Pakistani Driver in NZ faces Racist Passenger

What this Pakistani taxi driver faced is worth publicising.

Not to show the passenger up as a stupid racist and an obnoxious bigot. That is obvious. But for other reasons.

People band together for various reasons - the colour of their skin, the language they speak or the accent they speak it with, the clothes they wear, what they eat or the customs or religion they practice. Anyone who looks or behaves different, especially if they are in the minority, finds it difficult to blend in. To that extent racism exists everywhere and within many of us.

Unfortunately, some folks show their prejudice and suspicion of the hateful "others" in the manner of this passenger. That's when the law keeps everyone safe. Let's be honest. We face racist slurs in India and Pakistan too - with depressing regularity. At the same time we know that not everyone in these countries is prejudiced. It is the same over here, in New Zealand.

Have a look at the comments after the Youtube video. About forty percent are for and sixty against the passenger's racist words.

What's commendable is the way the Pakistani driver keeps his cool however hard the passenger tries to get a rise out of him. What worries me is that anyone with a racist attitude, if he is fitter than the passenger in this taxi, could easily let fly his fists along with his racist slurs.

What I'd like New Zealand to discuss is - what do we do to prevent injury to a driver? Putting up the video camera in all taxis is a good idea. But more needs to be done to keep a taxi driver - in fact both, the driver and passenger - safe from the few rotten eggs that are around.

The official tone taken is that of censure to the passenger. I hope this passenger doesn't get away with a mere rap on his knuckles. He says he is sorry - that he was drunk - probably to escape punishment. Perhaps it would be fitting for him to do some community work within the community he despises so much and pay the driver for a day's worth of business apart from whatever else the NZ courts want to fine him.

Here's the video.

Bombay In Her Heart - K.Mathur Interview

I enjoyed being interviewed by the Hutt News for Never Mind Yaar and managed to talk about many things I feel strongly about besides the book.

Please click on the photo to enlarge and read the interview

In NZ the book is available at The Best Little Bookstore 

Also available on Amazon, USA.

For excerpts and reviews please go to the following page.

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Manmohan's interview with TV News Editors

Everyone in India seems to be talking of Manmohan Singh's interview with major Indian TV news channels plus international ones like Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN . From all comments on various blogs I gathered that many ordinary folk seem to be disappointed with what he had to say. I watched it online and quite frankly, was impressed.

Remembering he is in a coalition government and is therefore beholden to other parties, I think he is a wonderfully stabling influence. His economic policies since Narasimha Rao's days (under whom he was finance minister), have helped more Indians prosper than any other person’s. His background, and therefore his strength, is finance.

Where corruption is concerned, I agree that he is weak, making excuses for not taking people in power to task, sometimes, even rewarding them with promotions. Every TV editor asked him what he was doing re corruption of some person in power or the other and his answers never said he'd be able to recover the lost revenues or make that person accountable by asking him or her to resign. To know someone is corrupt and not insisting on making that person accountable makes Manmohan as guilty as if he committed the crime himself. His answers were, to my mind, a bit helpless except when he declared that after the budget session (not now, but sometime in the future) there would be a reshuffle of his entire cabinet.

But here’s the problem – Manmohan’s policy on corruption might be weak but everyone is agreed he isn’t corrupt himself. His economic policies since Narasimha Rao's days have helped more Indians prosper than any other person’s. So many Indian politicians have been accused of corruption by the media; so many use strong arm tactics to subdue Indians who question them; who are communal by nature - which means they aren’t concerned about the well being of all Indians except the ones who belong to their own community; and too many whose economic policies have never been as strong as Manmohan’s.

Summing up,

So many comments I’ve read indicate that the Indian public isn’t impressed with Rahul Gandhi – the PM in waiting!

Secular Indians definitely don't want a communal minded party (only our community and damn the others) to come to power.

I feel Manmohan is
     . honest, astute and has sound economic policies. Those are the sum of his leadership skills.
     . He is weak on corruption
     . I'm really not sure what he plans to do about terrorism, inflation and the environment.
     . He blames the Congress coalition partners for compromises he has to make and for having to overlook corruption.
     . The public is wary. Nobody believes him.

What can we do to change the situation? Do we solely depend on our news reporters or can we, the public, do something? And if so, what, that would be effective?

Can we keep showing Manmohan that we are not going to let up our pressure on corrupt individuals in politics till he is forced to take action and not just mouth platitudes – that it is the public he is more accountable to rather than his coalition partners and his party members?

Do we have any other options besides waiting for a candidate who will open up the economy like Manmohan has, is perhaps stronger than him when dealing with corruption in his own party or in the coalition, and last, but not least, someone who deals strongly with terrorists and the environment?

Yes we do. We can protest in unity; make our presence felt. The key word is UNITY. It shouldn't be that as soon as there are threats to someone's life, property and loved ones, the rest of us quietly move away. It takes time to build such unity. How? We need a well thought out action plan.

ORGANISE, THEN MOBILISE

The link to the interview with Manmohan was provided by Patrick French in his blog (blog link: http://www.theindiasite.com/looking-people-in-the-eye-manmohan-singhs-press-conference/)

This is the link to MANMOHAN'S ENTIRE INTERVIEW:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/pm-manmohan-singh-s-q-a-with-editors/191098