[quote=“cctang”]
EDIT: Actually, I thought about it, and now I realize what the problem is. Chinese nationalists and white nationalist are very much an apple/orange comparison. Chinese nationalists are actually analogous to American nationalists.[/quote]
yes exactly
In that regard I would have to argue the “one drop rule” doesn’t apply to Han.
[quote=“ac_dropout”]
I’m sure moderates on the issue, see the problem as an economic and labor issue, with little or nothing to due with race.
However, one cannot ignore the racial component in used to motivate people in South West. That the fast growing Hispanics population are making Whites a minority. That has some Whites concerned. They voice their concerns in term of evil of multiculturalism, and White nation built by Whites for Whites. Some of them feel powerless about being displaced or even worst fear retribution from minorities. I’m not say all whites are like this, just the really weird angy ones.
Arizona has a plan to built a 700 mile 2 layer steel fence on the boarder with Mexico as a solution. Does that sound logical? Maybe it is my Chinese history lessons. But quite a few dynasties in China collapse from the cost of maintaining and building that tourist attraction located a day trip outside Beiping.[/quote]
if you had an analogous situation in anywhere, much less China, you would probably have a far stronger reaction. also remember what you are talking about is largely illegal immigration. people aren’t obligated to get all warm and smiley about that.
[quote]This type of illogical solutions are also being applied in Taiwan. PRC tourist coming in from 3rd nations instead of directly flying over here.
…[/quote]
not analogous. mexico hasn’t been threatening the us with missile attacks and annexation.
what “one drop rule” lol. join the 21st century with the rest of us.
Tempo Gain,
I’m just describing the difference between White nationalist and Chinese nationalist. White nationalist are exclusive to the extent that if it discovered that someone is 1/32 Native American, one is not considered White.
Chinese nationalist are not that exclusive by a long shot.
The physical wall doesn’t work. The Chinese used it to keep out actual invaders, forget about undocumented worker. Didn’t stop the Mongols or the Manchus.
Mexico has ask the USA to redress the Mexican-US War, which they percieve as an injustice. Many Mexican don’t think of coming to the South West as an invasion, but more as a long belated return.
[quote=“ac_dropout”]Tempo Gain,
I’m just describing the difference between White nationalist and Chinese nationalist. White nationalist are exclusive to the extent that if it discovered that someone is 1/32 Native American, one is not considered White.
Chinese nationalist are not that exclusive by a long shot.
[/quote]
You seem to be referring to ethnically or racially based nationalism. As cctang noted, one can be a US nationalist without being white.
One can be a Chinese nationalist and not be Han as well.
I’m sure he’s known by some in Taiwan these days, but 吾尔开希, one of the Tiananmen student leaders, is Uygur from Xinjiang. He advocates “One China under democracy.” I’m pretty sure that makes him a Chinese nationalist, even if an erstwhile opportunistic activist.
By the way, thought this was a very accurate statement… very reflective of the contemporary debate about democracy + development amongst Chinese today.
It’s also very geeky, and I therefore find it very amusing.
Haha, that is very geeky, and ultimately a good point. Fact of the matter is, political “science” is not a science, not even an art, but a discipline emerging from pseudo-babble, so I wouldn’t hang life-and-death on it. This is why scientists and engineers seldom get excited about these claims and why China’s policy today is what it is given that it has an all-engineer Politburo – here’s an interesting read, it makes the point that the US government is, in contrast, led by lawyers:
hojohnlee.com/weblog/archive … engineers/
China’s leaders in the recent past have also often been engineers with a top education in China or foreign university. Jiang – mechanical engineer. Li Peng – hydroelectric engineer… This is in contrast with the prior generations of leaders who were also good students, but were educated in the liberal arts and of course, revolution, and it shows in the governing style.
Even Jet Li is a Hmong. Too bad is movies where he plays a nationalist Han aren’t even famous our well recieved by critics.
Not to mention he once played a the role of “secret police of ROC” in Compton, CA…that’s irony.
cctang,
I like the tone of that guy. Optimism and engagement. Not to mention he has a mathematic model for his social thesis to avoid revolution.
Many times I read opinions about revolution and starting anew. Those guys get me depressed these days.
