Taxi Driver Wisdom · Feb 10, 12:19 AM
Because of circumstances, the details of which are not significant enough to warrant explanation, I took a cab from Palo Alto to San Francisco.
I got in the cab outside the Starbucks on University, headed east to the 101. On setting off, the cab driver exclaimed “Oh! You know the restaurant!?”
But he had a thick accent, and I couldn’t really understand him. “What? Sorry. The ‘restaurant’?”
“YES man! Oh … you know that restaurant?”
“No. Sorry,” (I’m Canadian) “which restaurant?”
“Up here. Cheese.”
“Cheesecake Factory?”
“YES! That’s it. It’s here, man. It’s like heaven in there. Ha!”
* * *
We talked the whole ride back, and I ended up taking some notes. It was a pretty eclectic conversation. I asked him where he was from early on.
He was a big, tall, wide-framed but trim man. He had dark black skin and wore a tan cordoroy fisherman’s cap.
He told me he came from Somalia. His mother was still there, and a brother. Some of the rest of his family lived in California now. He moved here six months ago, after five years in Wisconsin. He didn’t like Wisconsin.
Here are some other things he said:
On Africa
- Somalia was ruined. He didn’t think it would ever be a good place. “But the world is long,” I said. He shrugged. He couldn’t see a path from now to good in Somalia. I shouldn’t go there.
- I said I’ve always wanted to go to Africa. He recommended Kenya, Tanzania (pr Tan-ZANE-ia), Namibia (highly recommended, The God’s must Be Crazy was discussed), maybe Mozambique, maybe Madagascar.
- “DON’T GO SOUTH AFRICA, MAN!” (No elucidation was offered. Yet, he later said that all African heads of state were corrupt, only after money and power, except Mbeki. He was hopeful for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s new President.)
- On Africa generally, he explained that there was black Africa, and then there was Arabia. And then there was Europia, who caused a lot of problems for Africa: “They are robbers. I call them robbers. They rape the countries. And no-one ever says anything.”
On Canada (I told him I was from Canada)
- In general: “I never been there. They have Somali.” I told him “Yes, in Toronto.” “Yeah, Toronto. I never been there, Canada. I’ve been to Buffalo, I saw it. I saw the flag, but I never went across.”
- “I love the Prime Minister, the old one. I don’t remember his name.”
“Pierre Trudeau?”, I asked.
“No, I don’t know his name. The old one, not now.”
“Jean Chretien?”
“Yes, that’s him. I saw his speech. Beautiful. I love him. I saw his speech on television before he left. His words …” - On Quebec and separatism: “I think Canada one country. Beautiful. You speak any language, French, it’s ok – it’s all Canada.”
On The Amish
“I love Amish. Very strong people.” (pause) “I go Lancaster. I want to meet them, talk to them.” (pause) “Ladies have a long dress. You have them in Canada, Amish?”, he asked?
“No, not really. We have some people who are similar, a little: Mennonites, Doukhobors.”
“I think they are Irish.” (?) “Very strong.”
Distributed computing The Last Really Lost Tribe in the World
— irina slutsky Feb 24, 03:09 AM #