Alright so the new body scanners have come out and officials have stated that, yes, as it has been claimed, these new body scanners will be placed in airports to scan travelers’ bodies as they move in and out of airports. And yes, they continue to say, these body scanners will, as claimed, be showing those who step into the scanner in, pretty-much, a nude manner. And why are they using these scanners? Bottom-line, they say: for protection. Against what? Oh get real, I’m not answering that.
So… I’m all with protection. Heck, employ even more rigid standards of protection, why would I complain? Get one of these scanners for each and every school… For each and every mall entrance… For each and every restaurant, pub, bar, club, disco, museum, church, mosque – no wait, “let them kill each other”, I hear you say.
Never mind… The point is that any sane and logical human being should not be against a technology that is aimed, at heart, to provide a better level of safety and security for ordinary citizens. However, one thing that is of worry to me is the fact that this new technology is being employed by secular civilizations that seems to have no regard whatsoever to the existence of 6 other major world civilizations whose values may collide with this blatant use of nude-scanners.
We do need more protection. It’s been made a fact that we cannot deny now. Whether it be by wrongful means that you’ve instilled in humanity this fear that has gotten us all running for “take my freedom, but please… give me protection!”, it is still undeniably a fact that we now have to live with. With that said, that the fear-culture now exists, we can move to the next point.
So we need protection, fine. You created the boogie man and now we have to comply in fear. Alright… So why not deal with the situation in such a fashion that does not come across as offensive or trespassing? Are we incapable of finding a means to solve an existing problem without infringing on the rights of others? Without breaking values of humans left and right? Without humiliation, even?
The world is becoming a global village. And as it shrinks in size due to advances in the communication technologies we are becoming more closely knit than before. In light of all this shrinking and connecting and reducing and bringing closer, however, the fact remains that this world is the full of different people from different backgrounds that have different cultural, moral, personal, and religious values.
To be seen by people of the opposite sex in almost complete nude is very highly unacceptable in our part of the world. Not only will you find married men having an issue with this when it comes to their wives or daughters, but you will have issues with a boy / man and his sister, his girlfriend, his fiancee, his mother, and so on and so forth. The jealousy of an arab, whether it be a muslim or a christian, or a jew, over the of the sacred privacy of intimate body parts of women to whom concern him is something we live with on a daily basis in the Arab region. Although much has changed in our part of the world in recent years, some things don’t ever fade. And in my own personal opinion this is something that needs to be praised and not demonized – this inability to let go of such cultural beliefs or values.
Let us not forget that we are humans and as humans that are living in this ever shrinking global village, some lines are bound to cross, intersect, overlap, dissolve, or blend in… But there should in now way be a lack of respect for lines that simply cannot be crossed. Where is freedom? How can it be not hypocritical to promote a political dogma that is built on the essence of individual freedom when the freedoms are imposed without consent or more importantly respect for the freedoms of others?
To be completely fair and mature about this topic I must state that having such Scanners would ultimately reduce (if not diminish completely) the crimes / disasters that could come about by fanatics that are hypnotized / or brainwashed / or ill-advised that good can come out of bad. But at the same time we cannot in response to this problem create a resolution that would strip people (literally in this case) of their basic human rights to privacy.
So a compromise needs to be made here and arrived at. If it is deemed so necessary that these scanners are placed in airports and to be used, at least have the decency to have seperate scanners for male and women where a male monitor can monitor the male scanner and a female monitor can monitor the female scanner. Simple, no? Let us not lose our decency in face of “modernity”. Where is modesty? Secular global politics has dissolved and burnt a lot of human morals in its path and by simply looking at statistics any intelligent person knows that promoting a god-free world results in diminishing social ethics and global morality.
It is nice to promote freedom, believe and promote secularism, and it is quite alright to choose to have no faith in a God, or a superior being. That is all right and fine. But on the same soils, under the same umbrella of freedom, a seed of a different nature should have the right to spread its roots and emerge.
We are humans. There are 6 Billion of us. Let’s have a little respect for one another. So long as this respect does not harm anyone or offend anyone, let us be civil. Let us not be barbaric; this is the modern era… Let us act our own age.
Here’s a clip from infowars.com, an Indian British actor explains his experience (comically-angled though) with these ‘naked scanners’: http://www.infowars.com/shahrukh-khan-tells-bbc-about-his-naked-scanner-printout
What are your thoughts? Share your opinion in the comments section below 
I totally agree with the view point that respect and modesty need not be discarded with the excuse of modernity or security because it would be a vile excuse to strip people off their culture, dignity etc.
We find ourselves in difficult situations since the seemingly majority opinion, which sometimes is not actually so, force us into acting in certain ways or being in certain situations. But it is my believe that 1 + 1 = 2 and my view + yours will one way or another influence matters as we and others please.