I recently finished reading a very engaging book written by Egyptian author Khaled Alkhamissi, titled "Taxi." It's a quick read and written in narrative form as the author recounts his technically fictional yet surely inspired by true encounters with Cairo's taxi drivers.
Taxis are an interesting concept and expose riders to certain social realities especially in diverse and large cities such as Cairo.
I found one passage, in particular, to be worthy of transcribing and presenting to the readers of this blog.
Chapter 13, page 42:
"As we were driving along the Cairo University wall I let slip to the taxi driver how nostalgic I felt for my college days and confessed to him that the dreams for Egypt I dreamt within these walls even now shook me to the core, despite the passage of two decades since my graduation. I said that most of those who sold out had been handed the keys to the gates, while those who continued to dream had seen their towering hopes dashed to the ground by battering rams.
'And what did you study?' the driver asked.
'Economics and political science,' I said.
'So you studied politics, sir?'
'Yes.'
'That's great, an excellent opportunity, because for ages I've had a question I wanted to ask,' said the driver.
'What's the question? Maybe I can answer it.'
'What would happen if we said to America: "you have nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and if you don't get rid of all these weapons, we will sever relations with you and declare war on you, and we will have to use military force to protect Cuba, because it's a small country and we have to look after it?"
'Of course, we wouldn't be serious, but we would stake out a position in the world. And the world would have to stand with us as they stood with them when they said the same thing against Iraq, and as they are saying now against Iran. I'm not saying we would fight them. Of course you know what I mean. But we would say exactly the same thing as they are saying to the countries of the world. I mean, for example, we'd ask to monitor the American elections because we're not confident their election procedures are sound, we'd ask for there to be international monitoring of the ballot boxes, and anyway we'd be right to say that. Everyone in America and the whole world said the Bush elections were rigged and that his brother fixed the elections and made him win his state. And we'd say we have to defend democracy and we have to send Egyptian judges from here to make sure the democratic process is sound.
'You know if we did that, we'd make them understand what they are doing to people, and we'd vent some of the anger that's inside us, just like when some calamity strikes and there's nothing to be done so you let off steam to whoever and you find yourself calmer, but the disaster's still the same as it was.
'We could also sue America for supporting international terrorism and taking sides with countries that aren't democratic, and get evidence of that an, as you know, it's very easy to get evidence, especially in this matter. By making a move like that, you're on the side of democracy and against terrorism and you'll find a few countries taking your side against America.
'We could also call for economic sanctions against America if they don't comply, I mean take what Rice says every day to all the poor countries in the world and say the same thing to their faces.
'The most important thing is that we all do away with the word "Americans". We should say a White Irish Protestant from America, or a Black Muslim from America, or a Spaniard from America, or a White Catholic from America, or a Black Protestant from America, just like they say these days: "six Shia and two Sunnis from Iraq died". The sons of bitc&^s at our newspapers repeat the same thing, and of course you find them saying: "a Christian from Egypt" and "a Muslim from Egypt". Surely we have to demand as loud as we can the right to defend the rights of the blacks in America, and sue if some White Scot from America kills some Black African from America, of course we have to make a big scene not least because he's African like us, I mean, he's much more closely related to us than a White Italian with a mole on his cheek from America is to some Copt from Egypt. I mean, protecting the rights of the black minority there, that's our role, and we have to intervene in everything big and small.
'I know I'm talking too much and repeating myself. I'm waiting for you to respond but you just hold your tongue and don't reply.
'I'm thinking about what you're saying,' I answered.
'You see, I leave the radio on all day and every day what the Americans say gets up my nose. It's enough to drive a man out of his senses. It's very serious because soon people will explode. "We feed you, we put you on your potty, do this, don't do that." Soon we'll burst and that'll be the end of it. So I had this idea, that we should do to them just as they do to us. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. And those people live in houses of cracked glass.'
'OK so why don't you send that suggestion to--' I started.
'I'm just letting off steam, man, I mean shooting the breeze. They're ready to let the Americans do anything to us. The suggestion they might like is for the Americans to put a camera in every Egyptian house so they can monitor the population explosion!'
