I like to listen to TalkSport Radio while I'm driving in the car. Not so much during the day because they just chat about sport, but at night it becomes a 'phone-in' station. The subjects are widely varied, current news, lively debate, and light hearted banter etc. It's the UKs largest commercial station, and as you would expect there are advert breaks. It was during one of these breaks that I heard what I thought was a tongue in cheek promotion of a future program. It sounded so ridiculous that I assumed it was over the top in order to provoke discussion. It wasn't until it reached the end, announcing a free hotline number to report your neighbours as terrorists that I realised that it was for real. I'm astounded!...
This is one of a series of like minded adverts. These broadcasts set a dangerous precedent, turning neighbour against neighbour and leading people to believe that there are 'terrorists everywhere'. There was never this level of paranoia during the height of the IRA attacks.
I'm particularly concerned because I fall into this new terrorist category. I keep myself to myself, close curtains and use cash... I'm expecting the door to be broken down by police any moment now.
You just can't win. Leave the curtains open while you're vacuuming in the nude and you get reported, close them and you get reported for being a terrorist!
I've already reported all my neighbours, as many of them have been going out after dark, one of them was holding a bag and wearing glasses... is he a terrorist in disguise? The bus stop across the road worries me too. I often see people just standing there (sometimes for ages), not talking to anyone and looking around a bit. Are they going to blow themselves up? I'm turning myself in at the end of the week because I've always thought I looked a bit suspicious anyway!...
Showing posts with label george orwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label george orwell. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Monday, 1 October 2007
Big Brother IS watching you (but doesn't give a damn)
4.2 million CCTV cameras and counting in the UK. That's 1 for every 14 people. On average you are captured over 300 times a day.
George Orwell warned us of this in his creation "Nineteen Eightyfour". He lived at Flat 27b Canonbury Square, London. Within 200 yards of his flat there are now 32 CCTV cameras...Big Brother is truly here.
In the spirit of research, I decided to see how many cameras and how many times I was filmed on a short few minute walk around my immediate neighbourhood.
First off, the local station. A small station with reasonable sized car park for commuters to 'park and ride' in a quiet suburb of a small town. How many cameras would you expect?
What a lovely welcome! Do you feel safer? Why the need for spikes?
On the walkway and the platform, more 'prettified' cameras. Remember this count doesn't include the two more cameras in the ticket office, just the ones encountered as you walk out in public areas.
You might think your car is safer parked in such a well watched place, but of an evening it was left up to me to tackle some teenagers running across vehicle rooves. They ran off when they saw me in the car, after an angrily executed tyre squealing J-turn and a short chase I caught them. The police were phoned but never turned up, not a peep out of any transport police that should have been dispatched by the camera operators. What was I meant to do? I had to let them go. This might lead you to believe that the cameras aren't being watched, but no. Park with one of your wheels on the white line and a voice booms out from the top of a mast that you are not complying with car park regulations!!!!!!
On your exit, an extra camera scans the back of your head...just in case.
George Orwell warned us of this in his creation "Nineteen Eightyfour". He lived at Flat 27b Canonbury Square, London. Within 200 yards of his flat there are now 32 CCTV cameras...Big Brother is truly here.In the spirit of research, I decided to see how many cameras and how many times I was filmed on a short few minute walk around my immediate neighbourhood.
First off, the local station. A small station with reasonable sized car park for commuters to 'park and ride' in a quiet suburb of a small town. How many cameras would you expect?
What a lovely welcome! Do you feel safer? Why the need for spikes?
On the walkway and the platform, more 'prettified' cameras. Remember this count doesn't include the two more cameras in the ticket office, just the ones encountered as you walk out in public areas.
You might think your car is safer parked in such a well watched place, but of an evening it was left up to me to tackle some teenagers running across vehicle rooves. They ran off when they saw me in the car, after an angrily executed tyre squealing J-turn and a short chase I caught them. The police were phoned but never turned up, not a peep out of any transport police that should have been dispatched by the camera operators. What was I meant to do? I had to let them go. This might lead you to believe that the cameras aren't being watched, but no. Park with one of your wheels on the white line and a voice booms out from the top of a mast that you are not complying with car park regulations!!!!!!
On your exit, an extra camera scans the back of your head...just in case.So, how many cameras to guard the ever so dangerous station....24!
The tally increases as I amble up the road. One camera filming the road outside offices. One filming you from the Chinese takeaway. 14 watch you as you pass the petrol station. There are pinhole cameras mounted in the pumps themselves now. 4 in the small public car park. 3 follow you as you walk by the library. 3 more point across the road at you from a small electronics manufacturer.
Homeward bound a police car passes, adding another 3 (1 forward facing, 1 to the rear and 1 automatic number plate recognition ).
The tally increases as I amble up the road. One camera filming the road outside offices. One filming you from the Chinese takeaway. 14 watch you as you pass the petrol station. There are pinhole cameras mounted in the pumps themselves now. 4 in the small public car park. 3 follow you as you walk by the library. 3 more point across the road at you from a small electronics manufacturer.
Homeward bound a police car passes, adding another 3 (1 forward facing, 1 to the rear and 1 automatic number plate recognition ).The final total on my short walk?...Fifty three! This doesn't include any residential cameras or those keeping tabs on you in shops etc. This is not the middle of a city.
Do these cameras serve their purpose? I don't think so. Last week a neighbour was robbed, their car stolen, that car was then used in a break in of the pub across the road. The perpetrators were neither identified or apprehended. In April I had to chase thieves (posted as 'Men in black' gone bad...(April)), no images available on video. What's the point of these cameras? It is 1984, it's just running late....
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