6 ms·

The 15-Year Layover (2003)

57 points by kawera 7y ago

ducttape12 7y ago
Some may write him off as a crazy person, but he sounds like a broken man who just gave up. Life fell apart and no where to call home...
- dougmwne 7y ago
  So it goes with many homeless and mentally ill. Quite a reminder that our very sanity depends on the kindness and support of the people around us.
  - MaupitiBlue 7y ago
    Or the willpower to get up and go to work.
    - groby_b 7y ago
      This is, pardon the french, puritan bullshit. Without the kindness and support of the people around us, we all fall apart, sooner or later. Humans evolved as a social species, and if that social component is removed, it has grave effects. There's a reason solitary confinement is chosen as a particularly brutal punishment[1]. There's a reason people with less social contacts have, in general, a shorter life span[2]. "The willpower to get up and go to work" comes, at least partially, from being embedded in a community. [1] https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/CCJ%20102716%20Item%203%20Dr%20Grassian%20Psychopathological%20Effects%20of%20Solitary%20Confinement.pdf https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/CCJ%20102716%20Item%203%20D... [2] https://www.nature.com/news/social-isolation-shortens-lifespan-1.12673 https://www.nature.com/news/social-isolation-shortens-lifesp...
      - vorg 7y ago
        > There's a reason people with less social contacts have, in general, a shorter life span Or people who are obviously going to die earlier will get less social contacts -- the causation could be in either direction. Perhaps they don't form the social contacts because they don't want to make others who get to know them be the ones to suffer sadness when they die first, or they don't want to burden others with feeling they should look after them when they get sick first. Or perhaps it's the others who don't want to risk the sadness or incur the burden.
        JakeTheAndroid 7y ago
        > Perhaps they don't form the social contacts because they don't want to make others who get to know them be the ones to suffer sadness when they die first Are you suggesting that people with low social interactions either consciously or subconsciously are aware they have a lower lifespan? That seems like a greater leap in faith than people experiencing negative side effects from lack of social interaction.
        dahfizz 7y ago
        From the comment you're replying to: > people who are obviously going to die earlier... Your parent was giving examples based on people who are near death. If sick old people know they are near the end, they may be less likely to spend precious time and energy chasing after new friends. The point is that we don't know the causality. The study is specifically about old people too, so this seems like a plausible explanation.
        lazyasciiart 7y ago
        You don’t have to just spitball this, people have already put effort into studying it and have found that it is true even when controlling for other health factors https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/well/live/having-friends-is-good-for-you.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/well/live/having-friends-...
      - reallydude 7y ago
        > This is, pardon the french, puritan bullshit. The sentiment of "the willpower to get up and go to work" is not puritan bullshit. It's a turn of phrase to indicate an adult responsibility of personal agency. Many people are too lazy (and/or afraid) to better their lives - which, put another way, is "putting in the work". His mental state may have produced a myopic goal/methodolgy that rationalized being trapped in the airport, ie Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. Given some effort and an uncertain future of a different vein, he could have left for any number of destinations with panhandled money, year over year. The statement has nothing to do with community, per se, as the work referenced would be through the greater international community.
        groby_b 7y ago
        You're really not understanding that living in an airport is a total disconnect from your community? Really? I am sorry.
dougmwne 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri
silverfox17 7y ago
There is a movie that loosely related to this, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. I'd say it was a pretty good movie, I liked it. The man this article is about also wrote a book, but I can't thing of the title off the top of my head.
- droithomme 7y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Man-Alfred-Merhan/dp/0552152749 https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Man-Alfred-Merhan/dp/0552152...
w0mbat 7y ago
He left the airport in 2006, lives in Paris now.
ericmcer 7y ago
The author attempts to extract some higher spiritual meaning from the ramblings of someone who is mentally ill. This reminds me of a story about a reporter seeking out hermits who been living alone for decades. Searching for higher truths and enlightenment, all he found was varying degrees of alcoholism and mental illness.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
