Mingjie Cai wrote an incredibly touching post today, and I highly recommend everyone go and read it.
Every word. I was tearing up halfway through.
As for the blog itself, I’m a new follower, having found it via some random links, and thinking “A Taxi Driver’s Diary? This is kind of cool”.
Mingjie Cai is actually has a PhD from Stanford, and has now been forced by the Singaporean system to drive a taxi.
Probably the only taxi driver in this world with a PhD from Stanford and a proven track record of scientific accomplishments, I have been forced out of my research job at the height of my scientific career, and unable to find another one, for reasons I can only describe as something “uniquely Singapore”.
As a result, I am driving taxi to make a living and writing these real life stories just to make the dull job a little more interesting.
I hope that these stories are interesting to you too.
I am hooked.
Every post he writes is a piece of art.
I am reminded of the now-too-famous-for-me-to-read Waiter Rant before he became huge and stopped writing actual anecdotes.
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Revanche
on Nov 13th, 2009
@ 10:25 PM:
You know what's sad? Everyone who asks me WHY I keep supporting my family doesn't understand that that story about the old lady is exactly what I fear for my parents. I simply can't have that.
Jennifer
on Nov 13th, 2009
@ 10:49 PM:
What a beautiful and heartbreaking story. It makes me smile to know there are still good people in this world who want to help others. I feel so badly for that poor old woman….to think she has a family and they don't help her…what a shame.
Alexandra
on Nov 14th, 2009
@ 12:14 AM:
I didn't know about this blog. Thanks for sharing this. I love the way he writes. This post was so sad. How can anyone abandon their parents like that?
L.A. Daze
on Nov 14th, 2009
@ 3:30 AM:
Singapore is like that…you have the smartest taxi drivers there. It's rather sad really. And the old lady…oh my gosh made me cry. Why aren't her kids there for her?? This reminds me of all the old, fragile Chinese ladies and gentleman who try to sell tissues by the side of the road. Or the old lady that plays the Chinese violin in the MRT station. They don't receive any assistance whatsoever. I really don't understand how kids can leave their parents like that. Especially in the Asian culture. I know apartments in Singapore are tiny…but come on…
FABULOUSLYBROKE
on Nov 14th, 2009
@ 12:34 PM:
I agree. YOu make do…
FABULOUSLYBROKE
on Nov 14th, 2009
@ 12:35 PM:
It's really awful isn't it?
FABULOUSLYBROKE
on Nov 14th, 2009
@ 12:35 PM:
As what L.A. Daze says, it's apparently common