Airy travel
by DesiGal

Two airline related stories this week caught my eye.
The first was the arrest of 12 Muslim passengers on a flight from the US to Bombay. BBC reported earlier this week that:

The pilot turned back over German airspace after the crew said a number of passengers on the flight to Mumbai (Bombay) were behaving suspiciously.

News.com.au reported today that the Dutch ambassador has issued an apology for the arrests.

The story says:

Other passengers from the detained flight, who arrived in Mumbai last night, said they saw the 12 men exchanging seats and fidgeting with their mobile phones.

"I think the men raised the crew's suspicion because they were not listening to them and changing their seats," said Nitin Dalal, a passenger on the detained flight.

If you're a brown passenger, you had better be on your best behavior through out your flight, if you don't want to arouse suspicions.

Another story earlier this week was about a pair of men who were speaking Arabic and acting suspicious. Sister Toldjah says passengers are conducting their own profiling where their governments won’t.

Great going, passengers, except when you'replain wrong.

These two Arabic men were released too and allowed to continue with their journeys when no evidence of any harmful intent was found.

Now all that's left is for:
The airlines to be sued
Airlines to issue an apology
Random people to stand up and defend such profiling
Equally random people to issue statements that Islam is a religion of peace

Any or all of these things will happen. Forgive me if I sound cynical, but I'm really sick of all this. I dread traveling, because either my husband or I or both get pulled out for body searches on our flights. On one occasion, a female security guard frisked our 2-year old while she wailed her heart out.

And God forbid, we do anything but smile through this, because then we'll be automatically deemed suspicious people. Don't get me wrong, I hate the 9/11 hijackers as much as the next person, but I can't understand why it's become such a blanket, catch-all profiling.

Submitted by DesiGal (view blog) on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 7:01am

Comments

 

Israeli Style Security

I heard an interview with a "security consultant" the other day in which he stated that we were going to have to expect increased profiling. I wish I could remember the name/context of this statement, but he essentially said that we were going to be moving to a profile based Israeli style security model. And that the civil rights folks were just going to have to suck it up because this is how it's gonna be, comrades.

After 9/11 I went to hear Ron Sims, our county supervisor. In an unforgettable speech, he said this: No man will cause me to fear my neighbor. The great tragedy (okay, one of them) is that he was wrong. We DO fear our neighbor now, and if he's brown and tossing around a cell phone and speaking a language we might not understand, and, god forbid, he's on our flight, we arrest him first, ask questions later.

I wish I had an elegant and hopeful conclusion, but most of this just leaves me sadly shaking my head.

Nerd's Eye View

Submitted by Pam on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 12:35
 

The joys of fear and suspicion

My chiropractor is Persian...she was telling me about being strip searched, hauled of planes and so on...to the point tha when this latest thing happened she cancelled a trip down to the states.

It was (ironically) a vacation to a mini spa for some rest and relaxation!!!!

It is funny..I am less concerned about things happening to me when flying than I am wary and worried about all the delays and hassles.

I have been contemplating a trip to the UK and keep balking at the cheaper flights that go through Heathrow!

Submitted by Crunchy Carpets on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 13:43
 

I read a recent article in

I read a recent article in NYT where they said they would watch for people's expressions - anger, sadness, etc. Again it was based on the Israeli model. I can understand the need, but being at the receiving end of it, it doesn't feel too great honestly. I don't have any suggestions or answers, just the awful feeling that it doesn't feel right.

In India, we used to have something called "ragging" in college - the equivalent of hazing here. If you wanted to avoid it - the friendlier college kids would tell us - look down, don't make eye contact, just keep walking, speak only if you're spoken to. In many ways I feel as if as brown people that's the way we're expected to be these days - invisible, taking up as little space in the world as possible.

Crunchy carpets - your chiropractor is so sensible. If we're already at breaking point, and it's gonna get much worse, I wonder where we're headed.

Priya Ramachandran
Blogher Contributing Editor - South East Asia
Words on Water

Submitted by DesiGal on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 15:10