  There is still a moral in those stories. Unfortunately, they are rather depressing.
rdiddly 7y ago
Took me a while to figure it out, but it appears every instance of the letters 'xe' has been removed. Anyone care to guess why? a herd of red on (oxen) Lufthansa bos (boxes) his day's greatest ertion (exertion - that's when I caught on) ercising his jaw muscle (exercising)
- skykooler 7y ago
  "xe" has occasionally been used as a gender-neutral pronoun. Possibly at some point GQ changed their style guide with regards to it, and some (presumably well-meaning) editor used a malformed search and replace on it.
  - zerocrates 7y ago
    This makes some sort of sense but then wouldn't we be seeing "etheyrtion" instead of "ertion"? Even assuming a find/replace properly targeted the word "xe" we don't have any "replace" happening, which doesn't really track.
- kbutler 7y ago
  Not every instance: next context exterior exhaustion exploded FedEx
  - mankyd 7y ago
    ex vs xe.
    - kbutler 7y ago
      Woops, yes, transposed when I was trying to determine when it may have been introduced. archive.org has only "red on" (archive since 2015, though the article is dated September 2003). google books finds a 2016 book with this article containing "red oxen". And gq.com elsewhere has the word "oxen" September 2015: https://www.gq.com/gallery/andrew-moore-photography-book-dirt-meridian https://www.gq.com/gallery/andrew-moore-photography-book-dir.... Earliest instance I found was February 2003 https://www.gq.com/story/michael-paterniti-surfing-2003 https://www.gq.com/story/michael-paterniti-surfing-2003 "ercise". There were many others, through at least May 2015 https://www.gq.com/story/old-people-are-robbing-more-banks https://www.gq.com/story/old-people-are-robbing-more-banks "safe deposit bos" Failed to post another edit: Missing-xe disease affects more conde nast publications in that time frame than just GQ as well - for example, teenvogue talks about "ercise" a lot, including https://www.teenvogue.com/story/simple-ways-to-excercise https://www.teenvogue.com/story/simple-ways-to-excercise (note the "exCercise")
_bxg1 7y ago
The modern world is so strange. What a horrifying story.
kelnos 7y ago
This story just makes me feel sad, and pessimistic for humanity's future. The idea that it was "just okay" for a guy to live in an airport for over 15 years, and lose his freedom of movement and autonomy just because he didn't have papers proving he was born in a particular place... it's just profoundly sad. It just reminds me of how incredibly petty, violent, and cruel humans are as a whole. We're all people, each deserving life and freedom, and our need to divide ourselves into different, antagonistic tribes is our greatest weakness. And if you can't prove that you're a member of a tribe, you're screwed.
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  It's one of the many symptoms of overpopulation. It's also likely to only get worse especially with climate change and the massive population movements it'll cause. The Syrian civil war and resulting refugee crisis is arguably an early glimpse of this [1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links...
- mettamage 7y ago
  While I don't have sources, I think it wasn't as simple as that. I've read that Alfred did have some chances to go outside, but he simply didn't take them. All I'm saying is: from what I remember what I've read, it didn't seem to be the case that he was locked up. He kind of willingly let it happen. Whether that is actually true is another story as I can't remember the source where I read it from. In any case, I do think there's more to this story than this submission is showing (after skimming through it).
  - defap 7y ago
    According to Snopes [1], Belgium did eventually offer him residency — which he declined — after a ridiculous 7-year impasse where Belgium said he could only retrieve his lost refugee documents in person but France said he couldn’t leave the airport without said documents. [1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stranded-at-the-airport/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stranded-at-the-airport/
solidsnack9000 7y ago
"I'm afraid the sad fact is that he's now completely destroyed." A conclusion it is hard to deny.
nwatson 7y ago
Is the subject of the story still alive, or did officials sample his tissue/DNA at death? If so it may now be possible to track down his mother in Glasgow ... a Scottish nurse (?) working in pre-revolution Iran, I imagine, wouldn't be so hard to narrow down.
- krallja 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri Sir Alfred is still alive, and left the airport in 2006. His life doesn’t seem much better now, despite having been paid a quarter million dollars for his life story.
JetSpiegel 7y ago
This kind of thing keeps happening, it's not as far fetched as it seems. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46547794 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46547794 This Syrian guy was in Kuala Lumpur airport for 7 months.

