6 ms·

For all the mean things that border control agents get away with every day, I personally enjoy "Returning From Thailand" as my little opportunity to even the sc

• kintamanimatt 13y ago
  > Your landing card just says 'most of them'" I'm so sorry for not contributing anything of value to the conversation, but that's the funniest thing I've read all week! I've gotta try this next time I don't have a connecting flight!
• amirmc 13y ago
  Slightly tounge-in-cheek but I really hope that I'm not the guy behind you in line when I next visit the US.
  • kintamanimatt 13y ago
    Usually people of interest get whisked aside to a secondary screening area. They don't tend to hold up the queue that much, except for the fact the border agent has to temporarily close their desk for a few minutes while they escort that person to another room. In total you might face an extra 60-120 seconds in the line.
    • jasonkester 13y ago
      I think he was more worried about being vented on. It's hard to do much to a returning US citizen, so the guy in front would eventually be waved through (possibly without the friendly "welcome home" that they're supposed to say). Next guy in line, from anywhere else at all, would get the wrath of justice unleashed on him. Sorry, dude. My bad.
      • kintamanimatt 13y ago
        > possibly without the friendly "welcome home" that they're supposed to say That'd be about as about as not getting art in the foam of my latte! I'd write a letter!
      • victorf 13y ago
        What wrath? The whole line is US citizens, and it's hard to do much to a returning US citizen.
      • amirmc 13y ago
        Yes, that is what I was thinking but someone else just reminded me that your line would be only US citizens. I'd be in the other one with all the other non-US people. Therefore, if any wrath is unleashed on me it won't be because of you. Carry on!
    • daleharvey 13y ago
      This isnt true in my experience, I was on a watchlist type thing for a few years (dont lose your passport ever if you plan to visit the states :) and every time I got taken to secondary screening but only after a rather lengthy set of questions at the first screen, I think even once I interrupted them to ask just to send me to the secondary one. It was pretty fustrating to have to wait sometimes up to hours (Dallas airport sucks) to know that I was going to get sent to another screen and wait anywhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours to get out, the people were also almost always overly aggressive.
• jacquesm 13y ago
  Hehe, I think it works, it's making me seriously reconsider the life I'm living. Thanks for a good laugh and best of luck with your life-style. (to borrow a bit from DNA).
• einhverfr 13y ago
  I am stealing your approach. One thing I will say though is there are huge differences in border culture. JFK is uniformly unpleasant to enter/ Houston is pretty bad too. I have rarely had unpleasantness in Seatac.
• justinator 13y ago
  The way to beat rudeness is not to be rude back. I've had these same people greet me with a big smile, ask me how well I'll do in a race (they had already met many people doing the same race) and wish me good luck. Airports are stressful places and traveling in general can also be stressful. My opinion? Being rude is not your privilege. It won't fix a broken system. It just makes you personally feel better, at the expense of another. We're all much better than that - or so I should hope.
  • kghose 13y ago
    Yes.
  • kintamanimatt 13y ago
    I can't see how jasonkester is being rude!
    • Jtsummers 13y ago
      > Basically, it's your opportunity to remind them that their job is to sit in a little cube talking to people who are actually out there leading exciting lives. And that their attempts to make other people's lives worse is not really doing a very good job of making their own life any better. The assumption that those who aren't out traveling are beneath him and deserve the ill treatment that he's intending (whether they realize he's intending to be abusive or not).
