I am here, on American Soil to conduct an investigation! I want to see what is really going down, I want to talk at the grass roots level to the people who matter and I want to see what they say about Obama and McCain, and I want to see if the Credit Crunch has in fact made everybody forget that last weeks topic was about the environment and not money and I want to try and find some sense amongst the daily stupidity that reaches us in Britain!
I flew from Amsterdam to Atlanta on a KLM flight and I managed to listen in to an interesting conversation! The large American couple sitting behind were peering out of the window as the planes wheels left the tarmac:
"Maybe when we get high enough (the plane I suppose) we can see the tulips, the wife said as she applied some lipstick on lips that had not seen daylight since she popped out all those years ago!
"Well, I hope so, but it is the fall (American Autumn) so maybe only the yellow uns (ones) are growing now", said the husband who obviously needed to get out and about a bit more!
Anyway, the flight was uneventful and I arrived in Atlanta tired but prepared for the next few days ahead!
My immigration officer of the day put a spanner in the works! He was Black and he was "in-charge" and I started off this escapade by making a mistake. The thing about American Immigration Officers is that they all seem to have a self-inflated "I'm the boss" style approach that discourages frowns, grumpiness or slowness! I stood in the queue for one hour waiting for my turn with a forced look of happiness and a blank expression that I hoped would say "I hate being here but I have to not show it".
The finger print computers broke down, the queues got longer and people started to blow steam even though they are not allowed to!
I was lucky! Another desk opened up and the Immigration Officer beckoned me forth! Unfortunately, a barrier was between me and his cubicle; one of those strips of nylon that are pulled out to keep the masses in sensible and pre-ordained lines and so I ducked under it to get to where he wanted me to be! He didn't like that and told me to duck back under and walk around! If that had been anywhere else; say in my local bank I would have had the manager on the floor with my finger in his face an apology or else! If it had been in another country I would not have ducked back under but on this occasion and after duly considering the opposition I kept that grin at the forefront and swallowed mightily hard!
And soon, after giving away ten-finger prints, a look into a camera that I hoped would say it all and after being told how I should conduct surprise ship-inspections on a more frequent basis (who is this guy) I was in America!
In my hotel the next day I had a conversation with the bar assistant (maid, waitress)! I asked her about the ongoing politics and who she would be voting for! I was a bit worried that she was in-fact an illegal immigrant recently arrived from Cuba but it turned out that she was eligible to vote!
She said "I am not sure who to vote for anymore! If you see George Bush we all know that he never had the brains to make all the decisions that he did. It doesn't really matter who we vote for because there are too many people behind the scenes so the leaders are just puppets".
A conspiracy theory perhaps but nice to hear that America is not simply divided down the middle; black on one-side, white on the other?
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