Tag: USA

Big cities suck

I live in a small city of a small country.  And I love it here.  One of the big benefits that a lot of people get really used to is that everything is 10 minutes away.  It would take you only about 20 minutes to get from one side of the city to another.  Most of the people I know who live in big cities have to drive back and forth for hours every day.  Those of them lucky enough to live next to the place they work usually pay a lot of money to have it that way.

Why am I suddenly thinking of how bad big cities are? Because I just watched this YouTube video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4FoAr8i26g]

I understand that the guy chose the place himself and since he is young and alone it probably makes sense.  And I do understand that the video is more about living in tight spaces.  But I still keep thinking of how big cities screw people’s minds.  Not only it’s OK for someone in the modern age and developed country to live in a 78 square foot room (7 square meters), but also to pay $800 USD per month for it!  That’s just wrong.  Even if a lot of people are doing it and even if one gets used to it quickly, it still doesn’t make it right.

 

Welcome to American democracy

Even if this particular incident was staged, I’ve heard about and seen quite a few more examples recently. I guess we should happy for the United States bringing their democracy for the rest of the world.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8znhEhxl3s]

On airport security Israelification

I came across an excellent article which compares ways airport security is handled in Israel as opposed to USA and Canada.  Instead of being a yet another whine and complain about how bad things are there and how good they are over there, it does in fact illustrate the difference in approaches, as well as some of the things that people who are responsible for protecting the public have to think about.  Here is a quote to get you started:

“I once put this question to Jacques Duchesneau (the former head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority): say there is a bag with play-doh in it and two pens stuck in the play-doh. That is ‘Bombs 101’ to a screener. I asked Ducheneau, ‘What would you do?’ And he said, ‘Evacuate the terminal.’ And I said, ‘Oh. My. God.’

“Take Pearson. Do you know how many people are in the terminal at all times? Many thousands. Let’s say I’m (doing an evacuation) without panic — which will never happen. But let’s say this is the case. How long will it take? Nobody thought about it. I said, ‘Two days.'”

Another part that I sympathized a lot with was this:

“Do you know why Israelis are so calm? We have brutal terror attacks on our civilians and still, life in Israel is pretty good. The reason is that people trust their defence forces, their police, their response teams and the security agencies. They know they’re doing a good job. You can’t say the same thing about Americans and Canadians. They don’t trust anybody,” Sela said. “But they say, ‘So far, so good’. Then if something happens, all hell breaks loose and you’ve spent eight hours in an airport. Which is ridiculous. Not justifiable

So true! I’ve been thinking exactly the same a few times while watching fear-infested news coverages on mostly American TV (Europeans and Russians have it too, but to a lesser degree).  Nobody can guarantee a 100% protection.  A continuous effort should be made to ensure the best possible protection.  Once everyone knows and trusts that everything that could have been done was done, they will calm down and relax.  And even if something bad happens, people won’t overreact as they would know better.