Silliness from Saudi Arabia

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Unless you're at the airport and you happen to have a poppy seed clinging to your shoe. Linky

There are a few horror stories. It's not like the US doesn't have them too.

Our TSA people may not be saints, but at least we don't arrest people for having .00005 ounces of drugs clinging to their clothes, or call somebody a "drugs baroness" for having taken perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine which happened to have Codeine in it, or for having eaten a fucking poppyseed bun at a cafe at Heathrow several hours before, or (while doing any of these things) force them to sign documents written exclusively in Arabic while screaming at them IN Arabic and not giving them access to, oh you know, an attorney or even a consular official.

Rant over.

 

[Lindley]

Unless you're at the airport and you happen to have a poppy seed clinging to your shoe. Linky

There are a few horror stories. It's not like the US doesn't have them too.

Our TSA people may not be saints, but at least we don't arrest people for having .00005 ounces of drugs clinging to their clothes, or call somebody a "drugs baroness" for having taken perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine which happened to have Codeine in it, or for having eaten a fucking poppyseed bun at a cafe at Heathrow several hours before, or (while doing any of these things) force them to sign documents written exclusively in Arabic while screaming at them IN Arabic and not giving them access to, oh you know, an attorney or even a consular official.

Rant over.

You have a skewed perception of the UAE. Those things are not normal.

Which isn't to say you shouldn't be mindful of their particular hangups if you go, of course. A little caution is fine. But by and large it's a very tourist-friendly country.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There are a few horror stories. It's not like the US doesn't have them too.

Our TSA people may not be saints, but at least we don't arrest people for having .00005 ounces of drugs clinging to their clothes, or call somebody a "drugs baroness" for having taken perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine which happened to have Codeine in it, or for having eaten a fucking poppyseed bun at a cafe at Heathrow several hours before, or (while doing any of these things) force them to sign documents written exclusively in Arabic while screaming at them IN Arabic and not giving them access to, oh you know, an attorney or even a consular official.

Rant over.

You have a skewed perception of the UAE. Those things are not normal.

May not happen every day, but it does happen. It's happened more than once. And it could happen again - to anyone. Even if you've never touched an ounce of drugs in your life. Did you miss the part where people got automatic 4-year sentences for having stuff clinging to their CLOTHES which happened to waft by? Or the guy who ate a bun and got drug convictions for that? Are you so sure you're above that kind of risk? Think about it.

 

[Captrek]

http://chennibus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/011413_DubaiMarina1.jpeg


Nice skyline. They were smart enough to invest their oil and natural gas money back into their country.

Nice buildings. Where’s all the people?

 

[Lindley]

Our TSA people may not be saints, but at least we don't arrest people for having .00005 ounces of drugs clinging to their clothes, or call somebody a "drugs baroness" for having taken perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine which happened to have Codeine in it, or for having eaten a fucking poppyseed bun at a cafe at Heathrow several hours before, or (while doing any of these things) force them to sign documents written exclusively in Arabic while screaming at them IN Arabic and not giving them access to, oh you know, an attorney or even a consular official.

Rant over.

You have a skewed perception of the UAE. Those things are not normal.

May not happen every day, but it does happen. It's happened more than once. And it could happen again - to anyone. Even if you've never touched an ounce of drugs in your life. Did you miss the part where people got automatic 4-year sentences for having stuff clinging to their CLOTHES which happened to waft by? Or the guy who ate a bun and got drug convictions for that? Are you so sure you're above that kind of risk? Think about it.

Let me put it this way. I feel safer in Dubai than I do in New York. At least in Dubai I don't have to worry my car window will be broken the next morning if I leave something shiny-looking in it.

 

[Timby]

Our TSA people may not be saints, but at least we don't arrest people for having .00005 ounces of drugs clinging to their clothes, or call somebody a "drugs baroness" for having taken perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine which happened to have Codeine in it, or for having eaten a fucking poppyseed bun at a cafe at Heathrow several hours before, or (while doing any of these things) force them to sign documents written exclusively in Arabic while screaming at them IN Arabic and not giving them access to, oh you know, an attorney or even a consular official.

Rant over.

You have a skewed perception of the UAE. Those things are not normal.

May not happen every day, but it does happen. It's happened more than once. And it could happen again - to anyone. Even if you've never touched an ounce of drugs in your life. Did you miss the part where people got automatic 4-year sentences for having stuff clinging to their CLOTHES which happened to waft by? Or the guy who ate a bun and got drug convictions for that? Are you so sure you're above that kind of risk? Think about it.

People have been wrongfully convicted of crimes in the United States, and it's happened more than once. Outlying instances don't establish the standard.

 

[Gary7]

People have been wrongfully convicted of crimes in the United States, and it's happened more than once. Outlying instances don't establish the standard.

It's one thing to be wrongfully convicted or accused of a crime when there's substantial enough evidence to warrant it. It's another when you're detained and imprisoned for having purchased an internationally legalized medication OTC, because a foreign agency has a highly warped perspective on what fairness and culpability really mean. Oh yeah, and substitute the medication with a poppy seed bagel. Makes even more sense.