Tiger Airways - a cunning predator of the unwary

Budget airlines are tricky creatures. Bless them for bringing extra competition to the market, but my goodness can they be sneaky. AirAsia, who I fly with regularly, have some sneaky tendencies as their web-booking system attempts to sneak a few sneaky hidden charges past you as you blithely click through - but I have found it to be mostly harmless, if a bit too sneaky.

This past weekend I flew Tiger Airways for the first time. And probably the last.

A scan through the interwebs will reveal a variety of complaints - poor service, delays, cancellations, hidden charges - about Tiger, which is based in Singapore but runs many domestic flights throughout Australia. What put me in a foul mood for a sizeable chunk of my weekend was Tiger's online check-in policy. Lots of airlines offer online check-in option these days, and generally it's a good thing which can save you time you might otherwise spend in a queue. But Tiger give it a twist and charge you money if you don't check in online.

Turn up to their counter without having checked in, and they slug you with a fee of $25. According to this news story, it was only $15 barely 8 months ago. (And yes, I wish I hadn't only read that article just now.) Now technically speaking, this information is available when you book the flight, but it's not completely obvious - it's unclear enough for lots of people to miss it, anyway. And given that most people book flights more than a week in advance, it is easy to forget that there even was an online check-in option, which is what happened in my case.

So my very first experience of walking into a Tiger terminal was being hit up for an unexpected $25. I'm sure you'll agree it's not a good first impression. I hadn't even got on board the plane yet and already I was vowing never to fly with them again. And if you are thinking that perhaps I'm the only fool to get caught with this fee, the person at the counter next to me also got stung, as did the couple in front of me on the return leg. I saw the wallets come out, and the looks of bewilderment and disgust on their faces.

Now $25 is not all that much money, you might say. And Tiger has every right to have this as their policy if they wish. Fair enough.

I just don't like businesses that treat their customers with contempt. Because no matter how Tiger's Australian Managing Director might mouth things like "It's about unbundling all the extras and being transparent about all charges to allow customers to tailor their travel needs to their budget", the web check-in is ultimately just a trick to bleed some extra money from unsuspecting customers. And those are customers who will feel cheated, start their journey on a sour note and be less likely to fly with Tiger in the future.


The thing is, Tiger clearly thinks that making that $25 is worth that horrible first impression. And that ethos fills me with contempt. For all AirAsia's hidden charges, they still itemise it for you before you decide to pay, so you can see what you have unknowingly upgraded to, so they are not all that hidden.
I also experienced delays on both of my flights this past weekend. About 30 and 45 minutes, which is not horrible in the scheme of things. But given that Tiger staff are well-known to be obsessively rigid in punishing anyone who turns up even a minute after the designated check-in time, it's kinda poor form for them to routinely have late departure times. If I turn up late for check-in and simply said "I apologise for the inconvenience caused", would their staff accept me with the same shrug of their shoulders with which I am expected to accept their apologetic voiceover?


My colleague and his family once flew Tiger to his holiday destination, and for the return journey turned up to the check-in counter 5 minutes late (he'd rushed there from a medical clinic because he'd been bleeding out of his ear). No amount of negotiation or begging would convince the Tiger staff to let them check in, which meant their tickets were wasted. (I'll bet as well the plane was delayed more than 5 minutes, btw.) To get home in a timely fashion, they had to purchase tickets with another airline, which cost my colleague over $1000 extra. Now, it is not uncommon for airlines to enforce this cut-off time with some rigidity, but you have to wonder. They didn't really gain anything by forbidding these people from boarding - the seats had already been paid for, and now they would just be empty. But the cost to them is that one family will certainly never fly with them again, and each member will undoubtedly spread the bad word to friends and acquaintances (unfortunately, not to me - I only heard this story after venting my own annoyance with the airline).

It seems to be terrible business practice, but one that is totally consistent with Tiger's way of doing things.
I'll say in fairness that while a couple of the Tiger staff I dealt with on the plane and on the ground were surly, the rest seemed pleasant. And Tiger does still fill a purpose - it has a slight lowering effect on the prices of other airlines through the power of competition.

All budget airline tickets need to be purchased with care - sometimes it does pay to read the fine print. As I said, they are a tricky species. But Tiger seems to be vying for the title of the trickiest of them all. Perhaps, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for after all. Caveat emptor.

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Guess who's Asian? (Part 8)

More famous folks you may not have known were Asian. Well, a bit Asian.

