2007/11/19 New York, NY
Not normal
Pockets
“Don’t you know that you have to empty your pockets,” a security guard at Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport shouted at me.
I was about to board my flight to New York. Since I don’t carry a wallet usually I leave paper money in my pockets. Euros left pocket, dollars right pocket.
I tried to explain this politely to the woman who had shouted at me. But she kept shouting: “Empty your pockets.”
Finally I said: “I can take off my pants as well, maybe this is easier for all people involved.”
Now she really got upset. “This is not normal,” she cried. “I consider your behavior not normal. We are here for your security you know that?”
I wonder how much abuse is going on in the name of security.
While leaving the plane I ran into Ian Buruma.
We shared a cab to Manhattan.
Back home I realized that a friend is somebody who doesn’t expect you to empty your pockets.
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56 comments 
Laura and I ran into Mr Chance this weekend, in a local bookstore. Later we learned that Mr Kosinsky once talked a young woman into bed by claiming that he had no penis, and then nearly raped her.
@Arnon
Did you read the story about the Pole who recently got shot and died at the airport of Vancouver because he went into panic at the security area of the airport. There was nowbody he could communicate with so they tried to calm him down with an electric powertool.In the latest tied security regulations there is no place for jokes, every word is pre programmed. The security officer is only an impersonal flexible interchangeable instrument for the benefit of the public. Accept this and you are ready for the bright new future. If not you certainly are a terrorist and your jokes are a form of disruptive mental terror.
@Mieke
Once again your comment proves to be right. Some people are indeed instruct to use pepper spray (or worse) only to calm down an individual. As a security officer you have to follow the instructions by the book and report accordingly.
I think we are moving in the wrong direction and I do not want to be a part of it.
@Mieke
Once again your comment proves to be right. Some people are indeed instruct to use pepper spray (or worse) only to calm down an individual. As a security officer you have to follow the instructions by the book and report accordingly.
I think we are moving in the wrong direction and I do not want to be a part of it.
Oscar W
Could you tell me a little bit more about Mr. Chance?I have never met characters from novels in reality, my mother, a few prostitutes, former friends, an ex-girlfriend and Hans Dorff are the exception.
I once told a girl that my penis was too small for sex.
I promise you that I won’t speak about my penis in the presence of Laura -- at least not on my first date with her.
Jan T
You don't want to be part of it? What's the solution? Suicide?@ Jan
I completely agree with you. I think the incident in Vancouver this weekend clearly proofs to what atrocities this new policy leads. I saw the pictures on the news yesterday and I thought it to be a story of sheer horror, what made meeven more furious, is the fact that it was the mans first flight and the he wasn't accustomed with airport procedures.
Arnon
Suicide is the ultimate solution, you know that how bad things will turn out to be, you can always solve the problem with suicide. That's why you should not be afraid of anything. That's why you try to live. There's always an emergency exit. A bit dark though...I do think that security people at airports are trained in the right way. They just have developed a lack of humanity and decency to treat people like people. So they treat em like shit. .. Shit happens.
@Arnon
Ah Arnon. I am not such a hero. I am more a coward and thereby I will try to avoid such professional circumstances with all possible means.
Forgive me, I tend to dramatise, but if you allow me: sometimes I think, if I got in kind of KZ I would opt for a Sonderkommando (you know those who burn and clean the bodies and have a lot of spare time in the sun in between…) but I would never volunteer to become a Kapo or worse. A low profile forever…
Ah Arnon. I am not such a hero. I am more a coward and thereby I will try to avoid such professional circumstances with all possible means.
Forgive me, I tend to dramatise, but if you allow me: sometimes I think, if I got in kind of KZ I would opt for a Sonderkommando (you know those who burn and clean the bodies and have a lot of spare time in the sun in between…) but I would never volunteer to become a Kapo or worse. A low profile forever…
security guards in the US are a lot worse though. As usual, we just copy American behaviour.
@Arnon
In that way I honour that you became a writer and not a power manager, although you had all the capacities.
And indeed violence (deeds and words) can change a person forever. I had my share and it seems I am not the only one here. So I distrust even myself in a powerful position, I avoid it – I knew what people, myself included are able to do, if pushed beyond the limit.
In that way I honour that you became a writer and not a power manager, although you had all the capacities.
And indeed violence (deeds and words) can change a person forever. I had my share and it seems I am not the only one here. So I distrust even myself in a powerful position, I avoid it – I knew what people, myself included are able to do, if pushed beyond the limit.
Arnon
A friend is somebody for whom you empty your pockets with pleasure.
Knowing the content of a friend's pockets makes friendship deeper.
A friend is somebody for whom you empty your pockets with pleasure.
Knowing the content of a friend's pockets makes friendship deeper.
Small P
@ArnonYou too Arnon? I once told a girl that I had the most incredible shrinking penis of the world. But she was not impressed. We all want to excel in something, don’t we?
Freek P
Usually the security guards at airports are low-paid not highly educated people. A certain abuse of power seems to be unavoidable in this situation. Besides the question what kind of security really is provided by all these security measures at airports.@ Arnon
isn't writing the ultimate abuse of power?I wonder how much abuse is going on in the name of literature.
