Things I've Learned

This is the question that brought a friend from Canada on this humble tumblr page, and it’s interesting enough to make me want to learn about it and answer it. As I wrote, some time last week,* the big news of Greek PM Papandreou’s visit to the U.S. was the announcement that Greece became a member of the US Visa Waiver program. This means that soon, once this decision gets verified by parliament, Greek citizens won’t need a visa to visit the U.S. Greece is the last one of the first 15 EU-member countries to enter the Visa Waiver program and this has led many to believe that my country was descriminated by the US.

So, after reading a livingingreece.gr post about Google Waiver program it seems that there were two problems. First was terrorism in Greece, partly solved after the capture of members of the terrorist organization 17 November back in 2002. And the second problem was the issuing of modern biometric passports that didn’t take place before September 2006. Of course another issue could be a co-operation between the two countries in counter-terrorism procedures such as access to DNA and fingerprint databases but those, are mostly kept under the table.

MEANWHILE, Australia issued a travel advice on Greece yesterday, calling for attention of Aussie citizens in Greece mainly because of violence. Apparently written by people who have known Greece only through the media. Anyway…. we will survive!  

MORE:

• Secretary Napolitano Announces Greece’s Designation as a Member of the Visa Waiver Program
• Greece enters U.S. Visa Waiver program in 2010. (livingingreece.gr)
• Απ’ ευθείας πρόσβαση σε DNA και αποτυπώματα έχουν οι ΗΠΑ (Ελευθεροτυπία)
• Travel Advice for Greece (smarttraveller.gov.au)

* (I need to find a tumblr theme that includes date and time of posting, help is welcome)