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Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
April 26, 2014
By their very nature airports are the most racist and prejudiced places in the world. Every nation has its stereotyping and it is that arbitrary yardstick which is deployed to measure the welcome level of a visitor.
Often, whole nationalities have to pay a price for a certain latent hostility that exists about them in the minds of the host country. Much of these uncharitable imaging are the product of media projection and perceptions which become dominant. Add to it the very real specter of breached security and you have a perfectly valid reason to suspect, detain, question anyone you want without fear of repercussions.
Thousands of people, highly accomplished, unsurprisingly stand in mute submission for much longer than two hours in immigration queues.
Africans going to Europe know they will be placed in another line. They know they are under surveillance, they just go with the flow. Muslims going to the States gear themselves for the inevitable double check or the yelling of the signal ‘sierra’ which means your passport has Arabic stamps. Indians do it to Pakistanis and Pakistanis return the compliment…go meet the cops every day, that should make for some holiday.
Flocks of migrant workers, still called laborers and supplied to various parts of the world, know the moment they say goodbye to their home and enter their own airport they have no idea whether they have been duped or will actually pass through with a valid visa. You see them as stricken as sheep, surrendering to the caprice of the Fates.
Arabs travelling in traditional dress instinctively know that they are either going to be questioned, conned or asked for money in many of their travels. Pointless naming where, they just know it and they can resent it as much as we resent being hassled.
If you land in the Euro-zone on a Schengen visa and are from certain parts of the Far East you are going to be moved out of the main line and given a closer scrutiny.
My name is Bikram and often gets circled as ‘Ikram’ so this way please, Sir.
It is not just terrorism thought that is the prime motivator. Narcotics and money laundering are two other major crimes that transcend boundaries. Add to that the trafficking of humans and there seems to be good reason for paranoia.
Technology has also brought about a higher level of cooperation between nations to fight these common enemies of justice and dignity. Interpol is a glue that binds the police and investigative forces of the world to locate, apprehend and prevent criminals from doing the dirty. It is not an easy task to keep track of so many ‘wanted’ elements and a slowdown in clearances at airports are now the norm.
Of course, racial profiling is ugly. It is an ugly world. There is nothing positive about being put on hold when you are innocent but against the global backdrop of strife and terrors, of internecine wars and criminal gangs with GDPs higher than some nations, what does one expect the authorities in any country to do. In that world where pilots respond to crew sixth senses and offload passengers because a steward feels he has a beard or is behaving oddly or is dressed funny or speaks some odd language, let’s accept the arbitrary nature of flying and go with the flow. Much less hassle and more safety and security. Leave your sensibilities home…or yourself.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
If my call is so important to them, why don’t they answer it for 22 minutes?
How come when I want to, but something specific online is the only item out of stock.
When I get into a queue or lane going fast, the moment I get in, it becomes the slowest and refuses to budge.
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