Mocha leaves a bad taste
And so it begins again, or perhaps it never ended. With the recent plane conspiracy that now makes liquids oh so threatening, the Brits are absolutely paranoid, and thanks to Bush I think we tie them in the melodrama department. This return to hysterics has led to the banning of all Middle Easterners and their look-alikes.
British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed...The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic...
Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches...
The Monarch pilot - a highly experienced captain - accompanied by armed Civil Guard police and airport security staff, approached the two men and took their passports.
Half an hour later, police returned and escorted the two Asian passengers off the jet.
In Great Britain.
Here the official word would be something like, "It's all a matter of national security."
Then a few days later on the last page of the city's local newspaper there would be an apology for the blatant racial profiling. But who can blame Americans? Arabs tried to kill us. The next innocent looking one might be "it." Which is why they have all these security measures in place to prevent it, and if they fail, "oops".
No liquids. After all, water can kill, especially if you drink too much of it.
Via Boing Boing
Comments
Good!
I am glad they were taken off the plane.
Notice that the *only* people promoting Race are the newspaper reporters. The passengers mention things like heavy jackets and checking watches. The passengers did not mention race. The only people who mentioned race are the authors of this article. I believe CHRISTOPHER LEAKE and ANDREW CHAPMAN are racists. They are the people who immediately knee-jerk to bring up race.
In addition, for those who are guffawing in their mind how people who were \'asians\' might be thought to be bombers and thinking that \'oh, how stupid, we all know they are arabs.\" Then YOU are racists. If you think *only* arabs could be bombers then YOU are prejudging. In addition to that, let\'s review what continent Bali Indonesia is on. Are Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur bombing) and Indonesia (Bali bombing) in the Arab gulf? No. So asians could definitely be bombers, and I applaud the passengers of that plane for noticing suspicious \'behavior\' and inappropriate garments.
And I accuse the reporters CHRISTOPHER LEAKE and ANDREW CHAPMAN of being the racists involved by being so quick to bring up race in the issue when the passengers (who were THERE, you were not) never mentioned anything of the sort. These reporters and this newspaper DID.
In addition, the only action the passengers took was to \'leave\'. That is their prerogative. To contact authorities and report something suspicious, and to exercise the right to exit the plane are fundamental and laudable. People have a perfect right to do so.
Anyone who assumes that asians could Not be bombers, because bombers must be Arab, or anyone who assumes asians cannot speak arabic, which some can, is the one who has pre-supposed racial prejudice inside them. You, yasmin, the are the one who turns out to be racially profiling.
Dr. John Suzuki
Posted by: Dr. John Suzuki | August 22, 2006 11:33 PM
I'm sorry you completely missed the point that I was trying to make. Try again next time. Thanks for stopping by.
Posted by: yasmín | August 23, 2006 12:51 PM