not wish to support the tourism industry of these countries. Quite often I don't think I'm doing very well, but it's continuously at the back of my mind.
But that's not the reason either, really. The current US administration sickens me, but there is more to the country than its government.
I started reading some articles on the hurricane from the list of links on aralinde's journal. In particular, this one. The US authorities evacuating people from hotels and guest houses before Katrina hit left behind a seven year old boy. They decided there were other people better worth rescuing. Because the seven year old boy was British, not American. These things matter to the US authorities when it comes to actively picking out who gets to be left behind to fend for themselves, possibly to starve to death.
In the aftermath, US phone operators are refusing to accept collect calls from stranded Britons.
Don't justify this to me. They had the opportunity to get a child out of this disaster and they passed on it. Even if it's possible to justify it, which I doubt, I don't want to hear it. It won't make any difference to me. It boils down to the fact that it isn't safe for non-Americans in the US. When something goes wrong, and things frequently go wrong when anybody travels, the answer of the US authorities to non-Americans is that they. Don't. Care.
Dangerous.
Here's another article that's been stuck in my mind ever since I read it. Which is over a year ago, so you know it really upset me. I want to visit my friends in the US. I really really do. But the US authorities act like they're constantly playing a game of bureaucratic target practice. And I may not be marked bullseye, but I can't get away from the feeling that I'm in the general direction in which they're firing.
Altogether unwelcoming. I'll meet you in Canada, but I'm afraid I'm not going to make it to the US.