Faithful readers will have noticed that I lost my obsession for blogging. This was brought to my attention by my Computer Guru upon sending my last epistle, bragging to him that I was no longer blogging on a daily basis.
He: Ok, I was very worried you’d been arrested Alexis!
Me: You are making me laugh! I am in no danger here although I lived under that threat in Abu Dhabi. I am safe here, know the rules and am free to speak out against injustice.
But do admit that his comments set me to thinking, examining what had happened, what explained the lack of motivation that has characterized my life for the past five years. So did what I always do – talked to myself. I often talk to myself in public, catch myself saying to the people overhearing me.
Me: I was talking to myself
They: We all do!
Me: I say this: Oops I am talking to myself because I am the most interesting person around, well, except for you of course.
But this talking to myself was different, it was inner reflection and went like this.
Me: What has happened to me? Why have I lost my need to blog that has been with me for so long?
Alter Ego: You need to examine why you blog, what do you expect to get, or gain, from blogging.
Me: My goodness that is a good place to start. There are many reasons. One is to reach out to people, to be heard.
Alter Ego: is that working for you?
Me: I guess so. My statistics reveal that there are great numbers of people and they come back again and again. But it always has been interesting that there are always some people who are ‘close’ to me, see me daily, who do not read the blog. I remember this conversation from my Vancouver days (2017-201) with CCC. Me: You do not read the blog.
CCC. Why should I read the blog, I am in the movie. Me: You cannot be in the movie, you are not handsome enough to play yourself. CCC: Ouch! Me: Serves you right for not reading the blog.
Alter Ego: That is interesting, you nailed him.
Me: Later on learned that CCC betrayed me. But do not have to worry about revenge. Covid destroyed whatever career he had. I am of the Islamic faith – I leave revenge to Allah, he has more power than I. He is after all All Powerful.
Alter Ego: So seek deep within yourself. Why else to write the blog?
Me: To seek justice, or at least reveal injustices to the world. I attempt to show and to explain the fallacy of the thinking behind those that impose injustices, like I did with the abortion issue, quoting a study that said that women that got an abortion were not unhappy and regretted it – the opposite was scientifically proven.
Alter Ego: Does that work for you?
Me: Yes and no. I have a problem being patient. Sometimes justice takes a long time. But yesterday morning I awoke to great news. I spoke out about Uber, a long time ago and now the manifest evil is being revealed. I shall now tell the story on the blog.
Alter Ego: Yeah you!!!
I have steadfastly hated Uber. Want proof? Go to the search engine of this blog and type uber and up shall jump many blogs. My strongest was May 19, 2017. Do so love it when at long last all is revealed. It was far worse than I suspected.
The real truth was revealed yesterday morning. I am living in the land of my birth where investigations are done and then reported in the media. Please remember that I was living in Abu Dhabi where neither was possible. Yesterday morning the Toronto Star, in their email version reported the following, listen to this catchy title: A kill switch, lobbying and driver exploitation are among the “cutthroat” tactics that built Uber’s empire “More than 124,000 leaked internal documents obtained by the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Toronto Star reveal secrets of the ride-hailing company’s playbook to win over political leaders around the world. The collection of emails, texts, memos and PowerPoint slides lay bare Uber’s efforts to defy local regulations, hinder investigations and rewrite labour standards. As two Uber figures put it, the company believed it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission, Here’s the inside story of Uber’s global rise. If you follow this link you will read that influential world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, then the French economy minister and Joe Biden have used their influence in favor of Uber. But not just the high and mighty “but In Toronto alone, records show, Uber lobbyists have contacted city officials and council members more than 4,700 times since 2013. Most of those communications — 70 per cent — happened in 2015 and 2016, when there were matters before council that could impact the ride-hailing company.” The companies success came at a cost to some. “Their business model is based on targeting people who are already precarious.”
When you read the article in its entirety as I did, with any compassion at all – you will weep for the poor drivers – not even making minimum wage.
• By the numbers: In Canada, Uber has employed at least 103 lobbyists to influence municipal, provincial and federal governments, according to a Toronto Star analysis.
• Go deeper: Uber used “kill switches” in at least five jurisdictions to block tax inspectors and other authorities from accessing its computer servers during office raids.
• Wait, what? “Sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just f—ing illegal the then head of the company’s global communications commiserated to a colleague.”
My May 19, 2019 blog, written from San Francisco is perhaps the strongest. It speaks of the traffic congestion caused by Uber – at that time no investigation of the corruption and bribes had been considered or undertaken. Three years later it has – and look what has been unearthed.
I have no illusions of grandeur. Do not think that my blog had anything to do with the eventual investigation but it does make me feel proud that I stood up for injustice and greed at the time. I was also free to do so as I was living in the USA. I could not do so during those six months I lived in the UAE. It makes me appreciate my freedoms so much and there are more here in Edmonton then there were in San Francisco. And here crime does not roam the streets, as it does in San Francisco these days, not reported in the media. I do have to say there is no crime in the UAE, nor homeless people clogging up streets and byways. But I guess I may have to abide the homeless here in Edmonton – perhaps. Perhaps I can clean up Edmonton – how terribly politically incorrect. That is me politically incorrect. I am after all, a Muslim.
Photograph was taken many years ago but posted on Instagram recently with the following caption: As I shall not be traveling this year this is from a trip to France taken about 25 years ago. It is of Mt. St. Michele taken with my ‘big’ girl camera’ Now I use my iPhone. I got 11 likes and four comments which may be repeated on the blog later. It is interesting that all of the Likes and comments were from Abu Dhabi folks and/or Muslims. I am not sure what that says as I have 788 followers on Instagram.
