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The Forum > Article Comments > Flying free but don't question authority! > Comments

Flying free but don't question authority! : Comments

By Melody Kemp, published 17/5/2007

It seems that travelling Australians have bought the whole fear package, lock stock and three smoking jet engines.

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GO granny,
3000 Americans die PANIC PANIC PANIC
Americans kill over 16,000 Americans each year.
20,000,000 people die of starvation yearly and not a whimper.
Conclusion = Keep em scared and they will vote for you.
Posted by alanpoi, Thursday, 17 May 2007 9:37:41 AM
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Yess! Melody, you go, girl. I also fly around Asia a lot and live at the moment in China. And the remarkable thing about it is there is absolutely no stress! I walk down the seediest, blackest alleyways in the dead of night, happily cart deadly weapons like nail scissors and facial toner aboard aeroplanes, defy death by not wearing a helmet while riding my bike, risk life and limb by by riding in taxis that have no seat belts in the back, dart across major road dodging traffic in a cavalier fashion, and dance the night away in disco's and clubs where there are no bouncers, security checks or closing times. Policemen don't regard young persons as 'punks' and are always happy to get people a taxi, show you to your destination or have a chat in the middle of directing traffic.

In cities that hold more people than the population of Australia, I have never seen a brawl, heard a domestic, witnessed a car pile-up, been in a hopeless traffic jam, seen a child being smacked, or witnessed an old person who was not treated with respect.

But, most of all - I have never, once, been afraid. Mind you, I am not afraid in Australia either: only when confronted with those surly security people, the police, or Centrelink employees!

P.s. I have tried to explain to my students the concept or road rage. They shrieked with laughter and thought I was teasing them.
Posted by Romany, Thursday, 17 May 2007 10:01:07 AM
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Brilliant. Nicely articulates the root of Australia's problems.

The only solution is to get people out of their suburban lives to experience what lies beyond their borders... perhaps when they've seen how the rest of the world operates they may see the stupidity of so much of what goes on here.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Thursday, 17 May 2007 10:20:10 AM
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Melody, you are nothing but a trouble maker after my own heart. I swear that one day I will take off all my clothes before I go through one of the metal detectors in Australia. It isn't just the airports either, you have to go through the same process to get into the Supreme Court. I have reached the age and shape where I need to wear braces to keep my trousers up and I even had to take my braces off to get into the court.

I usually wear a Crocodile Dundee hat which has a wire stiffener arount the brim. That invariably sets off the alarm and no one knows where the problem is. I suggest that we all go out of our way to find things like that to help keep the operators of the surveillance devices on their toes.

The liquid explosive thing turned out to be an urban myth as you need an array of laboratory equipment to produce the material in question.

Finally, if you think passengers are being frustrated by it all, have a thought for the private pilots of the smallest aircraft who need a security identification card to fly from airstrips even in remote areas. All this while the driver of a fifty tonne B-double can drive a load of ammonium nitrate across the Sydney harbour bridge unhindered.
Posted by VK3AUU, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:10:50 PM
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Good on you Melody.I actually believe that Howard and many members of his cabinet are spooked and believe all this airport stuff.
Being gutless and in power they are also bullies. It makes Howard feel in control to corral you.
I was at an airport the other day putting on my belt and trying to find my glasses in a very full plastic tray when in frustration I turned to the suit beside me and said,'this is a Howard growth industry.'Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when he said,'the sooner he goes the better'.
Bruce Haigh
Posted by Bruce Haigh, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:16:49 PM
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I don’t think the airport security rules are unreasonable, however inconvenient they seem. Did not the idea of banning cosmetics and liquids arise in the UK after a plot to smuggle in dangerous liquids was foiled in the UK, not the US? Australia, the UK and the USA, unlike Asian countries, are a melting pot of cultures and races – especially at airports – and are therefore more likely to be targeted by Muslim crackpots than Asian countries. That Asia is free from the same airport restrictions is not true: just last week I returned from Japan and experienced exactly the same restrictions as here.