Margot
You must be kidding.@Margot Morgan
I have an aunt who is sometimes scared to death by books, she says the authors want to get in her mind and twist her brains and change her thinking.
Is that the abuse of power, which you mean?
(But I think there is some insanity in my family too, by the way)
I have an aunt who is sometimes scared to death by books, she says the authors want to get in her mind and twist her brains and change her thinking.
Is that the abuse of power, which you mean?
(But I think there is some insanity in my family too, by the way)
Arnon
Mr Chance appears on the cover of a book that we ended up taking home.Laura would like to know if any of your novels are available as book-on-tape.
Why take few incidents and generalise? Millions of people are travelling each day while everything goes smoothly. Occasionally it goes wrong and seldom it goes really wrong. Is it different then other sectors we come across in our society? I really don’t think so.
As far as I know many security workers are students. They don’t have their degree yet but I wouldn’t describe them as low educated.
Considering the fact that since the seventies airplane were used for terrorist attacks, I would consider it irresponsible to take off without the prior security checks. No one likes it, it’s disturbing but there is simply no alternative.
Vera M.,
I like your friendship-pocket relation.
As far as I know many security workers are students. They don’t have their degree yet but I wouldn’t describe them as low educated.
Considering the fact that since the seventies airplane were used for terrorist attacks, I would consider it irresponsible to take off without the prior security checks. No one likes it, it’s disturbing but there is simply no alternative.
Vera M.,
I like your friendship-pocket relation.
Jan T
I meant: for a writer everything is material, including the people who surround him. Real people who end up as fictional characters may feel abused by this 'power'. Unless you're writing a biographie, of course.Arnon
If you don't carry a wallet, where do you put your mastercard?Houdini?
I wonder how much abuse is going on in the name of small penises...Small penises of the world UNITE (and maybe you'll aquire your 8 inches)
Y
Ilanet
Thank you.
I keep my pockets empty.
Thank you.
I keep my pockets empty.
Ilanit
Your gullibility knows no limits.There is no proven connection between the decline (one could better say the demise) in airplane kidnappings and higher security at airports.
Knives made from fiber are available for about thirty euros and they are as lethal as metal knives. These kinds of knives will go through every checkpoint.
The only rational behind the extensive search is the idea that the length of the wait and the extensiveness of the search will make perpetrators so nervous that they will betray themselves.
Who needs security at airports when all the big department store’s can be entered without any problem at all?
Abusive behavior by security guards at airports has been widely reported in several newspapers.
Arnon
There is no proven connection? I think you should rephrase: there is no proven connection as far as you know. Maybe I should remind you that I used to work for El Al security abroad and ad that some information is classified.Your rational about making perpetrators nervous is based on what exactly?
Do you know that ALL bombs (which did or eventually did not got abroad) were taken by a person who was not aware of carrying them?
I would seriously ask you to check your own gullibility. You might know a lot, but you do not know everything and it’s kind of disappointing that you act as if you do.
Vera M
Me too. Maybe it should be the handbags with females?I recently learned, at the university in the name of literature, that there really is a disease describing symptoms of thinking your penis is vanishing. It's called Koro, and it can cause an epidemic (most likely). I find it strange that one person would tell another that he thinks that his penis is retracting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_panic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_panic
Once I had a fluffy animal with me (it was a gift from my gf at the time) and I told the security I got it right before I came to the airport (as she asked me). They scanned the poor thing. And in Atlanta I had to remove my shoes (Campers, If you know the shoe, you know that it practically has no sole) and they bodysearched me. I enjoyed it.
margot
Were you kidding or did you mean the collaboration of art and power in the world? If you do mean this, i would say that writing of course is not the abuse of power in any way. No writer took the status he/she has. It has been given.Security
Once again, in real life people do things just because they can, wiithout posing questions, in theoretical discussions we have a free will, out there we just act as we learned, without thinking, if people always thought about what they 're doing there would be a lot more mass murders.ilanit
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.. Look who's talking, ilanit!Penis
I started the conversation with my girlfriend mentioning I was impotent, so she (and I) didn't had to fear any sexual actions, it worked, we're still together and I'm no longer impotent, confidence is a strange thing.Ilanit
The fact that you worked for El Al is not a very convincing argument. Especially because you tend to think that a kidnapper is a person who is in the possession of a bomb without knowing it. No wonder that you shifted your interest from security matters to Italian fashion. A very wise decision if I may say so.My statement that the main rationale for long lines and long screening at airports is the ability to watch the passenger and make the perpetrator nervous is based on conversations with people working in the security industry.
Wulfy
Where exactly did you start the conversation with your girlfriend?empty pockets
IlanetI didn't mean it literally. I am sorry.
that's my que...
Margot
I don't think there's a Guantánamo Bay in the name of literatureAirport security lady was 100% right, you were 100% wrong; she is there for your security, she is just doing her job and there is no need to try to 'draw the blood from under the nails' of people who are simply doing their job, to use a nice dutch expression for this kind of behavior that is in fact quite normal, but that is usually seen in people between the ages of 12 and 16. Grow up.
