I love France
Get up at 5am, gulp down a Red Bull, get in car with fellow Mac friend on way to Paris from Brussels.
Night becomes day, 2 hours later in an uneventful drive, we get to the French-Luxembourg border and get pulled over at the border (uh, Schengen agreement, hello?).
A burly fifty something French police officer asks for our ID. Comes back five minutes later. "Hey Mauritian, you can't come in to my country." (to call him "Alex" or "Mr. Chimon" would have been too hard I imagine)
You see, my friend is Mauritian and despite having all his papers in order and having lived most of his life in Belgium and attended the same college as I have, he has darker skin than I.
With absolute glee and joy he laughs at him as do his colleagues. Out of a technicality they dont want to let him into France. There is no 'national number' on his perfectly valid belgian ID. He accuses my friend of being an expert forger and that we had better get along and get back to where we came from. Of course, from Luxembourg, you only have a stream of Porches, Beemers, Mercs, and the occasional Ferrari. Of course they dont have to slow down to the 10km speed limit, and the border gurards even smile when their rich occupants rev up as soon as they are in France.
The pot bellied officer leaves again for his office with both our IDs. After 5 minutes my friend gets out of the car to see whats going on with the papers.
"Hey!" yells a colleague of our transalpine friend "you Maurtian. You can't get out of your car onto French land! Get back there and stay there in your car unless told otherwise"
The arguement is over as it begins. The guard is on such a power trip that unless he would get a signed paper from President Chirac himself, no matter what we did would not have sufficed. Maybe not even that would have detered him. Should I tell him that i can call the Italian Ambasador and that my friend's relatives work at the Maurtian one? No, he would just be humiliated and get us on some other technicality and maybe even have his buddies have some fun with my friend while they 'withold him'.
The more our anger shows, the broader his smile. He knows he can lock us up for any reason he pleases as long as we give him the chance.
"So, how are we supposed to go back to Belgium?"
"Drive back the way you came."
"But that means driving through Luxembourg, and you just said that my documents aren't valid!"
"Listen, I'm an expert at my work!"
... whatever, nice reply.
This wasn't going to go anywhere. We weren't going to get in.
"I sent a fax to all the other French border points" said the gurad "with a copy of your ID and therefore you will not be able to enter from anywhere else. If you attempt to do so, I will see you in prison."
Fvck you, you arrogrant sunnavabitch.
"Drive forward, make a U-turn, and collect your IDs from me on the other side as you leave my France"
We comply and pass the other happy go lucky guard officials on the way who are obviously enjoying this whole ordeal. Ah yes, when you have such crap jobs and no life, no wonder you are so easily amused.
with a sudden bout of enthusiasm and sincerity he said:
"Ah, but monsieur" refering to me "you are Italian! You may proceed if you wish! Welcome to my France!"
I didn't say a word as I took my ID back through the window. My stare of absolute, seething, visceral hatred must have dented him at least a little because for just a split second, his crooked victory smile yielded.
"your" France. Fvck you and 'your' France.
Apple Expo 2001 cancelled because of terrorits, my Apple Expo 2002 cancelled because of arrogant racist pigs.
[ 09-10-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>
Night becomes day, 2 hours later in an uneventful drive, we get to the French-Luxembourg border and get pulled over at the border (uh, Schengen agreement, hello?).
A burly fifty something French police officer asks for our ID. Comes back five minutes later. "Hey Mauritian, you can't come in to my country." (to call him "Alex" or "Mr. Chimon" would have been too hard I imagine)
You see, my friend is Mauritian and despite having all his papers in order and having lived most of his life in Belgium and attended the same college as I have, he has darker skin than I.
With absolute glee and joy he laughs at him as do his colleagues. Out of a technicality they dont want to let him into France. There is no 'national number' on his perfectly valid belgian ID. He accuses my friend of being an expert forger and that we had better get along and get back to where we came from. Of course, from Luxembourg, you only have a stream of Porches, Beemers, Mercs, and the occasional Ferrari. Of course they dont have to slow down to the 10km speed limit, and the border gurards even smile when their rich occupants rev up as soon as they are in France.
The pot bellied officer leaves again for his office with both our IDs. After 5 minutes my friend gets out of the car to see whats going on with the papers.
"Hey!" yells a colleague of our transalpine friend "you Maurtian. You can't get out of your car onto French land! Get back there and stay there in your car unless told otherwise"
The arguement is over as it begins. The guard is on such a power trip that unless he would get a signed paper from President Chirac himself, no matter what we did would not have sufficed. Maybe not even that would have detered him. Should I tell him that i can call the Italian Ambasador and that my friend's relatives work at the Maurtian one? No, he would just be humiliated and get us on some other technicality and maybe even have his buddies have some fun with my friend while they 'withold him'.
The more our anger shows, the broader his smile. He knows he can lock us up for any reason he pleases as long as we give him the chance.
"So, how are we supposed to go back to Belgium?"
"Drive back the way you came."
"But that means driving through Luxembourg, and you just said that my documents aren't valid!"
"Listen, I'm an expert at my work!"
... whatever, nice reply.
This wasn't going to go anywhere. We weren't going to get in.
"I sent a fax to all the other French border points" said the gurad "with a copy of your ID and therefore you will not be able to enter from anywhere else. If you attempt to do so, I will see you in prison."
Fvck you, you arrogrant sunnavabitch.
