Interesting Instructions

I read an article about a week ago on Sports Illustrated. It was in the 'More Sports' section. It dealt with some instructions that Beijing taxi drivers were given in lieu of the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics.

Now the caption read: 'taxi drivers warned to brush away garlic, be polite and don't smoke' It was more than enough to pique my curiosity.

Drivers were warned not to try to take advantage of tourists, to brush their teeth to get away the garlic smell from meals that evidently Asian foods use as a key ingredient, not to spit in public, and to just be downright polite.

Other warnings included to form neat lines--no pushing and shoving, not to refuse fares, not to smoke while driving, and to use public transportation to ease congestion.

Now I was actually pretty much in tears when reading this article. There is evidently a reason why the warnings were issued:

"The taxi drivers are a window through which the foreigners will see Beijing, and we need to further regulate their services,'' said Lin Xiaoming, vice director of the Beijing Transport Commission - an arm of Beijing's municipal government.

"Some of our residents complained that the drivers hardly knew the roads and some of the taxis were not clean,'' Lin said. "We are aiming to improve our entire range of transportation services.''

This reminds me of one of the funniest articles I read before the Athens Olympics in 2004. It said that the Greek prostitutes were threatening to go on strike. They wanted to be respected, given that they contributed heavily to the Greek economy. I was in stitches.

I'm going to stop now, LOL. If you'd like to read the article for your own amusement click on the hyperlink below:

A Little Courtesy Please