For whatever reason, it is not unusual to find yourself being inconspicuously stared at by taxi drivers. Being raised where I was the obvious minority, this is something which I’ve grown accustomed to over the years, but today’s ride was different. Every time I glanced up at the rearview mirror, I found the taxi driver’s gaze fixated on me, or at least the area around me- an unnerving situation, to say the least. This continued on for the good part of the ride until we came to a traffic jam. As soon as the car halted, the driver whipped out a pair of thin tweezers and proceeded to use the mirror to pluck out not one, but several nose hairs.
I’m not sure whether this explanation to his intense staring alleviated or worsened my unsettled state.
It is interesting to consider what is and is not proper etiquette in view of the public. For example, many westerners would hardly bat an eye to pick a pineapple fiber from their teeth in public, which for many Thai is fantastically revolting. If it absolutely must occur, most will use one hand to shield their mouth from onlookers and discreetly pick at the offending object with the other. However, I have seen many adult Thai pick their nose in public as commonly as I would swat a mosquito. It really does make me consider all of these standard codes of conduct I have been raised to abide by which, in truth, are not at all standard in the slightest.
Beyond pondering the idiosyncrasies of culture, September is already promising to be an eventful month. One project that has recently fell into my lap is both exciting and at the same time a bit demanding. The editor for a magazine I worked as an intern writer for in my college days caught wind of the article I recently wrote on the bleak living situation of Mindanao evacuees. She has asked me to write an adapted version for their magazine. Any published material is a great opportunity for me with grad school looming around the corner, but I am finding the free time to work on these projects more and more evasive.
I was quite excited to hear that the Mindanao article will be very soon going out in print, and though I haven’t gotten a look at the layout yet, the photographer for the piece said it looks strong. If you’re interested, we posted a multimedia piece constructed around the photographs and interviews used for the article, and you can see it for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw3EA3w58Mo
We created this piece as an effort to gain exposure on what is occurring in Mindanao and help initiate the dialogue towards resolving a desperate situation. Feel free to post this on your facebook or other social website. Although the actual article will be sold in print throughout the Philippines (which bars out access to most of my weblog readers, I assume) I will try to post up its link as soon as it goes online.
