l| a time to be silent and a time to speak |l

It’s a Warped, Weird World

Yesterday morning in the NEL station, two men were stopped by two security officers. Since a couple of months ago, these security officers and seemingly used trolleys that provided a small checkpoint at the gantries were put in placed at NEL stations. As if having 42 security cameras (as advertised on their posters in the station) staring at you from the moment you get off the train isn’t enough, they now have additional pairs of eyes scrutinize you.

Anyway, I looked at the two ‘suspicious’ characters who were stopped and wondered why them out of so many others going in and out of the gantries? I supposed they embodied some stereotyped ‘sneaky’ elements: big bag (no, it’s not orange in colour like in their posters), able-bodied males (capable of running away or wrestling with the guards should they be caught), and probably, dark-coloured skin.

So they were stopped for checks, and I didn’t stay to watch (partly ‘cos I was running late). Then it occurred to me that the well-dressed guy in front of me, in a pink/purple striped shirt (with purple cuffs!), polished (maroon, I think) leather shoes and carrying a bulging (some branded brand that I don’t know of) briefcase could well be a suspicious character. I wonder what sort of training those security guards went through, and who they would stop for checks. What suspicious characteristics should the suspects have to make them eligible for public display of suspicion?

Paranoia (and grannies or grandpas) aside, it’s highly likely that anyone could be a walking life-threat. Having old-fashioned stereotypes about a terrorist doesn’t help very much in protecting the NEL stations. Or at the very least, the passengers in the trains. Maybe soon, we’ll have to put our bags through x-ray machines and various kinds of scanners when we go through the control stations. Then we might just be radiated to death one day instead of being bombed to our graves.

Which led me to think about weapons of mass destructions… how compact and sleek have they gotten to now, such that they could be hidden in small bags and carried by chic, well-dressed terrorists that carry slim briefcases? Are they on sale? Hmm.