never trust an indian

...is what the u.s. government is seeming to preach at the moment.

in a monumentally unfair situation, sajid hussain, husband of my lab-buddy saba, won't be issued an entrance visa to the u.s. to let him present his phd work in a speech at the largest cancer conference in the world in anaheim week after next. 3 months ago he applied for a visa, but was told applications were only accepted 90 days before travel. so 90 days later his papers were in. but now the embassy in bern has said that his application has only just been sent to washington, and that they severely doubt it will be accepted in time for the conference. since you have to give a conference organiser a week's notice to not turn up as a speaker, that pretty much closes the door for sajid.

why? because he's an indian, and the u.s. is afraid indian/chinese spies will steal the secrets to american technological supremecy? because his last name is hussain? either way, this sort of shit is so 20th century geopolitics dressed up as 'national security'. i hope countries that practise exclusionism realise what they're doing before they die a fearful and stagnant death.