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2022 - Bring on the Freedom in Ep44
11 Plays3 years ago
Salman soliloquizes on the Dave Chappelle's new speech on Netflix, the Leena Manimekalai controversy in Toronto, and the Sri Lankan protestors storming the Presidential palace.
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Transcript
Reflecting on Post-Pandemic Social Freedoms
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey, everyone.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome back to the Expat Brad podcast.
00:00:17
Speaker
It's Alman Qureshi here.
00:00:19
Speaker
How are you guys doing?
00:00:21
Speaker
How's it been?
00:00:22
Speaker
It's the long Eid weekend, so I'm sure a lot of us have been stuffing our faces, meeting family and friends, because the pandemic is over.
00:00:31
Speaker
It's over, and we can meet people, or at least we can pretend that nothing's wrong anymore, and we don't need to wear masks and meet in large groups.
00:00:41
Speaker
La, la, la, la, la.
00:00:46
Speaker
I was meeting up people.
00:00:47
Speaker
I think, you know, a lot of people have been talking about how this was the one closest to normal in the last couple of years.
00:00:56
Speaker
And it's been great, though.
00:00:58
Speaker
I think, you know, we've been saying that for a while people are fatigued about the pandemic.
00:01:04
Speaker
And even though cases are on the rise again here, we just...
00:01:09
Speaker
We just wanna live our lives, you know?
00:01:11
Speaker
We just wanna do our thing and most of the vulnerable people are dead now anyway.
00:01:17
Speaker
Oh my God, dead people jokes.
Boundaries of Comedy: Personal Connections and Jokes
00:01:21
Speaker
A little disclaimer, I've lost a lot of people to COVID, which makes it allowed for me to make fun of COVID.
00:01:26
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:26
Speaker
Is that how comedy works now?
00:01:28
Speaker
Like, you got to be associated with it in some way to be allowed to make fun of it.
00:01:32
Speaker
It's one of the things I battle with.
00:01:35
Speaker
And I'm like, man, does that mean I got it?
00:01:37
Speaker
What do you do then?
00:01:38
Speaker
Do you got to, like...
00:01:40
Speaker
go out and experience things.
00:01:42
Speaker
Like if I want to make fun of women, then maybe I could spend a day as a woman, which is technically possible now.
00:01:52
Speaker
It's much easier than it used to be back in the day to be a woman.
00:01:56
Speaker
And by that, I mean like to transform into a woman.
00:01:58
Speaker
I just got to tell people I changed my pronouns.
00:02:02
Speaker
Oh, I know.
00:02:03
Speaker
That's so... Every time I... I shouldn't be joking about this stuff, all right?
00:02:07
Speaker
Because...
00:02:09
Speaker
Every time I admit to not understanding this issue, it just makes me realize how old I am and how out of touch I might be with things.
00:02:21
Speaker
This isn't a liberal and conservative thing.
00:02:25
Speaker
It's understanding the evolution of people.
00:02:29
Speaker
And the older you get, the more harder it is to accept new ideas.
00:02:36
Speaker
And it's just me doing that.
00:02:37
Speaker
So it's still funny though, right?
00:02:40
Speaker
You got to have a little bit of a laugh about everything, I suppose.
Artistic Freedom: Dave Chappelle and Lina Money McAulay Discussion
00:02:43
Speaker
I was watching...
00:02:45
Speaker
Dave Chappelle's new thing, the Netflix thing he's released.
00:02:47
Speaker
It's not a stand-up special.
00:02:48
Speaker
I don't know why it's being called a stand-up special.
00:02:50
Speaker
Every time he gets on stage, it's now a stand-up special, and I don't understand that.
00:02:54
Speaker
But my point is, it actually is good, a good speech.
00:02:59
Speaker
He goes back to his high school.
00:03:02
Speaker
I don't know if you guys have followed the controversy around what happened, but very quickly, his last...
00:03:11
Speaker
A couple of specials a lot of people have been up in arms against about him being transphobic or stuff like that.
00:03:18
Speaker
And so his old high school who were about to name their theater after him.
00:03:26
Speaker
the students kind of had a protest and they were angry.
00:03:28
Speaker
And I think he met them as well.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's what he says in the speech.
00:03:33
Speaker
And at that time, they postponed the naming of the theater.
00:03:37
Speaker
And now he was called back to do it.
00:03:40
Speaker
And he gives his speech.
00:03:41
Speaker
A lot of it is quite good.
00:03:45
Speaker
I thought a lot of it was like as an artist, I agree with his stuff.
00:03:48
Speaker
And, you know, he can still be quite funny when he wants to be.
00:03:52
Speaker
But at some point, he kind of said some crazy stuff.
00:03:56
Speaker
Like there's the one one of the lines that stuck with me was when he went on about.
