History was created at Wellington airport on 13 August. The first international flight of the day was to depart at 6 am for Philadelphia. Four check-in counters for economy class and
two for business/first class opened at 2.30 am, so that passengers could start checking in three hours prior to departure. Prospective passengers queued up. Four passengers were
asked to come forward to the four economy-class counters, and two business-class counters ushered two business-class passengers.
‘Sir, your ticket and passport please’, said the airways staff at the first check-in
counter. The passenger handed over the documents. The airways staff looked at the e-ticket and said, ‘So, you’re travelling to Philadelphia’, then she looked into the passport, matched the face of the passenger with the photo of the passport—it was all right—then she turned the pages of the passport to find the visa to the US. There was none.
‘I don’t find your visa to US; I can’t check you in. Do you have the visa in your old
passport? If so, please show me that passport.’
‘I don’t need any visa to the US; I’m a citizen of the world’, the passenger replied.
‘No, Sir,’ the airways staff replied, ‘you’re a New Zealand citizen. I can’t let you board the plane without the visa. Do you have any luggage to check in?’
‘No, I’ve only this cabin bag’, the passenger replied.
‘Please stand aside and let the next passenger come forward’, said the staff and
glanced at the other check-in counters. She was overwhelmed as she heard the same words
from five other check-in staff.
None of these passengers had any luggage to be checked in; each was carrying only
cabin baggage. None of them had a US visa stamped in the passport. None of them stood
aside to let the next passenger come forward. The airport staff looked at the queue of
passengers; none of them were carrying any big bags to check in, as if all of them had come here for a bus ride.
At each counter, the passenger showed the air ticket and passport, but no visa for
the US. One of the airways staff phoned their boss to ask for instructions. The boss of the airways was at a loss. He asked the top boss of Wellington airport. Security forces were
mobilised to arrest the passengers who refused to move from the check-in counter unless
boarding passes were issued. Six passengers were arrested and the next six passengers
moved to the check-in counters. None of these passengers had visas attached to their
passports; none agreed to step aside to let the next passengers come forward, so they were all arrested. Then the next six passengers moved to the check-in counters. Again, none of them had visas attached to their passports, none of them agreed to step aside to let the
next passengers come forward, so they were arrested as well. This continued till all 215
prospective passengers were arrested. No boarding pass was issued, no luggage was
checked in.
Baggage handlers became worried when no luggage was passed to them for two
hours after the start of check-in. They came to see what was happening at the check-in
counters. The flight crew was sent messages about the delay in boarding the passengers for the flight; they should wait for the next message before starting for the airport. The flight was cancelled and all prospective passengers arrested.
The next flight to leave Wellington airport had the same fate, as all the passengers
booked for the flight appeared without any visa in the passport. The flight after that had the same fate as well, and all the remaining flights of the day weren’t any different. No
international flights took off from Wellington that day. Soon the news was received from
other airports of New Zealand—Auckland, Christchurch and so on. No international flight
had departed from New Zealand.
Hours later the same set of events started in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur,
Sydney, Melbourne and other airports. Kyu-won had set up his network in every country of
the world and mobilised enough people to buy all tickets for all flights supposed to leave the airports on that day. All the tickets were bought on credit cards, along with travel
insurance—Kyu-won had checked that the insurance company would pay compensation if
the flight hadn’t taken off at the scheduled hour and the passenger wasn’t allocated a
boarding pass; there was no clause for the passenger’s inability to get the visa in time, because the ticket had been issued.
This situation made an extraordinary impact on the aviation industry, the insurance
companies, the airport staff, the airport security—even the prisons of the country. Most
airlines checked their bookings for the next weeks and found that passengers with very
similar names were supposed to fly in the forthcoming flights. An emergency meeting was
convened by the United Nations to address the plea of the aviation industry that had no
other option but to let people fly without adequate visas. But the countries at the
destination of the flights would have a big problem if the passengers arrived without
adequate visas.
As the delegates of the United Nations couldn’t fly, a Skype conference was
organised. People all over the world wanted to fly without any visa—at least the bookings for the next few days suggested that. What should the United Nations decide now?
Developed countries of the United Nations opined that all passengers involved in these
cancelled flights were terrorists, violators of the established visa regulations. They’d already been arrested and questioned. Two names emerged from this extensive questioning; one
was Kyu-won and the other was Jie-won.
Wise men of the United Nations could easily see the popularity of Kyu-won on the
social media. They thought Kyu-won should be arrested and questioned to find out how
things were going and how these could be controlled. But how could they arrest Kyu-won?
Many persons were claiming to be Kyu-won. Millions of Kyu-wons were scattered all over
the world, as if everyone in the world was a Kyu-won. Kyu-won couldn’t be arrested, as the security forces couldn’t identify the real Kyu-won from millions of so-called Kyu-wons. Jie-won was arrested for questioning.
After the mass disobedience of visa rules all over the world, Kyu-won wanted to
launch a world anthem to unite the citizens of the world. He dreamed of citizens all over the world dancing to the tune of John Lennon’s song, Imagine.
But Jie-won and Kyu-won found that they must abide by the rules and regulations of
this world and needed to secure permission from the record label company or whoever
owns the copyright of that song. Jie-won came up with a new song:
Know no boundaries,
In the world granted to us.
Let us belong to our world,
Let the world belong to us.
Like the sky above and
The air we breathe in,
Let the world be granted to us,
Let’s work for and live in.
Many anchors to our identity
Let us have as individuals—
Our family, our community, our religion,
Our party, our country and our world.
How attached we feel to each anchor
And how one anchor competes with another
Determines whether we work together
Or destroy and fight with each other.
Amongst all our anchors
Let our world dominate.
Let every other anchor
Help the world citizens communicate.
Let boundaries disappear
Between countries and families,
Let us reach the heaven in our world,
Know no boundaries.
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