After the 7 July London bombings could growing a beard completely change the way people treated a British Asian? There was only one way to find out.
It was a week after 7 July and I'd just got on an east London bus. I was on my way to buy razors as I hadn't shaved for days.
A couple of stops later a middle-aged Rasta guy got on, sat down next to me and asked: "So how's it feel brethren?" "Erm, how's what feel?" I replied. "How's it feel now it's your turn to be bottom of the pile?" he said.
We had a good chat, we talked about riots and muggers and bombs and beards. We had a right laugh. "Take it easy brother," he said as he stepped off the moving bus.
When I got to Liverpool Street and I went into the station to catch the Tube, I was stopped and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. It had never happened to me before and I had always felt perfectly at ease in the UK, my home.
Enemy within
So I decided to find out whether the Rasta was right; had the 7 July bombings - carried out by three British Muslims and a Jamaican-born UK resident who had converted to Islam - changed British society and put me "bottom of the pile"?
If so, what would that mean in my daily life? Was I, a stubbly British Asian, now going to have to deal with some people fearing me for being the enemy within? Would the terrorists succeed in making us a more fearful, intolerant nation?
The only way to find out, I decided, was to grow my first proper beard, and so started my four-month journey.
[b]Travels With My Beard will be broadcast in the UK on Thursday 2 February at 2230 GMT on BBC Three. [/b]
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4666132.stm]LINK[/url]
I thought you were sick of beard threads.
[size=7]So hypocritical... :roll: [/size]
for ur info
THIS thread aint about size, style, length, or cost of beards
tis about the prejudices hairy men face in London
do keep up :roll:
did any1 watch? was it on yesterday? did any1 the watching?
What was it like?
_____________- -SupeRazor- -_______________
Some ppl make their goals the stars.
They may live n die n never reach the stars,
but in the darkness of the night, those stars will guide them to their destination.
Becuz they made them in their eyesight
i cant believe i posted up the link and never watched it
had an early night on thursday-
did anyone watch it?
Salaam MuslimSisLilSis,
I watched this documentary and if you would be interested, in my crass opinions, then here is a quick review:
A thirty something Sikh guy (sorry, I can't remember his real name so I'll call him 'bearded guy') wants to see if growing a beard will change how people perceive him.
Bearded guy starts off (for no obvious reason) by going to speakers corner in Hyde Park, and there he meets a sweet looking old lady - who turns out to be a rampant raging racist...
"You are foreign! And you shouldn't be here! You are not where God placed you!" she shouts.
"Erm....Actually, I was born here..." he replies, before heading off around the country to speak to other bearded people and vocal members of the British public.
So, does wearing a beard really prejudice people?
Bearded guy approaches this question in his own unique way:
"I will just grow my beard and see if I'm treated any differently. To make this experiment work, and to ensure that it really is just the beard that affects people's attitudes to me, I'll wear some non-assuming clothes i.e. a dark hoody, a dark baseball cap, dark sunglasses (even though it's not very sunny), oh and a large black rucksack! I should fit right in, let's see if I'm treated any differently..."
Oh my goodness what a surprise he's stopped by Police when all he was doing was fiddling with his secret camera, that was stuffed down his jacket, whilst aimlessly wandering around the [i]Downing Street [/i]area of central London.
"Amazing. I've never been stopped before, when I didn't have a beard! This is outrageous! Just because I have a beard I've been stopped and searched. How prejudiced is this?" (Ahem).
(Then there's a bit about meeting someone who’s invented something - sorry I wasn't really paying attention at this point.)
Next we see bearded guy flogging see-through rucksacks called "Freedom bags" to underground passengers (actually, that's probably the thing that's been invented). One passer by comments,
"Transparent rucksacks?! That's a great idea! That'll put an end to terrorism."
To which bearded guy replies, "Yeah I can't understand why these rucksacks haven't taken off!"
(Err... let me help:
a) People don't like to show the world the contents of what they're carrying - although most muggers and robbers would contest this point.
b) People already own rucksacks that they're happy with and no way would they want to spend more money on a cheap looking, flimsy, see-through rucksack with no 'street' appeal...
([b]EDIT:[/b] Hmmm...I've just heard that a few major supermarket chains are thinking of stocking them...just shows you how much I know :? )
Not content with interviewing the bearded people living here; he then goes off to see Sheikh Omar Bakri in Beirut.
Well, 'see' is a strong word because Omar Bakri seems convinced that this guy is a top Mossad secret-agent out to assassinate him:
"Hello Omar Bakri speaking...You want to meet me?.....err.....Oh, a documentary, sure, why didn’t you say so?.......about.....
beards!?.....erm....."
Eventually, Bakri turns up escorted by about five heavily built bodyguards.
The interview starts off just great; bearded guy took along a mannequin to play a nice game called "Spot the terrorist". He dresses the mannequin up in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap.
"I hoped to catch him off guard by asking him if the mannequin looked like a terrorist." says the voiceover by bearded guy.
"Does this look like a terrorist to you?"
"No, it looks like a homosexual," is Bakri's response.
Things go downhill after that and the meeting ends early...
