I was a victim of the recent #AddisTaxiStrike last Monday. I tried to use the light Railway system but that was overloaded with non-regular customers like me. And if it wasn’t for some generous lift from an acquaintance, my work day would have been ruined. I sympathize with the drivers whose livelihood is being put in jeopardy, not because of the proposed traffic law but because of some predatory traffic police officers who cut them a ticket whenever they feel like it. I have come across some of these traffic police officers on more than one occasion. And under these circumstances, the traffic law doesn’t necessarily play in their favor.
Personally, I don’t have anything against the law. If my memory serves me right, along with countless statistics, Ethiopia has one of the highest traffic casualties in the world. And I have lost my fair share of close relatives to traffic accidents. So anything being done to curb this epidemic is fine by me. In a city where cutting corners and “Hustling” is becoming or has already become the new normal, anything being done to return a sense of normalcy and civility to the society is okay with me. The government, in turn, should focus on cleaning those corrupt officers from the traffic force.
Another thing I witnessed during the strike was that everybody was trying to turn it into something else. “Opportunist Syndrome” was in full display by some ‘tweeps’. The strike had nothing political in its nature but there they were drooling over it like they really cared. Check out the #AddisTaxiStrike hashtag on twitter and you will know what I am talking about. The response from people, especially on twitter, was to try tie this to something political or whatever; trying to tie every grievance the society has with their personal or group narrative. One thing that separates the taxi drivers from those self-righteous tweeps is that the drivers didn’t go on strike to score an interview with some major news channel; they did it out of fear for their daily livelihood.
Personally, I don’t have anything against the law. If my memory serves me right, along with countless statistics, Ethiopia has one of the highest traffic casualties in the world. And I have lost my fair share of close relatives to traffic accidents. So anything being done to curb this epidemic is fine by me. In a city where cutting corners and “Hustling” is becoming or has already become the new normal, anything being done to return a sense of normalcy and civility to the society is okay with me. The government, in turn, should focus on cleaning those corrupt officers from the traffic force.
Another thing I witnessed during the strike was that everybody was trying to turn it into something else. “Opportunist Syndrome” was in full display by some ‘tweeps’. The strike had nothing political in its nature but there they were drooling over it like they really cared. Check out the #AddisTaxiStrike hashtag on twitter and you will know what I am talking about. The response from people, especially on twitter, was to try tie this to something political or whatever; trying to tie every grievance the society has with their personal or group narrative. One thing that separates the taxi drivers from those self-righteous tweeps is that the drivers didn’t go on strike to score an interview with some major news channel; they did it out of fear for their daily livelihood.
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