Just yesterday I saw what can be deemed a bad bus driver. He wasn't horrible for one reason only, but that reason is certainly the most important trait of a bus driver.
I was waiting for the bus to Paceville (first time I went there in months, and it didn't really impress) and unlike what so often happens, the bus actually came on time. My friend was paying for both of us, so I took a seat at the front. My friend sat down next to me, counted his change, and promptly swore because he got short-changed. Now, at €1.16 each, the total fare was €2.32. My friend gave him €2.50, and the change was 10c. This means that this bus driver probably wasn't just stupid, it shows an active form of laziness. He didn't want to rummage in the box next to him for some loose change, so fuck it, the customer pays more.
So, he broke the first rule within 5 seconds of our getting on the bus. He broke the next 2 laws within the next minute. He first threw away a piece of paper through the door, onto the street, and then spoke at length to his friend on his mobile. And now this morning I just read on the newspaper about fines increasing for the breaking of these laws.
Let's forget this particular incident for a while, and think about during the day when wardens are out and about. We've all seen bus drivers littering, smoking on the bus, speaking on the mobile, stopping in the middle of the street to buy pastizzi, and generally breaking most laws out of sheer "x'ghala biebi" attitude. So why aren't more drivers taken down hard?
Back to the original bus driver. He broke more laws in the first minute than most, so he stood out. A while later when some young girls came on with disgustingly (for normal people...for sluts and those who invite rape they seem to work well) short skirts he even made some sexual jokes and laughed as he embarrassed them. But hell, they were inviting it really, so whatever.
Point is, I don't hate this man. He was really chilling, I've rarely seen such a happy bus driver. He simply wasn't an asshole. And that's the most important trait of a bus driver - being cordial and stuff. Its come to a point where I'd rather bus drivers who put my life in danger with reckless driving than the usual fucking assholes.
Case in point: This past summer, while on the bus to Sliema (during the day) about San Gwann there was a huge group of students waiting for the bus. The bus was only about half full, but it was very obvious that there were simply too many students to really get them onto one bus. Obviously, spitting in the face of the law while pussy lawmakers stand idly by, he somehow managed to pack them all onto our bus. I must say, I don't think I've ever been on a more tightly packed bus. There were 5 people standing on a single step, holding on for dear life. But no matter, that's the type of behaviour I've come to expect from bus drivers. But when we got to the Paceville terminus, many students got off so that people further back could get off without hitting a solid wall of students. That was all fine, until an ATP guy with a huge fuck-off scar on his face starting herding these students to another bus. The poor foreigners followed him like cattle, confused and scared of this thug with a uniform. Please bear in mind that they had paid, they had tickets, and they didn't want to stop there. A girl ran away from that group and came back onto our bus. The guy with the scar ran after her, grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Viciously. A man with a dark complexion (100% Maltese, not African, but to the poor blonde-and-blue-eyes young girl he might as well have been a nigger) and a scar that made it obvious he was wasn't above pretty extreme violence. Hell, if I was that girl I would have shat my pants.
Back to the story:
So, she whimpered out an explanation to this guy, who then asked her for her bus ticket. She gave it to him, and he claimed the time on it was wrong, therefore she was a freeloader. To be fair, I was not paying attention to whether she had paid, so I can't be sure. However, he then asked another woman, a Maltese, to show her bus ticket. Now, I am 100% sure I saw this woman pay. I got on at Mosta, she got on on the "tal-balal" road, I was sitting near the front, and there is no doubt at all in my mind that she did in fact pay. Anyway, he claimed this bus ticket was also wrong, and he physically grabbed her and stood her up, and pulled and pushed her off the bus. All the while, the bus driver was right there, looking at it all passively. If those girls' tickets were wrong, it was because his machine was wrong. But he didn't say anything, he just waited there and drove away one the commotion died down. Bear in mind that this was apart from that group of students who just wasted their money - they had got on a different bus for Sliema, paying again. A lot of their friends, those who hadn't got off, remained on the bus with us, and everyone was just there like, WTF?
Basically, way I see it, assholes like the guy with the scar should be dealt with somehow, but assholes like that will always exist. It is society's job to beat them down until they become nicer people or until they kill themselves. Sadly, they won't kill themselves, they'll just keep picking on those weaker than them. And in our public transport system, these dicks gain power, they gain the formality of a badge and a wage. Nowhere else would that kind of behavior be accepted.
But this story ain't about him. Its about the bus driver, who knew that the girls were right, who knew those students were supposed to be with him, who shouldn't have let some thug come on board his vehicle and push people around. But he just sat there and turned a blind eye. As did I and all the others on that bus. Its about Maltese society, which doesn't fix problems so much as sweep them under the carpet. We are apathetic when it comes to others, we can always make some excuse. The true bane of society isn't doing what's wrong, it's finding an alternative to what's right and which appeases our conscience, as most people do not have a fully formed social conscience - it's all just laziness and fear. Laziness because we don't want to go out of our way for others. Unless something affects us directly we don't give a fuck. And fear of being an outcast, of what others will say, of how you will be treated. It's fear of being unable to live a "normal" life. When apathy becomes the norm just being socially motivated becomes to unstable. And that is simply what those in power want, that no one really questions them.
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