00:04:02
Speaker
He basically said, and I'm paraphrasing, but pretty close to what he actually said.
00:04:06
Speaker
He said, I'm a one in a generation lifetime talent.
00:04:12
Speaker
Something like that.
00:04:13
Speaker
How do you say that?
00:04:14
Speaker
You get what I mean, right?
00:04:15
Speaker
So he basically said, the other thing he said was,
00:04:20
Speaker
And you won't see a talent like me for another decade or generation or something like that as well.
00:04:28
Speaker
And I was like, wow, I love that.
00:04:33
Speaker
That wasn't a joke.
00:04:34
Speaker
He just said it outright.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I was like, props to you, man.
00:04:37
Speaker
I mean, you are –
00:04:39
Speaker
Considered one of the greatest comics.
00:04:40
Speaker
He's a legend for me, especially his earlier stuff.
00:04:45
Speaker
But, you know, normally people talk about being humble.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I think sometimes I'm like, yeah, yeah, why are you acting like it?
00:04:54
Speaker
So it's kind of refreshing to hear it.
00:04:56
Speaker
At the same time, it's also like, damn, man, wow, that's solid stuff.
00:05:00
Speaker
I mean, he's got the work to back it up.
00:05:02
Speaker
But then he also throws down this kind of challenge.
00:05:04
Speaker
He says, you know,
00:05:07
Speaker
No one has written or performed a stand-up special like my closer, and I can challenge any of my contemporaries to do something like that.
00:05:17
Speaker
And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:05:19
Speaker
I thought that one was a bit far because I'm like, I don't know.
00:05:21
Speaker
Honestly, I think Bill Burr's last few specials have been much funnier and better.
00:05:26
Speaker
And in some ways, thought provoking and fun.
00:05:30
Speaker
Right.
00:05:31
Speaker
So from that point of view, I thought it's not the best thing I've ever seen.
00:05:36
Speaker
And and that's where I was like, have you gone too far up your own backside?
00:05:41
Speaker
and not realizing that, you know, you're, I don't know if the ego is alive.
00:05:48
Speaker
What do you do at that stage, at that place where you've accomplished so much?
00:05:55
Speaker
Maybe you have the right to do it.
00:05:56
Speaker
I don't know.
00:05:56
Speaker
But it was cool.
00:05:58
Speaker
Overall, it's a cool message.
00:06:00
Speaker
And there's a little surprise at the end of the speech during the unveiling.
00:06:05
Speaker
And I thought that was kind of very cool of him to do so.
00:06:11
Speaker
And it comes back to this whole thing about artistic freedom because there's this controversy going on around about this Indian movie maker in Toronto.
00:06:21
Speaker
And she made a movie called Kali.
00:06:23
Speaker
Kali's a Hindu goddess.
00:06:26
Speaker
And, you know, she portrayed on the poster like Kali smoking a cigarette.
00:06:31
Speaker
Her premise was basically Kali...
00:06:33
Speaker
Coming down.
00:06:35
Speaker
She's this female.
00:06:38
Speaker
I guess if you look at it like the first feminist because she's this female who doesn't take crap.
00:06:45
Speaker
Female God who doesn't take crap.
00:06:47
Speaker
And she has, I think, multiple hands.
00:06:50
Speaker
Is she the one with multiple hands?
00:06:51
Speaker
I can't remember that.
00:06:52
Speaker
But she's like a protective, like a vengeful, like, you know, basically like I ain't taking crap from you.
00:07:02
Speaker
kind of goddess, right?
00:07:06
Speaker
And the premise of her movie, this woman, I got to look up her name, man.
00:07:12
Speaker
What was her name?
00:07:13
Speaker
It's this female who's being kind of like attacked now online because that's what we do.
00:07:22
Speaker
Her name is, this was supposed to be shown in Toronto, filmmaker.
00:07:29
Speaker
Her name is, why is the name not showing up?
00:07:32
Speaker
They keep mentioning the name.
00:07:34
Speaker
Lina Money McAulay.
00:07:38
Speaker
Oh, shit.
00:07:38
Speaker
I'm brown and I'm finding that name hard to pronounce.
00:07:40
Speaker
I think she's probably South Indian.
00:07:42
Speaker
Ooh, racist.
00:07:44
Speaker
What's racist about it?
00:07:46
Speaker
Lina Money McAulay.
00:07:48
Speaker
Household name now.
00:07:51
Speaker
And the premise of her movie is that Kali comes down in the modern age.
00:07:56
Speaker
And she interacts with the people and she tries to connect with the real human beings.
00:08:02
Speaker
So the reason she's smoking a cigarette is because this construction blue collar worker offers her one and she wants to try bonding with with these guys.
