Us doings on Marli Street

THE EDITOR: Please allow me space in your paper to voice a grievance. Should one have to visit the United States Embassy on Marli Street, Port-of-Spain you are told to stand on the opposite pavement until your name is called for the given appointment.

Regardless of how hot the sun is, or if it is raining, or how young or old or sick you are, you cannot cross to the other pavement to shelter. Should one venture to cross, you are immediately talked down to as though you are a little child and forced by the guards to go back across the street. Not too many people resist out of fear since most are there begging for a visa. People accompanying the applicants have to endure this punishment for as many as five to six hours. The last time I looked, this street and pavement still belong to the people of this country. I can understand our government allowing them to block off the street due to vehicle congestion, but preventing people from sheltering is downright ridiculous.

A person very close to me recently spent $600 dollars for an appointment. After having to endure the waiting in the hot sun and standing inside the hot waiting room, was told that she could not get a visa because she did not have a bank statement. Being a first timer, she was not aware and was not told by them of this requirement prior to this day. Instead of sending her back to get this document, her application was turned down forthwith. Still interested in going to the States to visit family she had not seen for a very long time, four weeks later she again spent another $600 dollars and went for another appointment, but this time armed with all the needed documents. Only to be told, because she was not married her application is again being turned down. Twelve hundred dollars for six minutes of their time. Where is the justification? What a rip off. This Third World treatment should be blamed on the head of the sand ostriches we elect for our government.

NIZAM MOHAMMED
San Juan