Airport security … doesn’t inspire confidence

I don’t know about you, but airport security does not really make me feel secure.  I am not hypersensitive about security, and think that some of our responses to September 11 was reasonable, while many were not.

Every time that I fly and see security make people throw away half empty 4oz tubes of toothpaste and 5oz bottles of antibacterial hand wash, I think what training and background do these people have in chemistry and explosive.  Could not a group of “co-conspirators” take the “legally” allowed limit of liquids aboard for some nefarious purpose?  Firearms and other weapons, okay.

My other issue with security is with “profiling” passengers and looking for strange behavior.  Okay, some behavior is easily identifiable as strange or suspicious, such as talking to an imginary person while boxing air.  What is security’s psychological and cultural training to identify the strange.  My normal may be strange and suspicious to you and your strange and suspicious may seem normal to me.

This is also not a U.S. issue either.  Security, here at home, as well as abroad, is woefully inconsistent on top of questionably competent security personnel.  On serveral international trips, I accidentally put my over 3oz bottle of contact solution in our carry-on bag.  Security in Europe and Africa missed the contact solution, but made us throw away a 6oz bottle of skin care lotion.  [Very irritating as well as expensive.  As an aside, one reason people don't like to check bags is because the airlines are always misplacing or losing them.  Post for another day.]

I also have accidentally forgot to remove a small pocket knife.  Believe me this knife could never be used as a weapon.  It’s a small filmsy knife that I picked up at a trade show.  Again, an example of the lack of throughness and inconsistency of airport security.

My largest issue is philosophical.  In our hypersensitive mood over security, I am critical of both political parties over the way that they have addressed this issue.  The Democrats, who first proposed the Department of Homeland Security — how easily we forget, want to protect and unionize airport employees.  I have no problem paying people better wages, because the more you pay people the more you can demand and expect.  You pay people poorly and you are almost assured to get poor quality work.  You pay people well and you may get high quality work.  My problem with the Democrats approach is that you end up with employees who are virtually tenured and difficult to fire.  It’s bad for academia and elsewhere.

The Republican approach is just as bad.  They are borderline paranoid about terrorism and see it everywhere.  Much of this push is piece of mind.  The focus on security measures, profiling, and risk levels does not make me feel particularly safer.  Where is the training of secuity personnel and investment in equipment?  What other measures should we be thinking about in terms of potential future attacks?  Should a parallel focus be softer targets?  Note, I said parallel, referring to maintain the focus on airline security.

I think that security is a real issue.  I don’t feel all that secure given our current efforts, which I think is often guided by politics.

The Ugly American …

Yesterday, as I was flying Delta, I decided to read the Delta magazine, a mix of interesting articles, advertisement, and self promotion. One interesting piece that I found was about how we, Americans, are perceived in Europe. According to this piece, Europeans do not hate us, as we may think.

I must say that I have not observed this anti-American attitude in any of the European countries that I have traveled, which include England, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. The Germans and Swiss on the street were the least friendly as a whole, but nothing anti-American. The Portuguese and the Dutch were probably the friendliest. Picking the friendliest was really hard.

The gist of this piece is that Europeans rate us highly. I recall that only the Japanese were higher. We rate the highest in terms of being the best tippers, but the worst dresser in terms of style.

So, let bury the perception that we are perceived as the ugly American. By the way, lets not act like the ugly Americans either.

Contradictions, Conflict, and the Legacy of Apartheid — Cape Town, South Africa

Visiting Cape Town, South Africa was one of the most conflicted trips I have taken to date. The country is beautiful, has a thriving wine industry, has a diverse mix of cultures and ethnicities, and is one of the more stable countries on the continent. However, the entire time that I spent in the country, I could not help but notice the legacy of apartheid and what I perceived as troubling policies of the ANC, the governing party, which became the governing party in 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the presidency, finally ending the practice of apartheid.

I think that it would be hard to find anyone who does not acknowledge that apartheid was socially brutal, if not physically so. Before we traveled to South Africa, I wondered how we would be treated as African-Americans (blacks) from the United States. I didn’t think that we would be treated poorly or thrown in jail or experience racial slurs. I was interested in the non-verbal clues and there were non-verbal clues … except they were mostly from the black South Africans. Now, I am not trying to be grossly anti-politically correct when I say black South Africans, but the first thing that we learned was that South Africans consider the country as being comprised of three major groups: blacks (members of indigenous tribes), coloreds (multi-racial and ethnic groups, as well as Indians), and whites.

