Sometimes the foreign press is a better source of information for certain type of news about the US. Reading Germany’s Der Spiegel I learned that the US senate had passed a bill—not yet the whole Congress, please note—mandating a $10 entry fee for each person coming to the US from a country where a visa is not required, countries like Germany, France, the UK. Germany’s interior minister called the fee “not logical” and a high-ranking member of the German government is asking Washington to abandon any such plan. The money thus raised is meant to be used to pay for an advertising campaign to promote tourism. Wouldn’t an open door policy be a better message to visit the US? Why place obstacles in the way of a free flow of people? At a time when the US’ image still needs tweaking, why make the task that much harder? Is the loss of goodwill worth the projected monetary gain?