00:08:11
Speaker
And so she joins in.
00:08:13
Speaker
And I thought the movie idea was pretty cool and not at all disrespectful in any way.
00:08:20
Speaker
But, you know, we don't we bunch of extremist radicals just looked at the poster and went off on about it.
00:08:28
Speaker
And I know I know that people are going to come back and say, well, you're Muslim.
00:08:33
Speaker
And what if someone did that with you?
00:08:35
Speaker
And that's where I battled it.
00:08:36
Speaker
Right.
00:08:37
Speaker
So I don't know what's right or wrong about it.
00:08:39
Speaker
I know there should be artistic freedom.
00:08:42
Speaker
I think.
00:08:43
Speaker
Everything is up for being made fun of.
00:08:46
Speaker
I think people need to show restraint and it's up to them.
00:08:50
Speaker
Like it's basically their call to go, hey, I won't watch it if it's not funny to me.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's that simple, really.
00:08:58
Speaker
If I don't like it, I don't need to watch it.
00:08:59
Speaker
No one's no one's coming into your home.
00:09:02
Speaker
See, that's the thing.
00:09:03
Speaker
No one's like barging in, breaking down your door and going, hey, and like strapping you onto your sofa and go, you're gonna watch this and then switch on your TV.
00:09:13
Speaker
And then like maybe if they're nice, they'll feed you popcorn while doing it.
00:09:17
Speaker
Most likely not in this scenario.
00:09:19
Speaker
And so you're strapped there and you're being forced to watch this thing.
00:09:22
Speaker
And then if you don't laugh, they like prod you with this stick that's like got fire at one end.
00:09:28
Speaker
Fire.
00:09:29
Speaker
I don't know.
00:09:29
Speaker
Like, what do you what do you do with the horses?
00:09:31
Speaker
What I don't know what they're called.
00:09:32
Speaker
But, you know, you get the scenario and you're being prodded to to like laugh or cry at the places they want.
00:09:40
Speaker
So mentally you're accepting physically you're accepting what's going on in the movie.
00:09:46
Speaker
If you've had this kind of experience, I truly deeply apologize.
00:09:50
Speaker
I think you have the right to be offended.
00:09:52
Speaker
And if no one's done that to you, I think just, you know, get on with your life, man.
00:09:56
Speaker
Or...
00:09:59
Speaker
Get people around you.
00:10:00
Speaker
You know, that's the other thing.
00:10:02
Speaker
A lot of these people will not push their own kids or their families or their communities into art themselves to represent their side of things.
00:10:14
Speaker
So if you think you have a better message, go out and do it.
00:10:18
Speaker
Deliver it, right?
00:10:19
Speaker
Deliver it as a comedy.
00:10:20
Speaker
Deliver it as a movie.
00:10:21
Speaker
Deliver it as some kind of art form.
00:10:25
Speaker
And let the world decide what they want to watch.
00:10:27
Speaker
Right?
00:10:28
Speaker
Is that like no one – I think if you're not physically being assaulted, then no one has a right to – anyway, this story just gets worse.
00:10:37
Speaker
I think one of the biggest failings I read on this Lena story was that –
00:10:43
Speaker
The places they were being shown, it was the Arakan community, not community, the Arakan support, some group.
00:10:52
Speaker
Man, I'm going to look this up.
00:10:53
Speaker
Hold on.
00:10:54
Speaker
All right, because I got to spell this out.
00:10:55
Speaker
This was being shown at a Toronto film festival.
00:11:01
Speaker
Let's see.
00:11:02
Speaker
It's because it sparked a nationwide debate in India.
00:11:05
Speaker
What debate?
00:11:06
Speaker
Just to shout.
00:11:07
Speaker
OK, so it was at the Toronto Metropolitan University.
00:11:11
Speaker
It's a program that explores multiculturalism.
00:11:15
Speaker
It called Under the Tent and it was being showcased at the Aga Khan Museum.
00:11:20
Speaker
Museum.
00:11:21
Speaker
And both those parties backed out and said, we're very sorry we put this up and offended people.
00:11:27
Speaker
And I was like, that was probably.
00:11:30
Speaker
Because you're going to get radicals pushing and crying and threatening.
00:11:37
Speaker
But for these large institutes who are based in Canada and don't have to be worried for them to have to go, okay, okay, well, you know, we're apologizing.
00:11:46
Speaker
We made a mistake.
00:11:47
Speaker
That really...
00:11:49
Speaker
I feel bad for the filmmaker.
Challenges and Choices in Artistry
00:11:51
Speaker
She must feel really deserted.
00:11:53
Speaker
And how do other artists feel?
00:11:55
Speaker
That means anything we produce could be considered offensive.
00:12:01
Speaker
And then you get attacked.
