Rant of the Day: Why the UK is a joke of a Country

Recently I have been acquainting myself with the British visa system for Chinese applicants. My girlfriend, unfortunately of Chinese birth, wishes to visit the UK.

"No Problem!" I thought, why don't you just get yourself a nice, easy, tourist visa?

"I can't, I don't know how!"

"No no worries" I said, "How hard could it be".

Map of the World Detailing how easy it is to get a UK visa. Blue shows the EU and friends, Green no visa required, red easy visa, brown super hard visa. Notice how a North Korean can get to the UK easier than a South African.

I googled "How to apply for a UK tourist visa" and managed to find the UK government website. So far so good! I scrolled through the options, visitor, general visitor, select a country, China.

"Where do I go now?"

"Urm,.......2 hours later..........oooooh, there we go finally"

"Why do they call it visa4uk, it sounds like a dodgy agency or a banned radical islamist group run by Anjem Chowdray." I thought to myself.

I filled out the endless forms, form after form after form after form. Most of which was formed of truly inappropriate questions....4

What is your fathers sexuality?

How much money does your 2nd Cousin Chou Jin Jin earn every month?

Are you an active member of a terrorist organization? Hmm, yes!

After 2 days of toil, finally I was finished! Congratulations! You are now able to book your appointment to go to our visa centre in Beijing! Aaaaaghghgh, that's a 10 hour train ride away! Why do you torture tourists trying to visit the UK?!?!?!?

Chinese tourist visa applicants to western countries have to visit the beautiful capital city of Beijing.

So now I spend my time, collecting supporting documents, bank statements, parents bank statements, letters, Hukou, endless itineraries all to please my countries stupid visa system.

Dosen't anyone in the UK realize that rich Chinese people might want to come to the UK to spend thier hard earned money. No? OK then.

The UK visa system is a joke and if we don't fix it, the world will begin to realize that the UK is a joke of a country and go to France instead? Is that really what you want?

PS: The UK is not really a joke of a country, we just have a leadership system which inherently appoints professional politicians who in nearly all cases are the last people who ought to run a country. Didn’t Plato once say that those who crave power the most should be kept furthest from it?

The Best English Language Training School in Zhengzhou

After working as an ESL teacher at many companies in China (The New Dynamic Institute, Henan Agricultural University, Li Yang Crazy English ect), I have come to the decision that the best Training School for a foreign teacher to work at is Xuelite, or Quality Education in English.

The North Zhengzhou branch of Quality Education (Xuelite) with Company President Coco Wang in the foreground

Working for Xuelite is like a dream for a foreign teacher, the environment is friendly and relaxed, the students are amazing and a joy to teach, and the benefits are are in a league of their own. Best of all, Foreign teachers at Xuelite have lots of time to travel, to explore China which is probably the main reason most of us come to teach English in China anyway!

If you're interested in teaching English in China, check out the Quality Education website.

www.xuelite.com

The site is a little rubbish, but the school is the real deal!

Statement of intent!

Recently, I have become very lazy. Despite getting a lot of hits in the last few months, my blog has become hopelessly bare! With the help of Kelly and Lee of http://global-goose.com/ I've realized how lacklustre my blogging really is! Starting today, I pledge to write at least 3 new blog posts every week, if I don't, we'll you can write a nasty comment on my blog, I'll just delete it, but my feeling will be hurt just the same!

A funny photo of George W. Bush eating a defenceless little kitten.

Thank you for reading this delightfully pointless post, to reward you, above is a photograph accurately depicting George W. Bush eating a kitten! My next post will be about crossing the road!

P.S. I will be changing my blog layout to go together with my new blogging attitude and this will be my new background, even though I love my old one, blogger wont let me keep it!!

The Fjords of Norway, I think, my new website background, I hope!

 Goodbyte!