Fines for tampering with electricity meter range between SR5000 and SR100000 New amendments made in Electricity Law    Saudi Arabia deports 8,051 illegal residents in a week    Saudi Arabia is among world's top donors with assistance worth SR528 billion    GCC – Japan negotiations make progress in sealing free trade agreement    Inzaghi hails Al Hilal's fearless Club World Cup run    UNRWA calls for urgent fuel delivery to Gaza to prevent shutdown of basic services    Syria rules out foreign borrowing as central bank hails post-Assad recovery    Pakistan army kills 30 militants in cross-border clash near Afghanistan    State of emergency declared in Crete after wildfire devastates Ierapetra    OPEC+ further accelerates oil output hike by 548,000 bpd in August    Football world mourns Diogo Jota and brother André Silva at funeral in Portugal    Al Hilal exit Club World Cup after narrow defeat to Fluminense    Saudi Arabia tops global ICT Development Index for 2025    Hotel occupancy in Saudi Arabia rises to 63% as tourism workforce tops 983,000 in Q1 2025    Alkhorayef Commercial Company partners with XSQUARE Technologies to elevate logistics automation in Saudi Arabia    Portugal and Liverpool FC winger Diogo Jota dies in car accident in Spain    Michael Madsen, actor of 'Kill Bill' and 'Reservoir Dogs' fame, dead at 67    BTS are back: K-pop band confirm new album and tour    Michelin Guide launches in Saudi Arabia with phased rollout in 2025    'How fragile we are': Roskilde Festival tragedy remembered 25 years on    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Ayoon Wa Azan (A Questionnaire for Visitors)
Published in AL HAYAT on 19 - 09 - 2010

The rule in dealing with the government, any government, is that there is no rule. A man may call his wife the government, and sometimes the Ministry of Interior, because he can never change her despite all her flaws. The government then, like the spouse, is supposed to take care of our interests, or our feelings, so that we can succeed, but instead, it does everything to prevent us from succeeding.
Of course, I am talking about the Swiss government, and not any Arab government that is dedicated to serving and pleasing citizens. This may explain why 90 percent of the Swiss oppose their government, while the remaining ten percent have acquired foreign passports, especially Arab passports including Libyan and of other nationalities.
Following the same logic, I say that after having managed – through this column – to solve the Palestinian cause, and overcome hunger, ignorance and disease in the Arab world, I decided to try to help Western governments to solve their problems and give their peoples a share of the democracy that we enjoy in our countries…
My idea today is inspired by something American. The Immigration Service card which visitors must fill before being allowed to enter the United States includes questions that I will summarize here without departing from the original. The visitors are asked:
-Do you have a communicable disease, or mental disorder?
- Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance, or criminal activities?
-Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage, or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany?
-Are you seeking to work in the U.S; or have you even been excluded and deported; or been previously removed from the United States; or procured or attempted to procure a visa or entry into the U.S by fraud or misrepresentation?
- Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a U.S. citizen granted custody of the child?
I do not remember reading anything like this on the entry card to any other country in the world. If the above seems strange, it is probably because it was intended for legal purposes, so that if a criminal who committed any of the above entered the country, he could not claim that he was not aware or was not asked about it.
However, the entire law defies logic in the last two lines which are: “Important: if you answered yes to any of the above, please contact the American Embassy before you travel to the U.S since you may be refused admission into the United States.”
How does a traveller contact the embassy while on a plane? The card that contains the questions is usually given to passengers on the plane or after they complete travel formalities at the airport. I cannot imagine that a passenger would read this card as he is carrying his hand luggage and laptop, on his way to the local immigration officers and security check before entering the travel gate. This is all without mentioning that the criminal who traffics drugs or engages in genocide would never admit his crime, while the mentally ill passenger is probably the only one in the world who does not know he is crazy.
And yet, the United States is the world's most powerful nation, with great wisdom as we see in its dealings with Israel and the hostility towards 1.2 billion Muslims in return for supporting five million European immigrants in Palestine. Since it is so, there must be some hidden wisdom in the visitors' questionnaire that a third world journalist with limited knowledge like me must have missed.
Therefore, I propose a questionnaire for visitors traveling to other countries, similar to the American questionnaire. I choose Britain as an example. While all my close family relatives, including siblings and children, are U.S citizens, I am a British citizen. We all also have the original Lebanese passport.
My proposed questionnaire includes:
- Have you ever been convicted of a crime? If the answer is yes, explain, and if the answer is no, give reasons. Answer: No, because I haven't been caught yet.
- What is your favorite English football team?
- Are you coming to Britain to steal or murder or live at the expense of welfare benefits?
- Do you want to marry a British woman who weighs one hundred kilogram so that we cannot deport you from the country?
- Do you play Snooker?
- Between us, is this your real name?
- Do you want to contribute something to the customs and immigration officers at the airport in London?
- Are you trying to join the union representing the employees of British Airways?
- Do you have a reservation in a hotel or waiting for us to provide you with accommodation in the nearest hotel to the airport with one hundred pounds a week ... Until you find a short-sighted citizen who would accept you as a husband?
- What is your favorite food? Do you refuse to eat meat because of the mad cow disease here?
- Can you prove in court that you did not support the German team in the last World Cup?
I came up with many questions so that each country would choose what suits it best, and I do not think that my questionnaire is stranger than the American one, and perhaps there is a hidden advantage to mine. I wanted to also add: Do you practice the freedom of speech, and do you know that it does not include the right to criticize Israel? However, I decided that everyone knows this so there is no need for it.


Clic here to read the story from its source.