And the terror spreads.
So the terrorists have claimed yet another victim; Japan.
Starting on November 20, Japan will institute a new procedure whereby they fingerprint and photograph every foreigner who enters Japan.
Any foreigner... even those of us that live here and are returning. when Maia goes home to visit, she will have to wait in long, unhappy lines of foreigners when she returns to Narita who must all be herded into a room, fingerprinted, photographed and released after a computer check in immigration.
The truth is; of course, we aren't the problem... it's the terrorists whom they can't catch with fingerprints and photographs that are the issue... because the only terrorist attacks Japan has ever had were Japanese... And they aren't fingerprinting and photographing the Japanese... That would cause a riot here... The Japanese see fingerprinting as something one only does to criminals...
Which, I guess, would be us... the foreigners... Gads, no one thought about how we, residents here, would feel about that... especially if we were sensitive enough to this culture that we actually agree with that sentiment (fingerprinting=criminal)...
I left America, where I was Guilty until proven Innocent, and came to Japan, where I was Innocent until proven Guilty... but now, due to Mister Osama, I have found myself, once again, Guilty...
See, really what has occured is that the US, freaking out about 9/11, has given Japan permission to give in to their xenophobia and let their inner fear out... all in the name of Anti-Terrorism. Al Queda isn't going to get caught by a fingerprint and photograph scan... That's the saddest part; If they ever target Japan, it'll happen, and then Japan'll realize they had the terrorists' fingerprints and photographs all along, sitting in a database somewhere... but that didn't stop them... Then they'll decide that they need to move to the next step... whatever that would be (Having not had an opportunity to proove my innocence to anyone yet... I'm hoping I'm not here to be among the Guilty). So now terrorism is a great excuse to do anything to anyone... Well damn, people! Whose next? Will Iran claim that destorying Israel is a valid operation because it is stopping terrorism? Horrifyingly enough; that thought process would make more sense than attacking Iraq to stop the terrorists in Saudi Arabia... From Iran's point of view, Israel really is a terrorist nation... They'd have proof that could even stand up in court. Better proof than the U.S. did.
We have all, as a civilized world, taken one step backward. We let the terrorists win, and we are all too blinded by fear to see it.
---Disappointed
Labels: Politics
posted by Aabh @ 1:28 PM
3 Comments:
I know that you and I won't agree on this, but I really don't see the big deal about the fingerprinting. I think that it's perfectly legitimate for a country to double-check the identity and criminal records of those who enter it. For all the talk of globalization, the fact remains that we are a conglomerate of sovereign states. You are raging against the fact that this new measure stems from terrorism fears. But I will argue that you would be just as unhappy if it was imposed for any other reason, terrorism only provides you with a currently popular scapegoat to hang your "we should live in a free society" sentiments on.
Fact the of the matter is, Guy, the US has been double checking my passport with great scrutiny even before September 11th, 2001. Granted, they never fingerprinted me, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this happened some day soon. The same thing happened when I crossed from France into Great Britain by sea. The lines and numbers of questions were incredible. This kind of scrutiny happens all over the world. And at the risk of sounding anti-American (which I am not, as I hope you know by now), I sometimes get the impression that Americans are the only ones who really put up that much of a fuss when it comes to getting their identities double-check. It is almost as if some Americans (broad generalization) feel that they are entitled to go anywhere anytime in the world. Again this is only a personal observation from my numerous travels around the world, no hard data.
And if anyone can streamline the process and make it extremely time-efficient, well the Japanese people would be my first choice to give it a try.
-- Mal.
Actually, that's a very good point, my dear! :)
The point that I probably should have harped on more actually is visual. In this culture (Regardless of America at all), fingerprinting and photographing is what you do only to criminals. Thus, this procedure has just turned all Foreigners into criminals in the eyes of the Japanese. No matter what happens now, it has added one more layer of distrust from the Japanese to the Foreigners (because they have all been criminalized)... it would be the same as if you were arrested, in front of everyone, under suspicion of being a murderer... it wouldn't matter if you were released later... your neighbors would still wonder... "Is she a murderer... or not?"
As far as Americans feeling "Entitled"... my first reaction was "BAH!"... but considering my first reaction, I think you may have a very solid point there. We do seem to feel entitled to go whereever freely... but... what's wrong with that? Provided the people are like Maia and I (As in, we don't destroy the cultures we visit), and only go where we are allowed to go (I.E. tourist areas, etc)... what's wrong with thinking we can do it freely? I do agree that Americans think they are entitled to a lot of things that they aren't, though. Really my above question is relatively academic :D I just want to know what you are thinking in that very bright head of yours.
However... it just means that no matter what, this world has become Guilty until proven Innocent... which is okay (Well, not to me... but I'll suspend it for now :D), but we can't continue to pretend to be a enlightened, civilized world if everyone is assumed to be a criminal until they are "cleared" by the authorities... And we certainly can't say "No, no... we are above all of that..."
--G
But Guy, fingerprinting is a good method of tracking people, period. Would you prefer they swabbed everyone's mouths for DNA instead? Printing people is also not just for criminals, most government agencies do it to track employees and verify if they have criminal histories, etc. Also, since the seventies, the FBI's voluntary children's fingerprint registration led to the return of a significantly increased number of runaways and abductees [as always, I will dig up the numbers if you need me to] --- while the program was still going, of course.
Just because it's a mark, it doesn't mean that it's the mark of the beast... ;)
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