Good fences make good....embassies?

A while ago I read this post http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/read-this-if-you-hate-meetings/?apage=3 and, well, it's pretty damn true. The jist is that there are two types of workers, "managers" and "makers." Managers have days that are broken down into small chucks that easily fit in meetings. Tasks can be put down and picked up again. Makers, on the other hand, *hate* meetings and have tasks that need time to develop and sustain over the course of a longer period of time.

Academics are "makers" (even if you question the validity of what we make as anything useful or interesting, but that's a whole other issue) and thus things that cut into a morning or afternoon or day, even, can throw a wrench into a smooth and productive day. (Of course, lunch breaks and coffee breaks and, for those of us from UConn, hallway meetings don't count, really.)

I say all this as way of explaining why I have yet to put in a full day at the archive and, instead, took a long way to find the US Embassy on Friday. This week has, in one way or another, been full of the usual day-to-day activities of getting settled. I took the "one thing at a time" approach and, thus, each day I had a meeting of some sort. Town hall, the bank, landlord, etc. So, I start in earnest on Tuesday.

Okay, preamble over. So, the US Embassy. I'm not fearful that anything bad will happen in Belgium (the country may split in two at some point, but I'm not thinking it will happen while I'm here) but I figured I should know where it is. The Portuguese consulate around the corner from my apartment probably won't cut it. Anyway, I took my walk around the "Small Ring" (petite ceinture) that is the outline of the old second city walls of the city of Brussels. The last remaining evidence of the wall is the Porte de Hale, just southwest of my apartment.

Once I found it, I had to cross the street to get there. I passed the Russian mission to the EU and, as I walked toward the US Embassy, I could see that there was a check point. No other embassy had anything like it. The Belgian Parliament building didn't have anything like it either. Nor the Royal Palace

As I approached I saw a number of police officers, Belgian I assume, and people walking in and out. I just wanted to walk through so I kept going. "Pardon," one officer said to me. "Oh, I just want to walk through," I replied. "You must going around." I looked across the street, a major road, and looked back confused. "Around the fence, there," and he pointed to a specially built fenced in walkway that ran in front of the Embassy. "Oh, thanks" and I walked around.

The fence rose at least 10 feet high and was set off from the main road of the Small Ring and the road that ran right in front of the US Embassy. (I obviously have no pictures. I had enough sense to not bring my camera and take snapshots of the US Embassy on 9/11.)

I've been fascinated for a while now with the the meanings implicit and explicit in "foreign in the domestic" and the idea of "America(ns) abroad." An embassy is extraterritorially part of the country it represents. Here, to the city of Brussels and the people of Belgium, the US shows itself as a heavily guarded compound. It was a bit of a shock, especially since as an American the concept of freedom of movement is so readily accessible. I guess I could have shown my US passport and walked through, but I had no need to.

As a resident alien, I have to get a national ID card to stay in Belgium for more than 90 days. I have to register at the local town hall, have them verify my status, and even have a police officer come to where I'm staying to verify that I live where I say I live. Seems reasonable, but then it has been made clear by every Belgian I've met that *they* have to go through that too to get their national ID card. A police officer comes to their houses as well to verify that they live where they say they live. And they are also required to carry around this national ID card. It is much, much more than just a drivers license you get to leave at the bar when you want to keep your tab open. It carries electronic data and is readable by state officials.

Anyway, seeing first hand how the US is projecting itself in the capital of Belgium was very interesting. I'm still processing it, but it's a powerful commentary not only on the dangers in the world (of course, security is a necessity and, no, not anyone can walk into an embassy), but on how the US government feels/thinks it must establish itself in a foreign land, even if that foreign land is in Belgium.