Hi Luis,
Thanks for posting your thoughtful, honest and helpful information on
this subject.
The Italians in question are citizens of Italy, but permanent
residents of the US in West Palm Beach, Florida. Perhaps the Brazil's
counselate treat them differently? They mentioned specifically the
US$140 visa fee and decided to stay away from Brazil! They were
touring South America and were just enjoying entertainment with me in
Argentina. They never seemed to have any strong opinions of anything,
until the subject of Brazil's visa requirement came up!
To answer other posters in this thread, the US was attacked by
terrorists, hijacking 4 airliners full of passengers, including
probably a few Brazilians and other nationalities, slamming them into
US government and business centers. Those are very serious, all-out
war acts! We need to take all measures to make sure such horrible acts
can never again happen!
As a traveler, I would want the US as well as all other countries to
tighten their security, so my life, and those of my family and
friends, will never be jeopardized by a few stupid, despicable
terrorists! The US government and its low-paid, hard-working
employees are responsible to provide this security to everyone
traveling through its territory, with limited resources, while having
to respond to other urgent needs and problems.
There appear to be a bit of misunderstandings between peoples of
different countries and cultures here. I am pretty sure the US
government would love to have travelers from all countries to come to
the US, spending money, bringing creative ideas, rich culture etc...
to enrich its country. I am very sure the US government and most
Americans are very unlikely to turn down money or good
times...However, they have to balance those desires with the
responsibilities to maintain security, laws and order, with limited
resources, in a wide-open and free country, where people are allowed
to move around and do things freely, and the enormous costs and
difficulties in hiring officials to track down errant visitors after
the fact. As reported by various sources, the average cost to the US
government for each employee is about US$100,000 per year. That's the
constraint with which the government must figure out how to manage its
respinsiblities and resources.
I don't understand why Brazilians, including a professor friend, would
think the US government would act, not driven by absolutely critical
needs, but to just spite and denigrate any people in the world with
its visa procedures. This present elected US government has to provide
for some very serious and urgent needs for the people. I do not
believe it can afford to be anything but very practical and
conservative.
While I want the added security, as a US citizen, I do not like the
new inconveniences imposed upon me personally, such as having to show
up personally at various government agencies to confirm my identity
for driver license, SS card, passport, waiting in long lines at
airport security check points etc.... I am sure many people found the
US government's immigration policies and practices, as well as
attitudes of US embassy employees offensive. Please consider that
they are required by US laws and political pressures to do very good
jobs with very limited time and resources.
Please also be informed that the bureaucrats at various US embassies
are actually very low-paid workers, who have to work long, hard hours,
exposing their families to a lot of personal risks and inconveniences,
to do their jobs for their country. These bureaucrats are actually
very near the bottom rungs on the socio-economic status ladder in the
US. A lot of those workers are highly educated and idealistic young
people, who bypass safety and comforts in the US, and better and
bigger opportunities elsewhere, to work for the US diplomatic corp.,
just to be able to travel and to mix with other peoples of the world.
My family has a few people working at various US embassies, so I
understand their circumstances first-hand!
Please understand their responsibilities and excuse them if they do
not appear friendly. They are there to do very serious and
professional jobs. If they are all friendly, then Osama Bin Laden
would have smuggled divisions of Jihad terrorists into the US. To make
friends, you may want to meet them after work hours, and show them
your thoughtful concerns as well as the true goodness and hospitality
of your people. That way you can both exchange your views and your
culture without official restraints.
I myself would be delighted to have open, honest, fun, friendly, equal
and peaceful relationships with the peoples I visit, whether they are
the kings of the heaps or just poor nomads tending their herds! I
would rather focus on all possible short term and long term mutual
benefits between respective peoples, and just ignore all the empty,
self-serving posturing by the politicians! The American people is
much bigger, more understanding and more generous than the
narrowly-focused government it elects to serve. I know personally of a
few critical needs from friendly countries that were met very quickly
through the US democratic process, just on basis of mutual friendship.
Another thing you should know about US bureaucrats is that they are
very sensitive to keeping their low-paying government jobs and their
retirement pensions. If you feel you have been mistreated or
discriminated, by all means take down the names of the bureaucrats
involved, along with the facts and witnesses. You should then write
letters to the responsible managers to seek redress, or you should
obtain lawyers and sue everyone involved for large compensations. I
remember a few Bosnian women, who were .d by Slobodan Melosevich's
troops, got contingency lawyers and sued the Bosnian government in a
New York federal court in 2000, and were granted the rights to collect
millions dollars of damages against that government.
This option is recommended to people of friendly countries but is
obviously closed to hostile, violent and evil tyrants like Osama Bin
Laden and Sadam Hussein etc... These terrorists are resolutely
referred to the Big Complaints Office, staffed by the US Department of
Defense with their brave young men and women, who expertly use their
fine aircraft carriers, top-notch aircrafts, smart missiles and
precision munitions to deal with any threats from evil terrorists....
Anyway, I hope that US bureaucrats are not losing our shirts
processing the $100 visa applications with all that background checks
required to filter out terrorists. I hope that these bureaucrats are
smart enough to make the visa process very easy and dignified for
people with worthwhile purposes, such as business meetings, technology
conferences, scholarly exchanges, exchange students, medical
treatments, charity activities
to promote mutual understanding,
benefits and growth among peoples.
I advised a few students in Argentina and Chile that public
universities in California actively recruit a lot of top talents from
many countries, paying tuition, activity fees and some living
expenses, providing part-time jobs in teaching or research, primarily
for graduate students in engineering and technologies, subsidized in
parts by research grants from the US government. I heard that each
department in each school has opening for 10 students from each major
country. Schools in other states are presumably taking advantages of
similar grant programs, so there should be a lot of openings. Of
course the situation changes from year to year, depending on how much
budget is left after the war against terrorists and the massive hiring
of people and buying equipment to improve homeland security.
Let's hope that we are all devoting our intelligence, energy and faith
in improving peace, prosperity and happiness for all peoples!
Joćo Luiz wrote in message news:...
>
> > I met some Italian tourists in Argentina who claimed they were charged
> > US$140 for the visa, which they promptly skipped! These Italian
> > tourists are wealthy and they could easily afford the visa fee. They
> > could easily spend US$3000 per person or more, 20 times the visa fees
> > on Brazilian products and services if they visit Brazil! However,
> > these Italians did not think highly of the Brazilian government by its
> > visa requirements, so they decide not to bother visiting Brazil.
>
> Sorry to say, but this information is as false as it can be.
> No citizen from the European Union needs a tourist visa for Brazil,
> the same way no Brazilians need any tourist visa for any country
> in the EU.
>
> I understand your logic, and to be sincere I do not get why some
> Brazilians go through the humiliation of getting a visa for the
> USA, when they could be spending their hard earned money in a
> place that treats them with a lot more dignity like Europe.
>
>
> > I wanted to go to Rio to see the Carnaval, but it turns out to be a
> > big disappointment. This festival is now organized in a staged
> > location downtown Rio, called the Sambadromo, near the favela slum
> > areas.
>
> If you had asked before, we could have warned you about the tourist
> trap Rio's Carnival has turned into.
> Any place e.g. in the Northeastern coast beats it by far.
>
>
> Sorry to read about your bad experience, but if you ever think of
> visiting Brazil again, my counsel is: just skip Rio.
>
> JL |