What did the poor, fameless writer do in the big store the other day, when his wife was buying drawers for his mother-in-law. He delicately tried to prevent her from selecting a too small clothing size and he failed, of course. So he rose his eyes towards department's canopy and caught sight of a surveillance monitor. He immediately started to hope, that the camera in the department's canopy would throw a glance at him.
In order that he wouldn't miss the edifying moment, when he would be appearing on TV, the fameless, poor writer tried to find out the point of time, when the invisible camera operator would target at the ladies' underwear department. He compared his environment with the flickering television picture and he didn't see anything apart from a sea of clothes racks. The sluggish camera panning accelerated to a lightning wrench and the showcases of the watches department made their appearance.
A surveillance camera on the front of an office block of a security contractor
Look, doesn't a baggy anorak suspiciously bend over an unwatched counter? But the electonic eye continued indifferently roaming over the glinting displays and immersed in a dim atmosphere, which looked like a poorly visited, decorated rumpus room in the tv picture. And while the author was still puzzling over the problem, where that dark corner could be on this floor, dazzling white, lurching lines and whirring bright planes very sudden blew up on the screen. After the movement of the camera had decelerated and leveled off, he saw the outlines of glaringly illuminated store fittings, but looking around his environment he wasn't able to catch sight of that elysium of light.
A suspicion was gradually aroused in his mind: The fireworks of pictures were fed by different cameras at different places. And as if the invisible master of the cameras had seen his poor flash of inspiration, he allowed the poor author to look at something, which he thought the household goods department far above his head.
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The camera was slowly roaming over the shelves also at that place till the moment, when it seemed to lunge at a customer, but finally showed a close-up of a shelf, which was one or two metres to left of the costumer. Was there perhaps no invisible camera operator? And was there instead of him only a random generator?
A surveillance camera on the rear of the City Parliament of Bremen
To cut the matter short, there was no camera operator. That was the information a saleslady gave him at least. And as if she was the branch manager she added 'There are not enough employees! That would be too expensive! We are all alert and perhaps customers also sometimes see a shoplifter on the screen.'
When the author and his wife were waiting at the cash desk, they witnessed that two untidy young men streaked along the cash desk and swooped for a plastic bag without asking for permission. When the till girl protested against such conduct, they derisively instructed her shouting 'A security is allowed to do that! Inform yourself!' And ran towards the exit.
Please also take a look at Dittmeier's photograph of a security fence that surrounded a business in Phnom Penh during the night. His report about children, who climb a security fence to steal some of the last mangoes of the season, is also very interesting. The report is dated June 5 2008. The link leads to the latest entry of the diary. Please scroll down if necessary.
The international poster organisation Loesje has started a project to train young people from all over Europe and Asia in how to organise and coordinate information campaigns about the Millennium Development Goals. These goals are set by the United Nations to fight poverty and to improve living standards world wide.
Next issue 'The Daily Groove'
on Thursday, November 20 2008
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We would like to point out that we translated articles from German into English for the purpose of service. We would like to make it clear that the German translations are deciding, because the articles are directed to users who live in Germany.
Wir möchten darauf hinweisen, dass wir zu Servicezwecken englische Übersetzungen vorgenommen haben. Klarstellen möchten wir, dass maßgeblich die deutsche Übersetzung ist. Grund dessen ist, dass wir uns an in Deutschland ansässige Nutzer wenden.
Please also read Cats Talk (40)
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