Sorry for the lack of updates recently. It's not just the FSI Doldrums; I am having major hardware issues. The apartment I'm staying at has free wireless, but the connection is very unstable. It usually cuts me out after only one or two minutes online. I've been unable to send any email, or upload any content from home, because if I do so the connection dies. I don't know if it is an issue with the network, or if my laptop is just too damn old (2000). It doesn't have a wifi card, but I am using a special bridge adapter. Anyway, you are now looking at the proud owner of a ten-year multiple entry India tourist visa. It set me back a painful $150. I went down to the consular offices in DC just the other day which are located about 5 blocks from the Indian embassy. Part of this was a recon to see how their operations differ from ours. Compared with us, it is a relatively painless procedure. I downloaded the visa application from the embassy website and filled it out. There is no appointment system and I got the visa that same day. They require the applicant to drop off the forms, photos and pay the fee in the morning anytime from 0930-1230. Then they tell you to come back at 430pm. Of course, they don't handle nearly the same volume as we did in Chennai. Not counting the travel agency couriers, there were no more than 25-30 people that day. Most significantly, they do not require a visa interview. I wasn't taking any chances however; I was ready for them with these sure-fire gems I memorized beforehand, which I planned to randomly throw in as responses to any questions by the fearsome Indian visa officer: "Please sir; Telugu, sir." "6 months, sir." "See the places, sir." "Cousin-friend's wedding, sir." That last one is actually true. And now I'm good to go for any cousin-friend's wedding up to the year 2016. It looks like I'll be leaving for Taiwan next week. I don't know if I'll have time to post again before then. I had an interesting encounter the other night with an elderly Mongolian lady who was wandering the streets of Rosslyn lost, and who spoke practically no English; maybe I'll write that up once in Taiwan. I will say this: if State had sent me to my first choice back in 2004, things would have gone much smoother.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 5/25/2006 11:30:00 PM| |

 
I've just wrapped up my first week back at FSI (Foreign Service Institute), and will remain here for a brief period. Among my activities are a couple of fraud related classes designed on learning how to spot mala fide travelers and the phony docs they try to use. All useful good stuff to know, but if we were really serious about this there are at least two simple procedures we could implement that would virtually eliminate counterfeit/altered US visas and passports literally overnight, without adding more than a half minute or so per passenger at the port of entry. I've run into several colleagues the past week, some from my A-100 and others from Chennai. In fact, there are several former Chennai colleagues headed off to China posts soon, and it's been interesting seeing how well they've learned Chinese after their 7-8 month courses. I was surprised to find that their levels are actually pretty good, and better than I expected. The tones aren't all there, but they can follow along basic conversations with little difficulty. Of course, China will be a different ball of wax entirely, because the instructors speak very standard Mandarin, which is a far cry from what my colleagues will encounter in the field. They've also introduced me to some of their teachers, which has been good for me because I try to visit the China section during my breaks and chat them up. I need all the help I can get, because I haven't lived in a Chinese-speaking country since 1993. It's not too effective, however, because it averages out to only about 5 minutes a day, and I've really gotten rusty after two years in Chennai.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 5/14/2006 05:31:00 AM| |

 
Post-Katrina New Orleans As I wrote below, I just returned from a three-day visit to my hometown of New Orleans. I was in Bangladesh when the storm struck on August 29, 2005, something that caught me completely by surprise; the last I had heard, it had veered away at the last moment towards Mississippi. As I wrote then, all my relatives made it out of town ok, but their homes, for the most part, were not so fortunate. In fact, only one of my relatives came out completely unscathed. He was lucky in that his house is in the Garden District, one of the only regions in the city that escaped flooding. Everyone else had severe damage to their houses. When I first drove into the area on I-10 coming from the west, I was struck by what looked to be recreational vehicles in so many people’s yards. If I didn’t know any better, I might have joked that New Orleans was becoming America’s RV capital. But those aren’t campers, those are FEMA trailers, because eight months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still in shambles. Small pockets of the city are slowly coming back to life, but 60% or more of the residents have not returned. My aunt says that only 10 schools have reopened out of well over 100. The destruction affected all races and economic classes. New Orleans was a heavily segregated city, and it is illustrative to note that the two most devastated areas were the lower 9th Ward (black) and Lakeview (white). These areas sustained virtually complete annihilation. The lower 9th Ward was famous as a part of the city with high percentages of home ownership by the city’s working and middle class blacks who lived there. The area is completely wiped out, and there is almost no clearing of debris or reconstruction activity going on here even now. We did see a crew going over rubble, but with corpse-sniffing dogs. It honestly looks like a war zone. Lakeview is a primarily upper-middle class white residential area. While it also suffered horrific damage, you can see more evidence here of clean-up and rebuilding, although the majority of people still haven’t returned: there are streets and streets of abandoned homes. I don’t know this for sure, but it may be that part of the reason for the situation in the lower 9th Ward is that many there did not have insurance. I think most people in Lakeview, and whites in general, did have some type of insurance. That hasn’t stopped the insurance companies from balking at paying claims, however. The impression of many New Orleanians is that the insurance companies are doing everything they can to avoid or drag out claim resolution, and I doubt the neo-Lochner judiciary that has emerged in the last few decades is likely to sympathize with the little guy at the mercy of Allstate. And a long drawn-out court fight not only adds insult to injury, it could literally be these people’s breaking point. Most people there feel that the federal government has largely abandoned New Orleans to its own devices. To say they are furious would be mild understatement. I was appalled to see so much of the city in such desperate shape, eight months after the storm. It is an embarrassment. Several areas in countries struck by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami looked far better at the same stage, and these are developing countries. So why has the US government failed? Many in New Orleans believe they know the reason in no uncertain terms: Irreplaceable revenue allocated quixotically. I can’t say, but it does appear that the fed has priorities other than its own citizens and one of the nation’s most distinctive and culturally significant cities. My lucky uncle told me he believes that it will take the city at least 15-20 years to fully recover, if it ever does. New Orleans is in the midst of a mayoral race, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one, even though I’m no longer a Louisiana resident. One of my relatives (distant) has thrown his hat in the ring: Mitch Landrieu, the current Lt. Governor. He’s also the brother of Senator Mary Landrieu. I remember playing at their dad’s house a few times when I was a small child. I couldn’t decide which New Orleans photos to put on this site, but if you’re interested, you can see them all here.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 5/06/2006 12:15:00 PM| |

 
I'm back from New Orleans. My, oh my, what happened to my hometown? I'll post about the trip in the next couple of days... In the meantime, as a shout-out to my peeps in the Chennai Consulate visa windows steeling themselves for the maddening onslaught that will be Student Season 2006:Look Familiar? Taken on the Fly off the I-10 in bustlin' Beaumont Texas
- posted by Prince Roy @ 5/05/2006 07:10:00 AM| |