Um, I’m pretty sure Jet Li is Han. Where do you find that he is Hmong?
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
I also have pictures of LTH as Japanese. 
[quote=“ac_dropout”]I’m just describing the difference between White nationalist and Chinese nationalist. White nationalist are exclusive to the extent that if it discovered that someone is 1/32 Native American, one is not considered White.
Chinese nationalist are not that exclusive by a long shot.
[/quote]
exactly how many ‘white nationalists’ do you personally know? i think you’re talking about white racists - skinheads, klansmen who emphasize racial purity. and if anyone is 1/32 native american i doubt it would even show in his/her appearance so nobody would even know or care as long as you look ‘white’. and there’s no such thing as pure ‘white’ anymore in america. back then, only northern europeans were considered pure white - southern/eastern europeans with darker hair and skin tones were considered ‘ethnic’. even jews weren’t considered real ‘white’. today it runs the whole gambit. anyone who’s mixed race who looks ‘white’ can call themselves white, with some exceptions.
it’s non uncommon for many americans nowadays to be multi-raced considering the numerous ethnicities residing in america and the long history of race mixing with native indians, african slaves, and mexicans and later with asians. i’ve met many people who appear totally caucasian only to be surprised that they’re half black or half asian, etc.
Not a personal, over-opinionated comment, eh? And you’re not biased? You reek of it. Such hypocrisy.
Another under-informed, over-opinionated, biased comment. There are many Chinese in Hong Kong who STILL think things were better under British rule. What about all those democracy protests that still occur annually after the handover? 200,000-500,000 protesters each time. They were promised popular elections to elect their leaders, denied and thus were lied to. Of course, the democratic will of the people has diminished due to Beijing suppression over the years, thus people like you think they’re “content”. Nice spin. Taiwanese know better. One country, Two systems is a SHAM.
Hong Kong fetes China’s
national day with protests
Oct. 01, 2003
Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG - Official celebrations to mark China’s national day got off to an uneasy start in Hong Kong Wednesday as democracy activists staged noisy demonstrations at a ceremony led by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Slogan-shouting protestors from the pro-democracy April Fifth action group called for an end to communist party rule of China as Tung and 700 officials and guests marked the 54th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The demonstration, repeatedly halted by police, was the latest in a series of unprecedented protests which saw 500,000 people take to the streets in July to voice opposition to proposed security laws.
Crowds of spectators, including mainland tourists, had turned out to witness the morning ceremony on Hong Kong’s Wan Chai waterfront in which Tung raised the territory’s Bauhinia flower standard alongside the Chinese flag.
During the event, some 15 protestors marched at a snail’s pace along steel barriers set up by police to prevent them from invading the venue.
“What about our right to demonstrate according to the UN human rights convention,” shouted protest leader Leung Kwok-hung as police tried to stop demonstrators from scaling the barrier.
Leung later read a petition to Beijing, calling for an end to one-party rules and the return of power to the people. The document was then burned to show indignation over the protestors’ barring from the ceremonial venue.
Hong Kong is later to mark the day with a traditional fireworks display in a celebration that will also express renewed confidence in the wake of the SARS epidemic that ravaged the former British colony.
Dissatisfaction with government handling of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak helped fuel the summer protests which marked Hong Kong’s deepest political crisis since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
Wednesday’s demonstrators were joined by members of the Tiananmen Mothers Campaign who called on China to probe the 1989 military crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The group in its petition also called for “thorough reform” of the communist system in order to prevent human rights abuses.
Carrying symbolic black and white streamers, the protestors also called on Beijing to release all political prisoners and explain the 1989 crackdown.
Huge Rights Protests In Hong Kong
Hundreds of thousands of people gather at Victoria Park before the march (AP)
(AP) Hundreds of thousands of people marched through downtown Hong Kong on Thursday, demanding full democracy and venting anger at China’s communist leaders for denying them the right to directly elect their government.
About 530,000 people turned out, according to protest organizers, while police said they had counted 200,000 part way through the rally that lasted a little more than five hours.
“Only democracy can save Hong Kong,” said 65-year-old Cheuk Kuang, a former driver. “The communist government is intervening too much in Hong Kong and it’s trying to shut down all opposition voices.”