Ok I'll admit: given that I'm not a teenage girl, I have only a very vague idea of who Chad Michael Murray is. Apparently he's hot or something and he was on One Tree Hill. Oh and his mother is half-Japanese.

Seen that show True Beauty? If not, don't rush, it's one of those programs where self-absorbed good-looking people compete to see who can be the biggest douche. Or something. Charged with bringing this rabble to the masses is former Miss Teen USA and MTV TRL host Vanessa Minnillo. She's Filipino on her mother's side, and Italian and Irish on her father's.

Remember that song Sway? A big hit in Australia and New Zealand in the late 90s that also found its way onto the American Pie soundtrack. A beautiful tune too. Upon seeing it's New Zealand-born singer, Bic Runga, I was intrigued by her appearance? Asian or Islander? Turns out she's both, product of a Maori father and Chinese Malaysian mother.

I'll admit I don't quite "get" Nicki Minaj, but the rap star has won 7 BET Hip-hop Awards and been nominated for a Grammy, so someone is obviously digging it. Don't mind me, I'm getting old. Born in Trinidad, she is of mixed Indian- and Afro-Trinidadian parentage, although the exact details seem to vary all over the interwebs. Apparently there's some Chinese in there as well, but I dunno. The Indian is on her Dad's side anyway, although he may be part black. Her real name is Onika Tanya Maraj.

One of my very favourite songs from the last few years is the effervescent faux-British pop gem I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you by The Black Kids. Turns out their dangerously handsome and excellently named lead singer Reggie Youngblood and his foxy sister, keyboardist and vocalist Ali Youngblood, are Blasian. Half black, half Filipino, and they're from Florida. None of which explains why Reggie sounds like such a dead ringer for Robert Smith of The Cure, of course. Check the song out here, it really is pretty damn awesome if you like that fey indie kid sort of thing.

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Random funny food things

You may remember that Jamie Oliver once had a show called The Naked Chef. Given that he is a man and never actually got naked, it was clearly seen as a hugely wasted opportunity by some canny Hong Kong TV execs.

A Hong Kong adult channel is set to debut a cooking show headlined by a nude host who will prepare Cantonese dishes wearing a transparent apron — an apparent bid to encourage more men to cook.
Host Flora Cheung will start each 30-minute show shopping for fresh ingredients in the city's famous wet markets, undressing once she is back in the privacy of her studio kitchen, the South China Morning Post reported. Cheung, who admits she has never worked in a restaurant kitchen, said she hopes the risque show will draw more men into the kitchen. The first episode is set to air later this month.
"I have always liked cooking and I thought I should share (the) enjoyment with more people," the 26-year-old told the Post.
"Most men don't like to cook, but I want to get them interested ... From shopping to cooking, it's the whole shebang," Cheung added.
The host promised that her tailor-made, transparent apron won't leave much to the imagination. "It covers pretty much everything but hides nothing," she was quoted as saying.
Producer Jesse Au told the paper that the show may spawn similar offerings with nude hosts cooking up a range of Asian cuisines: "This could be an endless series if it proves popular."(Source)

Note that it's not about mindless titillation at all - it's aimed at encouraging men to cook. See? All about the betterment of society. How caring of them.



Speaking of sexy cookery, ever watch Nigella Bites? I always wondered if she really meant to make everything sound like a double-entendre, or if it was just my imagination. This hilarious video makes clear that it was purposeful.


Meanwhile, a short burst of foodie goodness from The Onion:


And a look back at the clever British series Posh Nosh, which has a nice poke at the elitist aspects of foodie culture.

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Viking influence on the English language

The language we now know as English is a product of the numerous invasions of warlike peoples into the British Isles. The Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians were all Germanic-speaking peoples whose original territories stretched from Holland to the Danish peninsula, and who took over England in the early 5th century AD. Frisian (spoken today only in coastal and island areas of the Netherlands) remains the closest living relative to English. What we now know as Old English is a hybrid of these tongues with traces of Latin, brought by the previous Roman rulers of Britain.

In the 8th century, Britain faced another invasion of an aggressive Germanic people - the Vikings. Some Norse raiders came from Sweden and Norway, but the vast majority who arrived in Britain were from Denmark. Soon, raiding was followed by settlement along the coasts and rivers, and overthrow of local rulers. By the late 9th century, Viking descendants controlled virtually the whole eastern half of England, an area which came to be known as the Danelaw.

Danish rule really only lasted until 954, yet this period would leave a lasting impact on the English language.

