Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
absolutely shocked!
I had to go to a main post office yesterday to do what i thought was a simple enough task
which required the clerk to check certain documents, what i was told by the said clerk has left me speechless!! " The passport cannot be checked because you are a FOREIGNER", am i being too sensitive here or is this normal behavior? incidently the passport is an irish one and irish do not require visa's to travel to the uk .
which required the clerk to check certain documents, what i was told by the said clerk has left me speechless!! " The passport cannot be checked because you are a FOREIGNER", am i being too sensitive here or is this normal behavior? incidently the passport is an irish one and irish do not require visa's to travel to the uk .
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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What's wrong with being 'foreign' ? My parents were from Eire
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Hi james,
I am very proud to be irish, born and reared there,
it's just the manner in which i was spoken to , had he said "sorry unable to verify that here " that would have been fine, when he used the word "foreigner" he raised his voice as if to insult me .
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Hi melanie. What's wrong with being 'foreign' ?
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Hi again James,
Foreign is absolutely fine however "foreigner" just has a slightly different ring to it , like i said maybe i am being too sensitive. Forgot to mention the doc's concerned were for my son who in fact was born here but holds irish passport and with all this political correctness etc...i just felt it was wrong.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Thousands of your forebears fought and died in order to be treated as foreigners. Dev and Michael Collins would have been delighted to be addressed as such.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I love the hassle I get from the UK authorities when I come back into the country with my beautiful New Zealand passport. You're not upset because the post office clerk was obviously not a European? I understand but time to get over it, London is full of citizens of the world.
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nope john was not european, he was actually asian.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Perhaps worth considering how the clerk might have selected the word. It could be that he used it as a values-neutral term. If, for example, he was using English as a second language, he may not be aware of the subtle distinctions in meaning between the various words he might have chosen.
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I suppose i could go with that, maybe he was just having a bad day!
Thanks.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I can see that 'foreigner' might seem a tad offensive. Perhaps better though, than "Alien" which is a term used by US Immigration (!)
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Clive,
It is not so much the word, but the way it was shouted at me, but hey we all have bad days
perhaps the previous customers could not speak english hence making his job very difficult,
i am sure iwill get over it.
Thanks for comment.
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And just look at all the places you can travel visa free on an Irish passport (or indeed a New Zealand one).
It's time for a joke. (said with a thuck nuew zulund acsunt)
Up in heaven Gabriel is looking for God and he hasn't seen him for seven days. Finally in some little back room he spies God at work on something.
"Hey God, what are you doing?
"I've created a new world Gabriel. I'm going to call it 'Earth'. It's all about 'Balance'.
"Hmmm... interesting", says Gabriel as he strokes his chin peering down at the blue and green planet below them looking puzzled. God goes on to explain.
"Look, down here, this is South America. It's going to be very poor, BUT up here is North America and that's going to be very rich.
"I see" says Gabriel still stroking his chin and looking but plainly not understanding.
"And over here, this is Africa where the people will be black but up above it is Europe where the people will be white.
"I think I'm beginning to understand" says Gabriel. He points to a small spec of cloud in the middle of an ocean, "what's that?"
"Ahhh..." says God.
"That is Aotearoa. The Land of the Long White Cloud. It's very special. It is a beautiful country with magnificent mountains, soft sandy beaches and forests like you have never seen. The people from there will be bronzed and beautiful. They will be well educated and they will travel the world, climb the highest mountains, split the atom and their rugby team will be unstoppable. They'll be charming and personable, not at all big headed despite many reasons to be. I wonderful country, I'm very proud of it.
"Wait a minute!" says Gabriel suddenly angry.
"You said this world was going to be all about balance! Where's the balance in that!?"
"Ahhh..." says God.
"Just you wait until you meet the loud mouthed bunch of w*nkers I'm putting next to them."
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