      • kintamanimatt 13y ago
        I interpreted it as him being encouraging and reminding people that there's a bigger, brighter world out there full of possibility—if they want it. Someone that's not interested in his kind of lifestyle won't be inspired, and his example would wash over them unnoticed. But for everyone else trapped in a life they never really wanted it's a gentle nudge and reminder to not waste time living a suboptimal life, doing a lot of things they don't want to be doing. It's a prod to take risks, start again, and make things better in whatever way is appropriate. There have been people like jasonkester that have appeared in my life before. When times have been good they didn't inspire me, but were just good fun. When times have been bad, their example pushed and motivated me to get my life back on track. They may never have known what kind of good they did for me, and they may have even departed from my life, but I'm extremely grateful for the time they spent with me. I really don't want to wear the same t-shirt for 40 days in a rainforest, and I really don't want to emulate jasonkester's travel plans; I'm allergic to spiders and nature! However, if I got stuck stamping passports or asking whether you'd like fries with that, I'm quite sure his passion would be quite invaluable as a reminder to sort my life out. What jasonkester did can be done unpleasantly. Nobody likes people that say "nah nah nah nah boo boo my life is better than yours!", but I just don't get the feeling that's how it went down in this instance.
• aneth5 13y ago
  I imagine it's hard for you to see how arrogant and insensitive it is to rub your success and privilege in the face of the middle class. Think about that twice next time. You have a great life. Appreciate it but also appreciate others. Being successful doesn't have to mean being a jerk.
  • awda 13y ago
    I don't think TSA workers qualify as middle class. It's not a skilled job, and it doesn't pay particularly well.
    • mortenjorck 13y ago
      It might have been a 20th-Century middle-class job, had it existed then.
    • ErsatzVerkehr 13y ago
      Thankfully, Immigration/Customs is not run by the TSA. Immigration/Customs appears to be orders of magnitude more competent and professional.
  • jasonkester 13y ago
    For what it's worth, during the years I actually had these conversations, I doubt I ever made as much as a Customs clerk. I'd bring in maybe $20k in consulting and product income over the course of a year, which was enough to travel on but likely not enough to pay for, say, the apartment that the clerk lived in. There's no requirement for privilege, or even "living wage" to lead such a lifestyle. As such, I appreciate that you thought I was somehow successful, but by most objective standards, I was just a homeless guy.
    • niuzeta 13y ago
      I need to remind you that you're using the fact that your financial situation isn't successful as a justification to being a jerk to another human being. If a border officer was rude to you, then be a jerk to him, not some random stranger who just happened to be in same situation to him.
• steven777400 13y ago
  I'm happy for you. I have a friend in a similar situation to you (in terms of travelling/freedom/finances). It doesn't inspire me to "find a better job". Frankly, it makes me suicidal (I don't mean that in a hyperbole way). I look at how successful he is and I think; I could never be that successful. He will be cavorting around the world carefree for the rest of his life, and I will chained to a cube (whether at this job or another, doesn't really matter) until I'm unemployable and on the streets. Getting a better job is nothing like what you and people like my friend have. You guys are in such a different realm, and although I enjoy following along with his adventures, it also hurts when he (and I hear a bit of this in your post too) can't understand that most of us will never and could never be in that position. 90% of new businesses fail. I barely have enough savings to last a month if I was out of a job, so the risk of trying to start and grow a business is much more likely to put me into poverty than it is to put me into financial freedom. When I encounter a service worker, such a waiter, customs official, bus driver, etc who seems rude and snappy, I try (this is hard for me) to think about what they might be feeling. They could be having a bad day. Maybe someone yelled at them. Maybe their boss is cruel and belittling, but they can't find another job. Maybe their kids or spouse is trouble. Maybe the table before me left a religious tract instead of a monetary tip. I realize your post is tongue-in-cheek, and intended to be funny (and it is). But it's also a bit hurtful. I can imagine that exchange, and the customs official is completely demoralized. The question in your hypothetical dialogue are entirely legitimate: they need to know where you've been and what you're up to. Your responses, although accurate, are made in such a way as to say "I'm better than you." I know you don't mean it that way. The same as I have to spend time away from facebook just because the endless stream of travels of my friend depress me too much, I sometimes just need to not know about them. I don't know if you've ever actually said that dialogue to a customs person, but I only request you think carefully. A lot of people struggle with self-deprecation and/or depression. And an exchange which it makes so clear that he/she/me are stuck trying to pay the bills and work two jobs while other people are free and have it all just drives the depression that much deeper. I don't say you should give up anything, or that you didn't work hard. I'm sure you deserve everything you have! Please just don't rub it in the face of a stranger who is lower class than you :(
  • jasonkester 13y ago
• walshemj 13y ago
  Coming across like an entitled bitch is asking for trouble esp if vallywag get hold of it and starts monstering you.