Many English words beginning with th originate from Old Norse, although the sound did already exist in Old English. Examples:
thrall (slave)
thrift
thwart
thrust
they
there
then

Likewise, most English words starting with sk are Norse in origin, such as:
skein
skirt
sky
skill
skate
ski
skull
skin
skid
skittle

Given the seagoing ways and cold northern homeland of the Vikings, it makes sense that they brought into English a number of words that reflected their lifestyle and origins. Aside from the aforementioned skate and ski, there is also:
shoal
roe
walrus
sled, sledge
sleet
wake (the nautical term)
tern
shingle
geyser
gill
gale
floe
fog
bilge
bulwark

Other Norse-derived words include anger, ugly, knife, troll, boulder, slang, tackle, whore, keg, husband, egg, bun, clown, cake, freckle, window, gate, and many more. There are some which are possibly Norse in origin but are more ambiguous; because Old Norse and Old English are Germanic in origin, they share many similar words, so it is not always easy to tell which was a Norse introduction and which is simply a similar word of Anglo-Saxon provenance.

NAMES
We owe many common English names to the Danish invaders. Eric descends from the common Norse name Erik or Eirik. Garth comes from the Old Norse word for a forest clearing. Howard appears to be a variation of the Scandinavian Havard.
Probably the most common Norse contribution to English names is the addition of the patronymic -son at the end of a word. A patronymic is a name component that indicates the person's paternal ancestry, and it is common in different forms throughout Europe. So Andersson is the son of Anders, Williamson is William's son, and so on. (Parallels are the Spanish -ez, Serbian -ic, Russian -ov, Ukrainian -enko, Scottish Mac- and Irish O'.)
Numerous place names are Norse in origin too.
The suffix -by means yard, farmstead or village. This is seen in place names such as Grimsby, Normanby, Rugby, Selby, Barnby and Sotheby. This is also the origin of the term by-law, meaning the law of a local area.
Thwaite means "meadow" in Old Norse and appears in place names such as Braithwaite and Langthwaite.
Thorpe is another Norse name for village, and is seen in place names like Winthorpe and Scunthorpe.

The names Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are named after the Old Germanic gods that both the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings believed in - Tiw (Norse Tyr), Wodin (Odin) and Frige (Freyja) . But they are from Old English and thus predate Viking contact. However, Thursday does bear the stamp of Norse influence. In Old English it was called Thunorsdag, named after the god Thunor (meaning Thunder). It is very similar to the German equivalent, Donnerstag. However, the Danish referred to Thunor as Thor, and thus it became known as Thorsdag in Danelaw, which crept into the language of the rest of England. Over time Thorsdag became Thursday.

The Normans, who were later to conquer England and have an even more profound effect on its language, were of Viking stock (their name Norman means "north men"). The Normans were Vikings from Denmark and elsewhere who settled in Northern France and adopted the local language and culture, but they did contribute quite a few words into the vocabulary of Modern French, particularly nautical terms.

The Norse influence in England is more prominent in the Northeastern areas that were part of the old Danelaw. Yorkshire is the most obvious example, where Norse words live on in local slang; arse is the example of a Norse-derived word that was originally Yorkshire dialect slang, which has subsequently passed into the broader English vernacular. There are hundred of place names in Yorkshire with -by and -thorpe, and the accent bears a distinct Norse stamp as well. There's a good example of this here at the British Library's sound recordings. You can also check the next couple of clips for comparison. Don't worry about the content - the first is a interview with two footballers in Danish, the second is a caricature of the Sheffield accent (South Yorkshire). Maybe you can see some similarities.







See also:

English words of Indian origin

Cooties in your Poontang: Filipino words in the English language

How language tells the history of Malaysia and Indonesia

How Muslim names evolve across the world

Pilaf, paella and pulao - how a rice dish conquered the world

So, who really invented noodles? China or Italy?

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Ughh... and it was hairy...

In case you thought the Japanese had cornered the market for perverse and bizarre game shows, Denmark's Total Blackout proves otherwise.



But seriously, if you were a contestant, wouldn't you have foreseen this eventuality straight away upon learning the premise of the show?
You also have to wonder what the guy did to ensure his ass was at just the right level of stankiness.

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Top Gear provokes the ire of Mexicans

The hosts of the BBC's popular motoring program Top Gear found themselves under fire this week after some disparaging comments about Mexicans.
The actual offending footage of Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson is a bit hard to find but you should be able to see it here.

Hammond: Cars reflect national characteristics, don't they, so German cars are very well built and ruthlessly efficient, Italian cars are a bit flamboyant and quick, a Mexican car's just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight... leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus, with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat.

