4 ms·

Unrelated to facial recognition: I'm a brazilian, flying from Casablanca, Morocco to Lisbon, Portugal, and I dropped my passport while on the plane. The minute

Unrelated to facial recognition: I'm a brazilian, flying from Casablanca, Morocco to Lisbon, Portugal, and I dropped my passport while on the plane. The minute I descend from the plane I realize it and inform the crew and airport security. They tell me to wait. Nobody goes to the plane to try and find my passport. I get detained in the airport prison with mostly illegal migrants. The plane flies away to Madrid. I can't leave without a passport. There's a small 8 square meter room where more than 10 people sleep, including someone with a contagious respiratory disease (this was pre-covid). Couldn't sleep and was up all night reading The Process, Franz Kafka, which was funnily available in prison hall. Had to bribe the police officer with a collector's plastic Clipper lighter for him to allow me to smoke a single cigarette. Was able to get out after 24h, but only because my brother had a friend who worked on the plane operator company, and was able to detect my passport inside the plane at Madrid, and arrange it to be given to a pilot who would be flying to Lisbon the next morning. It was so traumatic that when leaving they asked me if all my belongings were on my backpack (which had been confiscated upon arrestal) and I didn't realize police officers had actually stolen my sunglasses and an iPhone. It's not exactly a techno dystopia. It's a full on dystopia turning to tech.

effingwewt 5y ago
Holy shit. Growing up in a super small border town between Texas and Mexico, I've seen, heard, and been part of some crazy and terrifying stuff, but nothing compares to this. I felt terrified just imagining what you went through. Obligatory glad you made it out, but seriously- had any one thing gone wrong, who knows what could have happened in the end. I used to sit and wonder about the future. As in how wonderful it will be and what amazing things we will accomplish. I used to fear dying because I wouldn't get to see any of it, much less the end of the story. Somewhere along the way I began to fear the future, to the point I didn't want to have children, I felt it unethical to knowingly bring an innocent life into that kind of terror. Professor Farnsworth said it best- 'I don't want to live on this planet anymore.' Edited to add- when I was young I caught wanderlust pretty hard and traveled most of the US, some of Mexico and Canada. I dreamt of visiting other countries and continents and was hugely disappointed to not find a way before having a family and obligations. All that went out the window about the time I started watching Locked Up Abroad. Brokedown Palace had nothing on those stories.

effingwewt 5y ago

Holy shit. Growing up in a super small border town between Texas and Mexico, I've seen, heard, and been part of some crazy and terrifying stuff, but nothing compares to this. I felt terrified just imagining what you went through. Obligatory glad you made it out, but seriously- had any one thing gone wrong, who knows what could have happened in the end. I used to sit and wonder about the future. As in how wonderful it will be and what amazing things we will accomplish. I used to fear dying because I wouldn't get to see any of it, much less the end of the story. Somewhere along the way I began to fear the future, to the point I didn't want to have children, I felt it unethical to knowingly bring an innocent life into that kind of terror. Professor Farnsworth said it best- 'I don't want to live on this planet anymore.' Edited to add- when I was young I caught wanderlust pretty hard and traveled most of the US, some of Mexico and Canada. I dreamt of visiting other countries and continents and was hugely disappointed to not find a way before having a family and obligations. All that went out the window about the time I started watching Locked Up Abroad. Brokedown Palace had nothing on those stories.