by Odysseas Kourafalos

Created on: September 24, 2009   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

Many rush to bash technology as the root of all that is not evil per se, but at least inhuman. They blame the most popular games for teenage angst, they blame the latest gizmo they bought for their being fired, they finger point and shout and cry and pray to lord almighty to banish anything that works with electricity to the deepest depths of Acheron... And all these because they simply are afraid of "what they do not know". At the same time, some of them are too stupid or too lazy to even try to "learn something about whatever they do not know". And no, I'm not overreacting, not exaggerating, not kidding in any way. I mean each and every single word, and I have the perfect example for it: the "new" passports. But, please, let me explain and you'll see where all this comes to have a meaning.

Allow me to mention that I'm Greek and live in Greece, for I don't know if the problem I'll write about exists in other places as well. Some time ago, a person I knew of had to travel abroad. Since Greece is part of the EU he wouldn't have a problem to visit any of the countries-members of the EU with just his ID. His trip, though, would bring him to USA, and for that he'd need a passport. A new, shiny password, with all the great pieces of information that passports usually hold: his name and surname, his age, his place of birth... and his photograph. Now, here was a problem, as he later found out.

This poor sap happened to have a kind of strange face, as he found out for the first time in his life when they told him "he couldn't have a passport". He'd be able to travel wherever he wanted, as long as it was within Greece or a country-member of the EU, but not anywhere "outside". Why? For his head was... err... too "low" and "too wide"! How can this be a problem when it comes to passports? Ah, here's the fun part. When a passport is created, it has to follow some guidelines. Say, the text cannot be written on it with crayons, or the person cannot were sunglasses and a clown nose. Another rule states, and since I haven't read it I'll write it as I heard it, that "the head in the photo must be in the center, facing straight to the reader and not leaving more than half a centimeter of blank space to the sides and to the top and bottom". And here was the problem..! When his face was close enough so as to have about half a centimeter of blank space to the sides, his photo had about one centimeter of blank space on the top. When his face was pulled closer so as to fill the needed 0.5cm on top, it was cropped to the sides and, ofcourse, didn't leave any blank space. It was a catch 22. Having worked a lot with computers, he suggested they used something in the likes of Photoshop to slightly distort his face so that his photo would be able to fit in the set guidelines. Of course, that was a big no-no, since "it wouldn't accurately depict the holder of the passport". To this day, I still haven't found out if -and how- he found a solution.

So, what does this have to do with our debate article? Why does something that happened to some tiny part of Europe, where I happen to live, relate to "homeland terrorism-fighting"? Think of it a bit: it's not different. Technology can -and does- make our lives easier. But, on its own, it can't do a thing. Our computers, programs, gadgets, gizmos, anything, are just accessories that try to assist us in our daily work, in our day to day life. They don't "do our work", they help us do our work. And if we're too stupid to do it, they, together with us, fail. But we can't blame ourselves, now, can we? It's the picture frame that can't get wider or taller. It's Photoshop that will distort the photo. It's not our stupidity... Right?

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