When you travel to the USA, it used to be that you filled out what they called a ‘Visa Waiver’ green form, and, assuming everything was OK, you were granted what I thought was a very generous 90-day stay anywhere in the country visa-free.

Not only that, but if you left the country, you didn’t have to be away from there for too long before you were allowed back in for a further 90 days.  Indeed, my dear wife and I travelled to the USA in October 2006, stayed there for around 60 days, including four days in Hawaii, and then moved on to travel to Australia and New Zealand for about seven weeks, before returning to the USA for 90 more days.  We returned to the UK, via a stopover in New York, in April 2007.

In February of this year, 2018, we were fortunate enough to be asked to return to California to take part in a symposium on film music at Long Beach University.  We made all the preparations for the trip, but we discovered that the USA’s Visa Waiver program does not involve little green forms anymore, but a huge online form written and operated by ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization).  They want to know practically your entire life history before they let you into their country.

Now, whether you believe that 9/11 was an inside job or not, there’s no doubting the fact that America was caught off-guard by the events of that awful day in 2001.  At least, that is the impression they want to give you.

Since this post is not intended to be about any of the conspiracy theories, I’ll put all that aside for the time being.  Instead, I just want to focus on the event’s effect on the American authorities’ paranoia about who they let in.

They decided that the terrorists should win, and, instead of remaining the Land of the Free, the USA would use it as an excuse to stop anyone and everyone entering the country freely, for whatever reason, and make them jump through fiery hoops before allowing them to continue on their journey.  Remember, the USA was built on immigration, the only true natives being the Native Americans who were displaced in the first instance.  Imagine them holding every immigrant to account for the treatment they received during the 17th and 18th Centuries.

My wife and I took a second trip to the USA in March 2008, and this time we decided we would use the full 90 days allowed to us.  At that time they still used green forms, and on the form I wrote that I had been denied a visa on our first trip, which they duly collected when we arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

We were hustled into a room with about twenty others – including pensioners – and left there, without any word of explanation whatsoever.  I was already in a wheelchair by then, having received preferential treatment on the plane because it was Air France’s inaugural trip from London to Los Angeles, and the Chairman or CEO of the company was on the flight.  He had helped me find a wheelchair in London.  But, after we departed the plane, tried to get through customs and then silently herded into this room, there was nothing Air France could do anymore.

There were about four, maybe six, TSA agents wandering around, doing whatever it is they do, and generally making a big deal out of ignoring us.  I always say you can pretty much try and insult me with whatever name you like, and it won’t bother me so much as if you ignore me.  I don’t like that; I don’t care who you are.

Something like three hours passed by without one word from these clowns about why we were there, and what was going to happen to us.  I was desperate for my medication; California is eight hours behind the UK and because of that, we had a 32-hour day that day, and because of that, I needed at least one lot of pain medication extra to my normal dose.  But my medication was locked up in my baggage which, for whatever reason, was not with me.  I was getting more and more frustrated.

After about four hours or so, I was extremely agitated and making something of a scene which my dear wife was doing all she could to calm.  The scene suddenly stepped up a gear when I threw an empty water bottle at a TSA agent who refused once again to give me any sort of an explanation regarding our situation.

Before I could blink, I was surrounded by four more agents who had their hands placed above their holsters; ready, just ready, to pull their guns out and discharge their weapons on a suspected disabled terrorist with a small puppet called Liam.

Eventually, at around 1 am local time, we were taken by some kindly agents who had recently changed shifts, taken through the customs procedure and eventually allowed in.  We were told, however, that flights home had already been reserved for us and it would have taken only one more cross word from me for those reservations to turn into bookings.

Oh, and the reason we were denied a visa in the first place?  Because we did not own property in the UK and they could not guarantee that we would return.  That was it.  That was the reason for all the trouble described above.  And even then, when we travelled to the US Embassy (the old one now) in London’s Mayfair, the visa application process ended without explanation, just a form slapped on the table, after which the agent walked off.

So, all of that occurred when we were still using the green forms, what would it be like today?  We filled the online ESTA forms, one each for the two of us, with some trepidation.  As I recall it, it took several days to complete.  But one question stuck out as possibly The Most Stupid Question Ever Asked on Any Form About Any Subject Whatsoever.  The question read:

“Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage or genocide?“

Now that, we thought, was the most stupid, almost crazy question ever submitted on a form.  Who the hell is going to answer ‘Yes’ to that question?  Imagine an application by a Mr. O. Bin Laden or Mr. Kim J-U.  Perhaps members of ISIS would like to travel to the USA to see family.  Are they going to write, well yes, we are going to engage in some light terrorism while we’re there if that’s OK, and then perhaps visit the Griffith Park Observatory?

The reason I bring this up today is because a lady has found herself in the news because somehow, as she completed her form, her finger slipped as she was checking the form and without her noticing she submitted it with her answer having changed from ‘No’ to ‘Yes.’  She was using a tablet to fill out the form.  As a result, this lady has had a far worse experience than I had: she had to spend £320 to go to London, to that hideous new embassy in Nine Elms, go through two interviews after which she was given her visa, and then told that she would have to change her holiday because the visa might not arrive on time.

That’s bad enough, but when you factor in that this 29-year-old woman was dying of terminal cancer, and was travelling to New York as a sort of a ‘bucket list’ holiday, to be told that she must delay her trip was completely ill-advised and insensitive of her situation.  However, her trip is still scheduled to go ahead as of today, thank God.

I reproduce a link to the story below.  Read for yourselves how this story of epic stupidity unfolded.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45678517

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