It seems that the taxi drivers one meets during the day are all alike but the taxi drivers one meets at midnight are all different.

I have had many encounters with taxi drivers at midnight because of working overtime and one of them was particularly hard to forget.

He started his monologue in the very dim light of the cab. "I love my job. I never quarrel with people, even if they get angry with me. I don't think people can be happy if they hate the things they do for nearly 10 hours a day.

"But I will never help people too much. Never be too good a man. You know, good men are not suitable for this world."

He then told me a true story about one of his colleagues who got into huge troubles after rushing an old man who had been the victim of an accident to hospital in her taxi. She ended up paying all the medical fees for the old man, at the cost of her taxi and her marriage. She became another victim of the evil and false conviction that it is the one who is to blame for the accident who rushes the victim to hospital.

"So never help people too much. No one is going to help you when you are in trouble yourself," my taxi driver said.

Next he went on to tell me how hard it was for him to pay the astronomical education fees for his daughter on the money he made as a taxi driver. I could understand this. This guy, even if worked the same hours as my colleagues (who talk about banking, security and billable hours all day), may not earn even half as much.

"My daughter is very bright. She is the hope of my family and I hope she can graduate tomorrow and I can quit this job." What he said was identical with a story I had read in the New York Times quoting a typical Chinese worker.

My driver continued: "You know, Miss, blood these days is terrible. Never take blood products or bacterin. They are made from blood that carries HIV. When my daughter's class was asked to take bacterin, I stopped her. Who can tell that the blood is safe and that you will not be an HIV victim 8 years later? And never make blood donations - who knows that the needle is safe?"

Paragraphs of the New York Times article re-surfaced in my mind. "A lot of us believe that the world is a huge jungle of Darwinian competition, where connections and 'smarts' mean everything, and quaint notions of fairness count for little. A lot of people simply don't believe that things like truth, selflessness and altruism exist ... We have a very cynical population." (NY Times, February 29, "China's Wealthy Live by a Creed: Hobbes and Darwin Meet Marx").

I know I would not have remembered those words but for two things: it was a late night; and there was the unsophisticated audience of a stranger.

He was uttering words that many of us would identify with but would never dare to speak out in daylight to our colleagues, friends or even parents.

When I got out of the taxi, I nearly left my bag behind.

When the taxi disappeared into the rainy night, I knew that the driver was a good man, at least, to some extent.

We do have a cynical population. But they have hope. At least they have hope on their children. There may be the problem that parents have told, and are telling, their children to "never be a good person, never help people too much because when you are in trouble for helping others, no one is going to help you". But they are not teaching that by example.

starcomment@yahoo.com