Ira: Thank You for that information.
Jackson

I wouldn't visit Brazil at this point. Not that I ever would have gone there anyway! I think their making Americans be fingerprinted when entering the country is uncalled for. The United States has a very good reason for doing this to certain nationals.

Sue4 wrote
>I wouldn't visit Brazil at this point. ...I think their making Americans be fingerprinted when entering the country is uncalled for. The United States has a very good reason for doing this to certain nationals.<

You are being satiric, aren't you Sue?

Remember last year when "someone" was saying do not drink or buy the French wines in USA? LOL!!!!!!

I thought something was in them but it was suppose to be a political something or other. See how important that was?

I and my 4 girlfriends are certainly going to Brazil for 5 weeks...could care less if they fingerprinted us or tatooed our backsides.

We can't wait to slip on our Brazilian bikinis and swimsuit thongs that we have literally been working our butts off to strut around South America in!

USA gets away with so much. When someone employs "our tactics" then folks, some USA ones, start hooping and a hollering.

BTW, we discussed this EXTENSIVELY on the South America Fodors thread last month.

Quite civil postings considering... and emotions were held in check... considering...

Happy reading,
Oaktown Traveler

I recall there was a TV piece about the subject of child prostitution in Romania and Romanian teenagers in Milan a few weeks ago. Here is that report:
http://www.hrr.ro/articol.php?limba=...ID_articol=440

I am tempted to boycott the Czech Republic, because of their totally unjustified visa requirements for Australians and Canadians. They obviously don't want us there, so they can get f***ed.

I don't generally think I'd boycott. As mentioned earlier, I can see where boycotts hurt the lowest in society far sooner and worse than they affect the leadership.

I just read some of the piece on Romania, which incidently happens to be where we're planning to visit this year. After reading it, all I could think is that I should spend more while I'm there and try to help that situation go away. I could imagine (rightly or wrongly) that a boycott would drive that problem from bad to worse.

Much as I love the US for its people, creativity and innovation, services, research, and entertainment, I can't bring myself to go there and be subjected to fingerprinting, harassment and possible persecution. This from the land I had always idealized for human rights and innocence until proven guilty. I spent many summers and my college years in the US, and I miss it. I will also miss my sister's PhD graduation this June, but I just can't do it.

Politics alone wouldn't stop being going anywhere - why persecute an entire people because you disagree with the politics of their government? I would, however, not be interested in visiting countries where my own civil liberties would be grossly restricted. As a woman, I'm not planning on visiting Saudi Arabia any time soon.

I've been boycotting outer Mongolia for years. :)

I also refuse, categorically, to buy a jet airplane.

And when I'm ninety and in a wheelchair, I will boycott running the Boston marathon.

All of the above illustrates the problem with boycotts: people won't necessarily interpret one's absence as an act of political dissent but as the result of more practical concerns: lack of economic or physical ability, or fear of travel for whatever reason, or even sheer lack of interest in the region in the first place.

Boycotting is in the eye of the beholder. I've been boycotting most of the world for years, and dang it, nobody has thought fit to notice.

> I've been boycotting most of the world for years, and dang it, nobody has thought fit to notice. <

That explains it, Sue. Us folks down here in Madison, GA have spent many a morning at Joe's wondering, over our fried eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and coffee, why you hadn't come to visit.

On night when i was waitressing i had a man order a bottle of some Italian wine, and we were sold out, so i was told to suggest a similar French wine, as soon as the man realized that the wine was French he went on and on about how he is anti-French and will never drink a French wine again. Like he thinks that by him not drinking french wine the entire country will stop and kiss his A*S untill he decides its ok to drink their wine again

ira

Not only that, but would you believe that neither George Bush nor Tony Blair have ever seen fit to return my phone calls? The nerve.....

Fried eggs....is that fresh coffee? I must look up Madison, GA on the map forthwith....:)

Actually, Sue, the food at Joe's is not good. It's probably the only place in the South that has inedible biscuits.

However, if you do want to come down here see
http://www.morgan.public.lib.ga.us/madison/

Hi

It is interesting that Sue4 brings up the Brazil/USA relationship. She wrote: "I think their making Americans be fingerprinted when entering the country is uncalled for. The United States has a very good reason for doing this to certain nationals"

As a Norwegian it seems like I still have access to the US but it is a different story for my South African wife. We are planning a trip to the US this summer to visit my sister who lives in Ohio. I don't really have a problem with the fact that my wife has to get a visa to ba able to visit the US. But now the rules have changed and now she has to travel to the capital of Norway to go to a personal interview to be able to apply for a visa. So I guess my wife is one of those "certain nationals" that Sue4 is referring to. Mr. Bush keeps repeating that he has made the world a safer place but I have my doubts. So I guess the conclusion is that I'm not planning on boycotting the US :-)...but I do admit that I'm a bit pieved to that my wife has to go so much trouble to get into the US.

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway
gardkarlsen.com

I've been wanting to go to Turkey but cannot convince my husband to go. His grandfather's family was kicked out during the fall of Asia Minor, actually there is still a town there that bears his grandfather's last name. Then of course there is the Cyprus problems. I may be able to win him over because his Mom would like to see where her family came from.

I know several people that have proclaimed they will never visit France because of that country's refusal to support our efforts in Iraq. I also know for a fact that at least two of these couples have never been more than 300 miles from home, so their "commitment" is hardly an inconvenience. If I ever boycott a travel destination, I think that it will be Pittsburgh, since I have no desire to ever go there.

Another vociferous anti-France couple that I know just got back from San Diego. Apparently, they were conveniently unaware of the fact that Nancy Pelosi (House Minority Leader D-CA) opposed the Iraq war on essentially the same grounds as Jacques Chirac.

Travel boycotts are fads that mostly appeal to non-travelers or to those adept at rationalizing exceptions when convenient.

I suspect that someday we will re-visit the whole "France didn't support us" issue (sometimes friends who TRY to tell you that you are just about to step in it are characterized as non-supportive)and I think more than a few people will come out of that feeling pretty stupid.
As to not visiting Brazil...these sorts of measures such as fingerprinting are the very things that our own government is proposing for certain "types" of visitors to the US....gee, things get a little "uncomfortable" when you're suddenly viewed as "suspicious" don't they?????

coldwar27 said:
<I had people boycott ME when I went to France last year. I went right as Freedom Fries were the hot topic and the war in Iraq was heating up.>

I had people boycott ME for attending a Dixie Chicks concert here in Alabama. I didn't even have to leave the country.

Turkey due to their unwillingness to acknowledge and make amends for the Armenian geoncide.

Japan for continuing to acknowledge and make amends for the disgusting, vicious, and sadistic acts they commited in WWII.

Saudi Arabia for their deliberate and ignorant resistance to joining the modern world and their support for islamic terrorist.

MM