Mexico’s train of death – Al Jazeera’s Coverage of Real Life Dangers of Migrants Showcased in “Sin Nombre”

December 24, 2010 at 1:32 pm

(Source: Al Jazeera News)

This above video was a part of an Al Jazeera news story of migrants experiencing violent deaths in the hands of drug cartels during their journey northwards towards United States from their homelands in South America.  We in the western world often read stories over the years about this tough journey of migrants, who often pay thousands of dollars for their smugglers/handlers and risk their lives while traveling through what’s one of the worst, violence-ridden narco corridors in the entire world. For the first time, I had an opportunity to visually experience this monumental struggle of life and death experienced by the migrants through a recent movie, Sin Nombre by Cary Joji Fukunaga. It was a very painful portrayal of migrant life and the dangers these people face making the trek northwards, while dodging the brutal world of narcotics smugglers.  This above video story from Al Jazeera is not much different than what is shown on the movie, but the only difference here is there are no actors in real life and no-retakes if something were to go wrong.  Here is a trailer of Sin Nombre, that gives you a candid window into the difficult life of a migrant on the road, making it not just a journey in search of a decent livelihood, but also one where he/she often risks life riding those deadly rails.

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Qatar Airways pilot dies in flight; Co-pilot takes over the controls and lands safely

October 13, 2010 at 11:29 am

Must be one heck of a scary experience for the flyers when the copilot came on the mic and the announcement.

Amplify’d from english.aljazeera.net

The captain of a Qatar Airways plane has died while flying the aircraft from the Philippines to the Qatari capital, Doha.

The assistant pilot took control of the plane and the flight was then diverted to Kuala Lumpur where it landed at around 11.30am local time, Qatar Airways said on Wednesday.

Read more at english.aljazeera.net