The Moley Prophet

Today, the mole took an unusual move to take the bus to school. What a hassle. Took me an hour. Anyway, something caught my eye while I was on bus 61. I actually saw it before last week when I also took the unusual way to school.

There were actually cameras on the bus! What the fuck is the bus operators up to? I thought it was only going to be one camera, but there were 2! I wasn’t aware of this camera thing until I saw them on these buses. When I first saw one- didn’t notice the other one- I thought it was fake, for the purpose of an advertising gimmick by Ikea as the bus was then decorated in and out of Ikea advertisements. So this was the improvement the bus operators promised? I do not know whether it is for anti-vandalising or anti-terrorists purposes, but all I know is, it is an invasion of privacy. I do not like some cameras looking down on me while travelling!

Let me give you some examples. Sometimes, young couples tend to snuggle up a bit on the back of buses like our baby Ben. It’s so bloody irritating to have the cameras there. And then, the camera is place at a high position, vertically filming down. Ladies, do you like people looking at your cleavage all the time? No right? Prove: I had this friend who got slightly irritated when the the caucasian guy keep looking down on hers.

And what if you are looking at a confidential document on the bus. Definitely the person beside you will find it hard to look at the document- reflections and highly noticeable if they were to look in the direction- but for this, the camera is facing directly down at the top and you wouldn’t even know who is looking at your document. Besides, corporations are using Blackberry more widely, which means that people carry their emails and stuff out of their offices. Some of which may be confidential. Its all about invasion of privacy!

And theres the IMF and WB meeting going on now. Foreigners from all over would be coming down to town. We know Americans place a lot of emphasis on privacy, and now, we are invading peoples’ privacy by monitoring them constantly even while they travel. The delegates from aside, there are the CSOs. Some may choose to take the “excellent” public transport system and then realized that they are treated like criminals being monitored the whole time.

Whatever the reason is- vandalism or terrorist- it is the governments’ responsibility to find an alternative which doesn’t cross the line.