YESTERDAY, I received a letter from my bank in the Channel Islands giving me a deadline to turn up at the nearest Barclay’s — or failing which any international bank or British consulate — so that the photograph in my passport can be certified and officially stamped as a true likeness of me.
“Thank you for recently completing our Key Information Form and providing us with the relevant pages of your passport,” it read. “Unfortunately, our policy has now changed and we are required to hold a certified copy of your passport on file”. The implication is if I fail to meet their Aug. 20 deadline, my account would be frozen.
For some reason the missive threw me into an uncharacteristic rage. I’ve been a customer of that bank for 11 years and if they don’t know who I am by now, then it’s a poor show. Moreover, their demand is fraught with blood pressure elevating obstacles.
The British Consulate is out because here in Cairo it is a concrete-ringed fortress with queues of people looking as though they are ready to pass out winding down the street. And in my recent experience, counter staff behind the bulletproof glass would neither have the initiative nor the correct form to handle such an odd demand.
The alternative is equally daunting. I can envision the scenario of walking into a bank where nobody knows me now.
“Good morning. Can you please study my features and compare them against this passport photo, which, by the way was taken five years ago, and certify that it’s me. And please don’t forget to stamp it with the bank’s official seal so that my bank can be assured that I...am, well, me.
“Eh! Do you have an account with us madam?”
“No. My account is with another bank in the UK but, you see, they don’t know that the person on the phone with them several times a week is really me. Perhaps they think I’m a terrorist or a criminal who has been holding Linda Heard hostage in some dank dark dungeon for the past 11 years for the purpose of gaining access to her — I mean my — $5,000 fortune.”
“Sorry Madam, but I don’t have the authority to process your request. Only the manager can do that”.
“No problem. May I see the manager?”
“He’s on holiday in Europe. Shall I make an appointment for September?”
You might think my fury is over-the-top. Taking the bank letter as a single entity, then you’d be right. But, for me, it’s symbolic of the way the public is being treated nowadays. It used to be a world where ordinary people were generally considered as inherently honest. Now, we’re all suspects.
Every time we transfer an amount of money over $10,000 we risk being considered a money-launderer or someone who funds terrorism. And, in the past, when we used SWIFT, our personal account details were often relayed to American intelligence officials. Some years ago, I was the recipient of a small inheritance from an aunt and was asked to show up at the bank to prove the money’s origin.
We’re suspect to the extent stores and supermarkets require us to deposit our bags at the entrance with the assumption we’re all kleptomaniacs or pilferers.
When we travel we’re automatically suspects. Our bottle of face cream may hide some deadly goodness knows what. Our lighters may be used to set fire to exploding shoes. Our nail files may be turned into eye-gouging weapons. Even pilots are required to remove their shoes before boarding when by the very nature of their job they’re in control of a weapon of mass destruction.
Many airports can’t cope. Queues are getting longer and longer. People routinely miss their flights. But woe betide them if they should become cross no matter how hot, exhausted and frustrated they might be, perhaps with small children in tow, or faced with missing an important wedding or parent’s funeral. It’s hardly surprising that air rage is increasing?
Under a new British “e-borders” program beginning October 2008, a list of air-rage or disruptive passengers will be circulated to airlines so that they can be put on a ‘no-fly’ list. So whatever you do don’t raise your voice in the presence of a flight attendant.
Further, according to the Guardian, people who have neglected to pay court fines or fail to comply with confiscation orders may be banned from leaving the country, while foreign nationals may be forced to pay up for medical treatment, received under the National Health service, or stay behind until they do.
How will that impact individuals who never knew they had outstanding court fines or ill foreigners on a limited budget? Will they be criminalized and held hostage?
“E-borders” says the Guardian, “also requires airlines and ferry companies to submit up to 50 items of date on each passenger between 24 and 48 hours before departure to and from the UK “, which will be passed to police and security services prior to passenger boarding.
Passengers will also be “encouraged” to book tickets and check-in on line, which will, of course, make for easier government snooping.
Britons are more unfortunate than most when it comes to assumption of guilt. They are watched by some five million CCTV cameras. If they are spot-fined for dropping litter or smoking in a public venue, the police will have the right to harvest their DNA for a giant DNA computer bank. Soon they will be required to carry biometric ID cards and passports allowing officialdom access to their personal lives and histories.
Here, I can’t help recalling the recent George Bush/Gordon Brown press conference at Camp David when the “mot de jour” was “Freedom”. Brown cited Churchill’s call for “liberty” and his belief in the dignity of every human being.
“We believe in freedom and justice as fundamentals of life,” said Bush. “There’s no doubt in my mind that freedom is universal, that freedom is a gift to each man, woman and child on the face of the Earth...”
Frankly, if their idea of freedom is listening in to people’s phone calls, videotaping their movements, collecting their DNA, and sub-contracting airlines and banks to spy on their customers and treat them as potential crooks, they can keep it.
And, Mr. Brown, I believe in the dignity of every human being too. That’s why when I received the implicitly threatening letter from my bank that should be treating me as a valued customer I was mad.