Bearded guy then goes up to good old Bradford to ask the locals to dress up the mannequin as a terrorist.
The general public consensus (apart from the one individual who tries to make the mannequin look like Osama bin Laden) is that terrorists won't always have beards (gasp) because they’d want to blend into the crowd.
(Then there's a bit on Southall but I had to prepare for an office meeting the next day and so I wasn't paying much attention.
Although it seemed like the people in Southall cause loads of trouble on Eid and so some kind or martial law was enforced this year, to keep them all under control, or something like that.)
Okay, well, to finish off the program bearded guy goes down to the barbers (I think you can guess what happens next):
"Shave the whole darn itchy-thing off! I want to have the 'real me' back.".
Then it ends.
[b]N.B. [/b]This information has been extracted from my fading memory so it may have picked up a few...erm...'embellishments'.
[u]Summary of opinion[/u]
Some documentaries bring out positive feelings amongst viewers and others leave you filled with hatred. I think this one just left me feeling indifferent. So not a great loss if you missed it, although I'm sure it will be repeated.
I hope this helps.
May peace be blessed upon you.
Docendo Discimus
ur the man Mr Paladin
thanks for that
That's one of the funniest reviews I've read in ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice one.
Have you ever been stopped and searched?????????????????????
"Seek and you shall find."
Salaam Guest,
Have I been stopped and searched? Well, not in the UK...
The other year I was in Germany, attending a conference in Munich, and I was stopped in the airport there...
I was travelling with quite a diverse group of people from work. If you're interested I was with:
-A Pakistani guy originally from Lahore (dark skin, about 5ft 9in tall, beardless, cuddly (i.e. slightly overweight) and he had the typical face of a caring Dad).
-A South African guy originally from a town near Johannesburg (white, about 6ft tall, shaved head, mean face, a body packed out with muscles - he looked like an NF squad leader).
-A British Lady originally from Manchester (white, about 5ft 3in tall, spectacled, chubby with a friendly face).
-And me (light skin, about 6ft 1in tall, bearded, with a slightly dopey looking face).
I managed to make it all the way through the airport at Munich and then, just as I approached the final doors. A huge, powerfully built German guy appeared out of nowhere and singled me out from the 'rogues gallery' that I was travelling with.
"Enschuldigung zie bitte, spreken zie Deutsch!" was along the lines of what he asked.
(Don’t worry my team backed me up by carrying on walking and avoiding any eye contact with me - "Oh great, thanks guys" I thought.)
"Erm...No, I don't...I mean, Nicht spreaken...Deutsch gut...erm...(I was desperately trying to remember what little German I knew. The company I worked for only give me a few days notice that I had to go to Germany, and my German phrasebook was safely tucked away in my luggage and of no use to me now anyway).
I was then met with a polite smile before being gently but firmly escorted off to a side room. I then noticed two guys with Heckler and Koch MP10 machine guns (you pick this kind of information up when you play any of the 'Rainbow Six' computer games) heading in our direction.
I then moved slowly (didn't want to make any sudden movements) into a room filled with all sorts of luggage scanning and other equipment and I think there was also one way mirror there, but it was camoflaged into the wall...
Anyway, the big German chap then asked me to show him my passport. I knew this was going to pose problems, as my passport was nearing its expiry date and in it was a photo of a young fresh faced 16 year old without a beard. Yet, there I was now, nearly 10 years later all haggard and bearded and looking nothing like the photo...
All sorts of thoughts were running through my head...
You see, I had made the mistake of listening to 'friends' at work who asked,
"Awww, c'mon, can't we have a quick peek at your passport photo?"
After I caved in to their demands I was rewarded by comments like.
"That looks nothing like you! Man you've aged like anything." (Thanks)
"Dude! that doesn't look like you, they'll think you're an illegal immigrant from Turkey and they'll lock you up - You don't wanna mess with the Germans!" (That's good to know)
"They walk around with machine guns in their airports. They don’t take any chances after the Munich Olympics."(Yes, I’d just noticed the guns)
And the most endearing comment of all,
"You do know that Munich was one of the Strongholds for the Nazi party and they all hate foreigners." (Great!)
However, I don’t know why, after looking at the passport the German guy relaxed…
He then asked a few questions in English and as soon as he found out I was a British citizen travelling from Heathrow, his manner became very friendly and he sincerely apologised for the inconvenience he was causing.
I thought "Hey that’s okay, just make sure I don’t get shot by your friends".
He then escorted me outside the airport to where my friends were standing and waiting for me.
I knew they were relieved to see me safe and sound because the first thing one of them said was,
"Tsk, you’ve made us miss our Taxi."
The others just pleaded ignorance
"Where have you been? Really you were stopped? We didn’t notice? I think it's the beard...."
And, erm...That was it...
No insults, no making me feel small and inadequte, no violence, nothing untoward. It was all handled very professionally really...
There you go, perhaps not quite the drama that you may have liked to hear, but I suppose it’s good to know that these checks can be done in a civil manner that doesn’t demean the person being stopped.
I hope this answers your question.
May peace be blessed upon you.
Docendo Discimus
The Dark Paladin, you make it sound funny but it must have been scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its odd how people get searched when they get into the airport of another country.
