Project
A few years ago I was working on a mighty big project here in Europe. We were planning a get-together for the main players. In this deal, there were 60+ countries involved, but only 7 that mattered. So, I placed a call to my colleague in the US, and invited her over to Europe for this meeting. She is over 60 years old.
Do you know what her reaction was? Only an American would get this. She said: yes, I do have a passport. I would venture to guess that any other nationality would have said, yes it would be nice, or no I can't make it, or something else than talking about having a passport.
Where I come from, you have a passport from the day you are born. When you are little you appear in the passport of your Mum's. And from talking age you have your own.
Now, comments from Americans on this blog item would be interesting...
Do you know what her reaction was? Only an American would get this. She said: yes, I do have a passport. I would venture to guess that any other nationality would have said, yes it would be nice, or no I can't make it, or something else than talking about having a passport.
Where I come from, you have a passport from the day you are born. When you are little you appear in the passport of your Mum's. And from talking age you have your own.
Now, comments from Americans on this blog item would be interesting...
posted by Annika @ 2:01 AM
2 Comments:
At 8:50 PM,
Anonymous said…
Project - January 2006
Well, think about it… From what you are saying about Americans, I can only assume that you are actually speaking of people from the U.S.A. I say ‘assume’ here as there are actually quite a few countries in the Americas – I just doubt you’re referring to Brazilians… ;-)
It is true that many citizens of the USA never even get a passport throughout their entire lives. Heck, I lived there for over 35 years before I ever needed one. The US is a rather large country. As I am sure you are aware, it is actually only in contact with two other countries – Canada and Mexico. Until recently, in fact, we were free to travel to both of these neighboring countries without a passport. (Of course things have recently changed since the World Trade Center tragedy and the paranoia that followed … don’t get me started…)
Over here in Europe it is quite different. I mean you have many countries that are actually smaller than many of the states in the US. I could see how having a passport at birth would be almost mandatory.
All I’m saying is that US citizens not having passports (or that having a passport is the first issue that is thought of when asked to travel to Europe) is not a sign of arrogance. It’s just the way it is over there…
At 9:00 PM,
Annika said…
The fact that your country is big, doesn't mean you shouldn't be curious about other parts of the world. Wherever you travel in the US, you have the same language, the same currency and sorta the same culture (I know what an American would argue now, but hey, come to Switzerland!). As small as Switzerland is it has four official languages, and as many cultures as you have people more or less.
OK, this calls for another blog item. Will do.
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