Travellers Stories

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Visited the Grey Area

One of the most popular visitors in the Grey Area is Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Her first great escape into the grey took place in the Nederland’s in 1992. As her lawyer I accompanied her in another visit there years after that.

Hirsi Ali and her family were Somalian refugees finding a political shelter in Kenya. Years later she was supposed to visit her family in Europe just before having to attain a forced marriage with her cousin in Canada. Though her family disputed this side of her story, the facts remained the same. Hirsi Ali never arrived in Germany, she was asking for political asylum in the Nederlands instead.

Later she admitted privately and publicly in forging her biography so she could get a residence permit. The internet information resource Wikipedia stated the reasons that brought Hirsi Ali into forging her identity: ‘Since forced marriage is not grounds for refugee status, on the advice of an aunt, she told the immigration authorities that she had come straight from Somalia, instead of Kenya, where she had been living for at least twelve years. Somalia had been stricken by a serious famine as well as engulfed in a civil war at that time, so asylum seekers from Somalia were routinely granted asylum on humanitarian grounds’.

Not to get tracked on her real identity Hirsi Magan gave herself a fake name ‘Hirsi Ali’. After working as a cleaner and other MC jobs while studying political science, Hirsi Ali became a translator for the Dutch foreign police. During her work as a translator she found out more about the Dutch foreign regulation. This work made her more aware of the twists and cruelty of the dry laws. She claims that her work brought her into the path of a political career. Soon enough she found herself part of of the Dutch party VVD and later the Dutch cabinet.

Unfortunately, the story of forging her biography reached the media, as a result of the public scandal she had to resign and give her Dutch nationality back. Getting Hirsi Ali out of the legal mess she got herself into was my great pleasure. After weeks of investigating national and international law books, I found out that according to the Somalian family laws using the name of grandparents is a legal action. Therefore Hirsi Magan use of her grandfather name ‘Ali’ is can be recognized as valid in the eyes of the Dutch law, though Hirsi Ali did not know it herself. A political solution some may argue, but considering that Hirsi Ali recently got offered a position in the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), it seems that even the American government appreciate a talented visitor of the Grey Area. For as the AEI testifying about themselves, their mission is to “defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism — limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate.”

Nathaniel Wakefield

Visiting the Seas of Isolation

She is everywhere. London city was not big enough place for the both of us, all the United Kingdom wasn’t big enough for me to hide. I even got a special mobile phone supported by GPS device alarming me every time she was in a radius of three kilometers away from me. Nothing helped. I saw her everywhere. She was in the empty flower vase waiting to be filled, I saw her at night stepping right next to me in the streets, smelled her perfume in the hallway and saw pictures of her at my mum and dad’s.

It was time for me to leave the house, but my clothes carried her memories with them. So I have thrown away the clothes just to find out that our favorite song is playing in my ears. I decided to visit Heathcliff in the Seas of Isolation. Heathcliff never sent me any postcard from there, but I gathered he liked it for he never came back. I bought the ‘Lovely Planet of How to Disappear in Europe’ guidebook and started planning my trip. I have learned to fish, build my own igloo, meditate and to salt the fish after I caught it. It helped for a while; it took my mind off her.

I could not leave a note for I was going to the Seas of Isolation, but on the way to the bus just before I threw my mobile phone away and left, I texted her. Letting her know what I am up to, she can be very worried sometimes. After the bus, the train and the airplane I needed to walk for five days. I found out that wandering can keep your mind from thinking for a while even when there is nothing much to see.

Now I am in the Seas of Isolation spending my time waiting for birds to fly by, watching the days become nights silently. Heathcliff is no where to be found and I am still wondering if she ever got my text message. Hoping she did and that she will come by to sit with me and gaze at the ocean for a while.

George Belawa

Visiting the European Metropolitan

I traveled with boxes for three weeks; my whole trip was full of boxes. I was in, out or cover completely by them. They took my air, smashed my body and they even sneaked into my dreams. Some of them were sealed, others I could open and see what is inside. The boxes in the ship were so big that when they told me I had to hide in them I thought I could have brought my whole family and they will be still enough room. They sealed the box I was in with plastic a day before the ship left, they promise they will take me out when we start sailing. It was not the darkness that made me afraid it was the sea, I can not swim and I never saw the ocean before.

Time went so slow, I was eating the bread my wife made me in little pieces so they will last longer. I tried not to cry and the bread comfort me for a while. The thoughts of a place called Venice filled my head even just the word ‘Venice’ kept me company for a while. My friend John said that they have there water all around, that they go with little boats from house to another. He also said that he has some work for me. He was selling nice women’s bags in a big shop he taught me the names of it; ‘Prada’ and ‘Gucci’. He said a funny man like me can bring many tourists to buy lots of bags. He sends his wife money every month, so much money they bought fields and a house. I just had to save for a while to pay for the journey to Venice and then I could start making money myself.

After the box in the boat, they put me in the back of a truck full of smaller boxes. I was not allowed to move when the truck stopped, I could not go out even to pee but I was used to that by now. My friend John said I should take a little bucket with me, so I did. The bread was finished by then and most of the time I was just waiting for the truck driver to get me some food. Moving from truck to truck was the scary part. No one should see me so I never went out, I moved from truck to truck only at night with the bucket and my bag. I was in Europe for a week now and all I have seen was boxes, boxes and boxes again. In Venice I will learn to swim, stop being afraid of the water.