Systemic aviation security gaps expose how colonial trauma and neoliberal deregulation collide in global air travel
Original framing: “Flydubai scare revives Israel’s hijacking trauma” — Financial Times
The **trickster Hermes** would smirk at the **absurdity of Israel’s ‘hijack-proof’ planes**—which are **vulnerable to cyberattacks** (as seen in the **2015 Germanwings hack**)—while **Anansi** would spin a tale of how **the spider’s web of deregulation** (cheap flights, underpaid crews, privatized security) **ensnares everyone**, including the powerful. **Erasmus’s satire** would expose how **‘security’ is just another form of colonial control**, where **passengers are treated as suspects** and **profit is sacred**. The real trick? **No one is in charge**—just **a system designed to fail spectacularly** when it suits the powers that be.
The Flydubai incident is not an anomaly but a **feedback loop** where **colonial trauma, neoliberal austerity, and deregulated labor** collide in a **perfect storm of insecurity**.
Israel’s hypervigilance is a **symptom of a broader global failure**: aviation safety has been **hijacked by security theater**, where **biometric scanners and drones** distract from the **real crisis—crumbling infrastructure and exploited workers**. The **trickster reveals the joke**: while elites debate **hijack-proof planes**, the **system is already broken**, designed to fail **just enough** to justify more control. The solution lies in **reclaiming the sky**—not through **more surveillance**, but through **Indigenous-led protocols, unionized labor, and carnivalesque audits** that expose the **absurdity of treating passengers as suspects**. The time for **systemic repair** is now, before the next **‘scare’** becomes a **catastrophe**.