The German Consulate, or, Why I Want My Citizenship

My fingers are still shaking a little from fury so it's little hard for me to type this right now.

I'm planning for a trip to Munich in 12/7 and I, being a non-US citizen, needed to get a Schengen tourist visa. So I went to the German Consulate on Monday to send in my application. Before hand, I had spent several hours preparing all the documents together, exactly according to the specifications posted on their website. I even instructed the lady at Walgreens on the exact chin-to-hairline dimensions that would meet the requirements of the illustrious Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublic Deutschland.

I get there early, and get in pretty quickly. I'm second in line so I get to the window without much wait at all. Score I thought, this is going to be quick and painless. Wrong! First, the lady says, you only have hotel reservations for one night, you need to have hotel reservations for the entire time. I explain that I might go to Prague depending on the weather, so I can't plan. "I don't care", she says, "Schengen rules." So I run out to the internet cafe around the corner, spend about $10 booking 18-bed mixed dorm room youth hostels in Prague and Munich. I come back. She says, "you're proof of insurance letter is insufficient." After several exchanges, I got her to say something other than mechanically repeat that previous mantra of all socialist...I mean...Schengen states. "Your letter has to say that 'medical, hospital, and repatriation' are covered." She was pretty nice about it though. She said, "you can come back on Wednesday to pick up the visa, just make sure you fax in the letter."

So obviously I spent the next few days chasing down HR and requesting additions to the letter. I fax it in last night, and brought an extra copy with me this morning. Mind you I live in Connecticut now so every time I go it's 3-4 hours of my time. I get to the window, first thing the guy says, "how are you getting to Prague?" You need to have your airfare booked. "WTF did you guys never tell me that before?" I thought. But I said, "Actually I'm picking up my car, so if the weather is good I might drive." Luckily, I had brought my car purchase order, so that shut him up. Then he goes back inside for like 30 minutes and then comes back again and says, "I can't give you the visa because there's no co-pay amount on your letter". "WTF did you guys never tell me that before?!" I thought again. After some further arguing with the guy, I finally gave up and came back to the office.

At this point I'm pretty fucking pissed. I'm going to Germany to pick up a car, and they worried that I can't afford my health insurance co-pay?! What the fuck! What's worse, is that I will have to spend another 4 hours going back to get my visa again. I spent hours of my time preparing my documents so that I don't waste their time when I get there. How can they dick me around like this over and over and over again? Every time I go back it's always something else!

But oh this gets better. After I got back to work, I checked with HR again and got a really quick update with the co-pay amount. I fax it in, and then I call to confirm. First time the guy is like, send it again we didn't get it, even though my fax receipt cleared stated it was a success. So I fax it again, and call again. "Ah yes" He says derogatorily, "you faxed it twice." I'm already pretty fucking speechless at this point. Then he says, "Hmmmm...this letter is from your health insurance broker. We cannot accept a letter from them. It must be from your insurer." I tried to explain that our policy differs from other policies at the actual insurer so if anything, it's the broker that would know the details better. "No, this is Schengen rule," the guy says, "I don't care." Heck, it's pretty clear this guy doesn't give a shit about people going to the consulate. So points for honesty there.

He then says, "I'm trying to help you, so I'll advise you to spend $50 at Access America and they'll issue you a proper letter". "But I already have health insurance," I pined. At this point I look down at the list of proof of insurance requirements and Access America is listed right at the top. At this point I'm just thinking, do they get a kickback from Access America for these forced referrals? What a great scheme. The consulate acts all hard ass on people so that they would be "advised" to go get travel insurance from Access America. Obviously, Access America could charge higher rates before guess what, customers without choice have no bargaining power. I half seriously wonder how much of a bonus this guy is getting from these travel insurance places.

So, finally, back to my title. While my green card has allowed me to travel between the US and China completely unhindered, I now look forward to applying for citizenship. However, the right to vote is no longer my primary motive. Avoiding European bureaucrats is. Who knows, once I get my American citizenship, I might just be tempted to fly to Europe and visit hospitals every where without my wallet.

Rights and Germans

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with the Holocaust.

Haven't written a post in a long while, but something I came across today prompted the urge to get something off my chest. I was at the Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland on 49th and 1st, and I picked up a pamphlet about Germany. On the last page on religion, the first sentence read "The Grundgesetz (basic law) of the Federal Republic of Germany grants Germans freedom of religion". In the "history" section, there was another short blurb on "the majority [of the people] were poor peasants who did not own land and had no rights". As much as I hope it was a typo, I just don't think anything was lost in the translation.
Things like these show a profound misunderstanding of what rights are, and point to one of the things that made American political thought (at least at its founding) fundamentally different from the rest of the world.
What are rights? Rights are naturally existing ethical principles that are pre-requisites for the existence of man qua man in a social context. They do not come from a mythical creature with a warm and fuzzy variety of omnipotence nor do they come from the divinity of kings; and they sure as hell don't come from some hodge-podge of crooked politicians and backroom bureaucrats. Get this straight in your head right now: Rights precedes government and precedes the law. If a government is supposed to justify its existence by fulfilling the function of a protector of rights, then how can the government be the grantor of those rights? The Bill of Rights doesn't grant anyone the right to free speech, it explicitly protects it. There's an oft forgotten clause that states that any power not explicitly granted to the Federal government is reserved for the state and the people. What was stated in the pamphlet about Germany was the exact opposite of this very principle. It implies that people have no rights unless the government explicitly grants them. And if a person does not have basic rights without the approval of the government, it means that his/her very existence is dependent on the sanction of Bundestag. And when the whim of the mob changes, rights that were "granted" to you can be taken away quicker than you can say "Dem Deutschen Volke".
Our only hope is that everyone gain a clear understanding of rights so that any government that claims to have the power of sanction over the fundamental rights of its citizens will be made to quake with fear.