The march came on the seventh anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese sovereignty and a year after a protest by a half million people stunned China’s leaders and forced Hong Kong’s government to withdraw an anti-subversion bill that many had viewed as a threat to freedoms.
Marchers filled all four lanes of a major downtown thoroughfare, peacefully chanting slogans, holding up signs and waving inflatable dolls of their unpopular leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, as they made their way to the fenced-off Hong Kong government headquarters.
Tempers have flared here since Beijing ruled in April that ordinary citizens cannot elect the successor to Tung in 2007 or all lawmakers in 2008.
“We don’t want to be subservient to the central government,” said Ben Kwok, a 40-year-old factory owner. “We don’t want Hong Kong to become like the mainland, where even the news gets censored.”
Many accuse Tung of being a puppet to Beijing.
“The Hong Kong government is just foolish,” said clerk Maggie Yung. “It’s completely turned a blind eye to the people.”
But the mood seemed less angry than last year. Thousands of the protesters were fanning themselves on the hottest day of the year, with temperatures hitting 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Police said 42 people were hospitalized for heat exhaustion or other problems.
Despite Beijing’s ruling in April that shattered hopes for universal suffrage in the near future, many of the demonstrators from all walks of life vowed to keep pushing for reform.
“Someone said there’s no point in protesting,” said 44-year-old Lo Keung-wah, who sells construction materials. “But is it any good if we don’t protest?”
The U.S. said it respected the people’s right to seek political reforms.
“It is up to the Hong Kong people and the government of Hong Kong to determine the pace and scope of democratization,” U.S. Consulate General spokeswoman Susan N. Stevenson said by telephone.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in Beijing that her government is “resolutely opposed to foreign interference” and added that Hong Kong’s political system gives its citizens “real and unprecedented democracy.”
Tung and other dignitaries stood at attention in the morning as the Chinese and Hong Kong flags were solemnly raised to the sounds of the national anthem. Outside, a dozen activists tried to carry a mock black coffin toward the ceremony but were held back by a larger group of police.
Protesters have rankled Beijing with what it views as a provocative rallying cry: “Return power to the people.”
In Hong Kong, a mainland visitor, 30-year-old accountant Bob Zhuang, watched the early morning demonstration for a few minutes and called the activists “stupid.”
“Should such a protest really be allowed in this territory?” Zhuang asked, waving a red Chinese flag.
Pro-democracy figures hope Thursday’s march will generate momentum for September legislative elections that will let ordinary citizens choose 30 of the territory’s 60 lawmakers, up from 24 four years ago.
The rest are chosen by special interest groups, such as businessmen, doctors and lawyers, who tend to side with Beijing. The central and territorial governments worry they may end up with a legislature that won’t back Tung, something that hasn’t happened in the seven years since Britain returned this former colony to China.
Tung was chosen by an 800-member committee loyal to Beijing.
The central government permits no political dissent in the mainland and was clearly worried about the rally.
th’y’rdrail, you promised me you didn’t chew betel nut and know how to pronounce the ‘f’ sound. Of course I was lied to. I KNEW you would still chew betel nut and mispronounce the ‘f’ sound because obviously it’s true and obviously I’m right. Nice spin. I know better. You are a SHAM.
December 05, 2005
Major Hong Kong protest
Pro-democracy activists filled the streets on Sunday, calling for one man, one vote.
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HONG KONG – Reports that this city’s democracy movement was dead appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
An unexpected turnout of as many as 250,000 marchers here Sunday is a clear repudiation of pro-Beijing policies that would stall if not kill democratic aspirations in Hong Kong. It also speaks to the vibrancy of a grass-roots democratic awakening that had been slumbering in China’s most developed commercial city. Had Sunday’s turnout been low, it could have sunk the democracy movement.
The protest, which filled Hong Kong’s downtown on this breezy afternoon, was sparked by a proposal that would indefinitely delay a much-desired introduction of a “one man, one vote” system. It was also fed by statements from Hong Kong tycoons that the city wasn’t mature enough to govern itself.
The march was a culmination of growing polarization between popular desire for speedy democracy and the Beijing-backed government of Donald Tsang. It sets the stage for future collisions between Tsang and the democrats.
