Sikh News Discrimination Down Under

[drkhalsa]

Discrimination down under

Last week, a Sikh in New Zealand got on a Qantas flight from Queenstown to Auckland. You can guess what happened next … he got kicked off because the other passengers didn’t want him flying with them.

“People either side of me were saying they don’t want me on here … One of the ladies told another guy ‘I’m not comfortable with him on this plane’,” Mavi says. “She was talking to a whole group. The lady started it and then somebody went and spoke to the captain. The Qantas man requested me and said ‘You’re not allowed to travel in this plane because the passengers are not happy’…” [Link]​

I hadn’t realized that commercial flights were like survivor, that the passengers are polled and one unlucky one is voted off. Silly me, I thought you paid, you got checked out by security, and you disembarked at your destination. Things seem to be a bit … different on the other side of the world.
Of course, Qantas has a different account of what happened. They say simply that:

A Qantas Airways spokesman from Sydney [said] … the passenger “displayed behaviour prior to boarding and on board before departure which concerned our staff”. After “careful consideration” a decision was made to offload the passenger. [Link]​

What behavior was this? Simple - he went to the bathroom. [He was fixing his turban, but that’s irrelevant to the story] Was that threatening? Here’s what another passenger had to say:

A Queenstowner on board recalls the flight attendant knocking on the toilet door “quite loud” and asking Mavi to return to his seat. “I remember thinking it was strange, the attendant’s urgency, when the front door of the plane was still open. He kept knocking. I thought, Give him a chance to pull his pants up,” the passenger says…. “Never did I think for a second that he was a threat.” [Link]​

Remind me to eat lots of fiber before I board a flight next time. Sheesh.
An Australian lawyer friend of mine tells me that this was probably an illegal act on Qantas’ part. Here’s my suggestion - the next time a Qantas air host or hostess decides to break the rules, maybe it should be for something like this. As for me, unless I see an abject apology, I’m afraid I’m not going to fly Qantas in the future.









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http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004275.html

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[kds1980]

the only solution of these type of problems is prachar of sikhi.educate the world about sikhi.publish small booklets in different languages and distribuite them to people
in the different part of world.

 

[roopsidhu]

yes KDS 1980, to improve the religious tolerence more awareness and prachar of sikhi is the key to the problem.

 

[kaur-1]

 

[drkhalsa]

latest entry

When in Rome

You know the saying :“When in Rome – do as the Romans“ ? That means (for example) : bring your sunglasses, drink innumerable espressos and don‘t let any speaker stop you from talking in a meeting.
The first European Youth Summit ever happened in Rome during the weekend, in parallel with the Berlin summit, where Heads of State and Governments met.
My colleagues had prepared a programme for me that seemed to cover more hours than there actually are in a day, but it worked! Besides participating in the Youth Summit it also included meeting students, EU-minister Emma Bonino and European historians, inaugurating a “European village“ as well as the “White night“ meaning that 6 universities were open the whole night with concerts, seminars, fireworks and drinks.
Since it was a car-free day in Rome, I went to Campidoglio with Jeremy Rifkin in a hydrogen-powered car.
Sitting next to me in the meeting was a young Sikh in a turban and unfortunately he had been held up in an airport and his luggage was lost. “Instead of trying to force me to take off the turban – which I have never done in public in my whole life“, he said,“ they could have used the portable metal detector…..“ Luckily he made it to the summit, an important voice of those with a different experience of today‘s “tolerant” Europe.
The outcome of the Youth Summit was a declaration. I found it well written and concrete and now it is up to us in the institutions and of course the Governments to show that we have listened and acted on what we have heard.
Until a couple of hours before leaving Rome it was freezing cold and rainy. But then.==================

 

[Mai Harinder Kaur]

I read that the young man on the Qantas flight was paid off and won't be pursuing the matter.

If this true, what about fighting injustice? Here is a golden opportunity to stand up proudly in front of the whole world and show what we are made of. This gentlman has really blown a great chance to make a difference for all of us.