No Control means Under Control?
Approximately one month ago I caught a flight to Amsterdam from Nuremberg, Germany. This was neither the first, nor the last intern flight I caught in Europe. As some people know, flying inside of the European Union is faster and does not require arriving at the airport a lot of time before the flight.
I was flying with a friend who is usually late. We had agreed to arrive one hour and a half before the flight. I was nervous though. We still had to check passports and to go through x-ray machines… what if there was a line? Would we be late?
Arriving at the airport, there was no line. In fact, there was no one standing in front of of in any lines. My friend and I were practically alone. Even though it took her a while to find her ticket on her cell phone, we still managed to stay completely alone. No one in front of us. No one behind us. No one to check our passports or documents. Weird.
When we got to the x-ray line, we were told to get our liquids under 100ml and put them in a plastic bag. I was carrying my passport hoping to be asked about any kind of identification. Instead, I was only asked to show my boarding pass. Weird again. Maybe they would check it afterwards ? I looked behind us at a couple that was doing the same procedure we had done two minutes earlier. Again : no one bothered to ask for any kind of identification.
Later on, when we sat down in front of our gate and my friend reached for her gum inside her luggage. Surprisingly for both of us, she found a Gilette razor inside. She had forgotten to leave it at home and had brought it by accident in her luggage. She forgets things very often, so that did not shock me a lot. What shocked me, however, was the fact that it had passed through the airport security staff in the x-ray. It is extremely forbidden to carry knives and razors in our hand luggage. How could they not see it?
We were all called for boarding. Hopeful, I took away my passport, practically begging for the flight attendant to see it. “Please, check it. It’s me.” I was thinking the whole time.
Nothing happened. No one checked. At that moment, I could have been Marina, Helga, Caroline, Arnold, George or who knows… I could have been anyone. I could have easily entered with someone else’s boarding card or even used someone else’s identity. No one checked. No one cared. No one asked for my documents- not my friend’s and no one’s in front or behind me in line.
What kind of security policy is that?
It is no secret that our world has been facing severe security problems. We often hear world leaders saying they are working harder on security. Is this a good example of the marvellous job they have been doing this whole time? This is not only Brazil’s problem anymore, but an universal matter that needs to be tackled and fought against. When I’m visiting my family in Brazil, people usually tell me to be careful and that we are not safe there. But are we safe anywhere?
I don’t mean to compare different kinds of incomparable violences ( shootings in Brazil are far more common than terrorist attacks in Europe). However, it has become extremely hard to feel genuinely safe anywhere. In London, some friends are scared to take the central line, in Rio, I’m afraid of going to the city center at night, In airports, should I be afraid of what others might carry on their hand-luggages? Gladly, my friend was carrying a razor for hygienic reasons, but what about others? Kant had already said in 1798 that people are unpredictable, and so are their actions!
Terrorist attacks happen in the most unpredicted places at unpredicted times. Two days ago, for example, 22 lives were taken after a concert mostly attended by young teenagers and children with their parents. Last year’s Bastille day was also marked by 87 lives taken. Not to forget New York, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London and many other attacks in the last century ( some of they happening on a daily basis in countries such as Syria and Iraq).
Are we living in a moral terrorism phase? Is humankind going backwards after all this time, experience and information ? What we as citizens and European Union leaders need to work together is a way to act according to one of the supranational organisation’s most powerful objective : we need to work for peace. And, to do so, we must increase security in airports too.
Sadly for us, not everyone carries a razor for hygienic reasons.