2008.07.11: July 11, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Iraq: Speaking Out: Immigration: The New Yorker: George Packer writes: It’s the American style and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Togo: Special Report: RPCV George Packer (Togo): 2008.07.11: July 11, 2008: Headlines: COS - Togo: Writing - Togo: Journalism: Iraq: Speaking Out: Immigration: The New Yorker: George Packer writes: It’s the American style and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors

By Admin1 (admin) (70.250.245.178) on Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 10:11 pm: Edit Post

George Packer writes: It’s the American style and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors

George Packer writes: It’s the American style and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors

I had just spent most of the evening at J.F.K. Airport’s Terminal 4 waiting for an Iraqi friend, his wife, and their two young daughters to emerge from immigration and customs. Just before 9:00 P.M., the family straggled out, making a heroic effort to look happy. They had been held, along with fifteen or twenty others, in a waiting room in order to be registered as non-immigrants on special visas. Why this took over four hours seems mainly to have been due to the indifference and incompetence of Homeland Security officers, who kept losing files, failing to apply the correct stamp, going on hourlong breaks, and, when my friend asked if the process couldn’t be hurried up a bit, threatening to make the delay even longer. The substance of the registration—name-check, fingerprinting, a few questions—took less than thirty minutes. My friend concluded that the wait was at least in part deliberate: these newcomers were given a prolonged taste of official authority before being turned loose in the country. “This is the Iraqi style,” he said. “Not the American style.” Journalist George Packer served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo.

George Packer writes: It’s the American style and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors

Give Me Your Tired—I'll Exhaust Them

I got home late Tuesday night to find in the mail pile the bound galleys of a book coming out in September: “The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11,” by Edward Alden. Its publisher promises “a striking and persuasive assessment of the dangers faced by a United States that cuts itself off from the rest of the world, making it increasingly difficult for others to come here and depriving itself of the most persuasive thing it can offer—the example of what it has achieved at home.”

At that moment, I was the easiest person in America to persuade. I had just spent most of the evening at J.F.K. Airport’s Terminal 4 waiting for an Iraqi friend, his wife, and their two young daughters to emerge from immigration and customs. Their plane from Amman had arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon. An El Al flight had gotten in around the same time, and the families of Orthodox Jews, the women in hijabs, the secular Muslim teens, the two varieties of monotheism sporting identical long beards, had all flowed out together from behind the metallic wall, peacefully pushing luggage carts in a perfect tableau of the most persuasive thing America can offer. Behind them came waves of other passengers from other places, Port of Spain, London, Kuwait, Cancun, Naples, and I would have started getting sentimental about the whole business were it not for the fact that my friend and his family failed to appear. A lull, then more flights, more of the world’s gorgeous mosaic disembarking in the capital of immigration, and still no sign of them. Hours went by. There was nowhere to sit. I was afraid to get a cup of coffee and risk missing them—they knew no one in New York.

Just before 9:00 P.M., the family straggled out, making a heroic effort to look happy. They had been held, along with fifteen or twenty others, in a waiting room in order to be registered as non-immigrants on special visas. Why this took over four hours seems mainly to have been due to the indifference and incompetence of Homeland Security officers, who kept losing files, failing to apply the correct stamp, going on hourlong breaks, and, when my friend asked if the process couldn’t be hurried up a bit, threatening to make the delay even longer. The substance of the registration—name-check, fingerprinting, a few questions—took less than thirty minutes. My friend concluded that the wait was at least in part deliberate: these newcomers were given a prolonged taste of official authority before being turned loose in the country. “This is the Iraqi style,” he said. “Not the American style.”

It’s the American style now, according to Edward Alden’s book, and it’s hurting our economy, isolating us from the world, and making a terrible first impression on millions of visitors. D.H.S. responded to the immigration failures that helped make September 11th possible by turning the immigration system into a counterterrorism program. The tradeoff between openness and security is never easy to figure out, but what struck me about my friend’s ordeal was its sheer gratuitousness. We should try to avoid reminding visitors of the reasons they were happy to get away from home in the first place. And someone should tell D.H.S. that we need all the friends and admirers we can get. On the way into the city, when the New York skyline came into view—beacon of immigrants all over the world—my friend’s wife didn’t smile.



Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: July, 2008; RPCV George Packer (Togo); Peace Corps Togo; Directory of Togo RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Togo RPCVs; Writing - Togo; Journalism; Iraq; Speaking Out; Immigration





When this story was posted in July 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Contact PCOLBulletin BoardRegisterSearch PCOLWhat's New?

Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed
Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act Date: October 27 2007 No: 1206 Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act
Senator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them."

Peace Corps News Peace Corps Library Peace corps History RPCV Directory Sign Up

May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 2 2008 No: 1242 May 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Condoleezza Rice Visits PC Headquarters 28 Apr
Bush hosts PCVs at White House 29 Apr
George Derrick is Oklahoma's first PCV 27 Apr
Debate is Brewing over Older Volunteers 25 Apr
Peter Spiro Scaled Corporate Ladder at Microsoft 24 Apr
Ukraine PCV terminated after testing HIV positive 22 Apr
Strauss writes: PC never lived up to purpose or principles 22 Apr
Atlantic Publishing needs your help on PC book 21 Apr
Nicole Nakama follows in footsteps of Father as PCV 21 Apr
Jerry LaPre writes: The Children of Sierra Leone 21 Apr
Robert Blackwill quits lobbying firm 19 Apr
An Interview with Christopher R. Hill 18 Apr
Harris Wofford introduces Obama's Speech on Race 18 Apr
Matthews could Challenge Arlen Specter for Senate 16 Apr
Lee Myung-bak invites 1500 RPCVs back to Korea 15 Apr
Peace Corps looks forward to returning to Kenya 11 Apr
Kathleen Stephens Quizzed by Congress 11 Apr
Campbell murder trial ends; Verdict set for June 30 9 Apr
Dodd Calls for New Strategic Partnership in Americas 9 Apr
Jake Hooker wins Pulitzer Prize for "A Toxic Pipeline" 9 Apr
Sirleaf welcomes return of PCVs to Liberia 8 Apr

New: More Stories from March and April 2008

March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: May 1 2008 No: 1238 March 31, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
John Nichols writes: Tom Petri Challenges Abusive Secrecy 15 Mar
Timothy Shriver writes Baseball and 'Sarge' 31 Mar
Barry Kitterman writes "Baker's Boy" 30 Mar
Nathaniel Spiller writes: Friendship Thrives in Senegal 30 Mar
Garamendi Addresses California Democratic Convention 29 Mar
Melinda Palma lunches with Bush in Ghana 28 Mar
Peace Corps Director Tschetter leads by example 28 Mar
Bush presents Service Award to Lydia Humenycky 27 Mar
Suspension of Kenya Program under review 23 Mar
Patricia 'Pan' Godchaux rejoins PC after 40 years 23 Mar
James Rupert writes: Parliament to Rein In Musharraf 23 Mar
Embassies pay for devalued dollar 22 Mar
Sargent Shriver at Fund Raiser for Best Buddies 21 Mar
Terry Thomas strongly opposed to war in Iraq 19 Mar
Tony D’Souza's new book is "The Konkans" 18 Mar
Larry Kaplow writes: US taking notice of ordinary Iraqis 17 Mar
Bruce Cumings says North Korea tough to invade 12 Mar
PCVs Participate in ‘Walk the Nation’ in Swaziland 10 Mar
Theroux says India as hospitable as ever 8 Mar
Tony Hall talks about hunger in Bonita 6 Mar
Hill says relations with North Korea possible 4 Mar

New: More Stories from February and March 2008

What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia? Date: February 10 2008 No: 1227 What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia?
Last summer Peace Corps Inspector General David Kotz cited the lack of cooperation from the US embassy in Bolivia in the search for missing Peace Corps Volunteer Walter Poirier III. Now a member of the US Embassy Staff in Bolivia is accused of asking Peace Corps Volunteers "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country. Could US Ambassador Philip S.Goldberg please explain what is going on at the embassy that he has been running in La Paz since 2006?



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: The New Yorker

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Togo; Writing - Togo; Journalism; Iraq; Speaking Out; Immigration

PCOL41631
93


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: