This morning I attempted to drop off a contract to the American School in London in St John's Wood. The place looks like a prison. There are metal fences, cctv cameras and warning signs everywhere. It looked a miserable environment for somebody to just walk past, let alone have to go to every day. As I got to the front entrance, I attempted to ascend the stairs to the front door. I had, after all, a moderately urgent contract to hand deliver. A suited, ear-piece wearing, sunglass sporting security oik approached me and asked what my business was. "Delivering a contract to ******" was my reply. I, of course, look unthreatening. I am white, I was wearing a suit, I look like I know what I'm doing, and I jhave an absurdly BBC accent. I attempt the proceed. The rent-a-thug was having none of it and motioned to two further keepers of order, security, and freedom, who somewhat menacingly moved in my direction. I repeated what my business was and told him I knew which office to go to. He took the envelope I had intended to deliver off me and said he'd inspect it. I tried to tell him that it wasn't for him and that it was private. He glared at me, as did the other two guards who had encircled me. I was informed he would deliver it and that I should leave.
Regardless of the needless offense caused to yours truly, the scene was just absurd. Three goons encircle a suit clad, RP spluttering man whilst children are being happily (frankly they may have been miserable, I didn't stop to ask) dropped off at school for morning assembly and the Pledge of Allegiance. How utterly ridiculous.
As I tried to explain how stupid this situation wa, I was informed that I wasn't being "empathetic to the concerns and unique troubles of the American and Jewish people". This really got my goat. I am both American and Jewish (well half of each) and I certainly don't need extra protection or feel I deserve extra empathy. From what? the existential threat of terrorism, I suppose. This is a fundamentally unhealthy and infantalising environment and world view. All Americans need protecting from this hidden, yet evil and pernicious. Bah. What baloney.
This type of "protection" is bad for these children. What are they going to do when they don't have rent-a-thugs (who I doubt would be any use in the event of a real "terrorist" attack)? Be shit scared of the bads guys out to get them because "they're free"? How utterly infantilising. What a way to keep a population in a permanent state of child like fear. It appears that the response to the threat of "terrorism" has led to a society that makes people afraid of the, proverbial, Dark.
It is this way of thinking that these kids need protecting from, not my "lack of empathy" for their plight, men delivering contracts, or, even, "terrorists". Lets grow up and stop treating ourselves and each other as helpless infants and get real. Ok?
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
A further, more meaningful rant
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
My Mum was at ASL for High School in the 70s and it must have been considerably more relaxed back then...
My Grandfather says all it taught his daughters was how to smoke dope, and I understand that at lunchtimes the teachers and students often frequented the same pubs!
Sorry its something like Guantanamo these days, but thats wealthy yanks for you!
Fear is a funny thing. I liked what you said about the Dark. This seems to be with us always. The bogey man cannot be killed simply by turning on the lights. Whether it is Reds-Under-the-Bed or Terrorists we seem as a society to be afraid. The US seems particularly prone to this, to the extent that they spend so much on the Military and Homeland Security (the mythic knight in white armour; the woodsman who slays the wolf and protects the virginal red riding hood) that they cannot fund healthcare or social security.
We evolved in the wilds of Africa, we were afraid of the dark and rightly so. Now that same fear has found new places to hang.
So how do we shift our eternal fear unto something slightly more productive/less destructive?
I know this is a fairly old post, but I couldn't help but read it as I was searching for pictures for my school to show some of my friends back home. Granted, you got one thing right on the head: it looks like a prison.
But you're missing the purpose of the security guards. They were hired right after 9/11 after the school receieved news that it might be a target for terrorist attacks. After the Embassy and the Ambassador's house, we are one of the prime American targets in London. Just because you said you had a package to drop off for so-and-so, a seemingly harmless task, you have to have ID to enter the school, someone with ID to get you in--and then visitor ID waiting-- or you need to check in with the front security guard. Just because you look harmless doesn't mean you are. They're just doing what they're being paid for and, with 1200 children in the building behind them, it's pretty darn important.
Now, this may be petty, but we don't have morning assembly. We're not British prep schools where we have to stand up every morning and pay our respects to the headmistress because, face it, we have work to do and not that much time in which to do it. Also, since we are an international school on an American curriculum, we don't say the Pledge as there are non-American citizens in the school and saying the Pledge is only mandatory in American public schools (administered by the government).
As to what we need protecting from? As I mentioned before, there have been terrorist threats on the school. The security guards don't just protect us from this "invisible fear of terror" but, seeing as there are council estates nearby and the students who attend ASL are known for being on the wealthier end of the spectrum, they have been there to step in when a student is being mugged nearby.
The point, I suppose is the bottom line of this rant, is that students who do tend to come from fairly important ex-pat families have the right to go to school and not feel threatened by anyone, be it a terrorist, a mugger, a pervert or a man simply delivering the package. I feel, and this is simply opinion, that you grossly overreacted to people just doing their job. Would you complain if you walked into a British school that had security personnel? Now, I don't know you, but I'm guessing the answer is a resounding 'No.' If you walked into any workplace in the City, they would have security details and you wouldn't complain. It comes down to the fact that in this day and age, everyone has the right to some kind of protection. It's not harming us or infantilising or any of the negative bogus you've spewed in this blog. They are suspicious of everyone, because it's they're job. I can understand how frustrating it is when you simply want to do your job and someone isn't letting you, but was this anti-American bash really necessary? No. It wasn't.
Now, I don't mean to harrass you and this is in all ways a rhetorical question, unless you don't mind answering: What contract were you delivering to an ASL staff member that was so urgent? Seems a little suspicious to me. If this contract was so urgent, I'm sure the staff member would have contacted security- fairly simple to do through the school-wide email system- and just let them know they were expecting a courier to deliver something for them and not to be alarmed. Also, why would you ever tell an armed and highly trained guard that it's "not for him". Though I'm positive it wasn't, I'm also fairly positive that you said this in a snide, childish, "get your hands away from MY lolly" type voice, which is really quite unnecessary--and fairly rude (these men are people as well, contrary to what you seem to believe). Really, treat security guards when they're questioning you as policemen. You might find that the next time you're in this kind of a bind, you come away with what you wanted in the first place.
Anonymous,
Firstly, security guards aren't policemen. Policemen are to some extent accountable and there is an element of consensual policing. With private security guards that does not exist. So there's no need to treat them in a like manner.
3 men with ear pieces cannot stop a terrorist attack. That's my point. They aren't present to really foil a planned attack but to give the illusion that they are. It is this illusion I find malicious.
P.S. I didn't behave like a total dick. I just reacted against such a pointless and unpleasant weaponization of public space.
Post a Comment