Monday 9 August 2010

vini, vidi

Having resided in the European Union for quite some time, on official business, though without accompanying citizenship, I have gotten use to borderless pacts and relative freedom of movement. I have run up against a few logistical riddles lately, however, when it comes to travel. Though I had every assurance in addition to my own research on entry requirements for Turkey, I was still nervous and nearly flipped out when the guy behind the ticket counter informed me that my vegetarian meal, as requested, would be available on the flight. I misheard it. A visa is the short-form of the Latin phrase “charta visa,” the paper that has been seen. It think, however, a more apt expression might be quid pro quo, as everything escalated or otherwise sustained behind bureaucratic and diplomatic reciprocity and blow-back to the US for making travel in general such an unpleasant experience. H and I, projecting longingly to the next vacation, are hoping to spend New Year’s in Russia and I am already a bit overwhelmed by the process and who I belong to under these circumstances and travel arrangements. In an unrelated move, the airport at Hamburg is poised to start a pilot program to test full-body scanners, the city-state’s foreign minister announced. After the revelations, which should not have come as a big surprise, the US Department of Homeland Security is actively warehousing these images for more than just training purposes, I wonder why Hamburg would have committed to this exercise—which is apparently on a voluntary-basis, and risk being entangled in the same mistrust and suspicions that the US is courting. That makes about as much sense as a city-state having a full-fledged ministry of foreign affairs.