Below is an update from last week's experience, I wrote it last thursday but just able to upload it today...

Hope this story enriches your week !

Rgds,

Venny

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If you are crossing a street and see a big bus coming to your side, will you go out of the way?

How can you possibly insist standing in the middle of the street while danger is in front of your face?

Similar cases stroke me twice today.

A foreign student insisted that he could prolong his visa based on a visa officer word in his country, while we had reminded him two months ago that his country is one of the countries in the black list. He also went to the Visa Bureau and another government office few days ago and got rejected.

On the phone he kept saying that he could do it even the fact shows the vice versa.

Another local student was not available to be contacted for the whole day.

The background is : for all students who joined the SWT 2007, they would need to report themselves once they are back from USA.

We asked our students to submit their passports by Tuesday this week since it is a compulsory procedure from the US Embassy/Consulate.

All of the students have submitted by Tuesday and only one student did not submit this since he thought that this is not important. See, this is the mistake – if it is not important, why would we ask for it? If it is not important, why did we give a deadline? If it is not important why do the other students think that it is important?

He said that the passport should be sent by EMS from his hometown. Assuming that EMS will take about two days to arrive, we estimate that Thursday is still okay and we will go to the Embassy on Friday at noon.

The annoying is when I finally succeed to talk to him on the phone he was saying that he was busy, no time and had tried his best – while he didn’t even try to call us to inform about this delay!

I asked him to track the package and inform me back – also reminded him that post office usually have working time. About 5 pm he told me that he would give us tomorrow at 2pm because he is busy and have morning class.

We have the appointment at 2pm on Friday and he wants to come at our office at 2pm too. In the end I asked him to meet us at the Consulate Gate on Friday at 1pm.

So disappointed, I hang up the phone and writing this story. I want to share this because I think that it is stupid to keep standing on the position when you are proven to be wrong and even don’t let people to help just because you don’t want to change.

For any of this matter – I don’t gain any profit or benefit.

Just now the student called me and said that he can deliver his passport today. I could have been thankful of his effort in making this kind of progress, if only he didn’t say, “I am as busy as you, you know!”

I guess some people will never learn. The world is fair: we have earth and sky, rich and poor, successful and failure and something in between…