Entering Another Country

I haven’t tried to cross every one of them, but so far I’ve never felt welcome at another country’s border.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Once you’re in, lots of countries are very welcoming, but you’d never know it at the border, where suspicion and discomfort rule.

There are people whose potential misbehavior warrants that suspicion, I’m sure. But why not try to make people feel welcome, while Customs Agents still vigilantly screen for troublemakers?

It is an accepted given that the Customs Experience is awful. Why does it have to be this way?

Why couldn’t entertainers put on a show featuring unique cultural expressions of the country you’re waiting in a long line to enter? Why can’t Customs Agents be friendly? Why can’t Customs be fun?

I know this is not one of World’s Top Ten Problems, not even Top 100. But it shouldn’t be that tough to change if some country really wanted to.

The really bad vibe all visitors feel at the border of every country comes down to a few specific procedures, and a culture of not caring about the customer.

Those little pieces of paper, Entry and Departure Forms, printed using 6 point type or less to maximize un-readability, is where it starts. You fill them in by hand with not enough space available, to make them even more…