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Melvin's blog
Nshima & Curry
Melvin's Blog
Nshima & Curry
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FLYING HAS LOST ITS APPEAL FOR NOW
You've got to feel sorry for America's airline industry.
People are so reluctant to fly. They'd rather drive across
the country than take a chance on a plane. Driving takes a
lot longer than flying, but when was the last time someone
hijacked a car and crashed it into a skyscraper?
Flying just doesn't seem an ideal way to travel anymore,
especially when there are so many attractive alternatives,
such as running, walking and crawling. Anyone interested in
traveling by rickshaw? I am.
Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a small
percentage of Americans were averse to flying and not just
because of airline food. Flying, to them, is unnatural and
strange. Having one's head in the clouds is for the birds --
and certain politicians. Not ordinary humans.
Flying can be scary. If something goes wrong, if the pilot
loses control of the plane, there's only one thing left for
you to do: pray.
"Oh God, please make this plane land safely. If you do this
one thing for me, I promise I'll never ask you for anything
again, not even a new car, new TV or new mother-in-law."
The strange man sitting next to you has ignored you the
entire flight, has been muttering something to himself, yet
in
this moment of need, you ask him to say a prayer to his God,
just in case yours isn't paying attention.
Thankfully, few people have to face such desperate
situations. The chances of a plane crashing are extremely
slim. It would be like India losing to Sri Lanka in cricket.
But your worries tend to increase when you consider the
possibility of hijackers taking over the flight. It's scary
enough being thousands of feet up in the sky, hoping that
the pilots aren't busy playing poker. The last thing you
need is a bunch of "high-jackasses" taking control.
Before Sept. 11, passengers on a hijacked plane could remain
calm and be reasonably certain they'd survive the ordeal.
But now such passengers must worry that the hijackers are
turning the plane into a missile. Hijackers are crazy enough
without being suicidal, too.
As an Indian, I have another reason for being reluctant to
fly: the chance, perhaps even the likelihood, that I could
be mistaken for a hijacker and pulled off a plane so fast, I
wouldn't even have time to eat the peanuts.
The recent terrorist attacks have unfortunately turned
people who look Middle Eastern or South Asian into potential
suspects. Middle Eastern, because the hijackers in the
terrorist attacks were from that region; South Asian,
because some people are too darn lazy to learn the
difference.
It's easier to lump all Arabs, all Muslims, all South Asians
together -- and discourage us all from flying. "Hey, can't
all you folks travel by bus? Isn't that how you traveled
around in your homeland, before you came to America, the
land of the free?"
Ashraf Khan, a 32-year-old San Antonio businessman,
discovered this prejudice first hand when he boarded a Delta
Air Lines flight to Dallas.
One moment he was settling into a first-class seat, the next
moment he was a second-class citizen. The pilot asked him to
leave. "He told me that he's not safe with me flying to
Dallas," the Pakistani native told The Los Angeles Times.
How embarrassing.
No, not for Khan. For Delta Air Lines and for America.
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