You are a trouble maker granny, and you ought to know better at your age. Ironically, you typify Western culture with your motto of questioning authority, while in the Asian cultures you so esteem, people generally respect authority. Perhaps you could learn something?
Posted by Robg, Thursday, 17 May 2007 1:18:47 PM
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It is highly likely that the critics of Mr Howard for being overboard on security at airports are the same people who screamed at the lack of warning when many Australians were killed in Bali not to long back. Funny that Mr Blair does not cop the same criticism.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 17 May 2007 1:22:22 PM
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Robg:

"Did not the idea of banning cosmetics and liquids arise in the UK after a plot to smuggle in dangerous liquids was foiled in the UK, not the US?"

A plot that was revealed to be empty hype - the kind of thing that whilst possible in theory, in the confines of a plane, is pretty much impossible.

You say: "You are a trouble maker granny, and you ought to know better at your age."

How delightfully sanctimonious. I don't know how old you are Rob, but I hope there's always troublemakers out there. We wouldn't have rights at all were it not for troublemakers which people seem so keen to dismiss these days.

This notion that we should all just toe the line is abhorrent to the founding principles that have made western society the free place that it is.

Rather than lecturing the author with empty rhetoric, perhaps you could articulate why she's wrong.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Thursday, 17 May 2007 1:43:57 PM
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great article - a reminder that some of us should get a life, or at least a sense of proportion. It seems that every new threat - real, imagined, or embellished - is used as an excuse to curtail freedom, increase the control of the state and manufacture fear and alienation for political ends. To rail against this is good; to laugh at it is even better
Posted by Rhian, Thursday, 17 May 2007 2:25:55 PM
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Robg.
Having travelled through Asia and Europe, never have I experienced such indifferent and anti social attitude to the travelling public, as the Australian airport security.
By my overseas travel experience, I understand the point the writer is making, that we have become paranoid.
Posted by Kipp, Thursday, 17 May 2007 3:12:36 PM
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TRTL,

Before bandying about the fancy words that make up your “delightfully sanctimonious” drivel, you ought to work on your comprehension. Start by working out the difference between “tow” and “toe”.

Kipp,

I have never had an issue airport security here. If anything, quarantine is the mess. Quarantine is where the paranoia lies. The anti-social and hostile attitudes you point to seem to be a common Australian trait, not limited to airport security staff. If we remember that people in a uniform are just people, and treat others with respect, not being deliberately provocative like Melody, we shouldn’t have a problem.
Posted by Robg, Thursday, 17 May 2007 3:33:10 PM
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Thanks, Melody, for reminding us that our recently-acquired distaste for risk comes at a huge cost.

The really interesting thing is how risks that can be clearly identified have to be avoided at all costs, while less definable but equally known risks are perfectly acceptable. For example, the risk that children might get into trouble on the way to school is intolerable, so they are driven there, increasing the (acceptable) risk that they will get fat, or in a real emergency be unable to find their way home. A friend of mine is regularly condemned by other mothers because she sometimes sends her seven-year-old daughter 100 metres up the road to get some groceries from the supermarket. These days, the marketing of fear starts young.

Yes, we are much safer today from disease, war and ambient cigarette smoke. But the less immediate dangers are very scary too: Krohn's disease, Alzheimer's disease and humiliation by low-ranking officials - we're now much more at risk of these.

For many people the trade-off is worth it. Still, it's good to be reminded what we've lost in the process.

Robg said, "You are a trouble maker granny." Perhaps so - I suspect it takes one to know one.

I favour a well-informed trouble maker any day: http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/toetheline.html
Posted by jpw2040, Thursday, 17 May 2007 4:33:06 PM
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Robg. If only people in uniform remembered they are people. After the third time at Adelaide airport to be told " Sir you have been chosen?". Then go through a full search and have my cabin baggage checked for explosive residue. I asked " Is this candid camera, or do you fancy me "as the TV advert?".

For crying out loud I was going to Melbourne on a day return. And what annoys me, I am contributing to these "people" wages! yet they behave like the East German Stasi!