All sides were calling Dec. 4 a “crossroads.” Indeed, Sunday’s march may prove as significant as the July 1, 2003, march of 500,000 residents that ultimately drove Mr. Tsang’s predecessor out of office and gave birth to a democracy movement centered in the legal profession.
Beijing, concerned with stability, has long been wary of a full-fledged democracy movement. The news wires of the official Xinhua news agency in Beijing did not have a Chinese-language report of the event, but an English-language version described “a few” protesters. Police stated that the number was only 63,000.
Unlike previous marches, Sunday’s crowd was focused solely on democracy issues, not on social or pocketbook concerns, or attacks on their chief executive. Instead, many people identified the political system itself as a main grievance. Ipod-carrying students, parents, businessmen, and retirees - virtually all articulated specific democratic principles like universal suffrage. Later, Tsang remarked that demonstrators had expressed “passion,” and said that he wanted to see universal suffrage “in his time.” But his opponents charge that his proposals will severely diminish that prospect.
Crowds rejected Tsang’s bid to reshape politics in a way that would expand the role of officeholders appointed by the chief executive - one way Beijing influences local politics. The package would double the 800-member committee that picks a leader and expand the 60-member legislature.
“Hong Kong people want no more [political] appointments… For us to accept more appointments is a regression, it is not progressive,” said a businessman in tennis shoes. “It puts us further from democracy, not closer.”
“People are not here to oppose Donald Tsang,” says Tony Tong, a tourism executive. “They are here to oppose the system.”
By 3 p.m., thousands had filled Victoria Park’s six soccer fields. They sang “We Will Overcome” in Cantonese, listened to a prayer by Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen, and filed out behind mock bird cages symbolizing democracy behind bars. A mention to the crowd that former chief executive Anson Chan was among them brought a cheer. Ms. Chan is considered a strong democrat, but has stayed out of all protests. Marchers wore black or white, slapped stickers of a phoenix on their faces, and held signs like, “I am marching today so that one day I may vote.”
By 7 p.m., thousands were still filing out of Victoria Park; a few weeks ago organizers thought the march would bring perhaps 50,000 people.
Thousands of participants wore yellow ribbons in honor of local journalist Ching Cheong, who was apprehended in China last spring. Mr. Ching, a well-known figure and a Chinese patriot, had crossed the border reportedly to obtain a manuscript of the writings of Zhao Ziyang, the former premier who was placed under arrest after the Tiananmen Square episode of 1989.
The terms of Hong Kong’s constitutional document, the Basic Law, state that in 2007, the political system could be reviewed. Democrats have seen that as an opening to universal suffrage. But Beijing rules that out, and Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary of the National People’s Congress standing committee, last week called it a “mission impossible.”
After Beijing removed unpopular former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, the democracy movement seemed to lose focus. Tsang, who was given credit for helping Hong Kong escape the worst of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, is seen as highly competent. Yet while he is selling his new reform as if it had emerged from the democracy movement, few democrats believe this.
Audrey Eu, head of the Article 45 Concern Group, called Tsang’s TV address last week, in which he insisted that Hong Kong people buy into his proposal in an all-or-nothing fashion, as “something like a threat.”
“I would be for the reform proposal if it were truly decided by Hong Kong,” said Chan Lo, a marcher who works in a shipping firm and was here with his two daughters. “But it exists under a frame that has been fixed by mainland China. Since this frame exists, I am not really deciding. My feeling is that Hong Kong people are mature enough to understand this.”
Many business elites in Hong Kong have spoken disparagingly of rallies and protests by “rabble.” Yet as Sin-ming Shaw , a well-known Hong Kong writer puts it, “These are smart, accomplished people… This is the first globalized Chinese community. They live in an … open economy that competes well with the best of the world. So to hear we aren’t mature enough…it is ridiculous. It angers people.”
Lost in transit
September 23, 2006
Taiwanese taxi drivers
I guess a lot of countries have stories about their taxi drivers, and Taiwan doing everything it can to “connect to the international community” as the standard phrase goes when you want to show that you are international and progressive, is of course joining the club. There is a campaign to teach taxi drivers to speak English, and they are encouraged not to discuss politics or religion and refrain from chewing the (mildly) narcotic betel nut. In the old days, there was no regulation of the profession, which meant that it was full of ex-convicts that couldn’t find a job elsewhere. When I first arrived here in the late 1980s, newspaper reports about taxi drivers raping, robbing, beating up and/or murdering customers were fairly common.
