The Jamaican taxi operator is king
Dear Editor,
The coronation of the Jamaican taxi operator as king is a daily, living and breathing reality across our beautiful island home.
He is king because, even if capital is female-generated, the face is undecidedly male. It is wisdom to take a taxi, as one provider advertises, “You have to have options, backup plans, walk with a taxi fare and keep safe.” Practical advice, for sure.
Taxi operators have the distinct advantage of knowing the length and breadth of the shorelines as well as impossible-to-climb mountain ranges, sugar fields, and deserted places in the hinterland. Wrongly or rightly, the profit motive is most often attributed to the professional modus operandi of taxi services. However, excellence does arise with speed and accuracy doing no harm, arriving on time, safely, like an ambulance to the emergency room.
Despite political debates, rabble-rousing about the state of the economy, or contentions regarding murder mysteries, the town is painted red with the exploits of the taxi man. It is all about his dexterity around the steering wheel, bobbing and weaving with exhilarating accuracy as one would in PAKO, the car chase stimulator, and in the end, he admonishes other players to “Stay in yuh lane!” or “Drive your own route!”
The yellow buses in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland, and Hanover take a true back seat to the taxi that gets you there with some cost. A favourite, too, of “schoolers”.
No one can throw egg in the face of the Jamaican taxi man and get away with it because, if he strikes, “dawg nyam wi suppa”, and we will certainly not reach home.
Transportation of people, goods, and services is the domain of the Jamaican taxi. Parcels, money, airplane access, visa processing, and intelligence about the “movements” of the police are all part and parcel of the intellectual dominance of this sector.
The taxi operator has immense, detailed knowledge about the geographical terrain, customer readiness to purchase, and is armed with defensive strategies, including humour and storytelling, even in busy bumper-to-bumper traffic. Professors, indeed, of life. Our universities, in striving to be relevant, should seek to standardise this industry with on-the-road qualifications and degrees. After all, they are suitable partners for student populations ( of all ages) and can hold their own in any argument. Their commentaries are well worth fulsome examination by academia. When will our on-theground experts have full media airplay on talk shows? Never mind, these warriors are too busy steering the wheel, balancing the books at the end of the day, tanking up with gas, costing for repairs and traffic tickets, and keeping passengers reasonably happy in quite an amazing juggle. They run the world.
What can we say but long live the king!
Ul Jem jem.ul@yahoo.com