The Glove Compartment Post

I have written the post about Cake, and the one about scary Kampala Night Driving, there is the one about Dead Dogs and even about Search Engines but have I written about Glove Compartments? I think it is time.

Since the awful bombs that hit Kampala on the eve of the World Cup Final on July 11^th, leaving over 70 dead, Kampala has seen a wave of stepped up security. At first this meant long queues to get into the malls while every inch of the car was checked and mirrors were run along the under carriage.  Beepers were run along our bodies every time we entered a supermarket and all bags were vigorously checked. Now as time has passed there is a perfunctory check of the bags, a quick glance with a beeper in hand and the lines of cars waiting to enter public parking lots has diminished. But the strangest thing of all is that the full car check, including the opening of the trunk/boot and the peering into the back seats has been replaced with a quick check into the glove compartment. No matter where we are going or who the guard is or how many times we have been there before it is always the same routine. We are asked politely if they may check our car, doors are unlocked and opened and the glove compartment is opened and given a cursory glance. It has become comic. Once, handsome Husband said out loud that if he were to hide a bomb it certainly wouldn’t be in there. I don’t think the security guard got his sense of humour as he looked at us as if were quite serious. You could actually see the thoughts running along his forehead.

The scary thing of all this is that this false security is doing nothing except teaching people where not to hide their bombs. It is a thin Band-Aid being applied onto a potentially volatile situation.