Checking Into Aston in Pekanbaru

Got to the Pekanbaru hotel and went thru the check in ritual. When you don’t speak the language, and are in another land, you really do rely on a combination of system, guesses, and ritualized kindness. Security and airport check in always has a rough family resemblance but the sequence of when things are done, their location, and their exact rituals vary. In Indonesia, before you check a bag they put a strap around it so there are little “strap counters” around. In the U.S. of course they want to get in your bag so you can’t even lock it. I think I put my carry on thru two metal detectors – once to get into the airport and the other to get into the gate area and once more to get into the gate itself – but the general attitude of the guards is more casual. You also have to pay a 3.00 airport tax and the location of payment seems to vary.

Let it be said here that the hardest country to get in and out of is the U.S. and this hurts our standing with visitors and potential students. Two people even asked about it during my talks. I never had to take off my shoes on this trip (I did see a woman take off her large boots in Singapore but you could have hidden a cannon in them) and the customs agents were always at least polite. I think I said earlier that in Hong Kong they give you candy. When they explain the rules for entering the US on the airplane (I’m typing this right after hearing it) people just start to laugh they are so complex. The best thing about the US is, well, the US.

People can disagree but, speaking from an Indonesian perspective – and I think a lot of other places as well – people that have visited the US have been amazed at how open and friendly the people are. Borat made fun of the US but can you imagine Cohen trying to even make the movie in France – no one would have talked to him – the movie would have been shorter than a commercial. I’m not saying the people are well informed or always sensitive but, generally, they do what they can to accommodate people’s religious and personal beliefs. I have seen this time and again in the programs run by the Civic Initiative and testified to universally by every visitor I met in Indonesia. There was no dissent on the issue. One man I met had lived in Dayton Ohio (I’m sorry if I’m repeating things I wrote earlier) for ten years. He said that he had never met the kind of open minded people like he did in Dayton. Now, my New England readers may snicker about the red necks in the heartland, but, in fact, people with strong religious beliefs connect BETTER with Indonesians, not a tolerant secular person. He said he met every week for coffee and cookies with an InterFaith council in Kettering, hosted by a local Protestant church, and attended by Catholics, protestants, Jews, and Muslims.

But when it comes to getting here – we look bad sometimes. This isn’t to deny that security isn’t critical nor to suggest that a threat doesn’t exist but everything exists in a balance.