Last night I was driven by an old taxi driver (of Iraqi origin) from the airport to the hotel.
First thing as I got inside the car, he said, ‘You are my 4th customer in the last 12 hours.’
As we moved further out and he kept repeating himself. ‘You are my 4th customer in the last 12 hours. What’s happening to this city? The economy is dead.’
There was more to come I knew.
Next thing, he asked me how many children I have. I said two.
‘You know I have a boy who’s 29. I wish he would die soon.’
Where did that come from? I wondered. I just gave him a silent nod from behind as our eyes met in the rear mirror.
‘I wish he would die soon. I wish he dies. He is smoking marijuana from 7 in the morning. if you see him, he is as tall as you, maybe more.’
He showed me the boy’s picture. He looked like a beautiful soul.
‘But now his face is just like this screen, this small’ – pointing at his mobile phone. We can’t sit together for more than 30 minutes. If we did, we will end up fighting with each other. I tell him to stop all this nonsense but he won’t listen.’
I asked him how much time do you spend with your son? When was the last time you went out for a walk with him?
He said, ‘this is the problem, I am always working. We hardly spend anytime together’.
‘What do you recommend?’ he asked.
I said, go for a walk with him or sit down for a few minutes without thinking how to fix him. Just listen to him even if he has nothing to say.
‘You think that would work?’
I said, I don’t know but what you are doing will most certainly not.
‘I know, I know, I think you are right, I never sit and talk to him.’
I said, ‘I didn’t say you should talk to him, I said listen to him.’
‘Yes, yes I know. I will listen.’
No you won’t, I said to myself
‘You know it is that *ucking Saddam’, he ruined us. He destroyed us, it is all because of him. It is why we are here today in this country.’
And on that note, we arrived at the hotel.
I’m asking myself, is this something new? First we blame the system, then the worker and ultimately the ‘top leadership’.
But never once we look into the mirror and ask what I could be doing different. And so nothing really changes.
Before we go to bed, we have to tell ourselves the same story, it’s not me. It is someone else’s fault.
