Laila Lalami taps into the powerful emotion of fear in her latest book. Photo: Supplied / April Rocha
Laila Lalami taps into the powerful emotion of fear in her latest book. Photo: Supplied / April Rocha
Laila Lalami taps into the powerful emotion of fear in her latest book. Photo: Supplied / April Rocha
Laila Lalami taps into the powerful emotion of fear in her latest book. Photo: Supplied / April Rocha

Award-winning author Laila Lalami subject to three 'random' TSA pat downs in one week


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

Moroccan-American author Laila Lalami took three flights in the United States this week, and she was subject to a 'random' pat-down on every single flight, which she revealed on Sunday in tweets that have since gone viral.

Agents of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) also opened Lalami's bag because of a suspicious-looking item. "It was my National Book Award medal," Lalami tweeted. Her latest book The Other Americans was a finalist for the National Book Award, which recognises outstanding literary work by American citizens.

She then added that the agent asked her what the book was about after discovering the medal. We don't know how much Lalami delved into the plot of her new novel, which highlights the hardships immigrants and minorities face in a post-9/11 America, but we hope she said enough for the TSA agents to see the irony of her pat-down.

"I still have the magic!" Lalami tweeted in good humour alongside a flamenco-dancer emoji of receiving a pat down on every flight she's taken.

White American Phantoms novelist Christian Kiefer replied to Lalami's tweet about the random pat downs to highlight that he's never been subject to one, "I have diabetes stuff on my body creating weird lumps on my belly with clear tubes and wires visible and STILL have never received an actual pat-down."

As one of many security measures routinely used in airports, pat-down procedures are done to determine if prohibited items are being concealed on a person. The TSA has long been held under scrutiny for their screening procedures and racial profiling. Many of the screening procedures were put in place after 9/11.

The attacks on the World Trade Centre are referred to in Lalami's book The Other Americans more than once. In an interview with The National earlier this year, Lalami said it was a turning point, a moment where the wars fought in distant lands returned to the US.

The Other Americans is a scathing portrait of 21st-century America: in a small Californian town, restaurant owner and Moroccan immigrant Driss is killed in a hit-and-run that appears to have no witnesses, save for a Mexican afraid to come forward due to his fears of deportation. Driss's composer daughter Nora returns home to pick up the pieces, crossing paths with an Iraq veteran, an African-American female detective, a bowling alley proprietor and, of course, her grieving mother.

Well, I have to have hope because I have to get up every day and live in this country. I do know that change is possible, but if you look at the history of the US, it's very slow and it never happens without struggle

“Each of these characters would be easy to caricature,” Lalami said. “They are stock characters in the media – the immigrant, the veteran, the Muslim, the disgruntled white man. We see these people but we don’t question the human beings behind them. One of the things fiction allows for is the ability to see things in the specific and not the generic, and that was my job with this book. As an immigrant, too, I can look at things as an insider and an outsider.”

Despite its concerns about the direction of the country and the beliefs of its people, The Other Americans is a quietly hopeful book, a plea for understanding and love despite the divisions.

“Well, I have to have hope because I have to get up every day and live in this country,” she said. “I do know that change is possible, but if you look at the history of the US, it’s very slow and it never happens without struggle. Slavery didn’t disappear because we all sat down and had a nice chit-chat over tea about who has the right to be considered a human being and who should be considered property. It was drawn out. It was violent. The same with civil rights, the right to vote.

“Rights are never guaranteed, they are questioned and they have to be constantly protected. I am working in many different ways for change and progress, not in my art necessarily, which is separate, but as a citizen. It’s not easy.”

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

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ACC 2019: The winners in full

Best Actress Maha Alemi, Sofia

Best Actor Mohamed Dhrif, Weldi  

Best Screenplay Meryem Benm’Barek, Sofia  

Best Documentary Of Fathers and Sons by Talal Derki

Best Film Yomeddine by Abu Bakr Shawky

Best Director Nadine Labaki, Capernaum
 

Brief scores:

Toss: Nepal, chose to field

UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23

Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17

Result: UAE won by 21 runs

Series: UAE lead 1-0

David Haye record

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How green is the expo nursery?

Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery

An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo

Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery

Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape

The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides

All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality

Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country

Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow

Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site

Green waste is recycled as compost

Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs

Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers

About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer

Main themes of expo is  ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.

Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months

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Cartlow: $13.4m

Rabbitmart: $14m

Smileneo: $5.8m

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Plug and Play: $25m

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
​​​​​​​Penguin Press

Tips to stay safe during hot weather
  • Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results

2pm: Al Sahel Contracting Company – Maiden (PA) Dh50,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: AF Mutakafel, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)

2.30pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: El Baareq, Antonio Fresu, Rashed Bouresly

3pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson

3.30pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Alkaraama, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi

4pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Lady Snazz, Saif Al Balushi, Bhupat Seemar

4.30pm: Hive – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer

5pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – (TB) Handicap Dh64,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, John Oliver

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Year Earth Changed

Directed by:Tom Beard

Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough

Stars: 4

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Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES

SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities

Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails

Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies

Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments

Winners

Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski

Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)

Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea

Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona

Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)

Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)

Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)

Best National Team of the Year: Italy 

Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello

Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)

Player Career Award: Ronaldinho

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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MATCH INFO

Real Madrid 2

Vinicius Junior (71') Mariano (90 2')

Barcelona 0

GAC GS8 Specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

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Price: From Dh149,900

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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A Dog's Journey 

Directed by: Gail Mancuso

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Josh Gad, Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Kathryn Prescott

3 out of 5 stars

Profile

Company: Justmop.com

Date started: December 2015

Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan

Sector: Technology and home services

Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai

Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month

Funding:  The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.