Originally Posted by
Typhoonpilot
Again showing complete and total ignorance born from prejudice and racism.
Honestly posts like that show one of the reasons that the ME3 are the target of this campaign. They are an easy target exactly because of the general feeling against Islam and the Middle East these days. Not that I am defending Islam, just that the tactic is classic in so many ways. This while South American airlines, who pay on average 1/3 to 1/2 of what the ME3 pay, go unnoticed as they create huge alliances and airlines groups of their own.
Just for the record. Workers in the Middle East are generally there because they make far more money than they can in their home countries; because the QOL is much better than their home countries; and because it is a much safer environment to raise children.
UAE citizens, the ones you say don't have basic human rights, are given unbelievable amounts of time off and have incredible opportunities for education paid for by their employer. That doesn't really meet the definition of "oppressed by a brutal dictator".
Typhoonpilot
Typhoon-
You don't have to defend Islam. The vast majority of Islamists are good people.
I'll ask you again. Would it be OK to have Obama, for example, declare himself King of the United States, and take away my rights as a US citizen, if he treated us US citizens "really nicely?" Would you think King Obama was a "good guy" if I spoke out against his kingship (is that a word?) and my family and I disappeared in the middle of the night and ended up in jail? What if he shut down this forum because there were too many complaints about his leadership? Do you consider people who aren't allowed to choose their leaders as oppressed? How about people who aren't allowed freedom of speech? The right to unionize? The right to create political parties? The right to vote? The right to worship any God they please? If that's not oppression, I'm not sure what is?
Typhoon, why did the UAE send "police officers" to Bahrain in 2011? What was it that the Emirates were so afraid of if they're "nice" to their citizens?
Did you know a woman has to ask the permission of a male guardian before she is allowed to remarry in the UAE? Women are severely punished for such crimes as adultery. Apparently under Sharia law, you can be stoned for such an offense!
These ME leaders brutually oppress their people, Typhoon. I realize you might be biased considering your employment history, and I realize the UAE might be more liberal than some of the other culprits, but just a little Google-ing would go a long way for you. The leadership are still tyrants. There are multiple, unrelated, apolitical sources that describe the "leadership styles" of the countries in question. They also provide examples of what happen to citizens who don't "tow the party line." Thank God I'm a US citizen and I wasn't born in the UAE. I'd already be dead.
But back to the thread topic.....why should US airline pilots have their careers put at risk by allowing these opaque, government subsidized airlines access to US and European markets just so a few despots can diversify their economy so they can continue to afford their lavish lifestyles when the oil dries up?