* protest against body scanners
Posted on January 17th, 2010 by Alex. Filed under India.
Currently discussions are going on about installing body scanners at airports in Germany. They are based on radiation in the range of tetra hertz and can literally penetrate the clothes of the passengers. On the screen the people are displayed naked and that could be embarrassing. Some sensitive medical information can also be revealed (such as an ostomy) or it might be even against the religious beliefs. The discussion becomes more “interesting”, if children are scanned.
So the authorities test scanners, in which the body is not displayed at all and only an OK is given, if everything is alright. Another method would be to show the body only schematically and suspicious objects in a box like shape. However that does not solve the problem of not-knowing long-term effects of the exposed radiation on passengers.
Therefore the Pirate Party Germany organized some flash-mobs on German airports (link in German only, a translation by Google). At the airport they removed their clothes standing in underwear to show the authorities that they do not have to hide anything. At these very short demonstrations the participants earned a lot of appreciation by other passengers. Surprisingly even Sakshi a Telugu newspaper in India, published a short article on page 3.
An article in Sakshi (a Telugu newspaper) about a demonstration against body scanners in Germany. Source: http://www.sakshi.com