$hit You Can’t Bring on a Plane even if you are a paying @United Airlines passenger
The best of the bizarre banned travel items from around the world
The recent United Airlines passenger removal controversy makes us wonder — what other bizarre rules can you be removed or denied boarding for? We’ve mined the homeland security concerns from around the world (most were embedded in a great list Barrington Freight of the U.K. drew together) to get you thinking. Please leave us a comment with your best ideas for the next homeland security travel ban.
While silly on the surface , each of these very real banned items has a relationship to things that have been banned in our homeland as well.
Please Leave the following at home
- Police whistles. In Guatemala police whistles are a no-go. Police impersonation is certainly a great security concern, but usually it takes more that just a whistle.
- Fashion magazines. In Iran, they do not want to know if Cosmo thinks you’re fat, but for reasons of morality rather than body image. Apparently there are also some problems with eating chicken on TV.
- Communist literature. In Nicaragua importing communist literature has been prohibited since its battleground days of the Cold War. Before the enlightened judge, recall our own history of banning books.
- Films promoting immorality, violence, or terror. In Azerbaijan you will have to leave some of your Hollywood favorites at the door. We’d like to let you laugh now, but again, it’s time for looking at our own history of banned films.
- Military clothing. In Qatar you can’t bring desert-colored clothing because that this what their military colors are. Is it safe to laugh now? No. Several of the top search results in Google show that White Nationalist groups are discussing the ability to wear police or military uniforms during protest in their forums.
- Maps depicting the wrong boarders. In Ecuador there is a land dispute with Peru, so they do not want maps that show the wrong boarders being circulated in their country.
- Roulette wheels. Angola does not want the potential social problem. We are not sure why roulette wheels, but gambling is still illegal in much of the U.S.
- Undeveloped film. In Turkmenistan you’ll have to make you memories once inside the country. During the Cold War traveling many places with undeveloped film could raise eyebrows. Since 9/11 in the U.S., taking too many photos near certain locations may get you investigated. Mote recently social media feeds are being scrutinized.
- Japanese shaving brushes. In Saint Lucia there was a anthrax contamination scandal in the early 1900s.
- Nearly everything except food, medicine, or detergent. In Israel if you are entering the Gaza Strip you will have to check carefully because there is a long and ever-changing list of banned items.
We hope this list was fun — but also thought provoking. Clearly there is little on this list that has no corollary in the U.S., whether currently, or historically. So, remember NO ONE can do extreme vetting like we can (see video below). Don’t forget comment with your ideas.
