How American Mission Abroad Propagate Its Self-Righteous Sense of Superiority
U.S. embassies all over the world tend to have a shared characteristic: they strive to look like military barracks, surrounded with heavily armed guards and barbed wires to fight off terrorist attacks at any given notice, rather than a diplomatically positive representation of America as a socially advanced and politically liberal place that its politicians seem to tirelessly promote when abroad. Usually taking up prime real estate in highly urbanized areas, these American missions demonstrate American power, but in the most off-putting and scarily unapproachable fashion possible in everyone's eyes.
As a naturalized citizen, the author rarely ever have to deal with American diplomatic procedures, much less approach American missions abroad. And interestingly enough, today's experience renewing passport at the gigantic Manila Embassy compound is actually perhaps the first time that the author ever stepped inside an American embassy, at anytime in his personal life, despite the constant travels. And after the experience, the simple conclusion of the experience is that, once inside, the embassy feels just as off-putting and scary as they are outside, with no sort of hospitality on display.
Perhaps the biggest difference between an American mission and the mission of any other country the author have been to is a complete lack of promotional or PR materials in the American case. There are no nice posters showing beautiful tourist spots in different parts of the US, and there are no pamphlets explaining American customs and etiquette. Well, guess it really is not all that necessary when people all over the world get that information from the countless American TV dramas and Hollywood blockbusters that fill their lives.
In other words, American embassies, at least in the parts accessible to normal people, are straight up bureaucratic establishments. There are little window counters, seats for waiting, and guards checking bags and handing out numbered tickets for lining up, but literally nothing else. Yet, even with such simple furnishings, a sense of claustrophobia is overwhelming. More than 50 windows and hundreds of filled seats greet anyone who enter the main hall after lining up outside the building for half an hour. Getting to the assigned ticket number for a few minutes of talk is another hour of wait in those seats.
Especially out here in the former american colony of Philippines, such sights at the Embassy says quite a lot about how the country perceive herself in the eyes of the locals. Many locals have children born on short trips to the US or short relationships with American citizens, thus creating a class of US citizens with little knowledge of America or even English language. And despite the economic downturn in the States and rise of Asia as a new source of migrant labor, plenty still seem to espouse dreams of migrating to the US to start a new life.
As far as the local US Embassy is concerned, these new immigrants probably are not at all feel welcomed at first sight. Terse conversations, in all seriousness, betray a strong sense of condescension displayed by consular officers, the supposed representation of American national interests abroad. The message to the applicants is clear, "your presence in the US is not entirely welcome, and you should be grateful that we are even doing you this favor." Judging from the nervous replies and laughter of the applicants, they seem to buy the message.
It only serves to reinforce the sense of condescension toward so-called "economic migrants from Third World countries" among both the consular officers and, more broadly, the American public. The fact that the US federal government spend next to nothing on promoting the country as destination for tourism or investment. Yet it remains one of the top destinations for FDI, immigration, and international travel. That attitude of taking all the positives of globalization for granted is clearly evident right there at the US Embassy, not to mention of behavior of the average US citizen here.
It would be interesting to observe how US Embassies will change as the privileged status of the US begin eroding in different parts of the world. But probably more likely is how newly emerging world powers may start modeling their own embassies (along with the attitudes) after those of the US. Trips to the Chinese embassies in the past has already shown such tendencies. One thing for sure is that having such missions representing the country abroad cannot possibly leave its users positive impressions. They will simply tolerate the unpleasant to get their needed procedures completed.
As a naturalized citizen, the author rarely ever have to deal with American diplomatic procedures, much less approach American missions abroad. And interestingly enough, today's experience renewing passport at the gigantic Manila Embassy compound is actually perhaps the first time that the author ever stepped inside an American embassy, at anytime in his personal life, despite the constant travels. And after the experience, the simple conclusion of the experience is that, once inside, the embassy feels just as off-putting and scary as they are outside, with no sort of hospitality on display.