Ex-convicts or not, they have always been a fierce bunch, and more than once have different taxi fleets laid siege on police stations to have a fellow driver released from custody, sometimes leading to violence and bloodshed.
Quite some time ago, D took a taxi somewhere here in Taipei. She was in a bit of a hurry, so she got in the first cab that stopped, although we normally always pass on those sat-down, worn-down, smoke- and betelnut infested old Ford Telstars and wait for a nice new car instead. It felt wrong the minute she sat down and he took off. Only then did she realize that the car indeed was old and the seats sat down, and that it reeked of betelnut. The guy looked as if he was falling asleep, his eyes glazed from another 24-hour-shift of driving and betelnut-chewing.
D didn’t say a word besides letting him know where she was going, and she told him in Taiwanese, because you don’t want to set these guys off if you can avoid it.
After a while, they got to a red light, and the car ahead of them, another cab, did a sudden brake, maybe because he didn’t notice the red light, but more probably because he was planning on running it, and then realized that the cars in the other direction had already begun moving. D’s driver, of course, had to do an even more sudden brake to avoid running into the guy, not that a run-in would have made any difference to his old wreck.
That was all he needed. He started yelling and shouting, with red betelnut juice flying out of his mouth in every direction as if he had received a physical slap on the face by the driver in front of him. He got out of the car, popped the trunk, got out the crowbar, and went completely berserk on the car in front of them, going wild on the doors and smashing the windows, screaming and shouting, while the driver locked it from the inside and tried to move over to the other side of the car before he got hit. D had no change, so she placed a thousand entee dollars ten times the fare on the driver’s seat before quietly slipping out of the car. After all, you don’t want a pumped-up, crowbar-wielding, betel nut-chewing berserk on your tail.
These days, however, this is the exception, and taxi drivers are really quite nice. I wouldn’t mind if they stopped chewing betel nut, but apart from that, you can have the greatest, weirdest and funniest conversations. One day not too long ago, I got in a taxi and told the guy where I wanted to go. I could hardly hear his answer, his mouth was so full of betel nut, but in the end, it turned out to be yet another of those memorable taxi rides that I only get in Taipei.
-I want to go to Roosevelt Rd. Could you go down Heping East and then turn left at Roosevelt, please. I’ll get off before you hit Shida Rd.
-Heping West and Roosevelt?
-No, just go down Heping East and then turn left onto Roosevelt.
-Are you getting off on Heping or on Roosevelt?
-Roosevelt. Just go down Heping East and then turn left onto Roosevelt. I don’t know the exact address, but I know the place. I go there every week.
-OK.
He stopped. He actually seemed to get it.
-Here, do you chew? Have one.
He handed me a whole bag of betel nuts.
-No, I don’t. Thanks, though.
-Your Chinese is good. You been here long? Are you an English teacher?
He spat in the plastic cup he had next to his seat, already brimming with old chewed out betel nuts and bloodred spittle. But at least he held the cup up to his mouth before he spat in it so he wouldn’t miss. Then he managed to squeeze yet another betel nut into his face.
-Thanks. No, I’m a translator. You have to be a native English speaker to be an English teacher these days, and I’m not.
-Where are you from?
-Sweden, so I speak Swedish.
-North Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. See, I’m good.
-And Finland. You know your geography. Have you ever been to Europe?
-No, no. I’m not leaving this place. I owe the government too much money, NT$8 or 9 million, so they won’t let me out.
What did he just say? Why would he talk of such things to a complete stranger?
-What did you do?
-I didn’t pay my taxes.
-Really? You make that much driving a cab?
-No, I was in construction, and the company went belly-up.
That figures. With all the corruption involved in the construction industry from buying contracts and paying “consultancy fees,” that’s precisely what you’d expect.
-So how much do you have to owe the government before they stop you from leaving the country?
-Oh, NT$1 million (about US$31,000 or so), I think. But I owe much more than that. NT$9 million.
