Wat zijn wij aan het doen?

12 juli 2005

There was a guy in my cab today. An English guy. A forlorn English guy. Told me to drive him to an Irish pub. "Seems like nobody likes English anymore". Told him I did. That I was a bit of an Anglophile meself. How I felt about the bombings. That I felt hurt. He thanked me for that. Said I cheered him up. I said "Fuck the fuckin' fuckers" and we both agreed on that. He said "How would you feel yourself?" and I said "I'd be angry". Then he went to have my drink. It was a beautiful ride.

Drove to Schiphol Airport the day after the bombings, in my cab. Passed a huge roadside sign put up by a local businessman. 'Together we stand'. English and Dutch flags melting together. Tears to my eyes. The English guy made me think back to that. It was a beautiful ride.

Today, a while later, there was another guy in my cab. A Colombian guy. He wasn't lost. He told me he was scared about what is happening in Holland. Because violence in Colombia, which is, is all about business, but violence here, which is not yet, will be all about religion and race, and that scares him. He holds a Dutch passport, and he's an Amsterdam resident. Thing that scared him most was the clause in the accompanying forms that said he may be called upon for military duty in case of war, although in that case he'd go, saying "I'd choose the side of mine" (meaning christian as opposed to muslim). Thing that scared me most was that it was a Colombian telling me this. I told him I'm applying for the National Reserve and he said "We might meet on the battlefield. Let's hope not". It was a beautiful ride.

I ordered me a T-shirt today.

Thing that scares me most is that it may actually come to a war between religions that should realize their final principle is the same: the love of fellow man. Read up on your Ghandiji, y'all (and pay particular attention to Part I Chapter XX).