Amateur Terrorist

Michael O’Leary reckons airport authorities should be discriminate in who they search and harass at airport screening stations – this wanderer has inclinations of agreement but warms the fence with some reservation. In (northern hemisphere) summer 2007, I went on holiday to Australia, stopping in Hong Kong on way there and New Zealand and Bangkok on the way back, and by the time the journey was complete back in Dublin around three months later I had carried a knife aboard nine different aircraft. The first three international airports failed to notice the knife in my carry-on rucksack before I finally did and wondered how many more would miss it before the end of the trip – they all did, eight different international airports, including terrorist bullseye London Heathrow twice; the others Dublin, Hong Kong, Cairns, Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, and Bangkok. This despite the ridiculous set-up at Bangkok airport where one could buy duty free aftershave before the having it confiscated at security screen which cannot be passed beforehand. The knife, a simple craft knife used for topping pencils and cutting cardboard, perhaps not the most dangerous of weapons, but what we are led to believe was used by the September 11th hijackers.

Do the governments want to keep us scared? Is it not in their political interest to be keeping us happy instead? Is taking tweezers and knitting needles off eighty-year-old nuns going to stop aircraft hijackings? Would discriminate passenger screening speed-up movement through an airport? Yes, in likelihood, but wouldn’t it further antagonise a particular people, the extremists of which who you simply cannot talk sense to, and make them more likely to blow up a train which has no security screening. It begs the age old question, can we not just all get along, but then that question would hardly be ‘age old’ if the answer was ever yes. Antagonism and bad people are the cruel unfortunate nature of society. Fear, the rule of law, vigilantism and ‘ah sure what can ya do!’ are the instrumental attitudes we have defend it – craft knives alone won’t save/destroy the world, so chose your weapon.