Synthesised GP Blog

Terrorism all bad?

After the 9/11 disaster, terrorism has been scorned by both the Muslim world and non-Muslim world as a ruthlessly violent act. Truly, its value is largely negative in all aspects and the lives it had taken are countless. This could easily be said to be the worst ever man-made disaster which has devastated the globe tremendously and changed the perspectives of people towards these - bluntly put - beasts.

Has it been all bad though? I refer to the article published in The Straits Times 31 March 2006, "Counter Terrorism 101". The article brings up a note-worthy aspect of terrorism; it had set off an array of University courses in Australia. Due to the limelight placed on terrorism these years, undergraduates now get to study courses such as counter-terrorism, security and social studies into terrorism. University of Sydney, Australian National University and Victoria's Monash University are some of the Universities offering such courses and have responded that they have received substantial enrolments.

It can be seen therefore, that terrorism has actually boosted the academic communities in Australia. We can expect many other countries to follow suit because the pressure from the terrorists have not (and probably can never) be eradicated and nations are seeking their own ways to build a strong intelligence organisation. The easiest way to do so would be to integrate such courses into the Education System where potential counter-terrorist personnel could be identified and contribute to the efforts to prevent terrorism.

The course itself has its attractiveness probably due to the honour one would possibly gain in a counter-terrorist organisation. After all, so much hype on the evils of the terrorists must have also highlighted the nobility of the counter-terrorists. Therefore, we would not find it hard to find the courses being one of the hot choices for college leavers. Furthermore, to add to the appeal, games and movies in line with counter-terrorism such as Counterstrike and James Bond had long ago formed the superhero image for such occupations.

Education aside, the handling of the threat of terrorism had itself grown into an industry. Security companies are definitely benefiting from the attention from the fact that every single public and private building in Singapore had been littered with security cameras. Even public transports are soon going to be monitored. Biometric sensors, RFID cards and other security devices have also been embraced to prevent undesirable breakdown of our daily lives.

Such is the ironical values of such an irrelevant disaster. The need for security is classed just right after our physiological needs by Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Without this threat to security, these industries will be shutting down. On the other side of the coin, would peace ever promote such important vigilance?

posted by synthesis @ 3:03 PM