December 20, 2016

"Pakistan's national airline has been mocked after a goat was sacrificed to ward off bad luck following one of the country's worst air disasters."

"Pictures went viral showing PIA ground staff slaughtering a black goat next to an ATR-42 aircraft which was about to leave for a domestic flight."
In Pakistan killing a black goat is supposed by many to ward off evil....

A Pakistan International Airlines spokesman was swift to point out the goat had been slaughtered by employees on their own initiative and the airline management had no hand in it.
Here's the photo.

57 comments:

traditionalguy said...

If it works, do it. Sullenberger used seagulls by the flock. And I hear the 747s need more than one goat.

Amexpat said...

Before laughing, think about why there isn't a row 13 on US planes.

mccullough said...

Get rid of the Salfists

walter said...

So..how many flights per day?

Fernandinande said...

Praying isn't as messy.

Earnest Prole said...

“Arab travel agents had roamed the remotest villages, inveigling the natives to squeeze the price of an airplane ticket out of their pitiful possessions in order to make the magical pilgrimage to Mecca that took a few hours rather than thirty or forty days. Many of them had never laid eyes on an airplane. They arrived at the airports with live lambs, sheep, goats, and chickens. No power on earth could make them part with their animals before boarding the aircraft. They realized the flights were short, but what were they supposed to do for food once they got to Mecca? So the livestock went right into the cabins with their owners, bleating, cackling, urinating, defecating at will. Sheets of plastic were put in the cabins, covering the seats and the floors. So man and beast traveled to Mecca shank to flank, flying nomads on a plastic desert. Some of the passengers immediately set about arranging sticks and brush in the aisles to build fires to prepare dinner. One of the most urgent tasks of the crewmen was discouraging this practice.”

-- Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities

n.n said...

Abortions committed in public spaces are even unacceptable in liberal societies. One step forward, two steps back. Unqualified progress.

TWW said...

Guess they're serving Cabrito for dinner.

Earnest Prole said...

“It’s nighttime and we come in for a landing, and the pilot lands long and the goddamned ship goes off the runway and we hit the sand with a helluva jolt and the right wing tip digs into the sand and the plane skids around practically 360 degrees before we come to a stop. Well, Jesus Christ, we figure there’s gonna be wholesale panic with all these Arabs and the sheep and the goats and the chickens. We figure it’s gonna be bloody murder. Instead, they’re all talking in normal voices and staring out the window at the wing and the little fire that’s started on the tip. Well, I mean, we’re the ones who are panicked. Then they’re getting up, taking their sweet time about it, and gathering up all their bags and sacks and animals and whatnot and just waiting for us to open the doors. They’re so cool, and we’re scared to death! Then it dawns on us. They think it’s normal. Yeah! They think that’s the way you stop an airplane! You stick a wing in the sand and spin around, and that brings the thing to a stop, and you get off! The thing is, they never rode in an airplane before, and so whadda they know from landing an airplane! They think it’s normal! They think that’s the way you do it!”

-- Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities

Ambrose said...

Probably just as effective as our TSA security theater.

Balfegor said...

That seems like a pretty slipshod sacrifice to me. Where's the altar? I'm asking half tongue in cheek, and half seriously . . . if I had to name a religion, I'd probably say I'm Confucian, and we do offer quasi-sacrifices. Not slitting the throat of a living goat or anything, but you know -- assemble the meat and the fruit and the rice and the soup in the proper configuration on the little altar, burn a bit of incense, wave a bit of wine -- or when performing the rites graveside, just cut the top off the fruit and pour a bit of wine before bowing.

It's in my mind because it's my grandfather's deathday, so my kinfolk did midnight jesa for him a few hours ago.

Anyhow, here, there's a mat and some blood just leaking all over the tarmac. I'd have thought if you were going to offer a sacrifice, you'd do it properly, and collect the blood in a bowl or something. But I suppose things are a bit rawer out in Pakistan.

The Godfather said...

Did the plane land safely?

Balfegor said...

Confucius, incidentally, gets a large beast sacrifice (太牢):

An elaborate ceremony was held in the Confucian Temple [in Qufu] with red-robed dancers, brown-capped drum-bangers and a triple sacrifice: a cow, a sow and a mountain goat each killed with a quick slice across the throat.

Curious George said...

"Another journalist, Fasi Zaka, tweeted: "PIA sacrifices a black goat before resuming ATR services, they take their historical nickname 'Please Inform Allah' (PIA) very seriously."

Reminds me of a friends trip to Central America to go diving. They took some charter airline called SHASA that had an old DC-3. After they flight they joked that SASHA stood for Stay Home and Stay Alive.

traditionalguy said...

