XCheck
Veteran
...is the name of a friend of mine. He is a Canadian of Egyptian origin, I have known him for twelve years. He's bugging me and my wife for so long to take him on a visit to my native land, that we finally agreed to bring him with us to our trip to work on 'Dance on Thin Ice', a documentary we are working on.
We flew to Munich, Germany, rented a car, and continued to Austria and Czech Republic. It only took until the first rest stop along the autobahn from Munich to Salzburg before we got 'carded' by ununiformed Bundespolizei in unmarked car. They took away our passports, scanned it with some kind of device, and then let us go. On the inquiry by my wife, who by this time was raging red because we were such sheep as to give our prized Canadian passports to two big guys in dark clothes and a dark BMW in a foreign country, they said they didn't need a reason to ask for IDs, and that we were close to an international border, so they were on a security watch.
International border, my foot! We were further away from it than the distance within which half of Canadian population lives from the US border! By that logic, you could be routinely stopped by cops in the streets of Toronto and asked to produce an ID, a concept I strongly dislike. Having lived in a totalitarian regime before, I really cherish the freedom I feel in Canada and the US. On the other hand, my friend M.M. was not exactly friendly-looking, so I don't blame them - the laws of the land permit them to do so, and so they did. At least they were polite...
On our way back (the day after the bombings in London, which, I am sure, didn't help the situation much), everyone is whisked through the airline check-in at Munich airport, except M.M. His Canadian passport was apparently not enough - they asked him about his address, postal code, how long he has lived in Canada, wanted to see his driver's license (which he didn't have), business cards, credit cards, before letting him to check in.
As soon as we landed in Canada, the story continues. Everyone goes smoothly through the customs, except M.M. (and us, thank to all the baggage being on the same cart). This time, they wanted to use a sniff dog to check what's on him. There was no sniff dog on duty, and my wife chatted up the customs officer, so they just asked a few questions about where we'd been, what we'd purchased, and let us go.
Why am I relating this story? :huh: It was a very interesting experience, from both human and film making perspectives. It's all about behavior, and I got to observe a lot of it. Never before have I seen M.M. acting so weird. He was not the 'I have a bottle of booze I did not declare' kind of weird - he was... 'unfriendly, but scared Arab male' kind of weird. It gave me some perspective on how cultural and racial profiling feels to those who are its subject, and it reassured me that there is a huge culture clash when it comes to dealing with authority and the emotions resulting from it.
Heh - and if anyone has wondered what's XCheck up to when not posting long irrelevant rants in the Cafe, that's it: I've been travelling.
Cheers, everyone! :beer: I am on a withdrawal mission after drinking all that good Czech beer every night...
We flew to Munich, Germany, rented a car, and continued to Austria and Czech Republic. It only took until the first rest stop along the autobahn from Munich to Salzburg before we got 'carded' by ununiformed Bundespolizei in unmarked car. They took away our passports, scanned it with some kind of device, and then let us go. On the inquiry by my wife, who by this time was raging red because we were such sheep as to give our prized Canadian passports to two big guys in dark clothes and a dark BMW in a foreign country, they said they didn't need a reason to ask for IDs, and that we were close to an international border, so they were on a security watch.
International border, my foot! We were further away from it than the distance within which half of Canadian population lives from the US border! By that logic, you could be routinely stopped by cops in the streets of Toronto and asked to produce an ID, a concept I strongly dislike. Having lived in a totalitarian regime before, I really cherish the freedom I feel in Canada and the US. On the other hand, my friend M.M. was not exactly friendly-looking, so I don't blame them - the laws of the land permit them to do so, and so they did. At least they were polite...
On our way back (the day after the bombings in London, which, I am sure, didn't help the situation much), everyone is whisked through the airline check-in at Munich airport, except M.M. His Canadian passport was apparently not enough - they asked him about his address, postal code, how long he has lived in Canada, wanted to see his driver's license (which he didn't have), business cards, credit cards, before letting him to check in.
As soon as we landed in Canada, the story continues. Everyone goes smoothly through the customs, except M.M. (and us, thank to all the baggage being on the same cart). This time, they wanted to use a sniff dog to check what's on him. There was no sniff dog on duty, and my wife chatted up the customs officer, so they just asked a few questions about where we'd been, what we'd purchased, and let us go.
Why am I relating this story? :huh: It was a very interesting experience, from both human and film making perspectives. It's all about behavior, and I got to observe a lot of it. Never before have I seen M.M. acting so weird. He was not the 'I have a bottle of booze I did not declare' kind of weird - he was... 'unfriendly, but scared Arab male' kind of weird. It gave me some perspective on how cultural and racial profiling feels to those who are its subject, and it reassured me that there is a huge culture clash when it comes to dealing with authority and the emotions resulting from it.
Heh - and if anyone has wondered what's XCheck up to when not posting long irrelevant rants in the Cafe, that's it: I've been travelling.
Cheers, everyone! :beer: I am on a withdrawal mission after drinking all that good Czech beer every night...
