Aby The Liberal

Captain Sasha May 6th, 2011

When I was a little boy, my mum used to take me to the circus in town, where one of the chief attractions was a fat woman. At that time, being fat guaranteed you instant celebrity status, although not quite the way you wanted. However, as I grew up and had more exposure to the rest of the world, seeing fat people became more commonplace.

Till the late 1990s, the only morbidly obese people we’d come across were Americans and affluent Arabs. However, today it seems that there is an obesity epidemic all over the globe. People in traditionally slim countries are getting obese at an alarming rate, bringing with them a host of health problems and costs associated with being fat. So what is it making people fat at this rate?

According to common wisdom, when you eat much and don’t get enough exercise, you get fat. If the calories you consume is more than calories burned, your body starts storing the excess as fat. While actual metabolic pathways are a lot more complex than that, this is the general rule.

In the past, people used to eat a lot less and physically exert themselves a lot more than what they do today. Only rich people had cars, most people walked, bussed or biked to school and work. Because of traditional farming methods, food wasn’t as abundant so people ate smaller portions. Since the food was unprocessed, it was more nutrious and filling than today’s junk food.  Leisure time was spent in playing sports or socialising, both of which kept the metabolism running. Hence, people stayed slim.

However in today’s world, the metabolic jobs of our body are taken over by machines. As cars became affordable to any one with an average income, people walk very little, if at all. Food processing techniques have created a flood of cheap processed food, which is consumed by the bucketloads.  People sit for hours at desks in their climate controlled offices, where breathing is the most strenous physical exertion. When they are back from work, they plonk down in front of the TV for hours before they eat and go to sleep. The most exercise people get is walking to the nearest grocery shop a week for supplies.

No wonder there are more and more fat people all over.

• Health , Humanity
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Captain Sasha May 4th, 2011

I often had Americans invite me to travel to the United States, so that they can give me a ‘better’ experience of their country than my past travels. While they meant it in good faith, their advice is one I’d prefer to avoid, considering  the pitfalls of travelling to America as an ordinary tourist (as opposed to travelling to the US on diplomatic/official positions).

A cartoon on US Customs and Border Protection

According to the US travel website discoveramerica.com, “Travelling to the US offers experiences like nowhere else on earth.”, one of the most honest taglines that Americans ever came up with. Nowever else on earth would you have a travel experience as undignified, unpleasant and soul crushing as in United States. Right from the application for visa process to stepping on the United States soil, the message runs clear, “If you are not an American, you are scum.”

If you are a tourist visa applicant from a country that isn’t in the United States Visa Waiver Program, the visa process to the United States is an out-and-out nightmare. You’ll have to jump through hoops to submit your application, after which you’d encounter unpleasant interviews (~ interrogations) from rude American consular officials, just to have a 50% shot at getting the visa. Compare that to the visa process for Russia (which Americans complain is the toughest) where all you have to do is get all your papers right and pay the required fee to have the visa mailed to you in less than a month.

If you think getting a US tourist visa is the end of it, wake up to the horror known as US Customs and Border Protection. Once you’ve managed to survive the epic queues, you’ll have to face the relentless interrogation from the thin lipped border control guards, sometimes with a gun pointed at you. The US Border Control is also where you are removed of any misconception that racism is no longer alive in America. In the Border Control people, you get to see what Americans are like when the laws no longer hold them back from their racist impulses. This is especially true if you are a Slav, Asian, South American or African.

Once you have (miraculously) landed in territorial America, your travel experiences depend on your gender, ethnicity, nationality, looks, your accent, grasp of English and most importantly, where you travel and where you stay. If you are from a country what Americans call “the third world”, be prepared to be treated as a third class human being, unless you happen to be rich or good looking (or both). If you are a French or Russian, you’d have to encounter scathing remarks and stereotypes about your country, your politics and your people.

Considering all these pitfalls, it would be smarter to avoid travelling to the United States and choose alternative destinations. The Times Online provides a short review of some alternate holiday destinations that you might choose, that offer you a more pleasant travel experience. If you are travelling to Tahiti or the Americas and want to avoid a transit of the United States, check this page from Wikitravels. If you are an American and think I am too cynical, check the New York Times blog on how your travel policies lost US the bid for 2016 Summer Olympics.

• America , Humanity , Travels , World Culture
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