The ideas on how to enforce security and law along the Mexican/U.S border come far and wide. Now it seems that the private sector is pitching an idea that will make protecting this border a game, literally! A news story posted on a "gamer", centric web news site Kotaku explains that the company Sandia National Laboratories "have built a giant touchscreen video game that simulates the capture of illegal aliens". This is strikingly upsetting and discomforting for the fact that the article uses the term "Illegal aliens". One can speculate why this term was used but my opinion is that Sandia National Laboratories is only trying to reinforce the fact that it is easier for the government to dehumanize immigrants in order to impose harsher methods of control over the border. As far as Kotaku stance on the use of "Illegal aliens", it seems that the dehumanizing has reached a new level of use. The site Kotaku is a gamer centric site that reports of various video games popularity and use. So it was not surprising to see at the end of the article the author Joel Johnson ask one question "We just have one question: When can we download an iPad version?", as I stated early it seems that protecting the border has now become a game that we all can take part in. So is protecting the border just a game where we capture illegal aliens? I really hope its not for two reasons.
1. Protecting or enforcing the border is not a game. Real people are involved in doing it and people do die in the process. There is no +1 life bonus in protecting the border.
2. Real people cross the border. Not "illegal aliens", but real people who also suffer and die everyday trying to cross. They are not target practice, and you do not get bonus level ups for capturing or shooting a real person. A real person dies when shot.
If the government really thinks this is the best solution for border security, I would argue they are dead wrong. I will end by quoting the author Avram Bornstein who states "Borders are Tyranny".
Eduardo
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