Tidbit From an Uninviting Land

At John Kennedy Airport in New York City, I was detained, shackled and sent back to Brazil.  This was a nightmare I had, a couple of days before flying to NYC.  I experienced insomnia and grew concerned over reports of individuals having their US visas revoked, others being denied entry to the country, and some even placed in detention centers.  All had expressed criticisms of Trump's policies.  American immigration officers have revived the rarely used practice of searching electronic devices of international visitors.  I self-censored by hurriedly cleaning my inbox of all messages and comments relative to Trump.  Welcome to free speech in Trump land!

On March 20, I spent a restless night on my American Airlines flight flatbed seat.  A lousy airline which even treats its business class passengers badly.  Tickets are astronomically expensive, and the service is poor.  This time, slippers were missing from the amenity set, but passengers, mostly Brazilians did not grumble for fear of being scolded or worse.  Nowadays, only American passengers can make a fuss on American airlines without risking detention.  This is out of context, but I cannot resist sharing this info: last week, a deranged guy threw a fit and attempted to barge into the cockpit of an AA flight because he did not get his preordered meal.  Consequently, the flight bound to Milan turned back to JFK.  Even though three hundred passengers were adversely impacted, the disruptive passenger was released without charge.

In the unusually empty JFK immigration hall, nervous and exhausted, I walked towards the immigration officer.  The officer took a picture of my wretched face and let me go after asking me what I had been doing in Paraguay, exotic but not yet on Trump’s country blacklist.  It was the first time in years that I had to wait for my bag.  Usually, bags are stacked beside the conveyor belt.  The idleness was possibly due to London Heathrow being closed after a power outage resulting from a fire.

I started to relax when sitting in the cab to Manhattan, but not for long. The chatty Haitian American driver provided me with more news than my peace of mind needed. He referred to Trump as the madman and made clear that no one would escape his impulses.  He pretended to know fired public servants and argued that the Madman kept declaring fake national emergencies to achieve his goals and that he could cancel the midterm elections using this mechanism.  I had heard similar remarks from my friends. Finally, he approved of the Congestion pricing (CP) which eased downtown Manhattan traffic; the collected fees will finance the modernization of subways and buses. 

                                                                                      Retired after 32 years

I used public transport during my stay, and I noted that buses ran faster.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is engaged in a legal dispute with the White House’s dinosaur who wants to terminate the CP program.  The local population is increasingly warming up to the tolls as gridlocks are decreasing.  A court decision is expected at the end of the year.  MTA is also pioneering on another front, the historic “wrist swipe” through a turnstile is being replaced by a tap and go system.  A notable improvement for me, as I never mastered the wrist movement to swipe the MetroCard through the reader.

My AA outbound flight was uneventful, slippers were available, and I slept like a baby.

Brazilians who transformed overseas shopping into an art, asked me what I had purchased in NYC.  They were shocked to hear that my shopping is always of the mundane sort: sponges and rubber gloves for the kitchen, daily sanitary pads and Kleenex tissue for the bathroom, etc.  Decades of protectionism in Brazil have hampered competition and as a result, the industry is still incapable of producing decent paper tissue.   Coincidentally, as a warning to Trump’s tariffs policy, the Wall Street Journal wrote that “Brazil’s stagnant economy is the Poster Child for high tariffs which protect inefficient industries and keep prices high”.

Bargain shopping as we know it will not survive tariffs; many Brazilians will have to reinvent their overseas travels.  There may be an unseen benefit in Trump’s reckless assault on trade, is he not an avid golfer? He may want all of us to spend more time outdoors and less in shopping malls: Make the World Healthy Again! MWHA.