A few days ago we received numerous requests on the tip line that we cover the story of the Northwest Airlines plane that returned to Amsterdam airport soon after taking off for Mumbai. If none of us posted on it at that moment, it’s probably because we were waiting to see what came of the incident. Not surprisingly, we now learn that it was a false alarm:
The Dutch ambassador to India has expressed regret for the arrest of 12 passengers whose India-bound plane was diverted to Amsterdam after their behavior triggered fears of a hijacking, a government minister said on Friday.
The 12 men, all Muslims, were, however, cleared of any wrongdoing and released and their families said they were victims of racial discrimination.
The case of the 27-year-old Canadian radiology resident thrown off a United Airlines flight was also a false alarm:
A Winnipeg doctor is demanding an official apology and compensation from United Airlines after being kicked off a flight in the U.S. this week, an incident he has characterized as “institutionalized discrimination.” Dr. Ahmed Farooq, a Muslim, was escorted off an airplane in Denver on Tuesday. According to Farooq, reciting his evening prayers was interpreted by one passenger as an activity that was suspicious.
The Washington Post has a good round-up article of these and similar events today. In it I learned of this excellent new acronym (perhaps not so new to those of you in the UK): TWA. Most appropriately, the initials of a late lamented airline now stand for “Traveling While Asian” — a little like Driving While Black (DWB) only with higher stakes and more exotic rewards.
Now I know some commenters will point out that so long as groups of young Middle Eastern men have the market on airborne mass murder cornered, there is some rationale behind profiling; but perhaps we can all agree that botched, panic-driven and vigilante-led profiling is, like, a general bummer. Exhibit A:
Farooq said the allegation came from a passenger who appeared drunk and had previously threatened him during the trip. …
Farooq said that even officials from the Transportation Security Administration soon realized the flight crew had overreacted, but by the time that conclusion had been reached the trio were forced to stay in Denver for the night and catch a flight the next day — at their own expense.
The gentlemen on the Amsterdam-Mumbai flight were deemed suspicious because they were fiddling with mobile phones and chatting loudly around the time of take-off. Uh, excuse me? Anyone here ever traveled in the Third World? People being loud and fiddling with cellphones is suspicious? More to the point, what about travel in the civilized West? Every khaki-clad, buttoned-down, yellow-tied Joe from sales and Tim from marketing (not to mention Ashok from strategic planning) is futzing with his phone until the moment wheels leave the ground and again from the instant they touch down.
Now comes the news that the Monarch Airlines Costa del Sol fiasco may — just may — have been… a prank. (Thanks Jai for the tip.) IF — and it’s still a big if, so let’s not jump to conclusions here — IF Messrs. Ashraf and Zeb were trying to prove a point, it’s not clear they have been helpful to their cause. It’s one thing to stage a guerrilla theater event to reveal a little-discussed injustice, but it’s another when every few days a dead-serious case like the ones mentioned above comes to light.
In the meantime, my macacas and macacis, stay away from aviation if you possibly can. Personally, I’ve stopped traveling to any place I can’t get to by the Chinatown bus.
I joked with my friend Amit that when next he flies to…well…anywhere, I’m going to get him some foundation and we’ll white him up so he can sit on the plane with less hassle, that and introduce himself as Tim Jones from Witchita. Poor guy owns a leather coat, and plays video games on his cellphone while flying, so he’ll most certainly get a one-way ticket to Gitmo. All the more so since he’s a huge metal fan and odds are the day he flies he’ll be listening to “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica or “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth.
Desidawg:
Hey if blacks can be “brownz”, then why cant brown mullatos be white? 🙂
Reid is half-white, half jamiacan. With a normal hairdo he would look “whiter” than your average Bollywood lotharios, who in turn are substantially “whiter” than your average indian “brownz”.
