tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post1058062323850551214..comments2023-05-22T04:56:48.268-04:00Comments on Big Nick At Large: Arbitrary PowerNick Willett-Jeffrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07682993346919964490noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post-30779492423503017322010-11-23T03:59:57.192-05:002010-11-23T03:59:57.192-05:00Well of course the point of 60 years of recent pol...Well of course the point of 60 years of recent politics is that this is far more upsetting and problematic when you are a citizen with a minority skin color facing dumb police and bureaucratic power in your own country. The good news (for us, at least) is that we live in a plutocracy, rather than in a bureaucracy, and much of the world is following suit. This is good because under the capitalist system, most people devote their petty power to making other people happy by providing them with what they expressly desire (as manifested by their willing to shell out hard cash for it), and while that can obviously have its problems too, its alot better than the alternative. The few residual pockets of bureaucracy in our system are often very annoying. For example, every day I get into a cab in Manhattan and immediately several minutes of horrible new aged music starts playing loudly on a video screen in front of me that cannot be turned off, and then, a geek of an individual appears on the screen and identifies himself as the "head of taxicabs in New York City" and proceeds, with a self-congratulatory smile, to encourage me to call the taxicab bureau and let him know what sorts of things I would prefer in a taxicab and to tell me how proud and pleased he is to be the head of taxicabs in New York City, by which he means, of course, how proud and pleased he is with himself. Needless to say, the first thing I would tell whoever answered the phone at the taxicab bureau (if I could actually get him or her to answer the phone, and if I actually thought my message would ultimately reach the self-congratulatory individual who purports to be the head of taxicabs in New York City, which of course it would not, any more than your statements to the security guard in Kathmundu would actually reach the person who put this thoughtful security policy into place) is that they should remove these annoying video players from taxicabs, because no one has any desire to be accosted several times a day every day of their lives by this music and message that cannot be turned off, but that message will never get through, because these video players were not installed in these cabs in the pursuit of profit, but rather by fiat by the head of taxicabs in New York City. Yet that said, I must confess that the prior post is correct in referencing Cheney (or Kissinger), because central bureaucratic power in the United States is anything but petty, and it is not only rather expensive for Americans, but sometimes it is rather terrifying for the rest of the world, and it is by no means clear with respect to some of our major projects throughout the world that they are better considered in essence than the ones implemented by whoever runs U.S. security in Kathmundu and whoever runs taxicabs in New York City.david haritonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post-6291089542472738832010-10-19T23:03:38.878-04:002010-10-19T23:03:38.878-04:00@Anon All things considered, the guards were relat...@Anon All things considered, the guards were relatively friendly and definitely polite. This sort of thing inconveniences them too and as a result I think they understood our situation and maybe empathized a little.Nick Willett-Jeffrieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07682993346919964490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post-74618596614425003912010-10-19T12:19:06.954-04:002010-10-19T12:19:06.954-04:00There are a lot of frustrating parts about this so...There are a lot of frustrating parts about this sort of thing. First of all it creates a lot of ill-will to force people to delete their photos, let alone ask them all sorts of questions. Second, it clearly does no real good, as photos are publicly available, everywhere on the internet, could be taken surreptitiously, etc. Also, deleting photos from memory cards is not even an effective way to get rid of them, as the data is not actually deleted but rather marked to be written over in the future, and can be easily recovered with one of many free and widely available programs. This is yet another way that efforts are made to increase safety that are not only ineffective but probably counterproductive (as you mention in distracting the guard's attention and wasting everyone's time).<br /><br />As a side note, from your telling, it seems like the security guards were at least polite and relatively friendly, even if they were inconveniencing you and your friends. Although I'm sure this sort of thing happens frequently, a few years ago there was a similar incident with photos being taken of the US embassy, and it was a big deal in the Nepali press. I had hoped the embassy might have relaxed a bit after that, but I guess not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post-21247838524383230942010-10-17T00:40:34.767-04:002010-10-17T00:40:34.767-04:00@Tapa Glad you liked the post.
I don't think ...@Tapa Glad you liked the post.<br /><br />I don't think I agree, though, that colonialism or Dick Cheney do much to explain this incident. It's easy to write this off as the work of neo-cons but they're not in power anymore. Also, I don't think our government is behaving particularly colonial in this case...more illogically paranoid than anything else...<br /><br />On an unrelated note, be careful about writing out your email address on a public forum like this. Email spammers run bots that build spam lists by looking for that sort of thing, which is very easy to spot given how unique the @ character is. If you absolutely must put your email address on a public forum do it like this: soandso at blah dot com.Nick Willett-Jeffrieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07682993346919964490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1941035713549589372.post-71448289085115547662010-10-16T10:00:09.603-04:002010-10-16T10:00:09.603-04:00Nick, hi! Good reporting. Lament, American colon...Nick, hi! Good reporting. Lament, American colonialism ala Dick Cheney and PNAC, lacking the historical British protocols and moderate charm.<br /><br />Work on your Tai Chi, and build in some exercises in 'ducking.' Dare we say it, Nepal duck versus Peking duck...(-:<br /><br />BTW, your site does not like the normal characters in an email address -- renders "illegal characters." So, not "anonymous" by virtue of any behavioral anomaly...(-:<br /><br />Stay safe. Love...Tapa<br /><br />drrpwillett@me.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com