Sisterhood
Back from London - very short trip indeed!
Feeling a little disjointed so this post might sound weird, sorry in advance.
I had an incident on this trip that got me thinking. When coming into London, I was completely harrassed by the British Immigration girl. She was behaving like a prat! What bothered me was that she was a girl like me, a Western raised Indian girl. I have noticed I get the worse behavior, customer service from these girls, people who are closest to me in life experiences. Why is that? Are we not suppose to be sisters? Why are we so antagonistic to each other - when were we conditioned to behave like that? You don't see it in other groups or am I just not noticing? Now-a-days, I go out of my way to avoid having to deal with one of these girls, because I know they are going to be rude to me. Trifling.
Besides, I always get annoyed with the British immigration people who give me a hard time coming into England, I often feel like saying, "hey, hey, hey, see this eagle seal on this passport - that means I'm American - the greatest country in the world. So piss off you wanker, I'm not coming from some war-torn country to mooch off your stupid national healthcare system and see asylum! Besides after what you did to my ancestors in India, why would I want to be a British citizen?!"
Sidenote - Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Dog.
posted by Virginia Gal @ 8:11 AM
5 Comments:
How do you handle people like that? Can you just ask for a supervisor? What will they do, move you to a holding cell and do a full strip search? Not let you in? Put you on a 'list' and never let you come back?
As I recall, in my limited travel experience, the immigration guy in London was pretty tough on us, and not very nice. We were just passing through Heathrow on our way to Dublin (long story). It was the middle of the night and we were really disoriented. This was before 9/11/01.
I guess Heathrow has a pretty good reputation, since they didn't even glance at out passports in Ireland (the Republic, so it was a different country). I was disappointed not to get my passport stamped in Dublin.
Do they give every 5th person a tough time or something like that? Or was it our brand spankin' new passports? I dunno. Since then, they've all been pretty nice, including the folks in Vancouver, Canada, where I kept setting off the metal detector.
Sometimes folks are hardest on the people who are most like themselves. Ironically, in the end, you're not much like her at all! :)
Aren't you glad I just wrote my first novel as a comment on your post???
Who is she? What's her name? I am SO on my way to London to beat me some London ass! *grrr*
NO ONE messes with MY VG.
*shows muscle*
Divine - oh you're sweet, but after a six hour flight, I an firmly say, she was NOT jealous of my looks, hee hee : )
Joe - That is a good question, how do you handle them - they are in a position of power and I am at their mercy in a way, no? She could have been super fussy and gotten me interogated. I suppose I did what I could by not thanking her or saying anything to her when she handed me back the passport.
Merci - I'm touched that my post elicited such a lengthy comment from you. Yes, I think England is particularly tough, because they get so many aslyum seekers. But come on - I don't even fit that profile, why was she bothering me? I think she was doing it just to be a pain, believe you me, if I had been my hottie crush, she wouldn't have just smiled and stamped his passport, no questions asked. Gosh, look at how long my response was, hee hee.
Tony - thanks! You're like the big brother I never had! You might have to go over and beat up on some guys who have broken my heart : )
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