Maybe not Guantanamo Bay, but some people may be scarred for life.
@Eva van Campen
I do not doubt the security lady was 100 % right. I think it is all about how you do your job, as a bully or as a normal decent person. I know, stress can make you bad tempered but nevertheless I hope a lot of people never grow up to lose all sense of humour and conviviality, call it old fashion decency.
I do not doubt the security lady was 100 % right. I think it is all about how you do your job, as a bully or as a normal decent person. I know, stress can make you bad tempered but nevertheless I hope a lot of people never grow up to lose all sense of humour and conviviality, call it old fashion decency.
Arnon
I do not intend to start an argument. My cue was already there the moment your reference for the “truth” or the facts were the people you referred to earlier as low educated power abusers. I do however want to correct one thing. I wrote about a bomb evt. going abroad but I meant to say ON BOARD. This might have confuse you in regard to what you call: my assumptions.There were actually airplanes blowned up and I guarantee you there would have been much more should there be no security check. You seem to confine airport security to kidnapping but you are wrong.
@Margot Morgan
OK you have a point, one can hurt a person with written words and scare him/her for life. But this is also true with spoken words or a movement of body parts, like a fist. Sometimes you can call this an abuse of power. But I think it is a bridge to far to state that ‘writing is the ultimate abuse of power’. It is a kind of power nevertheless inherent to people everywhere, like speech and moving your body parts.
OK you have a point, one can hurt a person with written words and scare him/her for life. But this is also true with spoken words or a movement of body parts, like a fist. Sometimes you can call this an abuse of power. But I think it is a bridge to far to state that ‘writing is the ultimate abuse of power’. It is a kind of power nevertheless inherent to people everywhere, like speech and moving your body parts.
@Arnon
On the internal mail services of the firm, she was working in an office, I worked in the headquarter, we thought we were smart and were the only ones knowing abouth this communicationsystem, afterworths the whole accountancy service followed our secret talks and on top of that, her direct supervisor gave at the evaluation discussion after six months a printed version of our chathistoty, pages and pages.She decided to go back to university/college and leave the concept 'work' to other more qualified people.
Margot
Some people will be scared for life because of a mouse.Eva van C
Just doing her job? I have heard this before. The hangman is also doing just his job, as is the torturer. Before you write a comment, maybe you can think just a split second about what you are going to write . But feel free just to babble on.Ilanit
I’m not against security at airports. Think of all the security guards being unemployed, a disaster for the economy.Given the average wage of the security guard abusive behavior is probably unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean that we have to accept it without saying a word.
I wrote scarred for life (double r)
before you post a comment, maybe you could read just a split second longer...
before you post a comment, maybe you could read just a split second longer...
Margot
I thought the double “r” was a typo. Apologies. I can only once again repeat the words of Joseph Brodsky: “At all costs try to avoid granting yourself the status of the victim.”You seem to indulge in victimology.
Yes, an author might inflict wounds; a critic might inflict wounds as well.
But with all respect I don’t think these wounds can be compared with torture.
If you want to stand up for the victims of literature maybe you should stand up for hapless writers as well.
And by the way some people might be scarred for life because of a mouse.
Arnon
There is no way you might think that I would be advocating the acceptance of abusive behaviour without saying a word. If that’s the point- we agree!No worries. I will reread your dear friend Joseph Brodsky soon.
It is indeed better to be a perpetrator than a victim.
I don not plan to stand up for the victims of literature or their perpetrators.
However I am intrigued by a buddhist belief that claims 'if one is used for hte benefit for all it is right, if all are used for the benefit of one it is wrong.' But then the buddhists don't read Joseph Brodsky, I suppose.
It is indeed better to be a perpetrator than a victim.
I don not plan to stand up for the victims of literature or their perpetrators.
However I am intrigued by a buddhist belief that claims 'if one is used for hte benefit for all it is right, if all are used for the benefit of one it is wrong.' But then the buddhists don't read Joseph Brodsky, I suppose.
Margot
Do you know actually people who were wounded by literature, I mean by a novel, a poem or a play? There is something frivolous about your statement, nothing against frivolity, but in this context it makes me uncomfortable.Arnon
I do not want to make you feel uncomfortable. Making people feel comfortable is my aim in life.But when I read through your book of letters I just wonder if there is a causal connection between ending up in print and then running of to Taiwan, becoming a lesbian and rescueing street animals.
Margot
Rescuing street animals?Arnon
If you want to discuss this at length maybe we should do so underneath a tree.Margot
You want to have a discussion underneath a tree? Please, first send your picture to Johannes. (Johannes@arnongrunberg.com) I have seen enough transsexuals lately.When Johannes has reached the conclusion that you are indeed a healthy woman we can look for a tree.
Arnon
I am having coffee with Johannes tomorrow at four.You can ask him what my gender is.
Apart from a cold I am in good health.
Your doubt is considered a compliment.
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