Caffeinated Dreams

A lot of friends want to know what happened when I entered the United States and why I was so angered. So here it is.

It all starts right at the beginning, at the check in for our baggage and bookings. Our baggage is checked in all the way to Sky Harbor but there was some sort of problem with booking us from Newark to Sky Harbor. So we were told to simply go back to check-in at Newark to confirm our seats. This is apparently normal at Newark we were told.

In the terminal for our flight from Copenhagen to New Jersey, they make us fill out and sign a piece of paper with our personal information. Only US citizens did this. I assume this is for info if an accident occurs, but never had I seen or heard of this. Later during the flight, we were given a huge piece of paper (Customs) to fill out in detail about what we have in our baggage, how much it costs, etc. Everyone did this, but there were two different forms–one for non-US citizens and one for citizens. No clue what the difference is. Again, I have never seen or heard of this. These aren’t really a big deal though.

When we finally land in Newark we approach the security booths to let us in. Since I was travelling with Lance, we go up together, but they tell me to back off, and ask why I was following him. We explain our special situation and they give us some shit for it, but finally let us be together. While inspecting our passports they ask a lot of bizarre and open ended questions. Most of them with the only intent to try and make us say something we normally wouldn’t say otherwise, or to fuck up and loose our temper on them, effectively calling in security. So for the most part I just didn’t answer and waited for them to finish flipping through my passport, only speaking when the question was simple.

At first Lance was like, “that wasn’t so bad”, but he was also comparing it to his previous re-entry to the US in O’Hare, where they have military personal with M4’s staring you down. Yeah, but to me that was already bad enough.

We bypass the baggage claim, because our luggage is already in transfer to the next plane onward to Phoenix and we just need to get to the check in, for the reasons explained earlier. We get out our passports (again) and this time the Customs slip we filled out on the plane. The huge man taps his finger on the booth extremely loudly and asks where our baggage is. We tell him it’s in transfer to another plane and we were told at Kastrup to re-check for our flight to Phoenix. The man pretty much explodes on us. “I don’t think so. Nuh uh! No way! You will not pass this line until I see your luggage!” We try telling him again, we can’t get it. He repeats and gets even louder, saying we absolutely must have our luggage to get through and becomes totally rude and unhelpful. We ask how we can get it, he says we’ll have to figure that out. Thanks, asshole. What if we had no luggage and only carry-on? We would probably have been screwed.

So we go back to the Baggage claim, and there is a guy there loading up all kinds of extra luggage for customs, luckily we got ours. No idea how or why it came through, but it did. By this time there was a huge line formed at the line we were just at (when we first got there it was only us and another woman). We went to another guy, and he just gazed at us and looked at the passport/customs slips then our bags and let us through.

I told this to my mother and she said “big deal, it’s protecting the country.” I totally didn’t see it that way. Not one bit. When I entered Denmark a year ago, I didn’t fill out any paper with personal information. I didn’t fill out a survey with what I am bringing and how much it costs. And I sure as hell wasn’t poked at and tried to fuck up when going through the security and I wasn’t even on a visa in Denmark. I was no one there. It was a simple flip of the passport, look at me and my photo, then flip to an empty page and stamp it with my entry date, and a nice “Velkomen til Danmark!” and I was on my way. End of story.

So my experiences are extremely different. I was in a country for the past year that was peaceful and sane, where people weren’t always on the verge of exploding with anger or looking for something to get pissed off at. They aren’t military happy and scrutinize citizens, or anyone for that matter. They treated me like an innocent human being, and it was wonderful. I never once felt on edge or worried for my safety. Walking around town at 3am was no different than at 3pm, just with a bit more drunks. It wasn’t until I returned to the US that I noticed how high-strung and stressful it is just to be here. How the hell did I live 19 years of my life like this?

I still love Phoenix and the US has a better selection of food though… and arcades. >.>

Danish Pastries now are called Roses of the Prophet Mohammad!

Dear lord. I am in tears laughing at this. They stole our stupid ideas! INFIDELS!

I’ve been getting quite a bit of hits from MSN Search, some search queries include “muhammad comics“, “Jyllandsposten“, and some google searchs from Indonesia such as “jyllandsposten,muhammad.” All within the first page results.

I also live in Copenhagen, Denmark.

So it’s a bit worrisome with the recent threats, even though I’m not a Danish citizen.

I’m sure by now the rest of the world (read: US media) has heard about the Jyllandsposten Muhammad Comics outrage after the Danish and Norwegian embassies were set on fire in Syria.

This ordeal has been in the news here for about 2 weeks now, but only after things got violent did overseas media pick it up. Friends I left back in the US have emailed me asking if I am ok. Why wouldn’t I be? They seemed to be under the impression that Copenhagen is in a state of unrest and rioting. I’m going to assume they watched Fox News and leave it at that. While there is some uneasy tensions between Islamists and Danes, the worst I have witnessed is some vandalized Pizzerias and Kiosks who closed their doors to boycott (both of which are primarily owned by middle-eastern immigrants). I live in Nørrebro (northern Copenhagen), where most Islamists/Muslims live, so this may be why I’ve seen that. Overall, nothing violent is really happening. Some extremist Danes thought it would be smart and burn the Quran at Rådhuspladsen, A++ for that one guys. Police managed to stop it thankfully.

Local experiences aside, the main issue at hand is how the middle eastern governments just don’t understand that here there is a thing called Freedom of the Press and Free Speech. The irony of it is, that Jyllandsposten didn’t print these with the intent to offend (however, they are a center-right independent paper), but to demonstrate free speech and free press… oh jesus, so much irony. The Danish government has said repeadetly it cannot punish the newspaper, and thus far has refused to even consider it. It isn’t even the governments business, but low and behold they got dragged into it because some worlds don’t understand those concepts. Somehow the Swedes got involved too; I think they republished the cartoons, unsure about that.

Other European papers are publishing the cartoons in support of Denmark, and more importantly, in support of freedom of the press and free speech.

I understand the anger on the muslim side, but like Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Most of the comics weren’t very funny, but I giggled at the virgins one. :)