It seems that blocking off major intersections during peak time is granted to bring some action.
On my way to morning lecture yesterday morning, something that had been on the radio since I got up popped into my head and I avoided alighting at Flinders St. and got off at Melbourne Central instead. It seems that with this second major attack on a Melbourne cab-driver all Melbourne cabbies stopped work and made a human blockade at the Flinders and Swanston St. intersection outside of Flinders St. Station and the Federation Square tram stop. From the wee hours of the morning until around 1pm, I think. Oh man, I’m thinking how that area usually looks during peak time and how it would have looked yesterday morning. Sadly enough, I put Uni in front of a chance to look into major news pieces.
I’m not sure what they did with the tram services, only that the usual herders (Connex workers?) at Melbourne Central were unusually kind and warned us that the next tram wouldn’t be for a while yet and to squeeze onto the one that was there instead of waiting.
Frankly, the security measures that our cabbies were demanding were the barest of minimums. I hate to say this, but even the cab-drivers in China have a protective plastic bubble around them for security measures. That it’s taken the death and serious injury of two drivers for our government here to do something about the ridiculous situation is shameful.
What’s even more ridiculous about the whole damn thing is that there’s a lot of mention of ‘cabbies of Indian/Pakistani descent.’ What in the…world are these journalists on? Just because they’re Indian/Pakistani then you can have a good laugh at the cabbie stereotype and whinge about them screwing up the morning traffic just because they wanted some security for the minimal pay that they’re on? Boo hoo. Deal with a late morning – some family probably had to deal with a lot worse. And the people complaining about the fact that most cabbies don’t speak perfect English, don’t know where they are driving, charge them too much, are impolite, deserve the violence/impertinence/verbal bile dealt out to them on a daily basis; are bastards. Pure, utter, total, inconsiderate bastards. You can’t slam the entire fleet for the deeds of a few and no one can be smiling and polite all the time, stress and worry and personal characteristics will show its face.
I hope life gets a little better for cab-drivers in future.
That’s all from me today.
Filed under: Open mouth. Rubbish out. | Tagged: cab-driver, Melbourne, taxi-driver, transportation
