SRK and the US

Since SRK got held up for detailed questioning at the Newark airport, there has been a lot of reporting, blogging and discussion on it.

You hear two main opinions :

1) That detaining SRK, who is not only one of the most popular stars in the whole world but also has a very clean image, was inappropriate. That it inflicted some kind of insult on SRK, India or even the whole world.

2) That this is normal procedure and many people have to go through it. US has the right to be entire sure about who it lets in and this is why another 9/11 has not happened in 8 yrs.

These opinions are not at all mutually exclusive. Logic and emotions, both have equally important places in this world. And they need to reconciled.

The issue is as follows :

Such behavior by US brings out their inefficiency and stupidity which when not understood appears like arrogance.

The purpose of such stringent security measures is to prevent terrorists from getting into the US. But why is it necessary to assume that a person who has lived a good public life can turn terrorist any day? US should maintain a list of people who are frequent travelers and who are well known. Frisking a person and his luggage should always be done. But it should be harassment-free. Some might say that this is like differentiating between people on the basis of their success. I would say - NO. This is in turn making the system more efficient.

The anger of people on such occasion is because it appears that US is arrogant enough not to acknowledge that there are people in other countries who are relatively above suspicion. Not only because they have a clean public image, but also because everything that one could possibly gather in that 1.5 or 2 hrs of questioning can already be known if only they maintained a database of them. It's about according respect to the emotions of those who love them.