practical approaches

[waider]

Taxi driver for this evening was Muslim, from "the middle east". Despite our intense introduction to cultural diversity (the oriental population here has gotten fantastically large in the last year or two) this is not actually a common occurrence.

"So," I said, "do you get hassle for being a Muslim?"

"I stop the taxi and tell them there are plenty other taxis in Dublin."

"And sometimes, I have to help them out of the taxi."

Heh. I like that. Especially the gesture that accompanied "help them".

Comments

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

You can't get a cab in NYC without it be driven by an Arab of some flavor or another.

I warned my mom, joking: "Our cab's going to be driven by an Al Qaeda operative."

The name on the placard? "Arafat Hussein."

[waider.livejournal.com]

Dublin's taxi industry was only recently deregulated, prior to which you had to pay vast sums of money to get a taxi license. Now it's a bit more affordable, and the driver demographic is, I guess, changing accordingly.

Stockholm seems to have at least one entirely Arabic taxi company. Even the name of the company - written in English - looks Arabic, due to the font choice.