When I asked whatever happened to the 'Singapore Girl' who acted so heroically in the 2000 crash, I envisioned an expat, probably a Brit, as remembering. Yet I am absolutely fascinated by the fact that women (plural) would interpret it as a demand that they do my research -- as if I could've done it myself, but prefer to make them submit to my needs.

I think this says a lot about service on U.S. airlines, which I would describe as efficient but grudging. I see now that having to open a can of soda and toss a bag of peanuts to a less-than-beautiful man is a cruel betrayal of post-feminist principles; and I certainly agree with Axon's excellent letter that the best care & service I've ever experienced has involved the male stewards on British and European carriers (Lufthansa especially comes to mind.)

I withdraw my comment about these letters being a waste of time. On the contrary, it is most worthwhile to finally understand why American women are so angry. To wit: that what I would view as teamwork among colleagues and/or doing one's job, they see as submission and subservience. Thus a "stewardess" (or "secretary", etc.) who has been trained to smile and make eye contact (even with unattractive men; oh god, the horror!) and even to anticipate others' needs and desires, is the moral equivalent of a prostitute.

Thank you very much for pointing me to the 2003 update on badly injured 'Singapore Girl' Farzana Razak's recovery. I then tried but was unable to duplicate your success in finding the article via Google. (How did you find it, by the way?) I found many other interesting things, however, including something I had forgotten about entirely: that another flight attendant, Irene Ang, perished in the same crash when she went back into the burning fuselage to help more passengers escape. i think that's pretty amazing, and I'd ask that their courage and heroism be taken into account by ang moh letter writers tempted to dismiss 'Singapore Girls' or Asian flight attendants in general as fembots or eye candy.

Not incidentally, I suspect that if America's incredibly worthless corporate media could tear itself away from the 24/7 coverage of Anna Nicole's tragic death and instead devote even a small portion of its coverage to any of the many American women who have been killed in Iraq for non-existent WMD, this idiotic war would be over and Bush-Cheney impeached.

My earlier post within this thread, titled 'The Heart of a Lion', described the courage and heroism of a 'Singapore Girl' and (so I thought) did a pretty effective job of countering the ridiculous stereotypes of Asian women held by some white men and seemingly all white women. Foolishly, I had even hoped a fellow reader could tell me how the story ended.

Instead, my post generated zero reader comments and no red star -- which means no one today is even seeing my letter. God forbid reality should intrude upon the silly fantasies of Americans; and I now see, once and for all, the utter futility of trying to derive anything from these letters pages beyond a crude form of entertainment.

My parting shot: a Japan travel guide I read said that as American women do not fit into the Japanese system of manners, they are afforded a special status as "honorary men".

Well, every time I've had a choice of airline -- literally, figuratively -- I've chosen and will continue to choose to be with the real women in this world who make life worth living, meanwhile avoiding the "honorary men" who mistake kindness for subservience and good manners for submissiveness and strive to make life for the men around them as miserable and unpleasant as possible.

In the crash on takeoff of an SQ 747 at Taipei several years ago, one of the Girls suffered very severe burns, and barely clung to life long afterward. Straits Times reported the story that according to eyewitness accounts she had maintained her post, despite fire on board, far beyond what was prudent, and continued to help passengers escape, including some who owed their survival to her. A few weeks later she was moved to Singapore, but remained hospitalized there in critical condition, and her prognosis was uncertain.

I lost the story at that point. I looked for new information from the U.S., but never heard if she made it, or what happened to her. I was so moved by her story that I sent her a get well card c/o the hospital (which was named in Straits Times), but it came back several weeks later as undeliverable.

Q: What do you call a rabid warmonger who is of military age but has "other priorities"?

In addition to the Jewish community LeCastor told you about. there is a sizable Christian community in Iran. We've all heard the stories of ideological zeal that typically follow any revolution -- French, Chinese, etc.; yet even after the overthrow of the shah Iran wasn't as repressive as you would like to imagine. Nothing like some of America's allies in the Gulf, for example. Rather, more along the lines of the Fundamentalist judge who insisted on a Biblical monument in "his" courthouse. Or the right-wing hate media blowhards who just hassled America's newly-elected first Muslim congressman for being sworn into office with a Koran rather than a Bible. Or the still more recent rape victim who allegedly was thrown in jail for an outstanding warrant and denied access to emergency contraception because her captor(s) opposed it on religious grounds. Or, yes, the occasional nut who tries to blow up a women's health clinic because abortion is "against god's will". That sort of repression.