During the Olympic summer last year I commented a number of times on the "x-ray" scanners that had been introduced at all the subway stations (commenting mostly on what a complete waste of time they were!).
I had expected that they would be de-commissioned, sold off within a few weeks of the end of the Paralympics (well, in a sensible world, they would have been hired rather than bought; but I'm sure several people received generous hong bao [the little red envelopes in which the Chinese traditionally hand over gifts of cash] in return for authorising this massive purchasing programme). And, for a little while, it did appear as if this were going to happen. Most of the extra security staff who'd been filling the subway ticket halls during the Olympics disappeared; without the throngs of 'guards' hustling people towards them, the scanners were effectively falling into disuse; sometimes the scanners themselves were now left unmanned; several were mothballed, draped in foil-covered blankets; in a few places, I think, they'd actually been removed.
But then.... the blankets came off, the machines were put back into use, more security staff appeared again (not as many as last summer, but many more than last autumn) to operate them, and to bring them to passengers' attention (many of them are sited in really stupid positions, not on a convenient path through the station, and sometimes not even readily visible).
Is there some new terrorist threat the authorities are seeking to respond to here?
No, I think not. It's just another phoney job creation scheme, another sign of 'meltdown' desperation.
2 comments:
You under-estimate the weight that such projects carry. Once in place and accepted by the population, those in charge of keeping people safe will say:
"Look how safe we are! Look how well our machines work! No-one is complaining, so why remove them - don't you want to keep people safe? What about all the money that has been spent already?"
And, of course, those in position to decide will go along with them. I wish I could say how democracy is the perfect antidote to this, but the example of airport 'security' measures such as the ban on liquids show otherwise. Perhaps the best preventative is firstly the common sense needed to say that such measures are essentially useless, and the obstinance and lack of respect for authority amongst the population required to make the measures ineffective.
China certainly has the latter. And most of these scanners are sited so stupidly that it's very easy for people to walk straight past ignoring them - whether deliberately or inadvertently.
My point here is that this 'security measure' did appear to be being phased out or stepped down (certainly on the staffing) at the end of last year, but has suddenly had a big input of new staff. And I don't think that's got anything to do with security, or even with the appearance of security.
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