airports….

June 11, 2009

This morning I have taken the plane to Aberdeen for work. Airports are just such strange places, are the places of ultimate “classification”.

First you are a potential criminal: You are pushed through all the security and checking like a piece of meat, an almost certanly dangerous piece of meat. Everything around you tells you that actually you are just a number, nobody cares what you think/want and that actually you have paid the full price of a ticket to almost strip naked because you might have something dangerous in your belt or in your shoes!!! You have to be checkes because you are dangerous and so is the person before you, and the one after that, and the one after that….

And of course, you cannot take water with you…. Too dangerous. Once they ensure that you are not too much of a criminal, then you go in the “waiting areas”

This is the best devised class system I have came across.
The business lounges are very the top dogs go, everything there is smooth and shiny. Things are free, you eat, drink, read as much as you like; nobody tells you off or looks at your strangely. And then you have the “plebs”, where nothing is shiny, but nevertheless quite expensive. It is mostly crowded and when you finally find a place where to sit to eat your overpriced Panini (Italian for sandwich!!), it is really uncomfortable. The best part is that the environment is designed so the two worlds meet as little as possible, if you are in the lounge you might never know that the dirty world of the plebs actually exists. You can not see them/smell them interact with them.

Then you get on the plane. The class system continues… First Class – Business class – Others… treated like a king – land owner – plebs. The thing which always makes me wonder, is when they close these little curtains (on small planes) between the business class and the cattle class… The poor one cannot even look at the people in business class for fear of infecting them?

Then there is the service on the plane, at the front of the plane one is offered nice drinks, perfectly baked little cakes and juicy steaks. At the other end of the plane, well I guess most of you know what kind of food is served…

But then you get off the plane, and almost everybody is criminal again, you are pushed through passport control, and everybody is treated with the same contempt and almost disregard of human dignity and when you get out of the airport you can be yourself again. I guess there aren’t that many places in which you can be a potential terrorist, a first class passenger to pamper and a potential terrorist again within few hours….

Luca

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