Infectious Memes

So I am in the Amsterdam airport for few hours on my way from Abuja to San Francisco. I find my way to the drug store in an attempt to purchase a bottle of mouth wash.

At first, the saleswoman explained how she has to (for security reasons) plastic-seal the bottle, although it was easy for me to remove the plastic. When I tried to appeal to her logic (not out of laziness but confusion), she said that she doesn’t want to know what I will do with it afterwards, but that she was required to put the plastic on it.

Then she asks for my boarding pass, after which she tells me that since I am traveling to the US, she can’t even sell me the mouth wash!

There are so many flaws with this policy it is kind of sad-funny. Why solids and not liquids? How come I can buy a soda can but not mouth wash? Why does it apply to Amsterdam but not London? My bag had shaving cream that came with me from Abuja, how come no one was concerned about that?

I know much has been written and said about the silly reactionary measures implemented today, and this is more of a rant than anything. Is it incompetence, carelessness, or conscious deception?

Am I, or anyone else, supposed to feel secure? intimidated? bothered? or just submissive?

Oh well.. on to San Francisco, where more things make more sense.