Hey, I’m feeling ignored! Why hasn’t anybody responded to my earlier question about whether Indians indeed speak louder than Westerners, as claimed by the brother of one of the arrested guys on this flight? Please respond ASAP and help dispel my fog of doubt and dismay 🙂
Reid is half-white, half jamiacan. With a normal hairdo he would look “whiter” than your average Bollywood lotharios, who in turn are substantially “whiter” than your average indian “brownz”.
the average white and jamaican would be insulted, offended even, by comparison with a indian from “bollywood.”
Oh no, this is just sad! We have a young undergrad family friend who recites her prayers often in the car.
Sahara airlines, “emotionally yours”
I’ve always thought TWA meant third world Assassin? see:- http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TWA
Indians somehow loose their manners especially on their way back to home and they do love their cheap duty-free whiskies. I guess when it comes to flying back to India with a plane load of Indians, i end up becoming a self-hating indian. Not only do they sit in your seat and argue for 5 mins even though their ticket clearly says something else. They snore like hell (though thats not just indians), drink as if there is no tomorrow, i had one gentleman nearly break my laptop on a asiana flight back to Delhi, him and his friend were drunk out of their minds, scaring the hell out of the poor korean air-hostesses, who could hardly speak english themselves. One of the reasons that particular airline doesn’t run a direct connection to Delhi during the peak winter season i suppose. Another thing Indians do which i hate the most is that they never fill out their immigrations forms till they are actually at the desk,making the lines even longer, worst thing in my opinion especially when you’re dying to get out of the airport asap and meet your family .
Also, anyone travelling on NWA would note that they have the worst service and planes in the world servicing this route, using old DC-10s and their air-hostesses on this route are usually middle aged white women who are quite rude and understandly get frustrated with a plane full of indians, i say this from experience as i have taken this same connection a couple of times before.
I honestly believe that this was the fault of the passengers and the fact they happened to be muslim only added fuel to the fire. As much as we brown people might find racial profiling revolting, for many americans and others it makes sense as for them the people mostly getting caught or perpetrating terror happen to be brown and/or muslim, thats why you hear talk of using racial profiling as official policy at airports more so now especially in the aftermath of the london plot.
I avoid brown gatherings for somewhat similair reason but to say that they deserved being in jail for two days????
Dutch jails are relativly nice (can’t believe I’m saying this) but you’re still undeservedly treated as an criminal.
I know the following is a bit off topic but the recent posts about the macaca-movement are beyond hilarious. I wonder if this could have tickeled Allen’s “brain”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLp6r3kfAKE
I always thought Disney was evil
The papers reported that all 12 were treated properly and the men concur
how can you call 2 days of jail a proper treatment???
12 macacas got detained who gives a f&%#? Now if they be whaayte then its on every talk show, every news update for weeks. Maybe we aren’t human after all.
I heard this guy on the radio in favor of sterotyping saying something like middle eastern and South Asian people shouldnt feel disrespected for it because everyone is sterotyped in one form or another and he used Insurance costs as an example. Based on your age or sex they will give you a rate based on your sterotype, but noone ever puts up serious complaints about that, but when it comes to life and death all of the sudden sterotyping is wrong.
Thats a fair argument in my opinon as I do hate to admit it.
I bet they are, too. They must be at least be as good as some hotel rooms, even. So, to look on the bright side, these guys had two days extended to their vacation and stayed at public expense in a glamorous European capital…isn’t this adventure better than being back in Mumbai and back to the same old, same old grind of the garment trade?
Insurance rates are determined by actuarists who perform rigorous scientific methods to determine the financial impact of risk and uncertainty, and not by the arbitrary designation of a qualitative trait to a particular group. Comparing this to stereotyping is a simplistic reduction.
shallowthinker – that is an ill-informed comment. you should move to another radio show host.
As a Dutch white person I won’t get involved in the brown on brown discussion, although I found the Times of India website comments on the rowdy nature of some Indian air travelers quite interesting.