57 points by kawera 7y ago

Some may write him off as a crazy person, but he sounds like a broken man who just gave up. Life fell apart and no where to call home...

dougmwne 7y ago
So it goes with many homeless and mentally ill. Quite a reminder that our very sanity depends on the kindness and support of the people around us.
- MaupitiBlue 7y ago
  Or the willpower to get up and go to work.
  - groby_b 7y ago
    This is, pardon the french, puritan bullshit. Without the kindness and support of the people around us, we all fall apart, sooner or later. Humans evolved as a social species, and if that social component is removed, it has grave effects. There's a reason solitary confinement is chosen as a particularly brutal punishment[1]. There's a reason people with less social contacts have, in general, a shorter life span[2]. "The willpower to get up and go to work" comes, at least partially, from being embedded in a community. [1] https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/CCJ%20102716%20Item%203%20Dr%20Grassian%20Psychopathological%20Effects%20of%20Solitary%20Confinement.pdf https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/CCJ%20102716%20Item%203%20D... [2] https://www.nature.com/news/social-isolation-shortens-lifespan-1.12673 https://www.nature.com/news/social-isolation-shortens-lifesp...
    - vorg 7y ago
      > There's a reason people with less social contacts have, in general, a shorter life span Or people who are obviously going to die earlier will get less social contacts -- the causation could be in either direction. Perhaps they don't form the social contacts because they don't want to make others who get to know them be the ones to suffer sadness when they die first, or they don't want to burden others with feeling they should look after them when they get sick first. Or perhaps it's the others who don't want to risk the sadness or incur the burden.
      - JakeTheAndroid 7y ago
        > Perhaps they don't form the social contacts because they don't want to make others who get to know them be the ones to suffer sadness when they die first Are you suggesting that people with low social interactions either consciously or subconsciously are aware they have a lower lifespan? That seems like a greater leap in faith than people experiencing negative side effects from lack of social interaction.
        dahfizz 7y ago
        From the comment you're replying to: > people who are obviously going to die earlier... Your parent was giving examples based on people who are near death. If sick old people know they are near the end, they may be less likely to spend precious time and energy chasing after new friends. The point is that we don't know the causality. The study is specifically about old people too, so this seems like a plausible explanation.
      - lazyasciiart 7y ago
        You don’t have to just spitball this, people have already put effort into studying it and have found that it is true even when controlling for other health factors https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/well/live/having-friends-is-good-for-you.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/well/live/having-friends-...
    - reallydude 7y ago
      > This is, pardon the french, puritan bullshit. The sentiment of "the willpower to get up and go to work" is not puritan bullshit. It's a turn of phrase to indicate an adult responsibility of personal agency. Many people are too lazy (and/or afraid) to better their lives - which, put another way, is "putting in the work". His mental state may have produced a myopic goal/methodolgy that rationalized being trapped in the airport, ie Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. Given some effort and an uncertain future of a different vein, he could have left for any number of destinations with panhandled money, year over year. The statement has nothing to do with community, per se, as the work referenced would be through the greater international community.
      - groby_b 7y ago
        You're really not understanding that living in an airport is a total disconnect from your community? Really? I am sorry.

dougmwne 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri

silverfox17 7y ago

There is a movie that loosely related to this, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. I'd say it was a pretty good movie, I liked it. The man this article is about also wrote a book, but I can't thing of the title off the top of my head.

droithomme 7y ago
https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Man-Alfred-Merhan/dp/0552152749 https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Man-Alfred-Merhan/dp/0552152...

w0mbat 7y ago

He left the airport in 2006, lives in Paris now.

ericmcer 7y ago

The author attempts to extract some higher spiritual meaning from the ramblings of someone who is mentally ill. This reminds me of a story about a reporter seeking out hermits who been living alone for decades. Searching for higher truths and enlightenment, all he found was varying degrees of alcoholism and mental illness.

HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
There is still a moral in those stories. Unfortunately, they are rather depressing.

rdiddly 7y ago

Took me a while to figure it out, but it appears every instance of the letters 'xe' has been removed. Anyone care to guess why? a herd of red on (oxen) Lufthansa bos (boxes) his day's greatest ertion (exertion - that's when I caught on) ercising his jaw muscle (exercising)

skykooler 7y ago
"xe" has occasionally been used as a gender-neutral pronoun. Possibly at some point GQ changed their style guide with regards to it, and some (presumably well-meaning) editor used a malformed search and replace on it.
- zerocrates 7y ago
  This makes some sort of sense but then wouldn't we be seeing "etheyrtion" instead of "ertion"? Even assuming a find/replace properly targeted the word "xe" we don't have any "replace" happening, which doesn't really track.
kbutler 7y ago
Not every instance: next context exterior exhaustion exploded FedEx
- mankyd 7y ago
  ex vs xe.
  - kbutler 7y ago
    Woops, yes, transposed when I was trying to determine when it may have been introduced. archive.org has only "red on" (archive since 2015, though the article is dated September 2003). google books finds a 2016 book with this article containing "red oxen". And gq.com elsewhere has the word "oxen" September 2015: https://www.gq.com/gallery/andrew-moore-photography-book-dirt-meridian https://www.gq.com/gallery/andrew-moore-photography-book-dir.... Earliest instance I found was February 2003 https://www.gq.com/story/michael-paterniti-surfing-2003 https://www.gq.com/story/michael-paterniti-surfing-2003 "ercise". There were many others, through at least May 2015 https://www.gq.com/story/old-people-are-robbing-more-banks https://www.gq.com/story/old-people-are-robbing-more-banks "safe deposit bos" Failed to post another edit: Missing-xe disease affects more conde nast publications in that time frame than just GQ as well - for example, teenvogue talks about "ercise" a lot, including https://www.teenvogue.com/story/simple-ways-to-excercise https://www.teenvogue.com/story/simple-ways-to-excercise (note the "exCercise")

_bxg1 7y ago

The modern world is so strange. What a horrifying story.

kelnos 7y ago

This story just makes me feel sad, and pessimistic for humanity's future. The idea that it was "just okay" for a guy to live in an airport for over 15 years, and lose his freedom of movement and autonomy just because he didn't have papers proving he was born in a particular place... it's just profoundly sad. It just reminds me of how incredibly petty, violent, and cruel humans are as a whole. We're all people, each deserving life and freedom, and our need to divide ourselves into different, antagonistic tribes is our greatest weakness. And if you can't prove that you're a member of a tribe, you're screwed.

newnewpdro 7y ago
It's one of the many symptoms of overpopulation. It's also likely to only get worse especially with climate change and the massive population movements it'll cause. The Syrian civil war and resulting refugee crisis is arguably an early glimpse of this [1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links...
mettamage 7y ago
While I don't have sources, I think it wasn't as simple as that. I've read that Alfred did have some chances to go outside, but he simply didn't take them. All I'm saying is: from what I remember what I've read, it didn't seem to be the case that he was locked up. He kind of willingly let it happen. Whether that is actually true is another story as I can't remember the source where I read it from. In any case, I do think there's more to this story than this submission is showing (after skimming through it).
- defap 7y ago
  According to Snopes [1], Belgium did eventually offer him residency — which he declined — after a ridiculous 7-year impasse where Belgium said he could only retrieve his lost refugee documents in person but France said he couldn’t leave the airport without said documents. [1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stranded-at-the-airport/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stranded-at-the-airport/

solidsnack9000 7y ago

"I'm afraid the sad fact is that he's now completely destroyed." A conclusion it is hard to deny.

nwatson 7y ago

Is the subject of the story still alive, or did officials sample his tissue/DNA at death? If so it may now be possible to track down his mother in Glasgow ... a Scottish nurse (?) working in pre-revolution Iran, I imagine, wouldn't be so hard to narrow down.

krallja 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri Sir Alfred is still alive, and left the airport in 2006. His life doesn’t seem much better now, despite having been paid a quarter million dollars for his life story.

JetSpiegel 7y ago

This kind of thing keeps happening, it's not as far fetched as it seems. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46547794 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46547794 This Syrian guy was in Kuala Lumpur airport for 7 months.