I wonder how much work it would be hack twitter and facebook with trojans spouting similar anti-american statements, just to see if they could basically flood the entire DHS web monitoring setup?
<personal anecdote>
A long time ago, in a time far, far away (i.e. before 9/11, before mass gropings and nude scanners in the airports, before rampant paranoia apparently became the flair du jour for US officials), I thought about traveling USA. Visiting places I didn’t get to see when I worked there.
Given the recent developments, I go out of my way to avoid even business trips over there, and the only dreams I have about visiting as a tourist are nightmares.
</pa>
I am judging on the information presented to me. if there were additional information showing that these people were a thread, I would evaluate that also.
It’s not worth DHS’s time to try and clear them? Isn’t that their job, to figure out who presents a threat and who doesn’t?
Yeah, but people get refused entry to countries for bogus reasons every day of the damn week. Ask any Canadian who’s been denied access to the US or vice versa. They are often for stupid and silly reasons. I don’t see how it can be avoided when so many pass over the borders on any given day, and the enforcers are only human. Shit happens people, every damn day.
This made the news because it happened it America and it involved tweets. That’s it. It’s throw away news at it’s finest.
Were they in the wrong? Most likely. Is it the end of the world? No. Should the Brits be pissed, hell yes. I wouldn’t blame them if they never returned.
But it’s not an international scandal, or proof of gestapo, sheesh.
Honestly, that’s probably a better idea anyway. America is pretty cool - I like living here. But when you think of all the places in the world to check out, I’m not sure the US should be that high up on the list. It’s relatively pricey, everything is really spread out, it doesn’t have the history or culture of many other options, and it isn’t “next to” many other places to make for a good combo tour.
I don’t disagree at all, but if you compared the relative importance of tourism to the overall economy in the US to the relative importance of tourism in other countries, I believe that you would find that the US is not a “tourist economy.”
Pricey? What are you on? It’s pricey here compared to, say, China, but everything is incredibly cheap compared to most places - including the UK, whence came our erstwhile Monroe-diggers.
Anyway, I agree that America need not be on everyone’s top ten list. However, as a place to visit if you can only afford to go to one place, it’s not a bad choice.
Well I for one loved America. The people I met were fantastic and the place was great. Driving through a collage town with Sweet Home Alabama playing on the radio was really cool for someone who grew up looking at movies and fantasising about America. New York is amazing as are so many other places. My country is very pro America for pretty obvious reasons but I’ve heard people say they were turned off visiting America because of stories like this. Shit does stick.
I sure as hell am. I hate it that when traveling abroad I have to explain that while I’m from the US, I’m actually a decent guy. I either have to defend my nationality, or take the easy way out and claim to be Canadian.
ETA: and then I have to pay $1.35 for a 1 Euro item.
Yeah, I was thinking of places likes South America, China, Africa, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Southeast Asia, Russia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, etc.
Although I visited France, Iceland, and Italy last year and I didn’t find any of them to be that expensive compared to NY, Chicago, Miama, etc. My trip to Peru, however, was nice and cheap.
Before we condemn everyone on this planet, we need to consider the possibility that this story is fiction, and a hoax. Robert X Cringley (a pseudonym), who writes a technical newsletter, has this to say:
We get ads over here all the time featuring minor US celebrities (an odd choice, because I never know who they are, except in one there’s a woman from the Golden Girls) which try very hard to encourage us to visit your country. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in one when he was still in politics, trying to persuade us to visit his state of California.
But that’s just anecdotal, of course (just thought you might be interested that the phenomenon exists).
A wiki check, though, tells a story of tourism being the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd largest industry in a whopping 29 states, servicing over a *billion *visitors yearly. That makes tourists a not-insignificant fraction of your population at any given time.
I think it’s very arguable that tourism is very important to the US economy.
That same article puts the revenue for international tourism at $122.7 billion dollars for 2007, whereas the US GDP was 13.995 trillion in that year, making international tourism revenue equal to a little less than 0.9% of overall GDP.
That’s ENORMOUS! 1% of a country’s GDP in a given industry is a whopping amount. I’d be amazed to find many industries of that scale in the US (car makers, probably, and some others).
I happily admit I’m no economist, but when talking heads on the news talk about recessions they talk in terms of GDP shifts in that range.
I did Google this although I’d rather an economist explain it to me in simple terms. But it says: “consider the decline in real GDP that occurred during the recession of 1990–1991. Real GDP fell 1.6% from the peak to the trough of that recession.”
That’s just 1.6 from a prosperous peak to the depths of a recession’s trough.
Its not just tourism. Actions like this generally make people feel uncomfortable. Lets say that there is someone who is thinking about investing a not inconsiderable sum of money and is unsure whether to go to the US or say Canada or Mexico. He reads a story like this and thinks “okay, US is out, hell lots of my people are from the Mid East or India and they gave a higher chance of being harassed anyway. Hello, Montreal”.
More and more international firms try to avoid travel to the US, for reasons like this. Its not going to be fatal or even a major problem for the economy as a whole. Buts its a nontrivial issue.
Who said anything about the TSA? What does the TSA have to do with CBP?
Yeaaaah, you just made that up entirely. Cite for a tourist being sent to GTMO?
You want to fire over 40,000 people that monitor the border for narcotics, human trafficking, foreign pests, illegal shipping, and terrorism? Wow, what a display of ignorance your post was.
Perhaps you people don’t understand that refusal of entry is part and parcel of any nation’s customs and immigration policy. They all do it for a variety of reasons. There are thousands of people turned away from our borders annually, and there is no shortage of Americans denied entry to the UK. This happens all the time, everywhere in the world. Why are these two special?
Undoubtedly, but I don’t believe it makes the US a “tourist economy.” Take a look at some countries that I would, or might, classify as tourist econmomies:
Think about the dip in the economy caused by a decline in airline travel and tourism after 9/11. Americans depend on this kind of thing. I don’t think it’s something we should brush off.
And I also don’t agree that we should view it as “well, you have no right to enter our country, so don’t whine if we don’t let you in.” We should feel obligated to treat all people seeking entry with rational and respectful decision-making. Capriciousness should not be acceptable just because the person in question is carrying a different passport. We should be respectful of their time, effort, and expense, and also the fact that upon entry they would contribute to our economy.
