An acquaintance of mine had her mobile confiscated at the airport in Riyadh. The security officers asked her to hand it over and reminded her of the Arabic proverb “When shamed, it is better to be silent.” Her shame, according to the security personnel, was walking around talking on a mobile with a built-in camera.
The officer asked her husband to hand over his passport and insisted on confiscating the mobile. The fact that some 100 or more numbers were stored in the memory of the camera and not the mobile chip, plus the fact that she would be lost without those numbers, plus the fact that photographs of family and friends were stored as files did not deter them. They had but one idea and that was to follow orders. The fact that she was a journalist and a responsible married woman who had no intention whatsoever of using the camera in an offensive or improper way gave the security officers not a single second thought. Orders were being obeyed and that was that.
Whoever said that our country was a land of contrasts and contradictions was right on. On one hand, we confiscate mobile phones with cameras when their owners arrive with them at our airports. At the same time, the very same phones with cameras are sold under the counter in our markets. In other words, the phones are readily available in the black market for anyone willing to pay the price.
What disturbs me here is that all good, honest people are made to suffer for the actions of a small minority. Those of us — the majority: old and young, male and female — who want only to use the cameras in the right way are not allowed to do so because a few others have abused the technology. Is this right? We might as well ban cars because they may kill people in accidents, swimming pools because people may drown in them, electricity since people are occasionally electrocuted. And the fact that in the 21st century, a country bans an item on the basis that, according to some scholars, it “leads to corruption, will destroy homes and open the doors of evil” is absurd. I guess that is our way of solving problems. Never mind trying to educate and create public awareness about something. If there is the faintest possibility of misuse, ban it altogether!
This reminds me of a story published last year in one of our newspapers. After an increase in the number of people killed because they drank cologne, the solution was to ban the cologne from entering the country. It should be obvious to all that virtually any item on earth can be used for good or bad: televisions, video recorders, telephones, cars and of course, computers. The list is endless and whether the end result is good or bad depends completely on the user. I wonder what our authorities will do when cameras become standard features in mobile phones. Even new digital organizers, such as the i-mate, come with an installed digital camera.
Are we going to ban the entire mobile phone and digital organizer industries when cameras in them become standard?
Does anyone really think that would stop a person determined to misuse them?
