Monday, July 7, 2008

Security s 'T' imulations....

Those who have traveled to the US, and been in and out of airports in the various cities here would be able to relate to the following colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green....
And for those who have no clue...(dont rack your brain......they do not have anything to do with recycling!!)
Those are results of security measures taken by the department of homeland security. Color codes which in essence indicates the risk you have just taken by opting to travel....! Let me explain this a bit further; i have always been intrigued by the sense of 'terror' that seems to prevail in the people here....
Red - A Severe Risk of 'T' Attack; - "forget the freaking flight and run for your life....and terrorists we are coming to get you...."
Orange - High Risk of 'T' Attack; - "do not even trust your own belongings or the kid sitting next to you if he/she is unrelated!! be suspicious of everyone....!!!"
Yellow - Significant Risk of 'T' Attack; - "keep a look out for those unusual movements or signs.... did that guy just raise one of his eyebrows...???"
Blue - General Risk of 'T' Attack; - "you are as safe as you can be when walking on Indian Roads...."
Green - Low Risk of 'T' Attack; - "not saying you are safe....but dont walk under a ladder..."

Now isn't that not a wonderful piece of color coding?? Everytime i have walked into an airport, within 15 mins (especially if there are lots of International Flights to Asia) I hear this...."...the dept. of home land security has raised the safety level to ORANGE....". I feel indebted to them as a passenger for making me feel extremely SAFE!!.... Ever since 9/11, there are tremendous concerns with security. One of the biggest all time disasters but....One question; why is it that, this is the only country feeling threatened???.... One can safely remove India and Pakistan from the list though; citizens of both countries have got used to bombs/blasts....But what about other non-american countries?...aah..MAYBE they have hidden weapons!!...you know like spears and arrows....Now i see the reason to invade iraq....okie who's next in line??

Often, when i see the weather channel here on TV; again a bunch of color codes !!! Unless you are a geography major it is going to sound gibberish....hence it always is, to me. Given the feel of security measures all over and especially at airports; there porbably should be an additional channel - 'now it is time for an update of the terrorist weather report'....

A possible excerpt: "Its sunny today....but this section to the north east is a little mellow...oh i am sorry...yellow!!, and Arizona though hilly and having temperatures soaring as high as 50 deg C is green....as it always has been :)
oops!! alert...alert...chicago has suddenly turned from blue to orange....
Miami has been hit by a tornado, but its totally safe out there....the color is green...so enjoy the beaches....Have a nice day."

1 comment:

Jeannie Flores Gill said...

Nitin........I can only imagine the confusion. I have never flown before but I feel I should come prepared and coordinate my colors accordingly then.....heck I don't know.........I just hope I don't get the colors confused......not like they must make much of a difference.......all I know is that I want to get to my destination whether I see red, blue, or green lights (my favorite color). HAHAHAHAHA