Greatest Hits: Ba Expat Characters And Incidents

[HMSBeagle]

This most recent post about HMS Beagle getting his passport confiscated for apparently no good reason reminds of all the wacky stories I've come across on BA Expats over the years. Not trying to make light of any one's hardships or be insensitive , but come on...some of the situations on here are truly stranger than fiction. Here are a few to get the ball rolling.

1. HMS Beagle aka Man Without a Country - US Embassy takes away his passport and refuses to issue new one.

2. Mc Kenna - Almost gets into western style shoutout in BA province, placed on probation. Starts fixing the local police's guns free of cost in a bid to curry favor with authorities.

3. The Curious Incident of Internation Man and Joe - International Man borrows $1,000 from Joe. Promptly goes to Punta del Este and loses it all playing poker. In a bid to get back his money Joe obligates International Man to participate in a series of Skype interviews while International Man bikes around Punta. Joe creates a website to auction off IM's personal possessions that IM had left at Joe's apartment. IM eventually pays off portion of debt, and Joe calls it a day.

Its *important* to get the facts straight, 'cause you can be sure Im not wacky. For starters, my passport was never confiscated. I am no fugitive and Im not hiding or running away from anyone. I openly defy the mightiest empire in the world at the gates of our bunker/embassy in Buenos Aires and they just dont know what to do....THAT is the real story.

I was there again yesterday, after all the argies begging for visas and paying US$150 for the honor had left for the day. I was face to mug with the rogue, mentally ill, homely Holly Wilkerson and Mark xxxxxx through 4 inches of glass. She became irate when I opened my mouth to speak and ask her for information about my passport. I was to keep quit and not speak unless she told me to and when I didnt go along, she demanded I leave with the ferocity of a Nazi boot camp commandant. :angry: The disdain these people have for us is chilling. Oh America, what has happened to us?

Our embassy is a disgrace. Our former ambassador "Mamet" was a joke, couldnt even speak Spanish. I have written about this. Do you know what our embassy does? It runs a lucrative business called "tourist visas." 3700 PER DAY at US $150 EACH. Income of US $55,500 every day folks. THAT is what Mamet did for us and he even boasted about it. The US embassy does not care about the welfare of Americans in Argentina. The US embassy Buenos Aires wont even accept a collect call from an American in distress!!

 

[steveinbsas]

@ HMSBeagel: I suggest you copy and post the previous post in the thread you started about being denied a new passport (where it will be read in context).

 

[HMSBeagle]

I'm not entirely sure if this story "counts," but about 4 years ago, when flying from BA back to the USA, I was taken out of the immigration queue and temporarily detained in the Atlanta airport due to a very unfortunate misunderstanding about a cough that I was experiencing due to acid reflux. If you care to read it, it's all here:

www.vagrantviolet.com/2014/06/look-floor-just-look-floor/

Spoiler: I was almost denied entry into my own country and sent back to Argentina (where I am not a citizen), missed my connecting flights, and will never fly Delta again! Definitely one of my worst (but most memorable) incidents as a result of living abroad.

I've got a few other doozies, but this one is (one of) the craziest.

I read it and its a heartbreaking story. That they would be so callous as to treat a pregnant woman this way, a pregnant American woman at that, speaks volumes about how low we have sunk as a nation. Let me add that I was also treated badly at airports in English speaking countries, interrogated and violated, with my papers rifled through as if it were Nazi Germany. They always try to peg me as a drug dealer because I am colored and when they cant find drugs on you they get very angry. Happened to me in Miami, London, Sydney (the worst) and other places. Yet when I would land in Argentina I was treated with respect. This made a big positive impression on me.

Now, this is how the US government treats Muhhamad Ali's son just months after the boxing icon's death: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/muhammad-ali-son-detained-questioned-us-border-control

 

[Ceviche]

Steve in BA

I think starship HMS Beagle, wants to take over each and every thread here with his stories.

 

[ben]

If not a nomination, at least an honorable mention should go ajoknoblauch's crusade against steveinbsas, Ayn Rand, Republicans, religion in general, and soccer.

And Noruega's spirited protest arguably garnered the record for likes of a single post.

 

[HMSBeagle]

Steve in BA

I think starship HMS Beagle, wants to take over each and every thread here with his stories.

Ah, ceviche, its not my story, its her story, she is an American woman, she was pregnant and US government agencies threw her into a holding cell and terrorized her because she had a bad cough. Americans dont accept this crap. We have had enough.

 

[GMXam]

I'm not...

 

[dennisr]

Forum member got ripped off by a Mother/Daughter scam, believe it was an apartment security deposit, happened around 2009. Forum members decided to take action. The group ganged up on the scammers and posted every detail of their lives, financial information, addresses, cars driven, APA info, DNI stuff. Could not believe the dirt the group gathered on these people or how it was obtained. All I know the lady regretted the day she screwed a member. Quite sure it was picked up by some travel sites, know it was on trip advisor. Impressed me.

 

[GMXam]

Who remembers the posts about the poo-poo tenant from hell?

http://baexpats.org/topic/30675-help-urgently-needed-forum-expat-gone-nuts-in-my-apartment/

 

[Crema Americana]

French Jurist / Frenchie did some nice detective work. (For the tourist/expat that got his throat sliced and another case, I think that apartment ripoff.) Hope the Frenchman is doing well, wherever he is.

ElQueso's sucker punch to the eye in a road rage incident comes to mind as well.



Ah, memory lane. I miss a lot of the posters from those old threads.