WORLDWIDE You could soon be able to get a taxi to the Sea of


Tranqulity, if only there was something to see! We report on the first test flights of The Dream Chaser, NASA’s space taxi. Also from America a New York pas- tor will take your confessions whilst driving you to your des- tination. No doubt the further you go the more absolution you get! Don’t fall asleep in the back of a taxi in Germany as you may be taken not only to the wrong destination, but to the wrong country! We also report on the continuing case of British holidaymaker Sian Green in her battle for compensation with New York City. And from India the story of a latter-day Alan Sugar (shouldn’t that be Alana Sugar?) with her electric rickshaw. And so much more! Read on....


from California


SPACE TAXI MAKES ITS FIRST TEST FLIGHT IN CALIFORNIA


The Dream Chaser model aircraft was carried to an altitude of 12,500 feet by a helicopter and then released to glide back to the runway. The unmanned aircraft successfully positioned itself for landing, but skid- ded as in touched down on the runway. One of its three landing gears did not deploy, causing the plane to skid off the landing strip and into the sand. Engineers are still assessing how much damage was sustained.


The aircraft is one of three space taxis being developed in conjunction with NASA.


from New York


TAXI-DRIVING PASTOR OFFERS CONFESSIONS ON THE GO IN NYC


Great news, you no longer have to go to church to confess your sins. Thanks to pastor Joseph Djan, who also happens to work as a cab driver, the confes- sional has been moved from the church into a New York taxi.


Pastor Joseph Djan


According to beforeits news.com, the 52-year- old taxi driver and Evangelical pastor sees


cab driving as running a “church on wheels”. Why? “It allows me to meet a lot of people and sometimes interact with them and it gives me the flex- ibility to attend to (the) ministry when it’s needed,” Djan says. He has Christian hip-hop playing in his cab and he sometimes lets his passengers know that he is a minister. Usually, after finding out about him being a man of Faith, people open up to him. This is what happened to one of his clients, a gay man who was afraid of coming out of the closet. “He heard my Christian hip-hop and while talking about it, it slipped out that I was a pastor. His mood changed instantly. He told me he wanted to tell me something that had never told anyone before”, the New York cab- bie said.


The client confessed that he was feeling guilty about not telling the truth about his homosexuality, but Djan comforted him. “I told him that we all keep secrets. We all have to come out of the closet in some way or anoth- er. He was so relieved.”


After stepping out of the cab, the passenger also stepped out of the clos- et and lived his life without hiding who he was.


If the pastor has passengers who don’t share his religion nor his taste in PAGE 62


music, he doesn’t have a problem with talking about something else and putting on whatever music makes their ride enjoyable. Djan seems to be quite open-minded and he actually believes that you don’t have to go to church to be religious.


“I would prefer they go to church on Sunday,” he said. “But we can have church right in here!” He takes both his jobs very seriously by trying to help the people around him with whatever they need to live decent lives, whether that means offering them advice, food and shelter at the Holy Track Outreach Ministry in Crown Heights, or just giving them a ride in his cab.


Joseph Djan, originally from Ghana, arrived in the US in the ’90s. While studying at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, his life took a turn toward spirituality and he became a pastor.


from Mexico


FANCY A RIDE IN A FERRARI OR PORSCHE TAXI?


A few unsuspecting taxi passengers went on the ride of their lives in Guadalajara, Mexico. Ride Asia One reports that in a promotion for the company’s new Twist gum, Trident swapped out one of the taxi company's stan- dard Nissan cabs with a Ferrari F430 Spider and a Porsche Panamera.


Both vehicles were suitably decked out in yellow and black checkered paint job.


The cabs even came equipped with all the right lights to be legal, reports Autoblog.


The reactions of the passengers when they saw a sports car pull up with a cabbie wearing a full-on race helmet were priceless.


from India TEEN ENTREPRENEUR EYES THE FUTURE


WITH FUTURISTIC E-RICKSHAW New Delhi’s streets are epic - trucks, cars, cows and, especially, bicycle rickshaws, pedalled by a very, very hard-working driver. Growing up in New Delhi, Avani Singh passed them every day on her way to school. And her route also passed the city’s slums. In this city of 17 million, the New Delhi slums are zones of poverty that stretch for miles. To Avani as a young girl, they seemed just a part of the city, always there, unchanging. But as she grew older, it began to dawn on her: Not everyone had what she had. And she could help.


Meanwhile, she learned in the news about a new kind of bicycle rickshaw. Bright green and super futuristic, it was electric-powered, thanks to a solar panel on the roof, which made it easier to pedal. Avani, then only 16 years old, had the insight - now, rickshaw driving could become a job that women could do.


According to TED Blog, she founded Ummeed, a program that trains women from the slums of Delhi to become taxi and rickshaw drivers. Through the initiative, she’s giving women a way to earn both a living and a level of physical and social mobility that was previously unimaginable - all before she’s old enough to get a driver’s licence of her own. Now 17, Singh started Ummeed with a single electric rickshaw, donated by the local manufacturer, Green Wheels. Then she needed to find a driv- er, so in collaboration with Delhi-based Centre for Equity and Inclusion, a non-government organisation, she put out a call for volunteers in Jamia, a slum near her home. “When I first advertised the program, 15 women came to hear about it,” she remembers. “They were bubbling with energy and were so excited by the idea.”


PHTM JANUARY 2014


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