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Thursday 26 February 2015

Addled Adolescents and Profiling

There is nothing stupider or more heedless than a teenage boy, yet by chasing after the affection and esteem of these creatures,, teenage girls often manage to one-up even them.
What is to be done?
Pull a reverse A and F and allow no one under a certain age wearing a hajib to leave the country?

 Of course not.

But isn't a little bit of profiling called for?

When I was young I travelled in a country that was experiencing a wave of terrorism at the hands of people who shared my ethnicity, as indicated by my surname in my very recently acquired passport.
I was female, travelling alone,  and like many young who travel, carrying all my baggage with me at all times.
I was exactly the sort of person who, the authorities were finding, thought it romantic to carry something dangerous or valuable, either knowingly or unknowingly, for a brand spanking new foreign boyfriend.
I was often singled out for especially thorough searches at check-points, transportation hubs, museums.
 It never occurred to me that this was unfair.

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