I went to bed late, real late, after dwelling long and hard over the deceased Banksia boy. Tellingly, news outlets had pretty much posted nothing when I got home at 3.30 am. Though by 7.00 am they’d started to have a go. All I can say is I hope the press have a hard look at the case.
Being preoccupied by this earlier, I’d foregone a couple of additional encounters last night worth mentioning...
Around 8 pm I picked up a young couple in formal wear in Surrey Hills. They were off to Kensington. The girl was a student at University of New South Wales and her faculty was holding their annual knees-up.
We established common ground as she was taught by a mate of mine, Dr. Liz, one of the smartest chicks in town. Another student had publicly put the faculty on the map a few months ago by being arrested as a terror suspect. So I sought their opinion on his situation. Even allowing for the fervour of youth, as exemplified by the quote in yesterdays post, A Puzzle ?, I had to spell out some home truths.
They expressed the all too common view, that the suspect hadn’t actually done anything, just happened to believe in, and trained with, a designated terror outfit. Hello ? I pointed out on the surface of things this may be true. However, given what we know about Al Quedas method of operations, his training in Pakistan, and return to university is easily associated with that of a sleeper operative. Hence, rightly or wrongly, in this day and age he is guilty by association.
Further to this I make the point that civil liberties have taken a back seat after 9/11. Indeed, America made the biggest mistake in politically-correct history, to date. Namely, the Clinton administration refused to racially profile Persian visa applicants, wanting to learn how to fly jumbos in a straight line. Doh ! I told my passengers it was a mistake the Americans would never make again. I gave the last word to my male passenger who stated they never racially profiled white terrorists before this, like Timothy McVie and the Unabomber.
At 2 am, I took a couple from the Opera House to Balmain. She was an American from Nebraska, cloaked in a stunning, full length dead animal skin. He was an Aussie bloke somewhat older than her middle years. They engaged me on my skippiness, re cab driving. ‘Why are you here ?’, I asked her. ‘Well’, she twanged, ‘something to do with this man, my husband !’. ‘That’s no excuse’, I shot back, ‘you’ll have to do better than that !’.
So she gives it to me, proceeding to gently rubbish her country. I chide her, ‘You shouldn’t say that - you have much to be proud of ’. She concedes as much, though right now in history, she indicates her America is going through a juvenile stage. The bloke is now encouraging me in agreement. He is obviously long-suffering over these issues, with his assertive wife, deferring to her, unsupported. I imagine they’ve attended many functions where she has held court, her Balmain liberalism fawned upon.
However in my cab, these views won't be left unchallenged, ‘Darling, whether you like it or not, we all live and breath under the protection of the US alliance system’. ‘Yes, yes,’ she’s responds, not absorbing what I said, ‘but Australia is so lucky, to be independent, that’s what I like....’, ‘Bullshit...’, I interrupt, ‘We rely on America - America saved our arse 50 years ago - we had the Japanese shelling the Eastern Suburbs - if it wasn’t for the Americans we’d be speaking Japanese’.
From hereon in the ‘discussion’ deteriorates into soap boxes on both our parts with me finally telling her she, ‘sounds like an undergraduate, speaking in tongues’. Still, she has enough class on alighting, to thank me for the exchange, which I acknowledge. The bloke then gets in the front to pay and quietly inquires of my father, where he fought in the War, how he went and so on. I’m genuinely touched and thank them both for the chance of the rave.
A waiting thirty something women, hops in and I mention this exchange. She’s a corporate lawyer off to Marrickville, and I spark up. We have an interesting chat on the power of America and common perceptions on the abuse of it’s power. We agree it’s a case of the devil we know, given humanity will never be ideal.
Then our talk turns to websites and the power therein. How any individual, can effect change through the internet. No longer do governments and large corporations have a monopoly on what the populace sees and hears. Through this fact, large institutions now must consider how they behave and operate. We agree this is a good thing for the world. Then she’s gone, and so am I.
If it was up to me I'd drive cabs just for the life interviews. I gave up this form of entertainment but it's good to see smeone still pursuing it Go Adrian!!
Posted by: Jeff Lane | July 06, 2004 at 02:58 PM