-How long will it take you to pay it back?
-I ain’t paying it back. I owe the government, I’m not paying them back.
-How come they don’t put you in jail, then?
-I’ve done time before. I like doing bad stuff. I just can’t do good things. It doesn’t work, I can only do bad things. See, I’m not allowed to turn here, but I’m turning anyway. I don’t care.
He’s just dying to show me how bad he is. With all the cars whizzing past not expecting us to do what we’re doing I’m sure now I’m going to be in another crash. The last one I was in going to Jiufen a while back was really quite innocent. The only thing that happened was that the driver couldn’t open his door and had to get out on the right side of the car. It was also caused by our taxi driver who drove on the left side of the road through a sharp left turn. Then he blamed the oncoming guy for driving too fast and in the middle of the road, almost over on our side. Afterwards, he still wanted us to take his taxi back to Taipei.
-Yeah, I see. That’s alright, though, it’s in the right direction.
-I’ve never had a job. I’ve tried, and the boss always gets in my hair and then I smack him and I get fired. I’m just a bad guy. I only think bad thoughts and try to find ways of doing bad stuff.
-I guess some people just can’t take orders. You should just run your own company so you can make all decisions and come and go as you please.
-But I can’t do that. I tried. I just only want to bad things. It’s like at some time in your life, you make a turn down a road and that’s what you’re going to do for the rest of your life. I did something bad, and now I’m a bad person that can only do bad things, you know like the five bad elements in China. Have you been there?
-Lived there for two years a long time ago.
-You know that turn before, it was a wrong turn, I think. I seem to be taking you for an extra ride, we could have gone straight.
But you were so eager to show me how bad you are, remember?
-It’s fine, we’re still going in the right direction.
-We are? OK. So you know the five bad elements, then? Landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, bad elements, and rightist elements. I’m two of those, a bad element and a counterrevolutionary. I used to be a smuggler there, you see, smuggled things to Taiwan.
-What kind of stuff?
-Girls.
Then he went into a long monologue about distances in nautical miles between Keelung and Hsinchu and then the distance in kilometers between Keelung and Hsinchu beforing adding distances in kilometers between other places in Taiwan and converting those to distances in nautical miles and then doing the same thing for places on the Fujian coast to show that he knew the coast lines of Fujian and Taiwan the way only a smuggler would. I recognized a lot of the names from when I lived in Xiamen but have no idea whether the distances were correct or not.
-Then the Taiwanese government wanted to put me in jail so I moved to China. I stayed there for several years, but then my mom got sick so I came back.
So not even a bad guy in Taiwan is badder than that he has to come home and take care of his sick old mom, even if it means going to jail.
-And then they caught you and put you in jail.
-Right. So when I got out, I started driving a taxi.
-You have quite a good life, then. You owe the government almost 10 million bucks that you refuse to pay back but you still have your freedom to move around and drive your taxi and make money. Pretty good. Nice government.
-Yeah, but I have to go the police station all the time so they can tell me to be a good boy and follow the law, and I can’t go anywhere anyway, so I’m still in prison. Here, see. This is the last paper they sent me to tell me to go the police so they can talk to me to keep me from doing bad stuff. That’s why I’m driving a cab.
-But with your smuggling connections you could surely go to China anytime you want.
-Sure.
-But then you don’t have a passport, so I guess you can’t go anywhere else.
-Right, but China is big, there’s a lot of places to go, and I can make money there. Hey, you said Sweden, right? Isn’t that where Hagar the Horrible comes from?
Hagar is called “The Little Hero of the North Sea” in Chinese and everyone has to bring him up when they hear that I’m from Northern Europe. Maybe it’s the beard, the big moustache and the rings in my ears that make them think about pirates.
-Yeah. Funny that you should mention that.
-I want to be a pirate. I like pirates, they’re bad guys, too, like me. It would suit me well.
-But then you should go to Indonesia, not China. There are a lot of pirates in those waters.
-And the Philippines, there are even more in the Philippines. Yeah, I could go there.
-Oh, look at that, here we are, this is where I get off. Thanks for the ride.
I made sure I paid him right. After all, you never know, maybe he really was a baddie, what do I know. What I do know, though, is that I just have to start taking the taxi more often.