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Did Chicago Lose Olympic Bid Due To US Passport Control?
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday, Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics (which went to Rio de Janeiro instead), and it's looking very likely that US border procedures were one of the main factors which knocked Chicago out of the race: 'Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago's official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be "a rather harrowing experience." ... The exchange underscores what tourism officials here have been saying for years about the sometimes rigorous entry process for foreigners, which they see as a deterrent to tourism.'"
Everyone I know who visits the USA these days tells me what a pain in the ass it is to travel here now. I'm sure everyone on the IOC knows all about that.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Travelling through the US (spending a night there) is one of the worst things that can happen to you. I now avoid it at all costs, even if the other alternative is alot more expensive, hell its even worse that going through Venezuela. You don't need to make people jump through hundreds unnecessary hoops, treat them like some kind parasite/criminal you don't want anywhere near your country and employ the stupidest, most incompetent, pettiest little assholes to handle them in order to protect your country from the big bad terrorism. If a terrorist wants in, its not going to be hard, airports that treat people like scum are just further isolating your country from the rest of the world.
Just so you know, people at American airports don't treat *Americans* very well either.
"The most ridiculous interview I heard with my own ears:
Interviewer: "What did you have this morning as breakfast?"
Applicant: "Bread." I: "Nothing else?"
Applicant: "No."
Interviewer: "According to American law, we cannot grant you a visa."
Applicant: "....".
I was sitting beside the person when he was rejected. You know, it is funny to reject someone according American law just because he only had bread in the morning."
From http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060519_getting_us_visa_in_china.htm
Even without any sort of criminal record it's not a pleasant experience to enter the US, even as a Norwegian citizen entering via Canada. This May the robots routed me back form BSDCan (in Ottawa) through Washington, DC. It's possible that the fact that I did not apply for a visa (this was transit only, planning to stay on the ground roughly one hour between flights) complicated things a bit. As it turned out, in addition to the ordinary three forms (with more or less the same info in all of them) I needed to fill in a separate 'visa waiver form' (identical to at least two of the other forms in all other things than paper thickness, sheet size, color of paper and print and font) before getting to the fingerprinting, retina scanning and oral examination to check the validity of the information that I'd filled in, performed by a border guard who seemed to have been trained to appear hostile but was obviously monumentally bored by the whole process. This was after clearing the ordinary pre-boarding security theatre, mind you. And of course I would need to pick up the boarding passes for my connecting flights at the Washington, DC airport. That meant getting from one end of the airport to the other to pick up boarding passes and clearing another full act of security theatre in order to get back to where I could board the transatlantic flight. I did make my connecting fligh, running pretty much all the way except for the time spent lining up for the various security checks on the way. So yes, I can believe in a theory that US border control was a factor in deciding to place the next Olympics elsewhere.
-- That grumpy BSD guy - http://bsdly.blogspot.com/
Although Brazil has quite a few social problems, they're well on their way to getting their shit to together and I'm thinking in the not too distant future, they'll be a very large power house in the World Economy. I may start taking Portuguese!
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
No, they just make you go through the exact same thing a Brazilian citizen goes while going to your contry.
If you're from a Schengen country, come on in. If you're from the US, you need a visa, you need to have your fingerprints taken, etc, etc
Reciprocity's a bitch, isn't it.
how long until
As a matter of fact, yes I do.
I struggle think of countries where I would expect a worse welcome than the USA. Maybe Zimbabwe as Mugabee blames the British for all the problems it is facing at the moment.
They are concerned about what US Customs would do to foreigners, they should look at what they do to citizens. I was born and raised in the states, and still live in a state near a border. I recently crossed back into the states (by car) after 5 days in a neighboring country. I pulled up to customs and had to turn off my car and hand my keys to a leather-gloved customs officer so he could search my trunk, while I stayed in my car. I was not allowed to see what he was doing; he could have easily taken items from my trunk or placed items in my trunk without my knowing it. Eventually they cleared me but offered no explanation for what they were doing.
I have had similar experiences in the past as well, I once had to pull from the customs booth to the "additional screening" building (single car garage with doors on both ends) where I had to empty my trunk for a customs agent.
So I can't say I'm surprised if the security theater here was a deciding factor against having another Olympics here. Certainly our procedures have changed a fair bit since 1996.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I just heard this on NPR this morning. You know what else the Brazilians are pledging? $14 Billion! What was Chicago going to pledge? $5 Billion to this event.
Chicago is known for being wet, cold, windy, and expensive.
Actually, Chicago in the summer is know for being miserably, even deadly, hot.
I had far less trouble getting a tourist visa for China than US. And their border control was far less invasive. The only unusual step was getting checked via remote IR thermometer, due to the swine flu epidemic.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
When I entered into Japan it was really extremely easy. I showed my visa and was then asked if I spoke Japanese. I said yes and was directed in Japanese to place my hands on the finger print scanner and look into the camera. The entire immigration process took about a minute and before I was cleared to go through. The only question I was asked is if I spoke Japanese. Which I presume had to do with working out whether to direct me in English or Japanese.
Of course as an anti-terror policy it is somewhat silly. The only terrorist attacks I know of in Japan have been committed by Japanese. About the only outside group that might consider a terror attack on Japan is North Korea and being a tall white guy, I don't exactly look North Korean... But I guess applying it fairly beats racial profiling.
On the other hand, crime by Chinese residents is a big and growing problem in Japan. So I can understand them wanting to clamp down on immigration procedures and so on. It's just a matter of executing it in a fair, professional and efficient way which from what I've seen they're doing.
Obama just wanted it there because he lived there once
"lived there once"? what the hell does that mean? outside of 4 years at harvard he lived in chicago from 1985 until he became president.
