Personal Privacy versus Public Safety

Privacy. If there's one thing all of us are particular about, it's privacy. We live in houses surrounded by three metre-high walls and thick curtains. We feel violated when somebody reads our diaries or breaks our confidence. We equip our cars with tinted windows. But is privacy really all that precious when it starts to compromise our safety? I don't think so, ladies and gentlemen, and let me tell you why.

When the overall safety of the public is compromised, privacy-flouting measures are vital in maintaining order. A clear example is the 9/11 attacks. It was revealed earlier this year that nine of the 19 hijackers were identified as safety risks when they checked in for their flights. Luggage checked in by those nine men wasn't searched thoroughly, and the killers boarded their flights without any mishap because they were not questioned or probed personally. Ask yourselves, is there a chance the tragedy could have been prevented if the checks had been a little more severe? Is there a chance all those people killed would be alive today if the personal privacy of those men was conceded?

Today, air travel has become an arena of paranoia. With terrorist threats, the authorities have very good reason to carry out stringent security checks to the point of banning hand luggage and relatively harmless tubes of soap and creams, all of which are very personal and private belongings. Air passengers get worked up and cry "wolf" when they see Arab-looking passengers who cannot speak English and gesticulate wildly to make themselves understood. But we'll have to live with such inconveniences and breaches into our privacy so any threat can be identified and dealt with before disaster strikes. More than anything, we all want to live in a safe world.

Though we should respect the individual's right to privacy, we shouldn't let that overrule all concerns for public safety. Not long ago, there was a molester loose in Singapore. Only after several months did the police manage to apprehend him. The public then questioned whether the police could have prevented more cases if they had circulated a description of the suspect early on. Granted, such an act might have caused other individuals who fit the description to be persecuted. But it could also have prevented a few more girls from being molested and hence, emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives. The discomfort of one is nothing compared to the trauma of another.

Privacy is like a faulty electric blanket that we gleefully shroud ourselves in. However, if we don't throw off this blanket before it electrocutes us with surplus current, we will pay for it with our lives.

Can you spot the sentence I stole , ahem,borrowed from carren's oratorical? :)

I think I've managed to get rid of my accent, HURRAH. Acrolectal singlish all the way!

jueves, septiembre 21, 2006