May: It is interesting, isn't it, because they can't do food, the Mexicans, can they? Because it's all like sick with cheese on it, I mean...

Hammond: Refried sick!

May: Yeah, refried sick.

Hammond: I'm sorry, but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican: 'oh, no'.

Clarkson: No, it'd be brilliant… because you could just go straight back to sleep again.

They also joked that they were unlikely to get many complaints from the Mexican ambassador because he'd probably be snoozing in his chair. Snoozing or not, the ambassador did hear it, and made an official complaint.

And yes, you did hear that right: that was James May claiming that Mexicans "can't do food". May is British. Just think about that for a second.

Perhaps the worst comment of the lot, which surprisingly hasn't got that much attention, comes from Richard Hammond. "Imagine waking up and remembering that you're Mexican," he says, making a disgusted face.

That so offended Manchester United's striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez that he participated in a campaign with PowerAde, that turns the comment on its head. Next to an image of the proud Hernandez reads, "Yes, imagine waking up and remembering that you are Mexican." Beneath it reads, "Less prejudice. More exercise."

The BBC have duly apologised, but also said that remarks centring on stereotypes of various nationalities are part of British humour.

I don't necessarily have a problem with that in theory. Jokes about various ethnic stereotypes can be and often are funny. But there's only a certain extent to which you should take them, and I would certainly say that the Top Gear hosts stepped way over the line.

It's notable also that this is hardly an isolated incident. There's plenty of form there, and it wouldn't be overly cynical to assume that it is mostly about attention-seeking. It was after all a scripted segment, not an impromptu riff.

Jeremy Clarkson, for example, has been referred to as a "dazzling hero of political correctness", which is certainly one way of putting it. In one incident in 2007, he found himself being criticised in the Malaysian Parliament after describing the Malaysian Perodua Kelisa car as one of the worst in the world, claiming its name was like a disease and suggested it was built in jungles by people who wear leaves for shoes. He then attacked the car with a sledgehammer and then blew it up.

Should Mexicans, and any other ethnicity offended by Top Gear and its presenters, just grow a thicker skin and deal with it? Is it any worse than the jokes British comedians make about Americans and Australians and Scots and Northerners and Welsh and French people? Or for that matter, the jokes Australians make about Brits and New Zealanders, and so on?

And at what point does someone cease being "cheekily irreverent" and "politically incorrect" and just become an offensive tosser?

I cannot express it any more eloquently than another British comic, Steve Coogan, who confesses to being a big fan of the show, and has appeared on it, but wrote in The Guardian that the hosts have well overstepped the mark this time.

If I say anything remotely racist or sexist as Alan Partridge, for example, the joke is abundantly clear. We are laughing at a lack of judgment and ignorance. With Top Gear it is three rich, middle-aged men laughing at poor Mexicans. Brave, groundbreaking stuff, eh?

There is a strong ethical dimension to the best comedy. Not only does it avoid reinforcing prejudices, it actively challenges them. Put simply, in comedy, as in life, we ought to think before we speak. This wasn't one of those occasions. In fact, the comments were about as funny as a cold sweat followed by shooting pains down the left arm. In fact, if I can borrow from the Wildean wit of Richard Hammond, the comic approach was "lazy", "feckless" and "flatulent".

Richard has his tongue so far down the back of Jeremy's trousers he could forge a career as the back end of a pantomime horse. His attempt to foster some Clarkson-like maverick status with his "edgy" humour is truly tragic. He reminds you of the squirt at school as he hangs round Clarkson the bully, as if to say, "I'm with him". Meanwhile, James May stands at the back holding their coats as they beat up the boy with the stutter.

It's not entirely their fault, of course. Part of the blame must lie with what some like to call the "postmodern" reaction to overzealous political correctness. Sometimes, it's true, things need a shakeup; orthodoxies need to be challenged. But this sort of ironic approach has been a licence for any halfwit to vent the prejudices they'd been keeping in the closet since Love Thy Neighbour was taken off the air.

...

The Lads have this strange notion that if they are being offensive it bestows on them a kind of anti-establishment aura of coolness; in fact, like their leather jackets and jeans, it is uber-conservative (which isn't cool).

Here's another perspective on Top Gear's brand of "edgy" humour, which precedes this particular incident.



See also: Racial humour - is it ever OK?

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Don't get a divorce, get a donut

This is another from the I Love Local Commercials series from comedians Rhett and Link. It's funny, adorable and brilliantly low-budget.


The story behind the scenes is also worth watching.


See also their ad for The Red House - it's where white people and black people buy furniture.

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