This is a tragic story. When attending the memorial Mr. Sherpa exhibited his greatness in character, truly his act restores our faith in humanity and forgiveness. I can only hope the plight of struggling immigrants in eased, the story is the same here in Toronto.

S

Touching and tragic indeed.

My uncle (who basically helped raise me like a dad) drove cab for decades after immigrating to Canada with my Grandparents. It is a very hard life, with farejumpers, back problems, violent / drunk fares, long hours, etc. He has been able to move into real estate and small business ownership and is now doing well, but I remember how hard it was. Working very late shifts and all hours can be brutal, especially with a family. There is also the fact that you end up drinking after hours with other cabbie / immigrant friends which can exacerbate the other issues which can lead to more conflict at home.

It always boggles me how many cabbies were working, highly educated professionals in their home countries – I don’t know how many doctors, engineers, etc from here would be willing to move to another country and then start over driving a cab – yet they also wouldn’t have to worry about it since a US education is not questioned.

People forget how hard it is for someone in their 30s – 50s to start over in a new country, have their credentials not recognized, and not be able to afford to re-certify when they have a family to support. There are many who do it and they should be commended. But for the rest, working a job like a cabbie is a quick (but not easy) alternative.

Totally milder (though this is relative I think). The issues the LA taxi workers have to deal with revolve around a largely car geared suburban culture. No one really takes cabs in L.A, which is why getting clients at the airport is such a big deal (that’s where we conducted most of the interviews).

and mr sherpa is quite a guy if he managed to keep his head on straight. it’s a shitty job and the profits are slim if you dont have a medallion. i talk to cabbies a fair bit – a lot of them have trouble at home and i’ve traveled twice with guys who asked me for permission to take different routes because the direct route violated restraining orders. but the one doing nights really got it rough. you get fare jumpers, muggers, smelly, puking racist s.o.b.’s and that’s not a happy place to be.

i looked thru the pdf linked by tax. good detail although surprisingly the impact on family (pg 21) is milder than what iheard. maybe life is better on the sunshine coast than the big smoak. :-/

Probably becase the other guy had a family.

In society, when you are single after 28 people dont treat you the same.

If you are at work and the boss has to fire some guy, the guy without a family is going to get fired over the guy with a family.

That being said. The cab business is the shadiest thing on the planet. Most of the workers are from countires where the law will not protect your business and they operate things how they do in those countries and not here. They try to scare people out of medallions, like people are just going to hand them a $200,000 medallion if you ask them for it in a threatening manner.

Couldn’t believe this guy survived the attack in the head.