Being fast in the Spy Shop
“Spyglass go sell in Grenada
Everyone wan spy dey neighba-peeping
Everyone wan spy one-anodda-peeping”
(Everybody Peeping – Super P-2002)
- A A Fenty at the Spy Shop
Just a few lines from a popular soca song of a few years ago. Super P. was making the point that many Caribbean – and Guyanese – individuals are given to “knowing” their neighbours’ business. They are plain “fast” or inquisitive and seek to find out confidential, secret, private things by snooping, spying, “peeping.” (Trinis and their islanders sometimes speak about “macko-ing” by those who make it their passion to be privy to other people’s privacies or “business.”)
“At nite when you think dey sleeping
Dey hiding behine dey window curtain–peeping
Don’t try to hide yuh verandah
Dey passing wid helicoptah- peeping”
It seems perfectly legitimate for Private Investigators (PI’s) in other cultures and jurisdictions to arm themselves with Secret Listening Devices, GPS trackers, Micro Bug Detectors and Hidden Cameras. (All these I found in the Fort Lauderdale Spy Shop which I’m about to mention below.)
FORMAL, PROFESSIONAL “PEEPING”
There are private investigators in countries other than Guyana who employ and demonstrate their snooping skills, utilizing their experience and technological equipment to good effect for their clients.
While not exactly James Bond, these detectives spy on spouses suspected of cheating; they trail suspects or wanted persons for payment or bounties, even infiltrate competitors’ companies or manufacturing entities in search of trade secrets, though this latter might be tantamount to economic sabotage/espionage. Many states license these investigators, as the field is a legitimate form of work and employment.
A FLORIDA SPYSHOP
However it was pure personal (but) Guyanese fastness which made me seek out a real licensed spy shop just outside Fort Lauderdale in Southern Florida, USA, whilst on vacation there a few days ago.
You remember that spy shop, of course? Makers of a specific piece of spy-snooping technology in England confirmed that this shop sold it to someone in Guyana, with the sale being allegedly recommended and approved by a government Minister. The sale and purchase of this snoop-listening-tracing equipment- it’s a cellular telephone interceptor – can only be concluded by governments. During the Roger Khan/Simels trials in New York, those interested would have learnt of all of the features and capabilities of this Interceptor-Tracer. (Right here I state: many, many of us would love to lay our hands on such a piece of technology – for all types of legitimate if even immoral reasons! Admit it ya’ll!)
Well, the compact little facility of a store is on West Oakland Park Boulevard in Wilton Manors, Florida, but with its location often given as Fort Lauderdale. ‘’SPYSHOP-007’‘ is described as a “One-Stop Security Super Store.” And during and after my actual brief browsing visit there, I believe them. Curious, inquisitive, suspicious persons- and professional investigators- can openly buy pinhole cameras, bug sweeps, all types of remote digital surveillance cameras (to supervise employees, for example), GPS tracker sweeps and bionic ear and super ear directional m\crophone l\stening devices.
The SPYSHOP-007 Website advertises all of the above and more. Some societies probably recognize the need some folks have to know. Whether cheaters, competitors, employees, or crooks, certain persons need to know about them- unobtrusively, secretly. “Developed” countries, right?
But right there in the Florida spy shop, I again realized that what is good for us good guys is probably better for the bad guys!
GOVERNMENT,LAW-ENFORCEMENT…
Manager Rudy and the helpful Nathan at the Shop will tell you sternly, that it is “illegal in Florida” for an ordinary buyer to purchase the Cellular Telephone Interceptor. (I decided to believe them.)
Government and Law Enforcement Agencies however, can acquire such “James BondSpy” equipment as the same Phone Interceptor, Voice Changers, Dual-Band Cellular Jammers, Eye Biometrics Recognition and Accurate Truth Analyzers (huh?). Just “Call for Pricing,” the spy shop advises.
PRIVACY, PROSECUTION –AND PLAIN PEEPING
Many countries, of course, have privacy laws, which citizens can use to safeguard against “invasion” of that right to privacy and peace. But then, in democracies, both enlightened citizens and their representatives demand some Freedom of Information Law so that the legitimate business and details of government, the State and those same representatives could be open to public scrutiny, analyses, and enquiry.
But in New York and Florida, the other day I was reminded that, in fact, very much of an American’s personal “business” is available on the computer. This credit status;-whether she owes on her car; what they paid for their new home- it’s all there for all and sundry to peep, to know. You need not “keep your eye on your own slate,” as my friend likes to insist. I too wonder about that American openness. And Guyana’s Parliament recently passed laws to make phone-tapping evidence admissible in courts of law. The telephone companies have had to stand the cost of installing the appropriate technology all on their own. Officers of the law are interpreting the legislation to mean that original recordings, sanctioned by officialdom will be the only phone-recorded evidence admissible in court. However “privacy” as Guyanese know it will now be officially open to intrusion.
Then there is this documentary- Inside the mind of Google -which shows that the Google Search Engine retains every single search query it processes! Meaning, that your Google search sort of trades your privacy for its services. Privacy? What privacy? Google knows just what you want to know- every time you need to know it.
It is still a fact, however, that we Guyanese relish (too much) knowing, or finding out, personal; details of other people’s lives, which should not concern us. For some, it constitutes a talk-name sub-culture, a national pastime. And since we don’t need any spy shop, for that I’ll let Soca Singer Super P. have the final word on this issue of fastness-spying-peeping:
“Even when de sea yuh bathing,
Dey passing wid submarine-dey peeping
De pastor on de pulpit preaching
`E buss a hole in de Bible-peeping”
Naughty! But how much of our own business only, should we mind?