Yes we are being controlled and sadly they are employing Morons to keep up this farce!
Posted by Kipp, Thursday, 17 May 2007 6:05:43 PM
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Ditto from another un-Australian troublemaker, though I'm a citizen and all my family traces back to the Gold Rush.

My Southeast Asian friends chuckle at the contrast after landing at Mascot and Tullamarine. Most too are residents or nationalized, causing a mix of embarrassment and contempt at Australia's political culture.

But it's easy to see where Australian Government spin has promoted the insular paranoia, dishonesty and cowardice that make our country a regional laughing stock. They depicted the fake 'liberation' of East Timor as a bold, principled triumph. It was a scheming rip-off against two neighbors: the wretched East Timorese themselves and the Indonesians who had a joint contract over the oil and gas (and who did the West's bidding by invasion in the first place). The IMF and US prevented the intervention from becoming a war, to the extent that Canberra incurred debt to be repaid via loyalty over Iraq and ridiculous sellouts in the FTA and huge, dodgy defence contracts.

Then there was 'border protection', best symbolized when they sent the SAS to harass wretched men, women and children in the Tampa fraud, before further traumatization in costly high-tech concentration camps. Hmmm...real tough! But they pumped the Anzac myth harder still, with Howard even sticking up for drunken Gallipoli tourists, some of whom had rolled their sleeping bags on diggers' graves. Veterans I've known would answer that kind of 'leadership' with a rifle, though without dignifying the target by wasting bullets in the process.

Constituents hold some blame for going along with this farcical government and its bogus nationalism, especially when the big bribes kicked in, but the buck must stop with the leadership.

Let's not beat about the bush: these people are lying, deluded, selfish traitors of the most dangerous type. Voting them out is far too kind: we should indulge them in their nostalgia for good ol' law-n'-order and recall the death penalty, just for their trial. I'm serious: they had no qualms if Dave Hicks had got the chair.

The profound damage they've caused this country has barely even begun to be counted.
Posted by mil_observer, Thursday, 17 May 2007 8:38:07 PM
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My last trip from Alice Springs started with my daughter having a tantrum over having to put her 10cm toy dog through the scanner. Then they spied a pair of nail scissors (inadvertently) left in our hand luggage. So back to the check-in counter to try and get them in the luggage. No luck, so into the bin. Back through the metal detector. BEEEEP Take off belt. BEEEEP Take off boots. BEEEEEEPPPP Try again. BEEEEEEPPP And again....Silence. Put on boots, hold up trousers and shamble towards plane. Then, EXCUSE ME SIR, please step this way.

Get tested for explosives (either that or the lady in uniform fancies my buttons) while the PA pages "Passenger Johnj" with increasing stridency. Get let out of the interview room and shamble through the departure lounge while the PA booms "FINAL BOARDING CALL FOR PASSENGER JOHNJ get your backside there now mister!!" Finally board the plane. Fortunately the cabin crew refrained from the worst of Virgin's jollity on the cabin announcements, otherwise one of them would have had to dodge a size 11 boot.

Don't know whether the experience reminded me more of Kafka or a bad Monty Python sketch. I won't be flying again soon (how much battering can the ego stand) and a bomb seems the least of my worries.
Posted by Johnj, Thursday, 17 May 2007 8:45:46 PM
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People obviously don't have much to whinge about when they make such a big deal over so little inconvenience. Times must be pretty good!
Posted by runner, Thursday, 17 May 2007 9:55:58 PM
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So Runner, you don't object to being treated like a criminal whenever you visit an airport?
Posted by Johnj, Thursday, 17 May 2007 10:15:13 PM
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Justice is the first principal in Sustainable Development.

This needs to come from the way we do things both inside and outside the country and the example must embrace a full understanding of what is meant by 'collective securities'.

“Collective Securities” is about being Community Safe. It is about social-economic and cultural political practices, as much as Crime Prevention.

Think Global Act Local for ALL!

