Chicago may have lost its Olympic bid due to the insane fingerprints-and-photos regime at the US border: the Chicago bid team was questioned by an IOC member who called the US border "a rather harrowing experience." I've actually found the O'Hare border procedure pretty painless, but God help the foreigner who lands in Texas. At DFW, I was told by a border guard that I wasn't allowed to listen to headphones in the (two-hour-long) line; at Houston, we once stood in line for three hours just to change planes between Honduras and the UK.
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..."
"It's clear the United States still has a lot of work to do to restore its place as a premier travel destination," Roger Dow, U.S. Travel's president, said in the statement released today. "When IOC members are commenting to our President that foreign visitors find traveling to the United States a 'pretty harrowing experience,' we need to take seriously the challenge of reforming our entry process to ensure there is a welcome mat to our friends around the world, even as we ensure a secure system."
Chicago's Loss: Is Passport Control to Blame?
Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as an overbearing Israeli antiterrorism expert, scanned Republican politician Roy Moore with a “pedophile detector” during a comical interview shot for his series Who Is America? Moore, who was accused of molesting teenage girls and was once reportedly banned from an Alabama mall for doing so in public, is now […]
Things got heated outside a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about social media today when conspiracy theorist Alex Jones touched the person of Sen. Marco Rubio in a successful attempt to get him into a deranged discussion about social media. When Jones reached out to touch Rubio’s shoulder, the senator glared at Jones, warning him not […]
Two new laws that allow California residents to officially change their gender identification went into effect this past Labor Day weekend.
From enhanced memory to better decision-making skills, learning a new language delivers a trove of benefits beyond not sounding like a tourist when you travel abroad. But, amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life, who has the time or money to attend a class or hire a tutor? Therein lies the value of an […]
It’s no secret that coding is one of the most employable skills today, but not all of us had the foresight to major in computer science during college. That’s not to say it’s too late to get your coding stripes, though. While going back to school is certainly an option, there exists a much faster, […]
VPNs are essential for browsing the web without your ISP looking over your shoulder. But too many providers deliver this privacy at the expense of your browsing speed, bogging down your connection and making it much more difficult to stream your favorite shows under the radar. Enter Surfshark VPN. Featuring high-end encryption and unlimited data, […]
