Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki finally received a visa to come to the 2022 Worldcon in Chicago, however, he missed his first flight for reasons explained below. He believes that problem will be overcome, however, he says the entire trip still depends on “a steady stream of miracles for the simplest things.” The thread starts here.
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Maddening as heck.
It’s so depressing.
Now I suppose he’ll get here and find his luggage has been stolen.
Bribes all the way down, it seems. The consulate. The travel agent. The luggage handlers. The airline schedulers.
And if he decides “that’s the way it works, I guess” and offers the US customs agent a bribe he’ll get denied. Or maybe if he doesn’t offer the US customs agent a bribe. How can one tell?
This has all been disgraceful.
That’s frustrating and maddening. How can an international airline be run that way?
(Co-worker from Nigeria went home for his wedding, and got stuck in Paris on the way back. Not his fault – it was a volcano in Iceland.)
@Jon Meltzer
What brings this on? The US has lots of problems, but routine corruption requiring bribes is not one them (thank goodness).
@bill–
Yes, that at least is true. Unlike in some countries, planning for the cost of routine bribes isn’t part of getting things done. A CBP official at a major US airport might not be the absolute last person you should offer a bribe to, but it’s a bad idea.
Clicking to follow.
Just for the record … 5000 naira in US dollars is only about US $12 at current exchange rates.
I was wondering. Thanks for looking it up.
A couple of hours ago our man posted to Facebook about “Being on a metal can tens of thousands of feet in the sky”. He also revealed that the route is Lagos >>> Ethiopia >>> Dublin >>> Chicago. Fingers crossed for good connections….
When I was a little younger we would play “Who’s writing your script?”
If you were having a really boring day, it was likely Paddy Chaiefsky (sp?) from his “Marty” period, for instance.
Right now I am thinking that the executive producer in charge of all scripts for Planet Earth is Franz Kafka.
Maddening indeed