This is a heroic tale of a brave woman who sacrificed her saving children from terrorists. Can you ever imagine a Hollywood film portraying this kick ass female hero’s life?
…
Yah, me neither. It’s too hard for the hollywood dude establishment to tart up the heroine and tell a serious story at the same time. :( Instead we get more of the tight sexy skinsuit phenomena (bleh):
Let’s not go there. Onward to the real hero.
“Yesterday would have been her 52nd birthday, but PAN AM Flight Attendant Neerja Bhanot of Chandigarh, India died at 23 being a hero. She is credited with saving the lives of 360 passengers onboard PAN AM 73. When radical Islamic terrorists hijacked her A/C in Karachi, Pakistan she informed the pilots (who used their escape hatch to runaway) and kept both the passengers/remaining crew calm. When the terrorists demanded to know who the Americans were on the flight so they could execute them she gathered all the passports and hid the ones belonging to Americans under seat cushions. The terrorists confused and unable to determine the national origins of the passengers didn’t execute anyone. When Pakistani police raided the plane she was able to nearly singlehandedly evacuate all the passengers as the firefight ensued. She being one of the last people on board did a last check and found three children still hiding. As she led the children to safety the surviving terrorists spotted the children and opened fire on them. Neerja jumped in the way of the bullets and was mortally wounded. She was able to evac the children to safety before dying from her wounds. Neerja was awarded the Ashok Chakra Award by India, the highest peacetime gallantry award possible. She was the youngest and first civilian to ever be awarded this honor.”
There is some good news, there is a film being made outside of Hollywood about this fine female hero.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
15 comments
December 9, 2015 at 6:24 am
john zande
And I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of her before now. Indeed, a hero.
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December 9, 2015 at 11:04 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
Me either, till happening across it on the various feeds/sites/newsletters that cross my virtual desk.
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December 9, 2015 at 11:24 am
Arkenaten
Believe it or not, the first question that came to my mind was:
Why do Islamic radicals hate Americans so much?
Does anybody ask this question?
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December 9, 2015 at 11:28 am
The Arbourist
@Ark
Is that question even allowed outside of the hyperbole chambers of much of the media? To understand the radicals is to grant them humanity and motivations, you know make them seem more like us. And that simply won’t do.
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December 9, 2015 at 11:33 am
Arkenaten
I wasn’t trying to be callous or anything, just trying to understand the mentality.
I don’t for one second condone any such violent action but to be so extreme not only takes a massive amount of indoctrination but must also have roots in such hatred – and for what/why?
It is a genuine question and a genuine source of bafflement that such virulent hatred exists.
I really don’t get it.
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December 9, 2015 at 11:43 am
The Arbourist
@Ark
I’m in a sense agreeing with you. It is very hard to understand a mentality that we are not given the facts about.
Does it? When your family is drone-murdered for the crime of being *near* suspected terrorists is it so hard to understand the need to strike back? Is hard to engender hatred against a system that sees your children live in poverty and danger, with no hope for improvement?
A more formal treatment of why they hate us can be found here.
Perhaps read the linked article and we can talk more about it? It is a good primer on your question and covers many of the salient points I would make.
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December 9, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Arkenaten
I read the link, of course.
Are we saying it all goes back to Resolution 181?
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December 9, 2015 at 12:13 pm
The Arbourist
@Ark
In part, yes.
The other large piece of the puzzle is the idea that we should abide by the same standards we set for our enemies. As soon as we have rules “they” have to follow, but not “us”, because we’re awesome and the good guys, shit starts to foment.
We all have a sense of what is just and what is not. People seeing and experiencing injustice directly eventually act. One person’s terrorist is anothers freedom fighter at the risk of oversimplifying the argument. :/
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December 9, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Arkenaten
I understand the freedom fighter/terrorist analogy perfectly.
I live in a country that denied franchise to the majority of its population for a long long time.
The irony, in my view, is that, bottom line, this all rests on historical land claims based on the Bible.
And of course, to open this can of worms will be very interesting. Very interesting , indeed.
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December 9, 2015 at 12:28 pm
The Arbourist
@Ark
Indeed it is. It is the very can of worms that we should be discussing in the public debate, on the public airways.
It is the people who know about the cans of worms and actively work to structure a different narrative that denies said CoW existence, that we have to worry about.
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December 9, 2015 at 12:38 pm
Arkenaten
The problem/ irony? is that should the Israelis come forward and state publicly that it ( Yahweism) is all myth, where does this leave Islam?
They will never buy it and one half of me thinks this would be yet another reason for the Islamic radicals to try to eradicate Israel entirely.
What do you think would happen if the Knesset,backed with Jewish scholars, Rabbis, archaeologists made an announcement to this effect at the UN?
