Friday, October 20 2006. The Day I Lost Faith In Society, So I Injected Some Of My Own

The moral corruption of society hit a new low in Liverpool today.

First, I had it clarified that he wasn't a man of his word.
I'd seen it first hand, but it's different when it involves you personally.
He promised me that favour, and I was foolish enough to believe him.
I respect men of their word who come through for you because there aren't many left.
Anyway, that was just the beginning. It resulted in me getting the bus into university, and then things got serious.

I got on at the usual stop and the bus driver (the company was Stagecoach, not Arriva) was very lacking of job satisfaction, I think it has to be aid (that is, of course, putting it politely).
And when that is the case, I suppose the Mind dictates that you have to look for alternative methods of satisfaction.
I saw him gain his satisfaction.
It was sickening.
As we drew to the end of Smithdown, at the junction with the road (I don't know the name of it) that goes to Toxteth, one lady got off the bus.
There must have been about three empty seats at that point, which is a lot at 08:50 in the morning on a Liverpool bus!
At the second she got off, we all saw a young Muslim girl wearing a black headscalfe (not veil, not that that makes any bloody difference) running along side the bus in a vein attempt to catch it.
Just as she reached the doors, the driver closed them.
He pulled off as she banged on the door, pleading with the bastard to open them.
Ignoring her, he carefully pulled out and negotiated the roadworks in front.

No one can tell me the fact she was Muslim didn't have a bearing on his decision.
What he did was mean, Islamaphobic and downright wrong.
He is a disgrace to the City of Liverpool and to Christianity (assuming he is a Christian) as a whole.
As my journey continued, I imagined him down the pub complaining about such things as extremism within the Islamic community, and yet here he was, angering a young Muslim lady and making her hate him.
Aah, the paradox.

Later on, I couldn't stop thinking about what that bus driver did.
I was thinking about it on the train, whilst reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin", when I suddenly realised the entire carriage had gone very quiet.
I didn't look up.
Then I heard one lady say very assertively to someone else that they couldn't sit in a certain seat due to it being reserved.
I looked up.
She was speaking to two Muslim women.
Eventually, unable to find two seats together, they came to the end of the train to where I was.
One sat next to myself, while the other sat on one of the folddown chairs around the corner near the door.
Remembering the incident on the bus, I felt the need to do a good deed to rectify the balance.
I asked the girl who had sat next to me where they were going.
Leeds, was the polite reply.
I explained that I was only going to Warrington (the first stop, 23 minutes away) and swapped seats with the girl near the doors, so they could sit together and have a proper conversation without having to strain to see each other.
My gesture of goodwill didn't go unnoticed by fellow passengers.
I expect some of them thought I did what I did because I didn't want to be seated next to a follower of Islam.
That is not the case.
For the record I have been seated next to a Muslim before on the train, and with a group of Chinese people as well, not that that makes any difference, of course.
(Incidentally, the journey with the group of Chinese persons was great just because I got to listen to their amazing language. To stimulate their conversation, I put my iPod nano on the table we were sat round: it turns out 'nano' and 'iPod' are the same in Chinese as in English!)

The day left me wondering about the good in society.
There doesn't seem to be much left.
It would, of course, be naive to assume that bastard bus driver was representative of every bus driver in Liverpool.
I just wonder what was going through the mind of one old Muslim women who was already on the bus when the incident happened!
One can only speculate...

Aah, the culture of Liverpool.
What a year 2008 will be...

Yours, wherever you may be,
Daniel C. Wright.