Ad hoc measures on the issue of ‘securities’ have eaten into the Australian social fabric. The term "securities" has been abused by our leaders and has created a fear socially that will take years to fully understand and over come.

I will never forget the abuse of the technical data that came through the last Federal elections, side tracking national discussion by the distractions of "Air Marshal" and the "Tamper over-board" crisis. While these were important issues to flush, the blockages to learn more about our own role and the learning to take global responsibility as a "whole" was abused through the dishonest presentations and trivialisation of ‘how people were experiencing the impact of war and threats of war itself’.

We need balance. The current use of power has gone wild in Australia.

Fear within our own communities side-lined the importance of looking at the bigger picture that includes our global responsibilities to adhere to world problems. Problems facing what we need to do regarding "conflict resolutions" ‘everywhere’ especially where the displacement of people is displaced further by our focus on immigration and conflicting polices of Australia’s "skills shortages".... as the only definition of need.

Something is wrong alright, and I am hoping we wake up to ourselves in the near future.

Community Safe is a concept that must include ALL!

http://www.miacat.com/
.
Posted by miacat, Friday, 18 May 2007 7:16:38 AM
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RobG: "TRTL,

Before bandying about the fancy words that make up your “delightfully sanctimonious” drivel, you ought to work on your comprehension. Start by working out the difference between “tow” and “toe”. --

You're kidding me right RobG?
I berate you for taking a sanctimonious attitude towards an old woman's troublemaking, and ask you to take actually address the article, and you come up with what? A typo?

The most amusing part of it is that aside from reinforcing my point, the typo you pulled me up on is actually correct as it stands.
The phrase "toe the line" is accurate, however due to ignorance and misuse, 'tow the line' has become rather common. Go on, google it.

So I suggest that perhaps, you review the meaning of toe and tow yourself - I can assure you, I'm aware of the difference.

But I must thank you - that post gave me quite a chuckle - most probably a sanctimonious chuckle, I'll admit that, but a chuckle all the same.

Getting back to the article - I think articles like this should be more common. Hearing tales of those who buck the system, even just a little, gives us an idea of what the limits of behaviour are, and the current standards of society. It's a good thing this troublemaking granny can still get in to trouble and write these kinds of articles. Lets hope she always can.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Friday, 18 May 2007 12:22:51 PM
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it's depressing to hear that being rude to low level civil servants is called "bucking the system". they are just earning a living in the way they have been instructed.

more enlightened, so they think,are those who say "we'll vote john howard out". some enlightenment, it's still the same system, new faces don't change the system. the laboral party still rules.

democracy isn't a change of pollies, it's rule by the people. until you understand that, oz will continue sliding into fascism and no amount of witty remarks to counter clerks will save you.
Posted by DEMOS, Sunday, 20 May 2007 8:37:33 AM
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Interesting article. I recently flew to New Zealand (from Sydney) and had to surrender a tiny metal spanner - its weight was all of 31 grams and it had no sharp edges. It was part of my photographic kit - I use it to tighten the centre column on my tripod. Why did I have to surrender this item? Apparently it was a tool said the security person, who was unable to appreciate the difference between a harmless object and a dangerous tool such as a hammer.

But the most absurd thing was that when I eventually boarded the plane we were all given metal forks to eat our meals with. It would have been impossible for me to do any damage to anything or anybody on the plane with my spanner but if I had been travelling with a group of like-minded conspirators we could have created merry havoc with the forks. A jab in the eye or the back of the hand - you know the sort of thing. Did I feel that the "enhanced" security measures in place at Sydney Airport were making me and the rest of the travelling public any safer? Not at all I'm afraid.
Posted by Snappy Tom, Sunday, 20 May 2007 6:22:06 PM
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It would appear from events of recent days in Brisbane it is time to ban supermarkets!
Posted by Alipal, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 9:20:00 PM
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Yes, so very well argued Melody.
To quote from another observant commentator on another recent Forum article " ... when the people are sheep, they will be ruled by dogs" !
Posted by Sowat, Saturday, 18 August 2007 8:23:52 AM
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