"Drive forward, make a U-turn, and collect your IDs from me on the other side as you leave my France"
We comply and pass the other happy go lucky guard officials on the way who are obviously enjoying this whole ordeal. Ah yes, when you have such crap jobs and no life, no wonder you are so easily amused.
with a sudden bout of enthusiasm and sincerity he said:
"Ah, but monsieur" refering to me "you are Italian! You may proceed if you wish! Welcome to my France!"
I didn't say a word as I took my ID back through the window. My stare of absolute, seething, visceral hatred must have dented him at least a little because for just a split second, his crooked victory smile yielded.
"your" France. Fvck you and 'your' France.
Apple Expo 2001 cancelled because of terrorits, my Apple Expo 2002 cancelled because of arrogant racist pigs.
[ 09-10-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>
Comments
That sucks for you, Zo, there are idiots all over the world.
Today, I'm ashamed of belonging to any ot this.
Head a bit clearer and calmer.
I don't want to make this an anti-French thing or anti-European.
Unfortunately these fascist $hitheads had to give a bad name to the rest of France of which I know a great number and they are generally nice people.
I know they dont represent all of France.
Those border guards probably acted that way because of them not getting enough sex and still being frustrated that they sucked so badly in the World Cup. Sore losers.
I didnt want to provoke the fvcker anymore otherwise, while I would have been basically untouchable, they could have taken it out on my friend, and that the last thing I would want.
i know it's a US cliche, but can't you take them to court?
for all the shit attorneys get, they do keep the assholes on their toes.
Plus, we would never win. They can probably take out some technicality (like he said, no 'national number') or anything else they want. Some obscure Napoleonic 1800's decree against Mauritians or something. Who knows.
Which is total BS as we found out later. We went to the Brussels comune as soon as we got back and the lady behind the counter was totally charming and helpful. With her help we compiled an official complaint... of which we will probably never ever hear of again.
The fvckers will get what they deserve one day... they will. What goes round comes round.
Sorry guys... Goverqt WTF do you hqve so stupid keyboqrd on the French Mqcs... I cqn`t use this f*..french keyboqrd...
Hey, ... we qre hqving q huge.. reqlly huge Qppleinsider meeting here... <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Thqt`s me qnd peve ...
Qnd qn qpple outsider <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
Peperone dove `zzo 6...???
<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Hey the keyboqrd reqlly sucks!!!
Everything is on q zrong plqce::: !!!!!
WTF qre the numbers on cqpsloc???
They zqnt to publish ,y Qpple on q photo mqaqzine::
<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Mqny times they control if my pqss is reql or fqked..
Generqlly; in most of "old" Europe, IMHO if you qre "too dqrk" yes they qre gonnq find you trouble with pqses, visqs etc! Once coming to Frqnce with q Chileqn freind who wqs living in Switzerlqnd.. the French sent him bqck only cos he hqd Chileqn pqssport etc...
The worst thing here i the keyboqrd::: qss you cqn see...
<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Stopping the train or the coach and these 'gendarmes' with their military boots, and even machine guns, if you're lucky, come on board, and always, they glance over me and bother someone darker than me.
And why? They wouldn't want to be stuck with one more mouth to feed... fvcking hell, the land of plenty... (that's my shame again)
damn AZERTY
<strong>ok, this is the part i don't get. the U.S. has at least as many racists as any other country, but i can't imagine this shit would be tolerated in a border guard.
i know it's a US cliche, but can't you take them to court?
for all the shit attorneys get, they do keep the assholes on their toes.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No, this happens everywhere, I can assure you. Border guards the length and breadth of this planet can suck my extended one (to coin a phrase.) I've been practicing what I'd say to them if they were still in earshot from the other side of the border.
I gotta say in response to your post, Alcimedes, that American passport control officials are certainly not above this kind of shit (although they could learn a thing or two in this department from English customs officials who are some of the world's bigger wankers: I once had to negotiate on an official white telephone at Stanstead airport with some tosser, talking them into allowing the Brazilian man I was there to meet into the country, his crime being that he had a gold credit card, no cash, and he was short and Indian-looking.)
They're just like border guards everywhere. They don't like people called 'Faisal' or 'Ishaq', even pre-9/11, I can tell you that, and once kept a good friend of mine waiting for seven hours after a trans-atlantic flight with his seven-year-old daughter, offering no kind of refreshment or comfort.
Passport officials tend to be bastards regardless of nationality and they've got all kinds of on-the-hoof powers of instant legislation-making ("He looked funny. And he was black") putting them above the law. I'd say that this French geezer was just upfront about it.
Hey: an abolish passports thread, that I'd like to read.
Even in the USA when I go there despite having a US Passport, I seem to get special attention.
They are nice but sometimes its just "Im having a bad day... lets see how much I can annoy this guy cause Im having it bad"
"The C.R.S. on the métro / shook me down for a bribe
On my knees for the sargeant / when my passport arrived..."
BTW US immigration might be one of the things I most despise about my own country.
oh well. assholes all around! maybe that's a countries defense against population growth. place the nation's biggest assholes at all key entry points and hopefully people will have such a low opinion of your country they won't come back.
I never knew my name was "boy". <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
I like specially when he say you can enter in my France. Until this day, i ignore that France was his property, he is just a simple citizen at the service of France.
I think an official protest is needed, and if it's not sufficiant perhaps you should wrote to Jacques Chirac himself (with all the documents apropried) : many times he (or his team) answer to the letters. I think he would not tolerate this to happen (Chirac is a big fan of African art). It's a shame for me to know , that this kind of story can happen in my own countrie.
if that were the case he would have told them they couldn't enter within 20 meters of him, but to feel free and go around if they'd like.