When will people get the fact that this is nothing more than false security?

(I'm just ranting here, so I won't translate.)

I have taken the Eurostar at least 7 times in the last month, coming and going between London and Paris. If I believe the tickets I keep in my pocket, this is my 8th trip. Every time the routine has been the same:

• I show up 30 minutes before departure to check in.
• I go through outbound and inbound passport control, and accept the fact that my Costa Rican passport will always surprise immigration officials. Depending on whether I'm leaving Paris or London, this step may actually come after the next.
• I empty my pockets and put my suitcase, backpack and jacket on the X-Ray machine.
• I go through the metal detector.
• Go straight to the train.

Things rarely change. Except today.

Today I got to St Pancras at 14h45 in order to collect my reservation for 15h30. I was supposed to check in by 15h00 and be on the train shortly after.

Here's what really happened:

I got to St Pancras at 14h45. The machine didn't seem to know I had a reservation, so I had to wait in line for an actual person to hand me my ticket. But what's the main characteristic of people that gets them replaced by machines? People are slow! This means it was already 15h00when I got into another line in order to go through security. As usual, I emptied pockets and put everything on the machine. I went through the metal detector and nothing happened. But on the other side, things really didn't go as expected.

For some reason, the Swiss Army knife I've carried with me back and forth in the last 7 trips (and that's not even counting all the other times before this month I've taken this train) seemed suspicious. In the world of trust that we live in this translated into the following scene:

Security Officer: Is this your bag?

Me: Yes, it is. So is that one and this jacket.

SO: Can you step over here please?

I follow her to the table nearby.

SO: Can you open the bag please?

Me - to myself: Like I have a choice... I open the two main pockets of my backpack, where I keep most of my stuff.

SO starts emptying every pocket separating it into two piles: tech stuff and the rest.

Me - worried I might miss the train because I still have to go through immigration: Are you looking for anything in particular?

SO: Just watch me while I take your things out. (Yes! she actually said that!)

SO keeps emptying my backpack, which contained everything I described on Channel 8 yesterday. (Well, 2 clementines today...)

Me - freaking out because I feel I'm going to miss my train: Please, I have to get on the 15h30 train, can I help you look for something?

SO: It seems like you have a knife...

Me: Yes, I do. Here it i— SO pushes my hand away and takes the knife.

SO - to colleague: Is this OK?

Colleague looks at her putting on a face that really makes you want to trust security...

SO 2: Huh?

SO - to other colleague: Is this OK?

Me: It has to be OK. I've had it with me for the last 10 trips! I use it for work.

You know how sometimes, under pressure, you make mistakes without realizing it? Well, apparently, letting SO and SO 3 know that they were wasting my time and implying that I could probably do their job better than they do, was one of those.

SO 3: What do you mean, it "has" to be OK?

Then she gave me a bunch of BS on why it didn't "have" to be OK, on how "knifes are not allowed onboard", on how "if the police were here, they would've taken it away" and bla, bla, bla... But since she was nice and considered that the blade wasn't big enough (it's just a Swiss Army knife after all) she'd let me keep it.

It was already 15h15 by then and every single item in my bag was on the table! SO wiped one of those bomb-detecting-thingies all over my bag and finally let me put my things back in. I quickly started putting things back inside while SO tried to help, but it was my turn to push her hands away.

I then went through immigration and finally got on the train on time.

Fast-forward a few minutes and now I'm in the train's restaurant wagon. And what do I see all over the place? F***ing plastic knifes!

If those knifes are supposed to cut through whatever crappy food I'm served in there, they will also cut through whoever or whatever I would eventually want to cut with my pocket knife! And I'm talking "poor people's knifes" here. I'm willing to bet that the people in first class get metal knifes. And we all know that terrorists like to travel with style...

This same kind of absurdity goes on in planes, too.

I'm sick of it.

And things only get worse, when you think that they actually missed the knife I keep in my pocket and that both of my knives would have easily gone through if they had been in my suitcase (which is right above of me right now, next to my backpack)...