Immigration Harassment Forces Withdrawal of Respected German Opera Director

In Europe generally a certain level of politeness and respect is expected. Europeans coming to America where the slavish population is ready to lick any boot presented in front of it's brainwashed mind are in for a rude awakening. It reminds me of when I came back from Europe and landing in JFK was greeted by a furious TSA worker screaming at us to stand still or be arrested. Welcome to Amerika, Herr Direktor.


From The New York Times

When the respected German director Peter Stein withdrew in July from a major production of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” at the Metropolitan Opera, blame was laid on the usual suspects: “personal reasons.”

Now those reasons have become clear. Mr. Stein said he had pulled out because he felt offended by his treatment at the United States Consulate in Berlin when he applied for a work visa and by a lack of sympathy from Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, over confrontations with bureaucracy...

In June he went to the consulate in Berlin for a work visa for the Met job and was forced, he said, to stand for hours in a stifling room with 50 other visa applicants. When he finally reached the consular official, “He said to me, ‘Why don’t you laugh?’ ” Mr. Stein recounted. “I said, ‘I stay here for two and a half hours standing and I am an old man.’ ”

The officer replied, “ ‘In this case you will not have a visa,’ and sent me away,” Mr. Stein said. Mr. Stein said the experience left him humiliated and deeply offended.

Several weeks later he returned and managed to gain the work visa, helped by a Met employee who had flown to Berlin. But the experience rankled, and Mr. Stein sent an e-mail to Mr. Gelb saying he was “terrified and demotivated” out of fear that a similar incident could occur in the United States.

“If anything happens in the same way, I will leave immediately your country trembling alone thinking of the entrance procedures at the airport,” he said...

You have every right to be frightened of the dumb downed and mindlessly patriotic police state "Amerika", Mr. Stein. Why come here anyway? You've got it better over there, I'm sure. For the average American, Opera is The Lion King.