Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Civil liberty groups in the UK are in an uproar over comments by a top judge, Lord Justice Sir Stephen Sedley, who said that all British citizens and visitors to the country should have their DNA logged on the national database.
Human rights organisation Liberty director Shami Chakrabati says that “a database of every man woman and child in the country is a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse”. What a load of cod’s wallop!
While there is always the possibility of mistakes being made and people being implicated in crimes that they have not committed, this is a reality that exists even without this measure in place and there are risks with everything that involves personal information being put on record, from credit card information used to buy goods on the Internet to information stored when applying for a passport.
But these mistakes pale in comparison to the numbers of crimes that could be solved and criminals that could be taken off the streets.
If you haven’t done anything wrong you shouldn’t have anything to worry about and people that shout about their civil liberties, police states and the oppression of ‘big brother’ should try and look at the bigger picture. Crime is on the rise all over the world and criminals are getting more and more violent.
People all over the globe complain that the government and police don’t do enough to combat crime but when a sensible suggestion is made that might infringe on a person’s right to privacy there is a public outcry. We can’t have it both ways!
None of us is exempt from the possibility of crime and there isn’t a person out there that hasn’t been, or doesn’t know, someone who has been a victim at some stage.
It is a duty the entire world should share to do what we can to try and stop our friends, families, neighbours and even strangers from the evils of murder, rape, abuse and theft.
If that means that a person’s fingerprints or DNA should be on record, so be it. What’s the big deal?
Having been an expat brat all my life, my fingerprints are on record in many countries and yet never have I ever even had a reason to give it a passing thought, let alone worry about it.
Here in Bahrain all expats are expected to have their fingerprints on record somewhere. Blood test are supposed to be taken for medicals and from that it is perfectly conceivable that DNA can be extracted should the need arise. This is a measure all countries have a right to take in order to protect their own citizens, be it to minimise the risk of AIDS spreading or crime rising.
Civil liberties are of vital importance in a free world but one of the rights we are all entitled to is to live in a crime-free and safe environment. If a sacrifice has to be made to ensure the safety of our children, so be it.