The Podesta brothers used far better sacrifices to the OTO Spirit Goat ( Baphomet,) when they needed to paralyze an enemy's powers. Spirit cook first, then fight and win second.

But sometimes there is an advent of a Holy Spirit incarnation born with all the Force, and you lose eternally. It's not a fair fight. It's rigged by predestination.

Anonymous said...

One of the guys I knew when I first hired on with the FAA was a former pilot, who'd once done a gig training pilots for the Saudi national airline. He said the toughest part of the job was getting them to actually do something when an emergency came up, rather than putting their hands over their eyes and saying "inshallah".

Brando said...

Yes, but in fairness the goat was a terrible pilot.

kentuckyliz said...

Black goat? That's racist.

jaed said...

Laslo-bait.

There should be a tag, except that seeing such a tag might cause Laslo's creative powers to lock up somehow.

In fact, now I'm wondering whether my posting this, Laslo reading it while perhaps contemplating a suitable creation for this topic, will have a similar effect. Am I perhaps sacrificing art on the altar of my desire to point out the obvious?

I am not Laslo. That's for sure.

mikee said...

No, the black goat is not racist, it is magical. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West presents in one chapter the different fertility rituals followed by some local Christians and Muslims in then-Yugoslavia. Christian women embraced a large priapic rock that had some association with a saint, supposedly, on that saint's day in the Liturgy. The Muslim women sacrificed, again on a large priapic rock, a black lamb so the blood would invigorate their fertility. One was seeking the intercession of a holy person with a diety for the sacred gift of a child, the other was pure magic, giving living blood for a life.

And eating a roast lamb after the sacrifice maybe had some benefits to an otherwise poor diet, so the magic might even work.

Bay Area Guy said...

And, let us not forget that the Pakistanis are the relatively sane ones....

walter said...

It seems odd they are smiling..others distracted..
Do they have goats standing by at their nuke control?

David said...

"A Pakistan International Airlines spokesman was swift to point out the goat had been slaughtered by employees on their own initiative and the airline management had no hand in it."

That should make the customers feel a lot better.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Curious George:
The Carib airline I used to fly was TACA: "Take A Chance Airline" or "Take A Chute Airline"

The Godfather said...

They landed safely, so it worked.

Trump should direct his FAA to require a goat sacrifice before every flight.

And the Trump company should buy a goat farm.

Dude1394 said...

I expect it works as well as Obamas red "line of death" did.

Skipper said...

As my doctor often says, "whatever works."

Birches said...

The carbon credits for a different age...

Balfegor said...

Re: The Godfather:

Trump should direct his FAA to require a goat sacrifice before every flight.

Not that I would object, but I think there might be a First Amendment problem with that.

mikee said...

Nonsense. Goats don't have First Amendment rights.

Static Ping said...

So you are saying the punchline "...but you _______ one goat" is a lot more flexible that originally imagined.

Anonymous said...

Trump loves Pakistan and its leader.

http://time.com/4586503/donald-trump-pakistan-prime-minister-readout-nawaz-sharif/

"President-elect Donald Trump showered Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif with praise during a phone call on Wednesday, providing a glimpse into his diplomatic strategy.

“You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way,” Trump said on the call, according to a readout provided by the Pakistani government. “I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems.”"

SayAahh said...

Black Goats Matter

MAJMike said...

Was that on the pre-flight checklist?

Yancey Ward said...

Perhaps the DNC should have sacrificed a few goats prior to November 8th. Hillary would have been a good choice.

John Nowak said...

Google "Airline Seat Maps" and you can pretty quickly prove to yourself that most US Airlines do have a Row 13. In the one exception I saw the row numbers skipped from 11 to 17.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Goats are said to be very intelligent... in the animal intelligence scale.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Oh, so this is how the common phrase at late departures... "get someone's goat google definition...To make someone annoyed or 😤 angry 😡"

Big Mike said...

ATR 42 and -72 aircraft are barred from flying in the colder areas of the United States after the crash in Roselawn, IN was determined to be caused by ice that formed on the high-mounted wing behind the de-icing boot. Why the Pakistanis are flying a plane prone to icing in the winter in high elevations ... it's going to take more than goat sacrifices to assure the safety of their flights.

gadfly said...

@Amexpat said...
Before laughing, think about why there isn't a row 13 on US planes.

Or A 13th Floor in Trump Tower.

Martin said...

Hardly different than our climate change policies, where we sacrifice human wealth and work to appease a fearsome God that no one really can say with any certainty exists.

gspencer said...