I am however qualified to point out that the Amsterdam airport Schiphol has some kickass electronics stores. So I can’t blame the guys for getting excited about their (possibly Schiphol) purchases. Last time I was there I’ve been drooling over the LG Chocolate phone who has only come out in the US in a crippled Verizon version. Still I think the pilot did the right thing. Not following crew instructions has nothing to do with etiquette or skin color, but with the safety of the other hundres of people sitting on the plane and possibly down below on the ground. I once flew with my cat, who escaped. I caught her without anyone noticing it, but it’s a federal offence and I could have been fined.
I have got to mention two brilliant comments recently posted on a parallel thread on Pickled Politics over here in the UK:
The ironic phrase “Beards of Terror”, coined by a certain Ms Katy Newton in response to English passsengers becoming hysterical at anyone of alleged “Muslim appearance”.
The suggestion by another English commenter there called Bert Preast (be careful how you say his name) that, instead of the rampant hysteria, “the British way to set about such problems is to maintain a stern dignity and be blown to bits with a stiff upper lip”.
You need a little humour in these troubled times.
Allah be praised. That’s the
pestbest name I’ve heard since Ophelia Cumming.Funny, we just had a discussion about the very same topic this evening. My father and I share the same stance, along with another desi dude a little older than I am. Bottom line is, if the Dutch hadn’t acted they would’ve gotten flak from the US Government, since NW is an American airline company. And when you’re dealing with a country which is authorized to invade in the case of incarceration of it’s citizens in the International Court Of Justice, it’s a pretty good idea to obey.
Ah my dear Meena- your logic follows what I quote below.
“First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Ah, Northwest Airlines…America’s answer to Aeroflot.
Despite this recent fiasco, I am endlessly amused by a company whose ad wizards decided to pair a pinkish, upside down equilateral triangle with the initials NWA.
Gay pride, gangsta rap and corporate America…together at last!
Just yesterday on a Sri Lankan airlines flight filled with Indians, I witnessed
In a way though, I can see how certain international safety regulations (like remain seated with seat belts fastened until the plane finishes taxiing) seem a little preposterous to people accustomed to daily transportation scenarios in which babies get carted around on the back of motorcycles (often with just one arm separating them from certain death) and daily driving is like a video game. Even the concept of not driving while drunk is very new in much of India, so what’s a little passing of cell phones and talking loudly? ~ The Ahmed Farooq situation reminded me of a scene I witnessed in the Bangalore train station recently in which a group of eight or so Muslim men had gathered on the platform and were praying before they boarded the train. No one gave them a second look or seemed to think anything of it. Imagine THAT in Grand Central!
The Ahmed Farooq situation reminded me of a scene I witnessed in the Bangalore train station recently in which a group of eight or so Muslim men had gathered on the platform and were praying before they boarded the train. No one gave them a second look or seemed to think anything of it.
You mean no one gave them anal exams? What a travesty! Oh Lordy.
Desidawg, I hope my observation was not misunderstood.
When I said “no one gave them a second look” I’m just observing that in a part of the world well versed in religiously inspired conflict, the aforementioned scene of Muslim men gathered in prayer in a train station was also common place, ordinary, quotidian if you will. And beautiful.
Whereas if it happened in Grand Central, rectal exams and headlines would not be out of the question. Not so beautiful.
Cool? Or did I read you incorrectly?
none of these men were put in jail, in fact treated quite well thanks to the Indian Foreign Service
check the link: http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/?p=2078 (via Nitin Pai)
Oh shallowthinker, thou dost betray thy name…
Your Dinesh D’Souza-esque equating of insurance schemes to racial stereotyping of South Asians neglects one crucial difference. An older male smoker may receive a higher insurance premium than a younger male non smoker, but this in no way amounts to the denial of dignity and underlying religious and racial discrimination that surround linking turbans to terrorism and brownness to bin Laden.
That’s the kind of argument that led to the young Brazilian man John Menendez being needlessly killed by British Police in this crazy post 9/11 world we live in. Did the innocent young guy have a backpack? Check. Was he non-white? Check. Did he panic at the sight of police coming towards him (as most of us would have done?)Check.
