Of Airbuses and Camels

Following is a supposed news story, subject "Oops," that someone emailed me, followed by my reponse. Something did not seem right about this story and, when I researched it out, I found it to be a fabrication. That said, I probably wouldn't have bothered to respond to it at all, much less launch this site in response to it, if some hateful prick hadn't concluded with "That's why God gave them camels!"

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I GUESS THEY CAN AFFORD ANOTHER ONE!

Subject: Oops

OOPS!

This brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the longest passenger airplane ever built, sits just outside its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single hour of airtime.

Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.

The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.

Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.

The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had All 4 engines at full power.

The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off, but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.)

Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air.

The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward.

The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.

Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new Aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.

The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown due to the news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere.

Coverage of the story was deemed insulting to Muslim Arabs.

Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.

A French Airbus: $200 million dollars

Untrained Arab Flight Crew: $300,000 Yearly Salary
Unread Operating Manual: $300

Aircraft meets retaining wall, and the wall wins.
PRICELESS!!!

"That's why God gave them camels!"
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Oops, indeed! Where should we even start with this one ...

First, this Airbus wreck story isn't entirely true and, in particular, the conclusion we are supposed to derive from it -- i.e., that Arabs are stupid -- is based on a fabrication. Check out http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/etihad.asp As a general rule, when people send out reports that they do not have the moral courage to place their names on, it is because those reports are false. The next thing you get like this won't be true either.

Second, racism of this sort is problematic in all sorts of ways. I will only briefly touch on a few of the pragmatic ones. For one, how do we reconcile Arab/Muslem inferiority with our inability to successfully occupy or subdue two rump nations inhabited by them? (I know now we just blame the black president, but that doesn't satisfactorily address the eight years leading up to his election.)

Third, what does it say about our attitudes toward fellow Americans who happen to be Arabs or Muslims? Whether you like these peoples or not, these sorts of hateful attitudes toward other citizens weaken and divide our nation and, because I love America and the Constitution that as a soldier I swore to uphold, I have to repudiate them on that basis alone.

Fourth, in my life as a working adult, I have found something between a third and a half of white Americans I have dealt with to be sub-competent in their chosen occupations and, to one extent or another, to ultimately be a detriment rather than a benefit to our society. And yet I never get email messages, for example, about worthless white middle-managers who devalue the companies they work for; white hawks who clamor for war but would never actually be themselves willing to fight; or middle-class white people who have squandered the advantages they were given and made nothing of themselves. This, rather than the incompetent Arabs, is a problem you actually need to be worried about -- especially if you believe white men and women have a legacy of leadership to uphold in our country.

Finally, as a person of faith, I think it is somewhat perilous to invoke the name of God in a racist commentary ... Does God actually love Arabs less than us or anyone else? Jesus didn't think so, and when he was asked in Luke 10:29 "Who is my neighbor?" he pointed out that the most odious sort of person you could envision is (i.e., in his case a Samaritan; see also "Who is a Good Samaritan?"). Now, Jesus does go on an on, and I would not blame anyone for not listening to anything he had to say, but I guess the Christians out there are obligated to, so I figured they might want to know about this.

Dissemination of falsehoods like this has become disquietingly commonplace and, even more disturbing is that so many people who receive and then indiscriminatly forward messages like this to everyone in the address book don't seem to care that they are spreading lies. It is important to me, however, to not be that proverbial person who stood by while false witness was borne against others, or while Rome burned, or whatever.