Its the Canadian/USA border and the aliens are herded off the train. A free world nazi barks "Get your $6 ready".
"What $6?". "To enter the US of A". "We haven't got $6". "Find it".
"Do you take Credit cards or Canadian Dollars?"
"NO! Find it".
The train from Toronto to the border is fine but then you enter the USA. We are shunted into a siding for 2 hours while everyone is aggressively interrogated. When we eventually were allowed to get going it is at walking speed because the track is owned by a freight company and we have to follow their trains. And the air conditioning was so cold that everyone was wearing blankets and extra clothes. We ended up with all all trekking gear on including woolly hats. Apparently they only had two settings freezing and off
350 miles took 15 hours, the average speed in the USA was actually less than 20 miles an hour. Think about it! This is one of the supposedly most developed counties in the world and this is an international line between two of the world's major cities.
Visiting America is very depressing for anyone who cares about global warming or America's impact on the world. The news media is even worse than when we were last here, its obsessed with local and celebrity trivia. CNN had a 10 minute report on peak time morning news about a man who dropped his wedding ring down the toilet and then got it back. There is hardly any reportage on Iraq and absolutley nothing on Afghanistan. Fox news is even worse. It is not surprising that 55% of Ameicans believe that the bible is literally true i.e God made the world in 6 days and that the world is around 6000 years old, 33% believe this so strongly that they don't want their children taught evolution. The majority can't even find their own country on a map. This lack of knowledge of the outside world means that they have no understanding or interest in global warming. Consequenlty they waste energy at a frightening rate. The whole society is throw away, there is virtually no recycling. Its very difficult and expensive to travel at all if you don't fly and use a car. Our flight to Las Vegas cost $250. To travel by train would have taken nearly 3 days and cost $3500. Buildings are cooled to freezing and then doors are left open to cool the streets. Even in New York everyone drives enormous SUVs. They are obsessed by weather and have noticed it is acting strangly butthere is no connection between this and climate change
All this lets their leaders get away with crap. Dick Cheyney has stated that "energy conservation may be a private virtue but its not an energy policy" and an airline spokeman dismissed concerns about CO2 emmissions by comparing the polution from aircarft to the farts from moosse in Norway! The USA has two Saudi Arabias worth of energy in its coal reserves - Bush has just removed all restrictions, including environmental impact, on strip mining for coal. The USA has no plans to burn coal in any environmentally friendly way
Europe has entered an era of energy farming though technologies such as wind and solar power, the USA is just a primitive energy hunter, scavenger.
If you become American and ignore the world you can have a great time here. We have met some amazing individuals and everyone has been friendly. We went to wonderful free concerts in the Lincoln Centre, including seeing one of my favourite singers, Tom Paxton. We even found some good micro brews.
Overheard in New York between two very wealthy looking ladies one black one white "you know blacks built this town, free labour you see"
