Walking the path

23/7/06. Finally finished packing 2 hours before leaving Belfast.

A group of my friends sent me to airport, including PJ who is currently pretty immobile. Thank you.

At the George Best Airport, while we were bidding farewell and snapping photos for remembrance, suddenly,   3 uniformed men rushed towards us.

“Show us your ID!” one of the officers demanded, flashing his Immigration Officer badge. 

HH who is a UK PR showed the officer his driving license, which is an acceptable form of identification in UK.

“How long have you been here?!” The same officer with the same harsh tone demanded to know.

“10-11 years…”

Then turning to me he questioned, “Who is leaving? Show me your passport!”

“How long have you been here?! What are you doing here?” He queried in the   unfriendly manner.

“I was a medical officer…” 

“Where? Which hospital?!” He shouted at me, before I could finish answering.

I was obviously irritated at this point. For the past few years, very few people have spoken to me in this rough manner. As doctors, most people tend to treat us more politely.

“The Royal Hospitals” I answered, looking straight into his eyes.

“Right, Where is your VISA?!”

For goodness sake, I am leaving the country! Why did he need my visa? I complied anyway without any questioning, showing him my visa and passport.

“Why did you check us?” CP asked politely. Having been in Belfast, for many years, we have yet to be stop for this type of check.

“It is just a routine check.” The officers said, they left us and went straight back to their office, without checking on anybody else.

It is more than obvious that this group of Chinese-looking foreigners was singled out by Her Majesty Immigration Department. Were we singled out for ID check for looking different? 

“How long have you been here!?” This hit me the hardest. HH have been in UK for more than 10 years, but the officers still treated him like an illegal immigrant and thus did not belong to this land.

I will be moving on to Australia. Would I be seen as part of the Australian community? Would I be singled out again for questioning because of my skin complexion? Maybe overseas Chinese will always be overseas Chinese, belongs to no where. Always a “foreigner” …

Thank you for sending me the Royal Goodbye, your Majesty.

P/S Reflection

28/7/2006 2am

Having put this story on the blog, I have a chance to reflect
on it.

I think the whole situation with the immigration officers
was made worse by the rude immigration officer. I don’t think any of my friends
would mind for our ID to be checked as long as the immigration officer was
slightly more polite. Then again, politeness is probably not an essential criterion
to be recruited as an immigration officer. 

I should not let one person spoiled my good memories of Belfast. Good memories of
how my colleagues in RBHSC, RMH, BCH treated me as one of them. Also, not to
forget the well wishes that was genuinely from the bottom of their hearts and sincere appreciation
from my patients’ parents. I don’t think they see me as a Chinese, but
their doctor.

People of Belfast
generally had treated me very well, and had given me plenty of opportunities to
train and improve. Too bad, the home office’s new work permit rules force me out
of the system.

The time has come to say goodbye to Belfast. It feels like going through a
break-up, that kind of sad and lost feelings…

Farewell parties… Thanks to my
friends. Sometime, you just wonder if I am completely crazy, to leave all these
friends to an all new city, far far away. I don’t know…

I felt discriminated by the new
immigration law, but the support from all the friends in NICU and RBHSC and BCH
(genetics) has been great! Unfortunately, nothing much can be done to change my
immigration status.

Goodbye Belfast, I shall return one day for more of
those craic…

Farewell at Uncle Hew’s place…

Dinner with NICU mates in Water Margin.

Farewell at NICU.

The Medical Team.

The medical team when we started in Feb 2006.

PS Happy Birthday wee Ross, you are 100 days old.

This will be the last blog written
in Belfast. Packing the computer after this…

Dear IMU Juniors
to Belfast,

Traditionally
I would help my new IMU juniors to settle in  Belfast. Now that I am leaving

Belfast, I can no longer do that. But, I
will try to give you all some tips about Belfast that I have learned over the past 6
years.

First of
all, Belfast is safe. (provided… please read on) No matter
what you heard about Belfast before coming over here. Crime rate
is lower then most major city in UK. And I definitely feel safer here
than in KL. You hardly hear of anyone being robbed, by the way, the biggest bank robbery in UK history was in Belfast. In Belfast, if we do it, we do it BIG!

Please read
this carefully.

Belfast is safe provided you do NOT go to the “problematic
areas”. A rough but good guide is that, if you see lots of FLAGS, paintings on
walls, and painted footpath, you are endangering yourself. People may tell you
that they were safe the last time they walk through those “problematic areas”,
but the bottom line is, you just need to be unlucky once, and your mummy  may not recognised you again. For samples of
places to avoid, click here.

Generally, hospitals
ground, city centre, University Are is safe. Nice area like Stramilis and
Malone is safe.

I shall
post more, when I am free. Please ask your friends who are going to come to  Belfast to read this advise.