Perhaps the biggest difference between an American mission and the mission of any other country the author have been to is a complete lack of promotional or PR materials in the American case. There are no nice posters showing beautiful tourist spots in different parts of the US, and there are no pamphlets explaining American customs and etiquette. Well, guess it really is not all that necessary when people all over the world get that information from the countless American TV dramas and Hollywood blockbusters that fill their lives.
In other words, American embassies, at least in the parts accessible to normal people, are straight up bureaucratic establishments. There are little window counters, seats for waiting, and guards checking bags and handing out numbered tickets for lining up, but literally nothing else. Yet, even with such simple furnishings, a sense of claustrophobia is overwhelming. More than 50 windows and hundreds of filled seats greet anyone who enter the main hall after lining up outside the building for half an hour. Getting to the assigned ticket number for a few minutes of talk is another hour of wait in those seats.
Especially out here in the former american colony of Philippines, such sights at the Embassy says quite a lot about how the country perceive herself in the eyes of the locals. Many locals have children born on short trips to the US or short relationships with American citizens, thus creating a class of US citizens with little knowledge of America or even English language. And despite the economic downturn in the States and rise of Asia as a new source of migrant labor, plenty still seem to espouse dreams of migrating to the US to start a new life.
As far as the local US Embassy is concerned, these new immigrants probably are not at all feel welcomed at first sight. Terse conversations, in all seriousness, betray a strong sense of condescension displayed by consular officers, the supposed representation of American national interests abroad. The message to the applicants is clear, "your presence in the US is not entirely welcome, and you should be grateful that we are even doing you this favor." Judging from the nervous replies and laughter of the applicants, they seem to buy the message.
It only serves to reinforce the sense of condescension toward so-called "economic migrants from Third World countries" among both the consular officers and, more broadly, the American public. The fact that the US federal government spend next to nothing on promoting the country as destination for tourism or investment. Yet it remains one of the top destinations for FDI, immigration, and international travel. That attitude of taking all the positives of globalization for granted is clearly evident right there at the US Embassy, not to mention of behavior of the average US citizen here.
It would be interesting to observe how US Embassies will change as the privileged status of the US begin eroding in different parts of the world. But probably more likely is how newly emerging world powers may start modeling their own embassies (along with the attitudes) after those of the US. Trips to the Chinese embassies in the past has already shown such tendencies. One thing for sure is that having such missions representing the country abroad cannot possibly leave its users positive impressions. They will simply tolerate the unpleasant to get their needed procedures completed.
Let me make an attempt at a defense here, though I agree with you on some points.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you are quite the traveler yourself, so you must have gone to quite a few embassies during the past few years. How many of these missions that you know display "nice posters showing beautiful tourist spots" or "pamphlets explaining American customs and etiquette. Perhaps it's just because I'm familiari with African embassies and consulates, but in my experience this number is near zero. Further, I take it you didn't make it into the embassy's library or its cultural center. I can assure you that these are far more hospitable, and are geared towards showing the best and brightest side of the US to host country citizens, as well as providing them with invaluable research and scholarship query materials.
Also, you have to concede that US missions are the biggest target of any other diplomatic facilities in the world. The semi-militarized monstrosities that exist in most foreign countries have largely sprung up (or been renovated from old embassies) since 9/11. As somebody who interned at a US consulate for a summer, I hated it. But the risks are very real, so protection is needed, even to seemingly obnoxious levels. A lot of European missions in foreign countries have followed suit.
for the first point. many countries these days promote tourism as a way to earn hard currency and of course, the government is leading the way thru tourism agency and budget set aside for PR campaigns.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure many African countries just havent got around to that yet, but surely they will in the near future when the conditions are right and they have spare energy.
As for library/cultural center, thats not something open to the public in the US Embassy. the parts open to the public are just literally lines for getting into the place, and processing for visas and other stuff. no fun stuff anywhere. I did see those in other embassies though (including the Burmese one heh)
as for the protection, 100% agree that protection is needed. The outside can look like a fortress, nobody has problem with that. But the inside does not need to resemble the outside. It could be designed in a more human way...