Fair enough, eh? Tell that to his family who are still waiting for an apology. What if he’d been a white guy who’d been killed by police in an Arab airport? Tell me how your insurance scheme logic could explain that.
There is this funny thing about jail; you can’t actually go out and shop tax free for cute electronic gadgets because you’re kind of locked-up. .
Now why would the dutch papers, themselves, say that they spend two days in a cell (cells happen to be in jails??? In this case I hope you were right.
I assume you were being sarcastic? I meant that if you had to choose between doing time in Surinam or in the Netherlands you’re better of in the Netherlands.
Perhaps I’m whining and yes I can understand that the Dutch government has a savety first policy. I can even understand that they refuse to give an apology because giving a apology would mean that they were wrong and let’s face it who wants to admit being wrong. Even more so a government admitting being wrong. I can understand that the 12 man don’t want the media fuss anymore since being portrayed ad a criminal/a potential terrorist does outshine ‘the extended vacation’.
What I can’t understand is that it takes two days to decode: “I’m not a terrorist, yaar!” I can’t understand that a proper treatment means being treated as a potential terrorist, being recognized as an terrorist for having a beard and being put in a cell just because you are a potential terrorist. What Ever happend to; innocent untill you’re proven guilty??
And perhaps (allthough I doubt it) the 12 men really did think they were treated properly. But if it was my Dad then I certainly didn’t want him to have to go through all that!
That’s the kind of argument that led to the young Brazilian man John Menendez being needlessly killed by British Police in this crazy post 9/11 world we live in. Did the innocent young guy have a backpack? Check. Was he non-white? Check. Did he panic at the sight of police coming towards him (as most of us would have done?)Check.
You can be forgiven for not having followed all the details of the Menezes case from a different country. But in fact, it later came out that he hadn’t panicked and run from police (as was first alleged).
heh heh this thread is a good laugh. some of you people are really stupid.
if you were a criminal would you declare yourself as such? ( well embassies seem to think so – tick this box if you are planning to come to this country to perpetrate an atrocity (!)- yeah right who’s going to tick it ever?? makes me giggle) would you be coming forth to declare if you’re a muslim if you’re a muslim terrorist? no probably not. you’d have a fake passport or something if you thought they were looking for passports with ‘i am a muslim’ written inside.
the mirth of it all..
in any case, one only has to look at the Al-Qaeda manual ( downloadable from the US Dept of Justice’s website – then again, there would probably be questions if one was ‘brown’ and seen reading such a manual..!!) which says nice and clearly – combatants must do their best to ‘fit in’ and not look overtly muslim -i.e.shave your beards’. given that piece of advice is in the manual – either the combatants aren’t reading their own manual, or they’re not very intelligent.
of course the bottom line is that the ‘terrorists’ have won – this sort of ridiculous hoo-ha is precisely the sort of us vs. them division and rancour that clearly is a major aim of ‘creating terror’.
yep a sense of humour is definitely needed.
I wonder how did these men behave on their subsequent flight to India, after they were released by the Dutch authorities? Were they being as rambunctious as before, or were they quiet as lambs? Does anybody know?
The following incident has nothing to do with thread, but it was too delicious to leave alone, so I’m bringing it to y’all’s attention:
It’s so rare to see second-generation desis misbehaving, that too against their own families, that I think this kid deserves a round of applause. What do y’all think? Maybe he is a Hindu terrorist in the making!
Meena Curious comments re Raj. The ones who were served the colonizers always had a cushy time enjoying the spoils looted from their brethren. During the Raj, life expectancy went down to 22.7 years. Pleae read Mike Davis’ Late Victorian Holocausts’. Mutineers, sorry to hog so much space but it worries me if someone thinks British rule had any merit or simple decency.
