On Thursday last week I was on my way back from a meeting when I became part of the less comfortable side of life. I was taking the slipway back onto the N2 highway when I was literally consumed by what seemed like two hundred slow-moving, angry and reckless taxi drivers. As there was nowhere else to go, all I could do was to become part of their strike. The trickiest part was negotiating my way across three lanes to get to the off-ramp a few hundred metres down the road.
I was lucky in the sense that my car was not damaged and I suffered no other financial loss, but that was not the case for many workers who could not get to work the following day. As I sat there in the maelstrom of taxis, I looked at the faces of some of the drivers and I am willing to bet that out of every one hundred, there would be ninety-nine who – if taken out of the specific situation – would be a pleasant person with a desire to just live a happy life with friends and family. But there will always be the instigators who incite others to be violent – and even to kill – rather than negotiate a fair outcome.
For most people the pursuit of happiness is their purpose in life. That happiness can be achieved by being healthy; being wealthy enough not to worry about money; and having a supportive family, good friends and a special love in your life. If you can actually tick all these boxes, you are probably one of the few. Because for most people, life is complicated.
