In times of great peril, we often see the best and worst of the human spirit. While emergency charters work tirelessly to evacuate our citizens from the collapsing airspace of the Gulf, we are witnessing a sickening display of corporate greed. Airlines charging up to twenty times the normal fare for a seat on a flight home is not 'market dynamics'; it is the exploitation of the desperate. When a family is fleeing a war zone, to ask for $3,720 for a ticket is to put a price tag on survival. This breakdown of the civil aviation order, with over 55% of flights cancelled and thousands stranded, reveals the dark side of our globalized world. We have become so dependent on the ease of travel that we have forgotten how quickly the gates can be slammed shut. The state must do more to protect its citizens from this kind of rapacious profiteering, ensuring that the path home is never blocked by the avarice of a corporate board.