Animal sacrifice? Islam was born in the 7th century and Muslims are bound and determined to keep it there. That’s where Muslim priorities lay.

And it’s all about priorities. The current story is safety for an airplane flight. Here’s an example.

Several years ago the Kuffir Space Gods had the bright idea of sending a Muslim (a Malay) into space. (Why? Some sort of outreach?) Only the Kuffirs could do such a thing because, on their own, the Muslims could never even think of such an adventure. Along the same lines that the new Muslim mega-clock in Mecca could never have been built without the ingenuity of the Kuffir. “O Allah [as in ‘I’ll hava Coke, or a Pepsi’], why have you cursed the best of people [the Quran-inspired descriptor used by Muslims to identify themselves] with no brains, but have amply supplied the infidels with knowledge & clear thinking, leaving us so ashamed and in poverty.”

But the Malaysian Space Agency (huh? who knew such an agency even existed!), a part of the Dept of Islamic Development Malaysia (cough, cough, “Islamic Development” exists in the same universe as “dry water”), wrestled with the greatest technical problem of the entire then-upcoming flight of going beyond the earth’s atmosphere. That problem, How to face Mecca from outer space?

That question, yes, that question, was the priority.

The result, A Guideline of Performing Ibadah at the International Space Station (ISS), which concludes, “It is hoped that this guideline could assist the Muslim Astronaut to ensure the success of the mission and at the same time attaining the redha (pleasure) of Allah SWT.”

Get that? The purpose of this nonsensical “guideline” (giggle) is to help the Muslim “ensure the success of the mission.”

This pdf guideline is found here,
http://makkah.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/a_guideline_ibadah_at_iss.pdf

This guideline also gives instruction on how to handle death in space. In case the deceased cannot “be brought to Earth for normal funeral process,” then “the deceased should be buried in space with a simple funeral process.”

Whew! A load off my mind. Leave it to the Muslim to come up with the really, really penetrating questions facing us all.

Except, how is one “buried” in space?

Clyde said...

Punchline:

Goatherd: The goats are all liars!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Jesus ==> scapegoat ==> sacrifice ==> lamb ==> food ==> cannibalism.

Bob Boyd said...

If it saves one life....

Curious George said...

"gadfly said...


Or A 13th Floor in Trump Tower."

Call me when they sacrifice a black goat every time they push a button

richard mcenroe said...

That better have been a UNION goat or they are ass deep in trouble, buddy!

Mary Beth said...

Amexpat said...

Before laughing, think about why there isn't a row 13 on US planes.

12/20/16, 12:43 PM


Yes, most do. There's no reason not to have a row 13, it's not like that one row will crash while the others continue on to their destination.

Jupiter said...

Bay Area Guy said...
"And, let us not forget that the Pakistanis are the relatively sane ones...."

Where on Earth did you get *that* idea?

J. Farmer said...

My grandmother used to have a summer home in southeast England. She would generally spend the eight-hour flight with a firm grasp on her St. Christopher medallion praying for travel protection. Obviously a very rational thing to do since the magic book she believed in was obviously the true magic book, as opposed to all those false made up magic books that billions of other people believed in. Obviously the elaborate animal sacrifice rituals performed in the Jewish tabernacle and later Temple were completely in accordance with the whim of the creator of the universe.

Craig Landon said...

I flew off aircraft carriers. I'm envisioning how we could apply this custom.

-Maybe shoot the goat off Cat 1 first?
-Just throw it over the side? (At least it would have a swimmers chance.)
-Maybe attach it to the Strike Leader's bomb rack and it'll be the first to the target?

No matter what, it would get the goat an E-ticket ride, and give it more thrills than cutting its throat with one's knee on its neck. That's disrespectful.

ndspinelli said...

It worked for the Cubs. Wait a minute..

Bad Lieutenant said...

Obviously the elaborate animal sacrifice rituals performed in the Jewish tabernacle and later Temple were completely in accordance with the whim of the creator of the universe.
12/20/16, 10:20 PM

Well, yes, of course. Didn't you know the Jews were right?

Jon Ericson said...

No Cafe.

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20161217/drug-firms-poured-780m-painkillers-into-wv-amid-rise-of-overdoses

same thing as above

Not fake news.

David Begley said...

Earnest Prole

I had forgotten those passages from Wolfe. Thanks.

TheThinMan said...

"History will look back and see this was the day the oceans stopped rising." To each his own.

carrie said...

Oh ye, of little faith. Or these day it is mostly oh ye, of no faith and no respect or tolerance for other people's religions.