I recently got a new passport. I'm thrilled because the photograph on the old one was unflattering--even for a photo from one of my many awkward stages. However, receiving the new one has been a disturbing experience, too, despite the vastly improved photograph situation.
The disturbance is amplified by the contrast in the relative ease with which I can travel to Turkey, and the difficulties Cedi is facing in just figuring out how to get a visa--i.e. how does a Ghanaian get a visa to travel to Turkey without going to Abuja, Nigeria, the location of the closest Turkish embassy? The Turkish embassy in Abuja actually answered the phone when I called today, and even though the person I spoke to was unfriendly (understandably so, she had no access to the internet and had many "others things to do," which was why she couldn't give me the information for the contact in Accra), she did eventually guide me to the information that I needed. FYI, if you're a Ghanaian needing a visa to Turkey, don't go to the Turkish government's website, because the embassy in Nigeria has its own website.
Anyway, so my new passport. A lot of you know that there's been a backlog in the application process for U.S. passports because of a variety of new restrictions, but I'm happy to report that mine only took 10 days when I paid the extra fee to have it expedited. So despite the extra expense, the entire process was pretty painless, and soon I recieved my new documents in the mail with this pamphlet:
Wow. Subtle, huh? So much for the U.S. pretending not to be an imperial power. Spreading "democracy"? Well, shucks, no, but the world is mine, so I'll just help myself to that oil you've got there. All that corporate-sponsored violence and destruction won't inconvenience you too much, eh?
And where do I fit into all of this? Owning a U.S. passport clearly does come with a certain amount of power--as evidenced by the comparative ease with which I can go to Turkey, among many other places. There are some very good art projects about what it means to have different kinds of passports. This year's Global Feminisms exhibition included an interesting piece by Tanja Ostojic, titled "Looking for a Husband with an EU Passport," in which she documents doing just that. And Alfredo Jaar has worked with passports in equally provocative ways.
But perhaps I'm actually made vulnerable in some ways by this new passport, which would explain the need for the superficially empowering rhetoric.
The new passports incorporate biometric technology. Read on:
From
http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/eppt_2788.html#One
What is an Electronic Passport?
An Electronic Passport is the same as a traditional passport with the addition of a small integrated circuit (or “chip”) embedded in the back cover. The chip will store the same data visually displayed on the data page of the passport, a biometric identifier in the form of a digital image of the passport photograph, which will facilitate the use of face recognition technology at ports-of-entry, the unique chip identification number and a digital signature to protect the stored data from alteration.
From:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/eppt_2788.html#Twelve
Will someone be able to read or access the information on the chip without my knowledge (also known as skimming or eavesdropping)?
Skimming is the act of obtaining data from an unknowing end user who is not willingly submitting the sample at that time. Eavesdropping is the interception of information as it moves electronically between the chip and the chip reader.
An example of skimming could be secretly reading data while in close proximity to a user on a bus. In this application, the chip is designed to operate within 10 centimeters (less than 4 inches) of a chip reader using appropriate public keys. Experts indicate that the information on the chip cannot be easily accessed surreptitiously. Even so, the Department of State has incorporated a reliable anti-skimming feature and Basic Access Control to mitigate the threat of skimming in all electronic passports.
Eavesdropping can only occur while a reader using the proper public key is reading the chip. Eavesdropping is difficult to achieve in a secured port-of-entry environment that is government-operated in most cases. In such an environment, the equipment needed to eavesdrop would be obvious and detectable to authorities managing the port of entry environment. Governments can reduce the threat of eavesdropping by requiring all chip readers to be electronically shielded to prevent signals from being transmitted beyond the reader.
To prevent skimming and eavesdropping of data, Basic Access Control (BAC) is employed. BAC is similar to a PIN used in ATM or credit card transactions. In the case of the electronic passport, characters from the printed machine-readable zone of the passport must be read first in order to unlock the chip for reading. Thus, when an electronic passport is presented to an inspector, the inspector must scan the printed lines of data in order to be able to read the data on the chip. To further protect against skimming, the U.S. e-passport will include a shielding material in the passport cover that will make unauthorized reading of the passport very difficult from any appreciable distance as long as the passport is closed.
So, yes, you caught that right. Unauthorizing reading of my passport is no longer "very difficult" once the thing is opened. A little creepy to think that someone with the right equipment could get a lot of information about me if they have the right equipment and I open the flipping thing within yards of them.
Before we get back to a not-so-updated vision of American Manifest Destiny, above you can see the warping of my old passport, right around that dreadful photograph. That is why a British immigration officer worried that I was not Amanda Gilvin when I was visiting London this summer.
But I promised you Manifest Destiny, and Manifest Destiny we shall have in my new passport. The new passports not only include any number of incomprehensible (to me) security features (including some wavy lines over the photo, making it less flattering...but still better than the last), but the pages include pictures. And these pictures narrate a history of the United States of which Andrew Jackson could be proud. And forget stopping with the Pacific Ocean, or even Hawaii. Or even Iraq! Let's get back to Cold War aspirations and take over outer space!
We could't do without the patriarchal origin myth, as represented by this travesty of a monument.
Agrarian fantasy, anybody? Especially useful in this age of squeezed small farmers, GMOs, and factory farms.
And Manifest Destiny can't function without a romanticized vision of the cowboy. You knew George W. Bush would get at least an oblique reference somewhere in this blog entry, didn't you?
The U.S. handled the railroad all wrong. It was built to steal land, and the labor practices of the 19th century were dreadful. But then we dismantled it because of a very unwise shift to a car-based culture. What do trains mean now in the United States? Nostalgia, certainly--but for what? In this case, juxtaposed with cowboys and pastures, this is a direct reference to American expansionism.
And lest anyone have any objections to this happy, pre-determined story about American history, don't worry, it all worked out OK for indigenous Americans. And for the bears. My passport assures me of this.
Notice that a totem pole stands in for any representations of actual Native Americans.
Somehow, I don't think that this image is being used to evoke Franco-American relations or to encourage contemporary immigration to the United States...
And on the last page, just to remind you that "with your new U.S. passport, the world is yours!" Evidently, that means the whole world.
But like I said, I'm not so convinced that these little booklets--well-illustrated though they may be--are actually all that empowering for the Americans carrying them around. And as you may have guessed by now, the electronics are only part of the reason for my concern...
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