Handluggage sizes and civility

I have now arrived in Korea after a fairly exhaustive journey. The airport wait was long and tiresome, but security at Heathrow moved more smoothly than I had anticipated. They have had several weeks to sort things out, so it isn't surprising that the hobgoblins following the 10th August were not haunting the airport yesterday. Given that Saturday seemed to be a very busy traveling day, the lines were actually quite normal for Heathrow security several years ago. Hopefully in due course, they will be on track to improve security screening further.

That is not to say there are not some frustrations. Most notably, it looks as if the imposition of the new hand luggage size is not as universal as we are told. There appears to be a work around, which some travelers took advantage of. The flaw comes in the manner in which baggage dimensions are checked. The BAA has set up boxes interspersed in the check in zone and before security. The idea is that travelers can take their carry on luggage aboard if and only if it fits into these boxes. The problem lies in the self-check nature of this test. At least as of Saturday, staff are not necessarily verifying if the luggage precisely fits the box prior to security screening, nor are security screeners verifying the luggage dimensions. Now it is unlikely that someone with a bag obviously larger than requisite size will be noticed, butI don't see the current security regime able to control more modest exceptions.

Aren't the new hand luggage sizes a little restrictive anyway? Why not stick it to the man, if he's not enforcing his own rules? To be honest, I think the size of the bag is perfectly arbitrary. I assume British government chose this size because it makes manual searches swifter, but what is really important is what the bag contains. So I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with a few larger bags snuck on board. What bothers me is not the failure of the security, but the unfairness imposed on people like me who are willing to stick the rules. I understand the new sizes are inconvenient, but I want to do my part to make traveling a little safer. I bear the inconvenience within reason. When other travelers flaunt these regulations, it makes me feel like the purpose of my own long suffering over packing is stripped. But I suppose at bottom, I just don't like people who believe they don't have to follow the rules. Its exactly the same with those drivers who won't merge when a lane ends, but instead move to the front of the line and try to force their way in. This seems to represent an indemic me first attitude. Self interest is obviously natural, and at many times it is beneficial, but in these cases it isn't. For a little extra space or for an incrimentally better position in the trafic cue, these kinds of behaviour, when widespread, add up to serious frustrations for everyone else. Even the rule breaker has to contend with others playing the same game. Using a little Kantian reasoning, imbibed with a sense of enlightened self interest, universalised rule breaking simply doesn't pay, and even small scale infractions in these cases suffer rapidly diminishing returns.

On the other hand, a little civility in the full sense of the term, not just manners, but a level of respect accorded to others, instead of the latent egotism implicit in the rule breaking above, would go a long way to ease the tensions of my life. Not neglecting the solipsism in my own reasoning, I'm sure it would help everyone else as well, the reamaining rule breakers included.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Life's ups and downs

The past week has been an interesting one. I've suffered a rather tremendous loss, as my computer suffered a complete and totally unexpected system failure. To make matters even better my recovery cd was corrupted. Luckily I backed up key documents some time ago, and had some other documents on my email account. Otherwise, this would be a major major disaster. But I have lost most of the photographs I took in June which I didn't post onto this website. There are some important pictures from a close friends PhD graduation that are now gone forever. The moral of the story is constant back ups. One copy on hard drive and one on CD at all times. Best to have some things on internet storage as well. If you fall behind, it's a matter of when, not if, you will lose your data.

My life has been further complicated by nagging sciatica pain in my right leg. I'm a little young to be feeling this. I think the cause was a coach trip to London last week. Unfortunately I've got another trip to London on Thursday. My intention is to study at the British library and then meet Ahreum that evening. But with my leg the way it is, I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I'm just hoping for a recovery.

Ahreum has taken up swimming again these days. She swims for an hour or two when she goes, and is really improving quickly. She was a little rusty, but is now doing fine. We are both working really hard to improve our health, and the results seem to be paying off. I'm trying to get down to size 34 waste by the time we go to Korea in one month. At the beginning of the summer I was just barely wearing size 36 trousers, but those have gotten significantly more comfortable over the last month. Another reason for the sciatica pain to go away - renewed exercise.

Once more into the breach,

Ben