What A Difference A Nationality Made? (3)
There
are two occasions which urged me to think seriously about giving up my
Indonesian passport and becoming a UK citizen. One of my friends asked
if we're interested in going somewhere on Easter break, and she quite
fancied Switzerland and Austria. While another one immediately said
yes, I had to tell her that it's not that easy for Indonesian. We can't
just hope in the plane and fly to European
countries. The other occasion was when Joan and I were talking about an
impulse of spending the weekend, say, somewhere in Portugal, or Italy.
I told her, that of course, for Indonesian, we have to plan in at least
a month in advance. At least.
Being
Indonesian, we are only allowed to set our foot into 11 countries
without visas. For other countries, we have to embark on a long journey
of collecting necessary documents and submit them to embassies, just to
prove that we are worthy human beings who will not become burdens for
them when we land in their precious countries. UK embassy in Indonesia
now requires each applicant to have their finger scanned and
photographs taken at the Visa Application Centre,
as if all the documents we gather to submit are not genuine enough and
they need to see with their own eyes and their own equipment that we're
not an alien or Imam Samudra descendant.
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My blog is updated today, 29 February 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.
