It’s not just moustaches of authority who rely on taxi drivers for political insight: here’s Blood & Treasure taking the New Yorker’s George Packer to task for his commonplace ‘insights’ on the Burma situation:
from the airport to the hotel
This is the best bit of taxi driver journalism I’ve seen for ages. The normal outcome of taxi-driver journalism is that the journalist understands everything after a short conversation en route from the airport to the hotel, and, lo and behold, it confirms everything he already thought about the situation in country and the role of humble, decent folk like taxi drivers within it. For George Packer, a look is enough.
The taxi-driver, who took me around Rangoon for a few days before I headed north to Mandalay and Bagan, let me know in a hundred subtle ways—sometimes it was just an exchange of looks—that Burma’s people might be cut off from the world, but they were not ignorant. They knew well enough that they lived in poverty, under a brutal regime, while their Asian neighbors were entering the modern world.
Of course they fucking well know, you solemn jackass. They live there.
dave shields
September 27, 2007 at 10:17 amThanks for linking to my post. I posted my own comment about your link:
Re the link via Progressive Gold, I was a “moustache of authority” myself in my cab-driving days, though in the front seat, not the back. I had a moustache for several decades as it shortened the morning shaving ritual.
The cited post also brings to mind the unsterile speech of James Governor,
http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/09/24/you-can-keep-your-business-language-thats-not-meaningful-conversation/
“Of course they f—ing well know, you solemn jackass. They live there.”
It’s noteworthy that one of my Rabbi’s referred to Tom’s column in a sermon on Yom Kippur, as an example on the distracting effects of “continuous partial attention.”
thanks, dave
http://daveshields.wordpress.com
Palau
September 28, 2007 at 12:51 pmCheers, Dave.
“Continuous partial attention.” That’s brilliant.