The whites were overall the friendliest group with whom we interacted. The coloreds were moderately pleasant; however, the blacks were not friendly and often did not even acknowledge our presence. This was the experience across all encounters, whether we were on an organized tour, shopping, or taking one of our few and limited walks. I understand that South Africa has a complex history of race relations and we were probably clearly identifiable as not being South African blacks by our dress and clearly by our accent [I'm from Georgia (United States) and I sound like it].

While we were in Cape Town, we had a wonderful guide, Hendrien, whom we enjoyed talking to very much and became comfortable talking candidly about apartheid and ANC policies. The way that I would describe our conversations with white South Africans is that they allowed themselves to be blind to the horrors of apartheid, and they largely credit Nelson Mandela with shepherding a smooth transition from apartheid to a democracy.

The consistent criticism of the current ANC government is that they have abandoned path Mandela laid by instituting an open immigration policy [perhaps, in the hopes of maintaining a permanent majority] and implementing a quota system for employment and resources.

1. The immigration policy is stressing the country’s infrastructure and purse, because many of the immigrants are unskilled and become a surplus in the labor market.  Because there are no jobs for these immigrants, they become dependent on the government and contribute to the spread of “informal settlements,” temporary houses or more appropriate, shacks.  Additionally, this creates a public health problem as well, because these “informal settlements” often do not have running water or bathrooms and become sanitation nightmares.
2. The quota system may have more of a negative impact than the open immigration policy where businesses are required to hire a “representative” number of blacks, coloreds, and whites.  The impact is quad-fold:  unqualified people are hired (sure, this happened under apartheid, but the question is magnitude); quotas create a sense of entitlement (I deserve this job); qualified whites are leaving the country in mass, since they represent the smallest group and subsequently receive the least number of jobs; the practice also raises the question of fairness and retribution.

Some whites feel that the ANC has abandoned Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation where you remember and acknowledge your sins and crimes, but move forward toward unity.

While I did not see any obvious racial tension, I sensed that the country is at a crossroad where it will become mired in conflict and decline or it will focus on unity while remedying the legacy of apartheid through education and economic opportunity.  Undoing the damage of apartheid where black self worth was significantly damaged will take time and can not be repaired overnight or necessarily in a decade.

Take a look at my Cape Town photographs.

Remembering Greece … history, philosophy, politics

Two years ago, we visited Greece and two of the Greek islands, Crete and Santorini.

If you have ever thought that you might want to go to Greece … you do. We spent the majority of our time in Athens and stayed at the Hotel Hermes, a great boutique hotel in the Plaka area of Athens. Service was great and the buffet breakfast was nice. The rooms are small and it is a challenge to take a shower without getting water all over the floor.

We were in walking distance to the Acropolis and many other historical monuments. The food was great. We even found a vegetarian restaurant.

While you can tour on your own, which we did, I you are interested in history and philosophy, I recommend organized tours. Perhaps just good luck, but every tour guide we had seemed to really enjoy their job and took great pride in their country’s history. A half to visit place is Delphi, about 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Athens. The ruins were discovered by the French and the Delphi museum at the foot of the ruins is well worth a trip to see actual statutes and sculptures.

Many attribute the Holy Roman Empire with the spread of western civilization, but much of what the Romans spreaded and forced upon their conquered was influenced by the Greeks.  Atop of the Acropolis you can look down upon Athens and see historic sites for “free speech,” a market place, civil institutions like courts, and other precursors of democratic practices.

While the trip to the Greek Isles was nice, we went during non-peak season, so many tourist activities were not available.  While on Crete, we did get to visit the famous Minoan palace at Knossos.  I wouldn’t recommend a tour guide and if you do, you may or may not get a good guide, since I think that these guides are volunteers at least during March.

Santorini … beautiful.  March is non-peak season too, but we did get to visit the Santorini’s caldera.  Worth the trip?  Totally!