Imagine the effect on Christianity, and especially the American and the Catholics!
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December 9, 2015 at 12:44 pm
The Arbourist
@Ark
Sadly, I think they could that, and it wouldn’t matter.
Religion is insulated and embedded into societies that they are shielded from truth and the consequences of being reality-challanged.
Just look at the reaction to the Pope in the US, the so called spiritual leader of Catholicism and funny hats – as soon as he started promoting actual christ like acts he was persona non-gratis.
So if US christians can flip off the pope, what change would rabbinical scholars and the UN have?
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December 9, 2015 at 12:53 pm
Arkenaten
Well, as they were the ones who started it all, it might be very interesting to see how the others defended their position if the Israelis/Jews admitted it was all bullshit and metaphorically walked away from it all.
I’d pay good money to listen to that speech.
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December 9, 2015 at 12:53 pm
The Arbourist
@Ark
Ramen to that. :)
Oh and more relevant reading if you’re interested about said topic.
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December 10, 2015 at 11:23 pm
VR Kaine
“Can you ever imagine a Hollywood film portraying this kick ass female hero’s life?”
Depends on how many people they think are going to watch it. Take https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Named_Me_Malala for instance. How many of you watched Fox Searchlight film of this kick-ass female hero’s life?
Side note: funny how “Fair Share” Liberals will say the enemy in Hollywood is the “White Male Establishment” because it fits their narrative-of-the-month and yet they will not have the guts to say that it’s actually Jewish white men that is that establishment.
So now what is it? Are Jews not allowed to give their fellow tribesmen a leg up vs. the Gentiles after all the horrific things they’ve endured as early as a few generations ago? Are they now not allowed to “play favorites” according to all the “Fair Share” Liberals out there? Were you complaining when they were giving special privilege to Jewish men? If not, then I’m glad to know gutlessness and hypocrisy are still the hallmarks of the FSL “Justice Warriors”. :)
Fact is be part of the tribe and watch how many introductions and advantages you get vs. being just a “dude” so go on liberals – show some guts and say you’re fighting against the Jewish cabals in Hollywood. See how far you get before being branded a ‘racist’ on that front (unless you’re hypocritical or disingenuous about that), or will you get a free pass?!
Where I’m on your side, though, is that Hollywood Studios are mostly about bean-counting now and “safe plays”, which is an even bigger problem than the one you mentioned because it’s a self-fulfilling shit excuse for those same men to block out “new” and “radical” ideas, such as the “new idea” of giving a female director a legitimate big-studio shot same as the Jewish men get. They never get the shot, the market never has a chance to vote, and we get more teen-male-focused superhero CGI movies instead.
It’s easy to blame some guy’s pig-headed comment somewhere for that, but it’s not really some white dude somewhere that calls the shots – it’s a board of directors (men AND women btw – ever looked here: http://mgmresorts.investorroom.com/board-of-directors?) who want to see their returns and also rarely (if ever) watch the movies they make.
Films are investments, and those investments are all decided upon by formulas that consider “disruptors” to be unpredictable anomalies that most won’t take a risk on when there’s easier returns to be made elsewhere. It’s the same reason why most investors are reluctant to fund an awesome “disruptor” startup. People in that community whine that it’s black/white/male/female/tall/short or whatever, but that’s bullshit – it’s simply track record.
My point in all this is that It’s shitty that female-directed/written films are considered rarities, or “anomalies”, or unsafe bets. It sucks that they have to start out as Indie films and make their rounds through a half-dozen indie film festivals before being considered “worthy” of the tribe’s consideration – to be considered “bankable”.
Fact is, however, that the “traditional” investors are getting their asses kicked all the time, and studios and the studio pundits are getting their asses kicked, too, all the time. We need to recognize and celebrate those “disruptor” wins, and not just in the doc or indie space but in the mainstream space as well with our dollars. Go nuts on Netflix, for instance. Yes, haters and cowards, it’s run by a rich capitalist white dude who doesn’t give a shit about you in general, but Hastings has done far more than you ever will to give a shot to otherwise what would have been many unheard of directors and actors, and he gives big support to the LGBT film community also, which is largely dictated by a direct response from the market. Watch, watch again, and watch a third time those movies and the numbers will register.
Also, back the Kickstarter campaigns.which back the under-dogs (just like Anita Sarkeesian did with hers), and put your money where your mouth is – it’s the only way capitalists will really listen (quickly).
Just like the creator of The Coolest (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually) – and awesome product that barely anyone knows about, there tons of great movies and movie ideas out there by women – you just need to throw more money at them so that like the Coolest, these female directors and writers can get a fair shot at having the market decide whether their work actually sucks or not.
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