Border Crossings

Long travel day. 20+ hours from door to door, including a long layover in Seoul. Landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport around 6 pm and spent an hour getting through immigration and customs. Some countries feel welcoming when you first set foot in them, while others come across as much more guarded. Russia feels unassailable, which is a perception that develops when you first begin the laborious process of trying to obtain a visa. The forms are long and elaborate, and you get a sense that no one in charge is in any hurry to let you into the country. I suppose people could say that about many countries, but I find Russian government officials to be somewhat intimidating, as holders of absolutely unreasonable levels of arbitrary power. Here's a quick little sketch of the visa section of the Russian consulate in Bangkok: Enter through a unmarked steel door, walk through an unplugged metal detector, into a small anteroom filled with 15 people sitting around ill-placed couches. A queue machine occupies one corner, next to a dozing security guard, and in an adjoining room of the same size, 40 people are crowded around a single window, behind which an unsmiling official calls out queue numbers and invites and dismisses people at his leisure. All the signage is in Russian, and the room is full of anxious people filling out copious forms and wondering how long they'll have to spend before being granted an audience with a consulate official. The whole scene s a portrait of dysfunction and bureaucracy, and this is for many their first impression of Russia. The feeling at this office in Bangkok is not too different from what you find at the airport upon arrival... I don't believe in borders. Actually, that's not quite true, so let me clarify. In a world where corporations are allowed to traverse national boundaries with impunity, through free-trade agreements like those that created NAFTA and the Eurozone, I think it's unfair to enforce harsh prohibitive boundaries preventing the free flow of people to and from different nations. If capital can move across borders without being taxed or policed, people should be able to as well. I realize this is a minority opinion, but it's something I believe in strongly. We spend far too much time defending arbitrary lines in the sand, and giving meaning to them. I guess this comes up today because as I stood waiting for the indifferent immigration officer to flip through my passport and stamp my entry, I found myself looking at all the people around me and wondering about their journeys... Must we police people's movements? Must be restrict entry into the privileged realms of the planet? The world would be a kinder, more cohesive place if travel was less burdensome, if governments were more welcoming, and if trade was easier... Right? Or have I not thought this through clearly?