I am on the downside of a vacation to America's Caribbean, the United States Virgin Islands. We slept exclusively on St. John, but flew into St. Thomas and drove on both islands.
Throughout the course of our driving, we were confronted with a number of "Funded by the American Recovery and Re-investment Act" signs--annoying as they are. This of course led me to grasp that my tax dollars were busy at work, with the little bridge we crossed to and from Cruz Bay, and in the blacktop job further into town--not to mention several projects between the airport and the ferry on St. Thomas.
So someone--anyone--tell me why in the hell I just had to go through customs before the security check? If my GD tax money is good enough to fund crappy little bridge projects down here, and the folks who live here are also US citizens, why the need to go through customs?
What is the impact of this? Well, I couldn't check in/print boarding passes online for US AIR...because it is treated like an "international flight". So instead of boarding group 3--which I got all the way here because I could checkin online in the US (or at least the 50 states of the US), even getting to the airport 2.75 hours early only got me check in group 5--setting me up for overhead space wars.
But it is really bigger than that. Is this part of our country or not?
Geez man, I need a vacation after all the stressing about your vacation! Seriously, good question.
ReplyDeleteChill brother, you're going to burn a valve. Sounds like you picked the wrong decade to give up drinking. Thank God I don't have THOSE issues. As a matter of fact I'm drunk right now.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, they are. Spent over 15 years there and for the life of me i must have been crazy.
ReplyDeleteIts a "dem vs. us" situation with Louis Farrakhan mindset....but the rich and powerful both native and causcasian on all the USVI exploit the islands for their own gain....massive land holdings held by natives are sold off to developers. Locals with small land holdings can't afford taxes and have to sell....consumer prices are thru the roof.
No wonder the youth and middle and poor class can't stand those who explot them including tourists...
Poor service attitudes and work ethic abound...
Yeah---we own it...bought from Danish because of massive deep trench for USA submarines off st thomas to practice sub stealth techniques while other navy fleets weny over to Vieques in Puerto rico to practice bombing missions polluting te environmnt forever (yeah another friggin USA territory that should be handed back to Puerto Ricans)...
Rockefellers gave us 80% land as national park on st. john...2nd largest oil refinery that fuels USA navy fleet on St Croix...NSA secret cables on St Croix too...
In short---yep---we own them because we can exploit them...
You have to go through customs when you leave because the USVI, while part of the US, and inside of US immigration, the VI is outside of the US customs zone. The reason for this is that when the islands were purchased from the Danes, a provision was included that required the islands to remain as a free port, and this necessitates clearing customs before traveling to Puerto Rico or the mainland.
ReplyDeleteUS Airways must be doing something strange -- When I fly on American, they let me check in online with no trouble.
Two great, informative Anonymous posts--thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs to the present state of affairs springing from the treaty transferring the USVI to us, while I recognize that may be the source of the federal regulation governing things, if it doesn't make sense in a modern world, we should work with the Danes to repudiate it.