Notes from the Net: In 1901, before the death of Queen Victoria, writer William Digby looked back to the 1876 Madras famine and asserted: “When the part played by the British Empire in the 19th century is regarded by the historian 50 years hence, the unnecessary deaths of millions of Indians would be its principal and most notorious monument.”
In the 19th century, drought was treated, particularly by the English in India, as an opportunity for reasserting sovereignty, for collecting money.
A particular villain was Lord Lytton. During 1876 Lytton ignored all efforts to alleviate the suffering of millions of peasants in the Madras region and concentrated on preparing for Queen Victoria’s investiture as Empress of India. The highlight of the celebrations was a week-long feast at which 68,000 dignitaries heard her promise the nation “happiness, prosperity and welfare”.
Lytton did nothing to check the huge hikes in grain prices, Economic “modernization” led household and village reserves to be transferred to central depots using recently built railroads. Much was exported to England, where there had been poor harvests. Relief funds were scanty because Lytton was eager to finance military campaigns in Afghanistan. Conditions in emergency camps were so terrible that some peasants preferred to go to jail. This was all of little consequence to English administrators who, as believers in Malthusianism, thought that famine was nature’s response to Indian breeding.
The late 19th century was celebrated in every school as the golden period of imperialism. we’ve long been encouraged to acknowledge its economic benefits. Yet, as Davis points out, “there was no increase in India’s per capita income from 1757 to 1947”. In Egypt, too, the financial difficulties caused to peasants by famine encouraged European creditors to override the millennia-old tradition that tenancy was guaranteed for life. What little relief aid reached Brazil, meanwhile, ended up profiting British merchant houses and the slave owning sugar-planter classes.
The European “locusts” did not go unchallenged. Rioting became common. Banditry increased. In China, drought-famine helped to spark the Boxer uprising. In Europe, the fin de siècle was largely an opportunity for pale-faced men to wear purple cummerbunds and spout rotten symbolist poetry; for colonized peoples it genuinely seemed to presage mass extinction. It was, says Davis, “a new dark age of colonial war, indentured labour, concentration camps, genocide, forced migration, famine and disease.”
“Class” may be passé in academic circles, yet the catalogue of cruelty Davis has unearthed is jaw-dropping. Late Victorian Holocausts is as ugly as it is compelling. But, as Conrad’s Marlow said in Heart of Darkness : “The conquest of the earth, which means the taking away from those who have a different complexion and slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look at it too much.”
Makaki,
I didn’t say I thought the Raj was a positive thing. I just pointed out that even some Indians look back on that period with feelings of nostalgia.
Meena,
I suspect the “No kidding” phrase you included in your post #31 may have been the reason for inadvertantly triggering the ire on the part of a couple of other commenters here.
Some people are well-meaning and, I think, have just misread your original post(s). However, there are also a lot of trolls lurking on SM who are looking for suitable targets towards whom to direct their “crusade” — some here just to make mischief, others who are normally-sane individuals who become wildly irrational and quite psychotic if they perceive otherwise-innocuous statements to touch some kind of raw nerve. Be careful of falling into the trap of “guilt by association”. It’s been happening a lot on this blog recently, and beyond a certain point people just see what they want to see instead of what’s actually there.
The pros and cons of the British Raj have already been extensively debated on SM on multiple previous occasions and the general consensus is that, although there were some positive by-products (along with a lot of negative ones), overall it was a Very Bad Thing because in the final analysis there is no moral justification for colonialism (despite whatever claims may have been made about “civilising missions” etc). Imperialism, particularly when motivated by a desire to gain wealth, power and territory, is wrong full-stop. I’m not saying you disagree with this (you obviously don’t, as per post #137), but I thought I should bring you up to speed on matters since you seem to be a relatively new arrival on SM (as far as I know).
Thanks again for your support the other day, by the way.
Jai,
yeah, by now I realised also there are a few individuals who either a. like to troll, or b. are quite psychotic and love to spin a brown-man-oppressed angle on every story. Thanks for bringing me up to date though. And no probs for the support.;)
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