The land of the free....

In reply to "I just lurve your English accent" I enjoyed saying "WE have the language, YOU have the accent!"

Following on from your post feetlebaum, I know a couple of Australians who were travelling around America and were asked by an American (way out west) where they were from and they replied Australia, it was met with "gee your English is really good!"

In a Denny's in Palo Alto the waitress asked me if I spoke English!

I said "Speak it, Madam? I AM it..." which at least got a laugh...

Greatnan

You Christians, Micelf - blinking troublemakers, the lot of you.

That made me smile Greatnan. I stayed at Greenham at one point in my life and in 'conversation' with a policeman he said 'you ought to have more sense you know, getting involved with that lot won't do you any good'.

I was part of a delegation from Christian CND.

I think we need to distinguish between immigration officers and customs officers on this thread. There is no reason why anyone entering the USA cannot include condoms in their baggage. The problem was with immigration who extrapolated from the condoms, deciding that the author of the article was a "working girl".

Far from it, envious - most Brits I know, and myself, have found the Americans I have met to be delightful people. When my brother was a merchant seaman he was astounded when they were in a US port and he got into casual conversation with a man in a bar and would be invited for dinner and to meet the family.
I do feel very strongly about the dangers from the fundamentalist Christians who are already managing to put back women's rights in several states, and also about the continuing racial prejudice which is reflected, as it is in England, in the comparative figures for stop and search, arrests, and sentencing.
Profiling about people the establishment sees as a threat is common to many countries. I had a friend who stayed some time at Greenham Common and several years later she was stopped for a minor motoring offence and the policeman told her he knew all about her 'communist' activities. I think we delude ourselves that we live in democracies.

I feel there was truth to that story.She had neg.info on her file put there most likely by the first guard who had no right being one.Leading to more undeserving abuse. I do hope she reported this so these people could be fired. no excuse for that behavior. It's giving to much power to a unqualified untrained person. I'm going to mention big stories to you that are in your papers and not ours. I find it interesting. I also feel you all get blasted with so much U.S. life,products,T.V. Whatever it is,it seems too much! It's a wonder you don't " hate" us.

Have recently came back through Gatwick with the Gch. The customs man was very very thorough checking our passports and never a smile. like all jobs some smile and some don't.

I was shouted at by a very scary young man in Oslo when I tried to take a photo of the plane we were boarding with 3 year old Gd. Didn't think ,I was going to make her a power point of our journey to Norway.He must have suspected I was an international terrorist.

They just have to do their job which ever side of the ocean and stop people from sneaking in.

Just now getting back to this thread.I need to look at the information on link. I would like to say I am amazed at the news about us that we don't hear. Our news seem to be only what we need to know.I have seen this by reading your papers. Its beyond me why we don't get those stories! wish I had an example off the top of my head.

Nothing wrong, Greatnan but it certainly has me scratching my head. Was she preparing for safe sex on the plane?
If she's a lesbian was she hoping for confrontation so she'd have an article to write?

#it'sallbeyondme

Stansgran

Merlot, what on earth is wrong with carrying condoms in your luggage? It only says to me that she wanted to be prepared for safe sex, but I had gathered she was a lesbian, so perhaps she was carrying them for somebody else. Whatever her reason for carrying them, they are surely not forbidden in the US?
Are border controls now to be sexual police , reminiscent of Iran?

I have had a very sheltered life. Why would a lesbian need condoms?

Oh right. Now I'm really

I believe she is a lesbian and a feminist writer.

Call me old fashioned but was it really necessary for her to carry condoms in her luggage? Could she not have bought some when she reached her destination? It does rather smack of, 'I'm so attractive, desirable, independant, sexually alluring, I simply must be prepared at all times.

Recent photo

Clay Nikiforuk

What is not clear in the article is the authors ethnicity. I would suggest that she wasn't a WASP and it was her colour that led to this unacceptable behaviour.

prism-magazine.com/

Try googling 'American Civil Liberties Groups' and you will find dozens of reports of rude, aggressive and unreasonable behaviour by immigration officials. I am surprised that I appear to be the only member who had heard of these.
This is not a criticism of individual Americans - the ones I have known have been extremely pleasant, courteous and hospitable. However, their is undoubted racial prejudice in the judicial system (as there is to a lesser extent in Britain - young black men are still twice as likely to be stopped and searched as their white peers.)

It would be really helpful greatnan if you could put a link to some of the stories thatvyou have found. As Enviousamerican lives there she might be able to put them in context. Like the majority of people on this thread I have no complaints at all about the U.S. customs and have enjoyed the friendliness and courtesy.

Sel,I do hope your OH hasn't had anything bad happen to him.That said Deliverance was just a movie like Easy Rider and made to shock people.I have never heard of anything like that actually happening.There are mean and crazy people anywhere especially when you ad liquor or drugs to the mix.That home made liquor can make you go blind and damage your brain.

I'm not as well travelled as many gransnetters appear to be. I've only been to the US twice. The first time was about 18 years ago when we took my son and his best friend to Florida. We went via Bangor, Maine and had to go through customs there first and then again in Orlando. My husband had taken a few non-fiction books (he always does this when we go on holiday and seldom looks at them). He was rigorously quizzed about it in Maine - was he intending to work in the US? etc,., etc.. They were very intimidating.

The second time was a couple of years ago when I went with a a group to celebrate my friend's 60th birthday in New York. The customs people weren't so intimidating but they were absolutely blank faced.

Having said that, I found most of the people we met to be very pleasant and friendly, and service in hotels, restaurants, bars and on public transport was usually excellent (apart from a cruise on the Hudson where we had a ghastly meal, were charged $35 for a bottle of wine and were finally turfed off after about 2 hours to make way for the next "sitting".

I think the temptation is to talk about 'the US' - it varies enormously state by state. My OH is American, from the North East and he says he feels nervous in some of the Southern states. Still a bit of the 'Deliverance' mentality in places I think. He managed Scotland without any problems