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
http://www.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=Chicago&s1=IL&c2=Los+Angeles&s2=CA
Kiss my Angeleno ass. Los Angeles has lower rates of murder, robbery, assault, theft, and burglary.
When Los Angeles, gang ridden shit hole that is, has a not just a lower crime rate, but fewer actual crimes despite its larger population, than your city, you need to shut up.
As someone who lives blocks from where the new Olympic Village would be held, I can assure you that it really isnt a safe place (right now). Too bad we didnt win the bid, as it would have really helped to clean up the area. Washington Park, the intended site, IIRC had multiple shootings over the summer. The Olympics would be hosted in a pretty bad part of town - Some of the worst neighborhoods in the city are literally right down the street.
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Nice idea, but no.
There is no circumstance in which a US embassy can tell you for sure that you will be allowed into the USA.
The guy at the border can always turn you away. Even if you've done nothing wrong. Even if you have a valid visa. Even if you're the fucking Pope. If the guy at the border doesn't want to let you in, you don't come in.
I visited Japan during the initial H1N1 scare and even then it was a fairly pleasant experience. I was concerned about missing our connecting flight from Tokyo to Osaka but we were processed and had our luggage within 20 minutes of disembarking and checked in 10 minutes later. We even managed to get a plastic bottle of water air-side. It was taken from us, put through a sniffer machine and very politely handed back.
I wasn't looking forward to the new passport/fingerprint restrictions, but they were all done in a typically low-key Japanese way and I didn't have a problem with any of it.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
It might not be listed in the report but Montreal just finished paying off their 1976 Olympic Games in 2005.
There, didn't think about that did you? Care about your enviroment, shoot crack.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
We may not be as state-of-the-art as Japan, but I just bought one with a 3" flush valve. WHOOSH!
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
This government efficiency is why we aren't exactly thrilled with the idea of government health care...
It is not just the olympics. International scientific conferences are tending to shy away from the US as well. I'm involved in the organization of three computer science conferences that traditionally alternate between North America and Europe. The North American Slots are ending up in Canada because it is to much of a hassle for the European participants to enter the US. I was at one conference in the US several years ago, and several of us were in the security lineup to leave the country, and one of my colleagues remarked to me, that "it just isn't worth the hassle anymore". Throw in the drama that happens if you happen to take a picture in public (omg a picture of a library or a hotel), and you have to wonder why anyone would visit the USA.
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
Chicago is famously corrupt, and since I have no interest in visiting it as an American (having seen enough of urban blight and the people who live in it) I can see why the Olympics are being hosted elsewhere. Rio is exotic, Chicago is not. Rio can clear whatever area is needed for the Olympics, while US law exists to obstruct. Labor costs will be lower in Rio. End of story.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Really? I've been living in Japan for two years now (I'm a US citizen), and I absolutely dread going back to the States. Arriving in the US feels like a madhouse by comparison. As a Japanese multiple-exit visa holder (most long-term residents have this), I have a separate line at immigration that usually has no line. There is the fingerprinting and photo (which was a point of contention with the American Chamber of Commerce, I remember), but I've never been asked any background questions on any of my 10+ entries into the country. The entire process takes no more than 5 minutes as opposed to the hour-plus ordeal that I face at any US international entry point. You don't have to remove your shoes, and at least for domestic flights, it's no problem to bring a bottle of liquid (tea, etc.) right through security).
Yeah, same experience here. I visited Japan first time before the new fingerprint checks were put in, and it was supremely simple procedure to enter. The customs staff were very polite (of course) and friendly, and just waved me through. I was actually worried because I had brought a big perfume bottle which I realized on the plane to be over the allowed duty-free size, but no problem! I don't consider having to give an address of residence for the stay to be harrassment either. This is given on a disembarkment card and not in a interrogation by officials by the way. I do hate the new fingerprinting checks, no doubt about that, but the procedure itself is very smoothly implemented and going through takes about no time.
"Give me six lines of C++ code written by the most competent programmer, and I will find enough in there to hang him."
The Olympic games in London will take place mostly in East London, an area famous for its gangsters and low lifes of all kinds.
The idea is that by hosting the games in that area they will be an incentive to regenerate it, creating new jobs and businesses and replacing ugly industrial areas with liveable areas and sporting facilities.
This has worked, with varied degrees of success in other venues, for example the are around the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona is now a tourist attraction, before the Olympics it was a very ugly neighbourhood that you wanted to avoid by all means.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Coming into China at 5:45 AM or 11 PM, I have never had to wait for immigration officers to get to their stations; officers are ready any time passengers are arriving. Contrast that to the last time I entered the US - September 14th, 2009 at LAX on NWA flight 002. The entire plane - a full 747-400 with 403 passengers - had to wait for 40 minutes until 9 AM, when immigration officers finally started their shift. And we then queued into line while the officers strolled out one at a time, took 5-10 minutes to get their station ready, then started processing.
China worse than US? Not by a mile. The US simply sucks in terms of immigration, even for US citizens. But as a US citizen, I've come to expect nothing less of any Federal employee or department; we citizens exist to serve and support them, not the other way around!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
>I mean, which law I might have breaking for taking three months off work?
In the United States, the concept of taking three months off of work is inconceivable. The idea of taking a full two weeks off is borderline lunacy. The idea of taking a whole week off is borderline fantasy.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Don't worry, it's only Americans who have such weird issues with nudity. No problem airing it in the rest of the world...
If I wanted to pay to be insulted, demeaned, and harassed I'd want it done by a professional - preferably in full leather.
If you're in Australia, I can get you a number on that. Though most of the Dommes I know prefer Latex.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World