There was an oddity at all the magnificent
homes and even at Westminster that rather irked me. I mentioned that I had joined the National
Trust to gain access to many homes.
Therefore, I did pay for the right to enter. I paid at Blenheim. I paid at Westminster. Despite this, within each place, there was a
transparent box begging for donations. I
understand these in the British Museum and the National Gallery because these
were free to enter. But to charge £10 to
£35 and then still beg for more… I found this quite distasteful.
An unexpected gripe about all the gorgeous
manor houses is that the vast majority of their paintings were portraits. Portraiture is fine in and of itself, but
these fancy people of olden days seemed to have been obsessed with likenesses
at the expense of almost all other genres.
* * * * * *
Actually, this
holiday left me with mixed feelings. I
was rather unforgiving about shortcomings, given that costs were high compared
with, say, Asia, and given further that there is a tendency among Westerners to
regard their own countries as superior to those in the less developed
world. If this is so, then I’d expect
better service and better services here than back home. Not only were things not better in Europe, they
were in some cases not nearly as good as they are in Asia. I detected an element of defeatism in some
excuses that were given for shoddiness.
Often, the buck was passed to some intangible personage or
insurmountable force, or the impression was given that the difficulty was
“above my pay grade.”
* * * * * *
At this point, I
wish to commence my visa-inspired rant.
I’ll begin with the visa for this trip, and then go on with a broader
rant. Sorry, but it is part of my
experience and something that needs expressing.
To get permission to
visit the UK, one begins by applying online.
The website is clear, the questions well worded and instructions are
given throughout. The thing is, there
are just so many questions. It took five
sittings for me to complete, each sitting lasting about 1 hour. Fortunately, the application can be saved and
returned to before submission. Once I’d
completed all parts, I decided to print out a paper copy – all 17 pages of it!
The cost of the visa
is listed on the immigration website as £100, but when I was ready to pay, I
was charged US$130, which is more than £100!
This is paid online directly to the UK government. That is not the end of the expense. Collection of passports and biometric data is
handled by a “commercial partner”. This
commercial partner charges half again as much as I’d just forked out to UK Visas
and Immigration. I had to take time off
work and make my way to Taipei to visit this commercial partner, VFS
Global. After all this money is paid, it
is made crystal clear that the visa can still be refused and the fees
withheld.
Apart from the
exorbitant fees, I also have a geopolitical complaint. During South Africa’s apartheid era, South
Africans (i.e. white South Africans) could travel to the UK, Australia and New
Zealand visa-free. (I was unable to find
information of changes to the visa requirements of the US and Canada, so it
seems they may have never allowed visa-free travel to South Africans.) All of these countries vehemently opposed
apartheid. Of course, opposition to
apartheid was both correct and necessary.
However, pretty soon after democracy was gained and my country’s
government began to change, they gradually introduced visas. (Australia 1996, the UK 2010, New Zealand 2016) Dripping with hypocrisy, no? All the while, citizens of each of these
countries get to visit South Africa visa-free.
Finally, I have an
economic complaint. These white-run
countries have businesses throughout Africa.
In most cases, the lion’s share of the profit goes to the white-run
countries, while the local population is kept poorly paid and well
controlled. Then, while counting their
money greedily, they charge Africans extortionist amounts for a visa, while
also making too many hoops to jump through.
At the gate in
Dubai, heading towards the UK, holders of desirable passports were pointed in
one direction, from which they could get to the seats without further ado. Those with undesirable passports, like
myself, were ushered a different way, where we were thoroughly searched. A
detector was run across my body while another was inserted into my bag. This is after having passed through airport
security just like everyone else. I
found this offensive and very unwelcoming.
I hate this attitude to the world.
I have promised my friends in North America that I’ll be visiting them
soon. Now, though, I feel like this UK
trip will be my last ever to those rainy, muddy isles or indeed any white-run
country.
In a previous era,
the upper classes of Europe, the monarchs, the Ottoman monarchs, the Asian
monarchs…. all these parasites guarded their looted wealth jealously,
zealously. Most of them were eventually
dispossessed of their wealth and even their lives. Greed led to their destruction. I can’t help but draw parallels with the
collective West. They are vigilant about
protecting their borders from the very people whose countries they continue to
pillage with unfair business policies.
* * * * * *
Upon my return to Taiwan, I could not make out whether or not I’d enjoyed my trip. There’d been great moments and some really irksome constraints. On the other hand, the melodies from Cabaret continue to play over and over in my mind, and I have considered buying a ticket to return to London for a third viewing – my visa is still valid for a few months...
Auf
Wiedersehen! A bientot! Good Night!