Way To Stereotype
Be nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Do what you want, don't force it on others. Live your life your way, be mindful of how others live their lives.
There are, however, still people in the world that have Stereotypes sooo far up their own bottoms it is worrying. And I don't mean The Common Person On The Street, I am talking about people that wear a shiny badge that says "I'm a politician" or "I'm in charge of a massive company" or whoever.
I WAS about to do a Musical Monday post, but decided to skim through the news, where my usual repository for face-palming at humanity - Sky News (also known as "Wow, Let's Sex Up This Headline!") were covering the missing Malaysian Airways 777-200.
Now, I get they have to cover all bases, and I get that they are probably quite stressed out and trying to do everything they can. One of their lines of enquiry seems to be these people that managed to get onboard using stolen passports - which is a little worrying considering how tight security is supposed to be in air travel these days. While discussing this avenue of investigation, I was taken aback by one single line, a quote from Malaysia's Civil Aviation Chief caught my eye, and pretty much made me shake my head.
Now, I am sorry, but someone that is "In Charge" of anything should be somewhat less of a dick as far as I am concerned. I completely get that they have to explore the possibility of terrorism in the disappearence of this flight. I get that the "climate of the world" is somewhat tense. But it seems to me that he is dismissing that line of enquiry because the chaps using the stolen passports were not "Asian-looking"
My first thought was the chap that tried to blow up the explosives in his underwear on Christmas Day 2009 while heading into Detroit. Despite his name, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was also "not Asian-looking" being that he came from Nigeria.
My second line of thought was "What the holy-hell does an "Asian-looking man" look like anyway!?" Asia is, as far as I remember from Geography, a fairly large place. I mean, bigger than Belgium at least.
Side note: Everything always seems to be "The Size of Belgium" when they talk about big things. Don't believe me? Click that link!
Anyway.
Asia is effing big. Like, BIG big, and covers 80% of the Earths land, 60% of the World population (4.3 billion people, apparently) and a bit of research tells me it ranges from Egypt, up past Turkey, Western Russian, across the top of The World, down the side of the Pacific, through the Indonesia archepegalo, and then all along the Bay of Bengal, around India into the Arabian Sea, and finally up the Red Sea, back to Egypt (via Suez).
For clarity, that is 48 different countries (and, apparently, parts and areas of Turkey & Russia sometimes count) for one somewhat-larger-than-Belgium continent. When you think how different all these people look - from the Japanese to the East, to the Turkish to the West, there is no "look" for an Asian person.
THIS is how pissed off the quote has made me - I've been researching all this for this blog post!
It is also worth noting that the aircraft was travelling from Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia to Beijing, China - both of which come under Asia - so I would imagine quite a lot of the passengers "look Asian"
But I digress. And breath.
It just really pisses me off that in this day and age where we should be less "He's Asian, must be a terrorist" and realise that any nut-job can be radicalised by any other nut-job, and be turned against the world for ANY reason. Religion is a biggie, but then there are the Land Disputes out there too that create radicalised people.
/rant
PS: If I suddenly vanish, it's because MI5 or similar security agencies found some of my Google searches for this post, and decided they were worrying enough to lock me away. Currently I can barely walk, let alone be a nut-job or a terrorist... So please remember to get me released ASAP - I don't think I'd do well in jail with my baby-soft skin ;)
Name: Dan English
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