I suppose they don't trust the checks in the airport of the country that you're leaving from??????????????????
Maybe they thought you were coming from the middle east instaed of the UK. Thats why they let you off I think........................................
You should do some proper writing as a job. :!:
What you doing at work at the moment???????????????????????
"Seek and you shall find."
lol finally some humour i like with a narrative style, no offense to the rest of you members
offence taken! :o
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
ok you're an exception Prince you make me laugh at you i mean with you
Salaam,
What am I doing at work?
I thought I’d escaped work by coming home and logging onto a non-work related forum.....[size=9](grumble.....mumble....."Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in.".....)[/size]
Well.....Umm.....If you really want to know.....At work, I’m currently having my soul slowly ground down into a pathetic pulp.....
Sorry :(, I’m not feeling so great about work at the moment.....
Do you know what a performance review is?
If you're uninitiated to this macabre art then let me tell you that this is a degrading experience that nearly all employees have to undergo on a yearly basis.
You see, in theory, the performance review process should be a positive interaction between a 'coach' (manager) and an employee, who work together to achieve maximum performance by learning from mistakes and setting achievable targets for the future.
In reality, well, it’s nothing like that.....
It's a process with many stages and potential traps...
Well I've got nothing better to write about so, if you'd be interested, here is what I understand of the 'performance review' process cycle:
[u]Stage 1[/u] - This involves the manager trying to offload all the responsibility for documenting the achievements from the year onto the employee. The employee then, valiantly, tries to get their employer to state what exactly counts as an achievement. The manager then says they'll "Think about it" before coming back a few hours later demanding the achievements for the year and back and forth the whole process goes.....
Someone once explained it to me like this:
"It's like finding a dead squirrel, whilst walking in your garden, and realising that the best solution is to fling it onto your neighbour’s roof. Then, the next day, your inconsiderate neighbour takes it off the roof and flings it back. And back and forth it goes and ultimately nobody's happy, least of all the squirrel.”
[u]Stage 2[/u] - This involves the manager's key strategy of tricking you into confessing your shortcomings; by asking,
"How could you improve yourself? What are your 'developments needs'". Beware, once documented, your 'development needs' suddenly become 'flaws' and will be used to justify your low raise in salary… i.e. 'development needs' turn into the reasons why you don't get a pay rise.
However, I’ve figured out a defence, against the manager's 'development needs trap'. Basically, you need to identify 'development needs' in yourself that don't sound so... bad and are, subsequently, impossible to use against you. For example a couple of good ones are:
Boss: "What skills do you feel you need to develop?"
Me:"I need to learn how to relax, instead of working my typical nineteen-hour day."
[i]or[/i] "In the interests of teamwork, I need to learn to control my immense intelligence in the presence of less gifted colleagues."
Boss: “What would you say your weaknesses are?”
Me: "I’m a workaholic" [i]or[/i] "I push myself too hard" [i]or the classic[/i] "I’m a perfectionist".
[u]Stage 3[/u] - This involves telling your manager what you've actually done during the year. For this, acronyms (words formed from the initial letters of a series of words e.g. BBC is an acronym of [i]B[/i]ritish [i]B[/i]roadcasting [i]C[/i]orporation) are really great. They sound impressive while conveying no useful information whatsoever. I have learned to use them liberally:
[i]Boss:[/i] "Hey! What was your contribution to the project?"
[i]Me:[/i] "Mostly UD and SIM, but I also took on UAT for the CPIL."
[i]Boss:[/i] "Umm...okay. Excellent work."
[u]Stage 4[/u] – This involves you not getting a pay rise anyway.
And that's it - performance reviews, in a nutshell.....
[size=7](5 years of experience in the corporate jungle condensed down into a few lines.)[/size]
P.S. I’m happy that this thread made you smile yashmaki, we must enjoy similar styles of humour
. Don’t suppose you could post something to cheer me up?
Actually, don't worry, I'm tired and I'll be going to sleep soon and then I won't visit this board until the weekend.
May peace be blessed upon you.
Docendo Discimus
Lol i knew u would liven up Revival, dare I say u the muslim version of Dave.
"A true Muslim is thankful to Allah in prosperity, and resigned to His will in adversity."
[url=http//www.guidancemedia.com/videostream.php?id=Burda.mov]Quran[/url]
The southall bit was the best bit in my opinion!
The 'bearded guy' goes to the gurdawara for Diwali and the streets are jam packed and everybody is having so much fun, and then a week later he goes back for eid celebrations and he finds the whole road covered with cops and hardly anyone in sight
There were some cops who were stopping cars and checking ID to let only southall residents in to the town area, and then there was the shopkeepers and restauraunt owners who were angry coz they had no customers on what was supposed to be one of the busiest days of the year!
Bearded guy keeps on asking the cops 'wheres eid' and they were like we dont know whats happened to eid, he questioned them to why there was not this much patrolling on diwali and the answer was coz on eid there is always more trouble!
This is probably true because you always get trouble on eid in southall, wimmy road and green street (with the exception of maybe the last two eids!)
exactley what i was finking ....