Job Discussion Forums

[framentdavid]

I am an American citizen and I have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect at my own embassy. I think I also have the right to be understood IN ENGLISH.

These �local� security guys who may or may not allow you inside are rude, crude, arrogant, short-tempered, impatient, ill-mannered, unresponsive, and THEY DON�T SPEAK ENGLISH.

I don�t mean �a few good men� (or women) who guard the Embassy inside. These are all American. And I don�t mean the new security service, hired to protect American Embassies abroad. These people are all Westerners. I mean the local security guys. If they do allow you, it�s with reluctance, rudeness, and sometimes downright nastiness.
These people are terrible. When entering, they don�t so much say, as they mumble, �BE!.. BE!...� This means, �Take off your belt.� Or, �Wa�!! Wa!!!.. (�Remove your watch.�) I�m sure it�s only because of the indignity. Of the 300 times or so I have entered the embassy, 150 of them, they don�t say anything. Of the remaining 150, 100 times the electronic sensor buzzes, and they don�t bother �wand-checking� you. Of the other 50, the sensor doesn�t buzz, and they wand-check you anyway. If you take in a briefcase with only papers, they make a very big deal out of telling you that you have to send it through the X-ray machine. As it goes through, they �study� it. Carefully. At the other end, they take out each piece of paper and �read� it. Then they put all the papers back and more or less grunt, �Mahfee!! No!!�
Me: �What do you mean?�
Security Guard: �No allow!! No allow!!�
Me: �Then why didn�t you just say that in the first place?�
SG:�..(no response)
Me: Could you tell me when American Citizen Services is open?
SG�.(no response)
They never answer any question, they never repeat anything, and their manner is abrupt, curt, and just plain rude.

I have known these guys for a number of years, some of them on a first-name basis. At social functions, at the US Embassy or other places, I try to broach the subject of, �Why are you so, you know, �like that� to people coming to the Embassy?� Their answer is something along the lines of, �Well, you know� �these people�. They�re Bedu, they don�t know how to act, and they�re like, uncivilized people.�
This is really a poor excuse. I work with Saudis, I work for Saudis, and I live with them. �They� are not all Bedu, and their behavior at the American Embassy especially, in the Immigrant Visa Section, in the American Services Section, and in the Consular Section, is decidedly �hatdther� (urban, city-dwellers---it�s often interpreted as �educated�).
.
If you were a French citizen going to your embassy in Beijing, would you expect to have Bangladeshi guards at the gate??!! If you�re Thai and you visit your embassy in Istanbul, would you have Pakistani or Indian security personnel, who don�t speak Thai or Turkish, deal with you??!! I think you would have local security who speak the language of the country in which the embassy is located (believe me, these guys DO NOT speak Arabic), or who speak the language of the country represented. And these guys certainly DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH.

Did I mention that THEY DON�T SPEAK ENGLISH?

I�m sick and tired of this treatment and I really can�t understand why more people don�t complain. The Embassy web site is not very helpful. Does anyone know the name and position of the supervisor who is in charge of these guys?

[scot47]

Why don't you complain to one of your representives in Washington ? You do have representative government don't you ? I mean wasn't that what all that business in the 1770's with King George was about ?

[cassava]

Most embassies employ local personnel in security posts. It is quite easy for framentdavid to find out the e-address of the American official responsible for hiring such people by accessing the relevant US website. Ranting and raving on an ESL website is not a solution. On the contrary, this kind of communication is puerile and doltish at best.

[veiledsentiments]

This is typical of the US embassies around the Middle East. Invariably you are treated like an intrusion into their more important real lives... and this is your fellow Americans. Usually the local guards are more polite and helpful that the supposed 'government servants' whose salary is paid by tax dollars.

It was like this pre-911 and it appears that things have become worse...

Good luck getting any response from the State Department... they couldn't care less...

It is marginally related to EFL as an American shouldn't head overseas to the Gulf expecting one's embassy to be at all helpful or even polite...

VS

[007]

[Cleopatra]

[BajaLaJaula]

maybe they don't feel quite up to being polite and cheery...because they realize that they are there to stop bullets for americans.
extra pay might help with the attitude....but I doubt it will do much.

[Queen of Sheba]