Don't Fly During Ramadan • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#11

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#12

Post by chimeracoder » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #4

I couldn't even make it to the end. Land of the free, home of the brave.

Author here. I'd recommend reading until the end - unfortunately, it didn't end when I was released from airport.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#13

Post by cpfohl » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

waqf wrote: post #3

SlyShy wrote: post #2

This is pretty harrowing to read. I've been fortunate enough to never go through any of this (but I don't _look_ like a 'terrorist'). I think America needs to take a hard look at itself and the compromises it has made on civil liberties in the name of this supposed 'safety' that we have now.

If America were capable of doing that in the common-sense manner you imply, it wouldn't need a written constitution.

I don't follow...can you connect the dots for me?

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#14

Post by fsckin » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

>In all my life, I have only felt that same chilling terror once before - on one cold night in September twelve years ago, when I huddled in bed and tried to forget the terrible events in the news that day, wondering why they they had happened, wondering whether everything would be okay ever again.

Wow... just wow.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#15

Post by dodyg » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

This "We have some female flight attendants. Would you be able to follow their instructions?"

They assume he was a Muslim and 'off course Muslims have problems following instructions from women'.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#16

Post by mninja » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #10

eshvk wrote: post #6

This makes me so angry. This was one of the reasons I got out of consulting. Every fucking time, I would get an enhanced check. Surprisingly enough, it is nothing new. This is something you face if you are a minority. Hell, I remember a friend from back in Africa whose dad got blacklisted in the nineties because he had a beard. Brown catholic guy with a beard got blacklisted. The only difference now is that at least…

[deleted]

I'm assuming his consulting work involved frequent travel, and he happens to "fit the profile".

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#17

Post by foobarbazqux » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

jonheller wrote: post #8

Extremely disturbing. This was well written and very interesting to read, but I do wonder how one could recall the details so specifically?

Traumatic events can leave much stronger memories, almost like they're burned in.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#18

Post by tokenizer » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

The United States (Government) are a bunch of unenlightened, racist, xenophobic people bent on oppressing people by treating every non english/anglo-saxon as a terrorist. Please, someone tell me this isn't the case in an absolute sense.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#19

Post by stevenleeg » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:39 PM UTC

jonheller wrote: post #8

Extremely disturbing. This was well written and very interesting to read, but I do wonder how one could recall the details so specifically?

If you were in a similar situation, would you not try to mentally note as many details as possible? Especially if something came of it, you would want to remember as much as possible about the cops who interrogated you, what they asked, etc.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#20

Post by C1D » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:39 PM UTC

The way they treated him is appalling. Even if he was Muslim, this shouldn't have happened! I travel a lot and have seen things like this happen before my eyes in the UK and Australia. People that look slightly ethnic and taken aside and "randomly" stopped. EDIT: Sorry for the typo.