Empathy fail

Whenever I hear Americans whinging about the rare occasions on which they need to get a visa to go somewhere, I just roll my eyes. They usually think they are going to impress me with their tale of woe dealing with Brazilian bureaucrats, and I end up brusting their bubble by explaining to them that whatever they've told me is basically the same thing the US does to visitors, if they're lucky. Anyway, that came to mind when reading this article about a Trinidadian Muslim organization having a representative from the US embassy at their event yesterday. Specifically, the representative, Len Kusnitz, is told this (all too common) story by an attendee:

One of those who complained of victimisation to Kusnitz yesterday was Farouk Khan, public relations officer of the Trinidad Muslim League (TML).

Khan, a former primary school principal, told Kusnitz that during one of his annual vacation visits to the US in December last year, he and his family, including his 83-year-old mother, were interrogated by US security officials for hours, eventually had their visas revoked, and then, were sent back home.

"It is not my intention to make you uncomfortable; I'm not even begging for my visa back, but I just need to have my good name cleared," Khan said.

The standard response here is clearly, "How unfortunate! I'm sorry about that. I'll do an investigation into what happened," at which point Mr. Kusnitz would have been free to return to sampling the sweets on offer and never thinking about the story ever again. But no. Instead:

However, Kusnitz said he, too, was a victim of his country's harsh security measures and assured that it was simply not a case of discrimination against Muslims.

"Since 9/11, (the World Trade Centre bombings on September 11, 2001) the US has become more security conscious, I myself have been pulled into secondary (security checkpoint), along with my 14-year-old son, and had our shoes searched," Kusnitz said.

 That's right. This man – a professional diplomat, mind you – just compared deportation with having to remove his shoes. I'm not sure what Mr. Khan's reaction was, but I assume that punching the US official in the face would have made it into the story, so I admire his restraint.

Guys, there's a time to empathize, and a time to sympathize. Please try to tell the difference in the future. At least around me.

Placid Island

Americans tend to think that all Caribbean islands are pretty much the same – some mix of beaches, cane fields, and money laundering (and associated problems). And while it’s true that there are more similarities than differences, this is a pretty mistaken impression. Despite being from the region, I sometimes slip into the same laziness, but nothing will snap a Trini out of that quicker than a visit to Barbados – and I just got back from a week there, so the differences are at the forefront of my mind right now.

Among West Indians, or at least among Trinis, Barbados has the reputation of being like an anal-retentive roommate. Trinidadians seem to revel in the low-level chaos that characterizes daily life there, but not so in Bimshire. It’s reflected in the uproar over documenting illegal immigrants on the island, which I’ve spoken about before. It’s my understanding that this policy is *very* popular there, even among other (legal) immigrants. Part of it is a desire for documentation, but the more common point made to me during my stay was that Barbados is, frankly, full. Admittedly, Barbados is densely populated, but people there seem convinced that there is just physically no more room at ALL for all these new residents and their “stuff”. Who will keep the schools good and the roads clear and the place clean with all these folks running around? See? It’s like that neat freak college roomie.

The love of order there was also brought home by a minor scandal that erupted during my stay. You probably don’t find Robert’s Rules very exciting reading, so I will be brief – the basic outline is that a former Prime Minister was seen as being slighted by his Opposition party colleagues, and as a result, the Opposition members staged a parliamentary walkout (which is exactly what it sounds like). This walkout was basically treated by the Barbadian media like the nuclear option. Every call-in show* was dominated by the topic for the rest of the week, with people hotly debating the ethics of the walkout, and the potential medium and long-term effects on parliamentary tradition on the island, and would the BLP (the opposition) recover from this kind of behaviour? Meanwhile, in Trinidad, opposition walkouts happen pretty much every other week. I’m not sure they even make the news at this point.

But there are benefits to the anal-retention, and you have to wonder why Trinidad hasn’t followed some of the Barbadian example. The beaches are pristine. Crime has increased on the island, but it’s nothing compared to the gory spectacle that Trinidad’s become. Every student – every single one!! – is entitled to a free university education. And once they decide that they need one, I suspect that they will be able to build a flyover in less than a decade, and won’t act like they launched a space shuttle when it’s done. If I had to choose, I think I still prefer the more bouncy Trini life, but you can’t say a life in Barbados wouldn’t be easier in many ways.

* The radio in Barbados is atrociously bad, unless you love really bad Bajan soca. Hence, I did a lot of listening to call-in shows. If you are fortunate enough to visit the Caribbean, please do listen to a local call-in radio show. It turns out that small island life produces a truly unique breed of call-in show crank. It’s a delight.

Fall of the Mall

Great graphic from the NYT about the decline of the big mall chains (although, are there a lot of Costcos in malls?). (via CR)