*In The Rest Of The World, Foreigners Get Asked For Their Papers All The
Time: * Travel writer Paul Theroux explains the facts of life
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-04/show-your-papers-so-what/full/>
to those offended by Arizona's effort to enforce our immigration laws.
These people who are protesting being asked for identification by
Arizona cops---have they been anywhere lately, like out of the
country? Like Mexico, or Canada, or India, or Italy, or Tanzania,
or Singapore, or Britain---places where people in uniforms have
routinely demanded my papers? Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie
Guillen is offended ("as a Latin American") by the Arizona law and
recently claimed that all illegal immigrants are "workaholics." Has
he been back to the land of his birth lately, Venezuela, and
expected not to be asked for his papers? Ozzie, tell the police in
Ocumare del Tuy, "I"m a Latin American," and see if that will end
the interrogation. And spare a thought for the policeman two days
ago who was gunned down in the desert by a workaholic drug dealer.
The request for papers is not just a line in Casablanca. I have
been hearing the question my whole traveling life. I had an Alien
Registration Card in Britain and got occasional visits from the
police at my home, to make sure I was behaving myself. Seventeen
years in Britain as an alien: papers. Six years in Africa: "Where
are your papers, bwana?" Three years in Singapore: another alien
identity card and immense red tape in that fussy, litigious
bureaucracy.
And in the United States, as everyone here should know:
As for the U.S., it is annoying, but understandable, especially in a
country with 12 million illegal immigrants using the public
services. "Who are you?" is a routine question: The necessity to
identify yourself to authority is something that happens every day.
You present a credit card at the supermarket and they want to see
your license to make sure you"re not a grafter. All over the place,
renting a car, at the bank: "I"ll need to see two forms of ID."
This ordinary bureaucratic requirement can be omitted only in small
towns (and a few city neighborhoods that operate like small towns) where
most people know you personally.
(North Dakota is the only state that does not require voters to register
<http://www.nd.gov/sos/forms/pdf/votereg.pdf>. They can skip voter
registration because:
North Dakota is a rural state and its communities maintain close
ties and networks. North Dakota's system of voting, and lack of
voter registration, is rooted in its rural character by providing
small precincts. Establishing relatively small precincts is
intended to ensure that election boards know the voters who come to
the polls to vote on Election Day and can easily detect those who
should not be voting in the precinct. This network of small
precincts reduces the need for voter registration.
People in North Dakota are much less likely to asked to show their
papers than people in New York, for similar reasons.)
- 7:33 AM, 5 May 2010 [link]
<http://www.seanet.com/%7Ejimxc/Politics/May2010_1.html#jrm8673>
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