George Orwell’s virtual, but powerful character terrified all the democratic souls on Earth; Big Brother was the symbol of the mute, destructive power of the totalitarian systems, where people weren’t in fact free. But since 1948 many changes have occurred on this planet, the Iron Curtain doesn’t exist anymore, Russia is trying to strengthen its lost force, while the United States of America have become the self-proclaimed defenders of democracy.

Ironically, one of the ultimate methods of some of the “most democratic” countries on Earth for defending democracy is represented by a web of surveillance cameras that remind us of that malefic character that Orwell had created decades ago. But the new Big Brother won’t be watching YOU, but the criminals, terrorists and all the potential evil-minders that attempt to harm democracy and public harmony.

So, following the example of London’s web of street-viewing cameras, New York planned to use cameras for the safety of its citizens. New York City’s Manhattan Security Initiative will feature a number of 3,000 surveillance cameras, intended to help criminal- and terrorist-fighting. The network will be crossing bellow Canal Street, while about 2,000 cameras were said to be owned by downtown businesses.

"This area is very critical to the economic lifeblood of this nation," New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly told the New York Times. "We want to make it less vulnerable."

However, the entire project was said to be completed by 2010, which would be another sci-fi coincidence, if one remembers Peter Hyams’ 1984’s movie. Maybe till 2010, “the year they made contact”, New York’s so-called “Ring of Steel” will be just a piece of cake comparing to other emergent ideas that would have been applied till then for fighting terrorism and crime.

But to return to the real, present world, this net of cameras would be a right thing to happen in a city where criminality is a major problem. However, there are some observers, such as the conservative Heritage Foundation, who have already noted that there is little evidence that these cameras actually deter terrorism. Some others question how this project will affect normal people’s privacy.

The full price of the project is of about $90 million, out of which $25 million were said by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to have been already secured (with $15 million coming from Homeland Security grants and the rest coming from the city).