WORLDWIDE from Afganistan
AFTER LOSING HIS LEGS TO A BOMB AFGHAN VETERAN IS ON A NEW JOURNEY
The New York Times reports on an inspira- tional story about an Afghan veteran who overcame his war- time disability and now drives a taxi. When Mirza Hussain Haidari swung his white Toyota taxi into a police check- point, a startled officer immediately fixed on Mr. Haidari’s gear shift, wrapped in blue tape and attached to a metal contraption sprouting wires and cables. “What is this?” the officer demanded, clearly suspecting a jury- rigged bomb. “I was wounded in war,” Mr. Haidari explained. “This is the way I manage to drive.” Mr. Haidari, 25, lost both legs to a land mine five years ago, when he was in the Afghan Army. Now he earns his living in a taxi, which he has fitted with a homemade mechanism that allows him to drive with his hands - or what’s left of them. The mine also blew off four of the fingers on Mr Haidari’s left hand, leaving only his thumb. His right hand is intact but dam- aged. Thousands of wounded combat veterans like Mr Haidari have become fixtures in Afghan society. Some are objects of admira- tion, others of pity.
Mr Haidari’s taxi with the modifications he designed
Mr Haidari, 25, has chosen to resume his life in a very public way. He is a fixture in Bamian Province in central Afghanistan, hauling fares in his retrofitted Toyota, driving between his taxi rounds and his squat brick home in the hills. Sometimes people mock him or recoil at the way he looks, he said. Some fares have abruptly climbed out of his taxi after real- ising they were about to ride with a driver who had no legs. “Sometimes when people make fun of me, I wish I had been killed by the bomb, because it’s a lifetime torture,” he said, perched on a cushion in his home as he prepared for a day of driving. Mr Haidari said he had been deeply hurt when no one from the army called to check on him after he was wounded. Since then, he said, he has received a small government stipend, which helped cover the costs of building his wheelchair-accessible home a year ago, but he still feels abandoned. Even so, he is determined to persevere. When he saw a legless army veteran in Kabul using his hands to drive a retrofitted car, it inspired him to design a similar device. He said he took his hand-drawn plans to a mechanic in his home- town, Bamian, but the man refused to help, saying the task was impossible. But Mr Haidari hectored him, and he relented. The two men rigged a contraption that lets Mr Haidari guide the
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steering wheel with his intact right hand and the accelerator with his left thumb, which controls a lever. He also uses the thumb to apply the brakes, by pushing a blue-taped knob. The retrofit cost him 5,500 afghanis, or about £60. Mr Haidari spent three years fighting the government before it supplied him with the motorised wheelchair. He also receives a portion of his soldier’s salary. He now ekes out a living, he said, but regrets that his 11-year-old brother has to work in a bakery rather than attend school because the family needs the income. Mr. Haidari lives with his brother, sister and mother. “When I was disabled, my family paid the price,” he said. “A single bomb ruined my life — and my family’s life.” But with the support of his family and friends, he said, he has found a measure of fulfillment in his post-military life. He finds solace behind the wheel of his taxi. He plays in a wheelchair basketball league and works out at a bodybuilding club to keep himself in shape. “Physically, I’m disabled, but mentally I’m O.K.,” he said. “I’ve lost my legs, but not my mind.” So Mr. Haidari plies the bumpy roads of Bamian in the snow, trolling for fares, watching the expressions on the faces of people who flag him down. Will they accept a ride or turn away?
from Nigeria
TAXI DRIVER CARRIES POLICEMAN ON TOP OF HIS CAR IN NIGERIA
In Nigeria, many people seem to have lost faith in uniformed men despite the common term that the police are our friends. For this reason, a lot of policemen and women are disregarded especially if they are doing something illegal or trying to cheat an individual. Some policemen and women have become a thorn in the flesh of public transport drivers as they use every opportunity to bill and extort them. Many drivers already seem fed up of this act and they take things into their own hands. YEN reports that just recently, a funny video of a policeman and a taxi driver made the rounds on social media. In the short clip, the policeman was seen hanging on for his dear life on the roof of a taxi driver’s car. The incident reportedly hap- pened in Abuja and it has been said that the policeman jumped on the taxi in a bid to stop the driver. That clearly did not work as the driver kept on driving while looking unbothered. The police- man on the car roof was most definitely bothered as he held on to the sides of the car in his bid not to fall down.
APRIL 2020
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