It's easy to feel superior when we read stories like "Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god." But are we in the Enlightened West really any better than this sort of thing:
KATHMANDU (Reuters, Sept 5) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.
The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.
Compare with the elaborate security rituals we are now forced to endure each time we try to board a commercial aircraft. They may appear to be based on a reasonable strategy to combat terrorist plots to hijack the jets, but independent security experts have been telling us for years that they're really just window dressing designed to make us feel safer, and make it look like the government regulators are doing something.
There's a good piece in Atlantic Monthly (and a few other essays in my library I recall but can't track down at the moment) that offer various interpretations of a common theme elaborated five years ago by one Bruce Schneider: "The are only two things airlines need do to eliminate the possibility of a hijacking: reinforcing the cockpit door and getting the passengers to fight back."
Everything else is reduced to rituals we have accepted as the price of that temporary visit to heaven.
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Having recently returned from a flight, I found the single most stressful and worrying time was going through security. As I stood patiently in line, knowing full well about the major holes in the system, I got quite anxious about the amount of time I would have to take to go through the appropriate motions.
Removing shoes isn't too bad, but removing all spare change, keys, belt, cell phone, extracting electronic gear from my bag (including a laptop), all while *holding my boarding pass* as required to go through the system was a pain... and then when I got through the system and out to the other side, I had to put everything back in and on.
Despite the fact that I had conscientiously stored everything in easy to access areas, I found I had severely held up the line and, worse, in my rush to put everything back together I had lost my boarding pass.
Something has got to change! This is a reasonable price to pay for safety, but when that safety is really just a placebo it is maddening and frustrating.
Perhaps is not a bad solution to fight against terrorism in the skies imitate nepalean air company.