• grecy 13y ago
  I'm Australian and come in and out of the US quite often. I've spent many years of my life traveling around doing what I want, including 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina. > Basically, it's your opportunity to remind them that their job is to sit in a little cube talking to people who are actually out there leading exciting lives As a foreigner, this is exactly what you don't want to do. Pissing them off is a very, very bad idea. I've had many things said and done to me at the entrance to the US that I'd rather avoid in the future.
  • vowelless 13y ago
    > As a foreigner, this is exactly what you don't want to do. This is unfortunately correct. The border agent has final say in letting you into the country (regardless of the legitimacy of your documents).
    • kamjam 13y ago
      I'm the same in at the immigration for my own country (UK) but as soon as I set foot in the line-up for any other country, it's "yes sir" and "no sir". I'm not a tourist, it's my right to enter my own country.
• evadne 13y ago
  The last time back to Vancouver, the CBSA guy actually had to be convinced that I don’t have additional clothes… I showed him a hotel business card, then he postulated that I could have left clothes in a hotel! (I got in.) Another gem: “No way anybody takes a 75-day vacation, I don’t even take two weeks.” I for one do not understand their obsession with clothes. It seems to me that they focus on people with very little luggage.
• jaysonelliot 13y ago
  I don't think I've read a more privileged, arrogant, myopic comment in a very long time. In what world is it your role to judge a person for going to work every day to feed their family? "Basically, it's your opportunity to remind them that their job is to sit in a little cube talking to people who are actually out there leading exciting lives." I'm trying not to read that sentence in the voice of a young English aristocrat from the 1920s, but that's how it sounds. Mocking the working class for the distasteful faux pas of needing a paycheck to survive? You are blessed for having been able to find a way to live a life of travel and pleasure while others have to worry about which bills they can pay, hope they don't get sick, and dream of someday being able to take even one vacation. Does that mean you are better than them? You certainly seem to think so. "One day they'll quit . . . the ones that need this sort of treatment . . ." Honestly, listen to yourself. Are you some authority appointed to correct the misbehavior of your inferiors? No. You're a guy with talent who drew the right cards, played them well, and was rewarded with a life others would like to have. Learn a lesson about humility from my grandmother who grew up in the Great Depression, and reminded me always to tell myself "there, but for the grace of God, go I." On a side note, I see that you are the founder of Twiddla. Not that the opinion of a single user matters, but as a user, I will now look for an alternative. I have no interest in supporting such arrogance.
  • jasonkester 13y ago
    Are you some authority appointed to correct the misbehavior of your inferiors? No. If you came away with that impression then you may have misread my intent. My stance is that mean people deserve to live an unhappy life. No more. Nice people, as noted in the comment you responded to, receive no such treatment from me. Mean people get a fictionalized account of a person leading a much better life than themselves, delivered by a person who in actual fact is not likely leading a much more interesting life at all. As a mean person, the theory goes, one can continue being mean and thus unhappy. Or they can start being nice and be treated nicely. Notice how class does not enter into it at all.
    • jaysonelliot 13y ago
      Do you think for a moment about what that person had to put up with for the hours before you arrived that day, or will continue to deal with after you leave? Is it not enough that you've managed to retire as a young man and lounge on the beaches of Thailand, do you also need to be treated with smiles and deference by people who still have to go to work every day? They have a job to do, and your abuse isn't going to help anything. At best, it'll just make the experience that much worse for the person in line behind you. Empathy is not something that can be forced on a person, and a comment on a web page isn't going to make you change your attitude or think about anyone else's life, but then again, being a dick to customs agents isn't going to help, either, so I guess we're both wasting our breath.
• deleted 13y ago
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