Sep
13

Shackles Raise Hackles

Posted by Clif Burns at 7:52 pm on September 13, 2007
Category: Arms Export

DSEI Exhibition FloorThe Guardian had an interesting dispatch from this year’s Defense Systems and Equipment Show:

Two companies were ejected last night from Britain’s biggest arms fair for promoting leg irons for prisoners and battlefield captors. BCB International, a British-based firm, and Famous Glory Holding, a Chinese company, were thrown out of the biennial Defence Systems and Equipment show which opened in London’s Docklands yesterday.

Although the type of leg irons on offer appear to escape the government’s ban on the sale and export of equipment that can be used for repression and torture, their promotion is hugely embarrassing to the exhibition’s organisers.

I’m sorry but I just don’t get that. You can exhibit at the DSEI show equipment that can wreak havoc six ways to Sunday but you can’t display leg irons? Because its embarrassing? That’s like banning the exhibition of skimpy pajamas at an “adult” product show.

On another note, you have to admit that Famous Glory Holding is the best name — ever — for a Chinese defense company.

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3 Comments »

  • To be fair to the DSEi folks, the DSEi 2007 Exhibition Space Contract clearly calls out an absolute prohibition on the display of “Leg irons, gang chains, shackles and individual cuffs or shackle bracelets except those that are ordinary handcuffs” at Term B, Part 1, Section a, Subsection i.

    See: http://www.dsei.co.uk/exhibitors/DSEi07Contract.pdf

    From Term B, Part 3:
    “Exhibitors promoting or exhibiting prohibited items, either overtly or covertly, during the exhibition, will be in breach of their contract with the Organisers and will lose their right to exhibit at DSEi. Their stand will be closed immediately…”

    I think it admirable that the DSEi folks actually followed through and enforced the few clear and unambiguous prohibitions DSEi laid out for its exhibitors well in advance of the event.

    Yes. Famous Glory Holding is an awesome name for a Chinese defense company.

    Comment by Matthew J. Lancaster — September 13, 2007 @ 11:48 pm

  • Yep, Matthew, I saw the rules as well. It’s still silly that you can display missiles and not leg irons.

    Comment by Clif Burns — September 13, 2007 @ 11:52 pm

  • I think there’s an element of marketing psychology to this. Missiles and other high-tech weaponry are sexy; they give us a chance to show-off and one-up the next guy. More to the point, the superior technology of the U.S. (and our allies) gives us a chance to demonstrate patriotism and show that we are the good guys. We even name our missiles in an effort to evoke patriotism and an aura of valor: Sea Wolf, Tigercat, Minuteman, Pershing, Peacekeeper, and of course, the Patriot. We appropriate the moral high-ground as our own by saying (whether truthfully or not) that all this ultra-chic technology is intended in the noble pursuit of our defense. On the other hand, leg irons are the antithesis of sexy. Leg iron technology hasn’t changed appreciably in hundreds of years (maybe they’re made of titanium now?), and in many ways we think of leg irons as a remnant of our (more) barbaric past, when torture and general mistreatment of individuals was commonplace. The bottom line is that high-tech gizmos are good for business while pre-industrial age implements of torture (even 21st Century versions) are not…which I’m guessing is ultimately what influenced the thinking of the promoters of this trade show.

    Comment by Mike Smiszek — September 21, 2007 @ 6:43 pm

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