00:12:02
Speaker
She's being attacked on Twitter.
00:12:05
Speaker
And it's quite life, death threats.
00:12:08
Speaker
Just vile stuff.
00:12:10
Speaker
I don't know, man.
00:12:12
Speaker
I don't know.
00:12:13
Speaker
It's just we tend to...
00:12:17
Speaker
We want to respect the dead so much we disrespect the living and life.
00:12:22
Speaker
That's what I'm going to end this bit with.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:27
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:12:29
Speaker
Just enjoy the stuff.
00:12:30
Speaker
So that's what I've been up to.
00:12:32
Speaker
Artistic exploration, which is really funny.
00:12:34
Speaker
If you listen to most of my stuff, my stand-up, I'm not really...
00:12:40
Speaker
I don't think I'm very deep.
00:12:41
Speaker
I'm not.
00:12:42
Speaker
I'm very shallow, fun kind of guy with most of my material.
00:12:47
Speaker
And that's just my style.
00:12:49
Speaker
But I hate artists being put away like that.
00:12:53
Speaker
I don't know.
00:12:54
Speaker
So regardless of what my own style is or what my own beliefs is.
00:12:58
Speaker
beliefs are.
00:13:01
Speaker
I just don't like that concept.
00:13:03
Speaker
I choose not to use foul language.
00:13:06
Speaker
I choose not to do raunchy stuff usually.
00:13:13
Speaker
But it's a choice.
00:13:15
Speaker
It's a choice.
00:13:15
Speaker
And if tomorrow I chose to do it, it should be my choice.
Personal Experiences: Knee Surgery and Recovery
00:13:20
Speaker
And if people, my fans and audiences don't like it, they have the choice to not buy my ticket and let me and my family die of starvation because you were too uptight, right?
00:13:30
Speaker
Because you were too uptight to listen to my great stuff, which was really raunchy and everything.
00:13:36
Speaker
I don't know.
00:13:37
Speaker
I don't know.
00:13:38
Speaker
In this scenario, I'm on the streets dying of hunger because you guys chose not to buy my tickets.
00:13:42
Speaker
All right.
00:13:43
Speaker
And now that I'm doing any upcoming shows for a while, I think in the summer I'm going to just take some time off from stand up.
00:13:50
Speaker
I haven't been getting a lot of time to do stuff.
00:13:53
Speaker
I want to come back fresh and challenge myself with new material and areas that, you know, I want to challenge myself artistically.
00:14:03
Speaker
So I'm going to work on that stuff and see when I come back if I've got a special that I really want to put out, you know.
00:14:10
Speaker
I want to kind of take away the commercial element of it because I do make money in other stuff I do.
00:14:15
Speaker
And so I really want to take a step back and go, let's see what happens if I forget everything.
00:14:23
Speaker
If I forget about wanting to just sell out a show and what will work and just go, what's going to be honest with me?
00:14:31
Speaker
This might be a train wreck.
00:14:34
Speaker
I might come back and listen to this podcast and go, oh, if only someone had reached out and said, don't do it.
00:14:39
Speaker
Don't do it.
00:14:40
Speaker
Keep it commercial.
00:14:40
Speaker
Keep it safe.
00:14:43
Speaker
I say it like I'm going to explore really deep stuff.
00:14:46
Speaker
It's not going to be like that.
00:14:48
Speaker
I just want to make it a little better, be a better performer,
00:14:51
Speaker
add more variety to my show and stuff because you're constantly trying to be better than the last time you were on stage putting on a show um and i think you should you know what uh what's been on my mind also is that i've uh it's been a year since i've pretty much recovered since my knee surgery
00:15:12
Speaker
And yeah, and last year I had to do a knee surgery on my right knee and it was because I had neglected.
00:15:23
Speaker
So it was a meniscus tear, which was originally just a scratch that I ignored and I kept playing.
00:15:29
Speaker
And then so that scratch on my bone kind of cut into the meniscus and then what could have been an easy injury.
00:15:37
Speaker
recovery thing turn into a surgery.
00:15:40
Speaker
And one of the key messages, people, get yourself checked and trust the doctor sometime, most of the time.
00:15:45
Speaker
Get a second, third opinion, and then just trust them.
00:15:47
Speaker
All right?
00:15:48
Speaker
Nah, don't do what I did.
00:15:50
Speaker
And so I ended up
00:15:52
Speaker
I got to tell you, you know, you have this false belief in your mind.
00:15:56
Speaker
It's just like, hey, I'll get the surgery done.
00:15:57
Speaker
It'll be about a month of me lying in bed, some physiotherapy, and then I'll be up and running.
00:16:02
Speaker
And it doesn't work like that, especially with the kind of health I've been maintaining over the last five years.
00:16:07
Speaker
And when I say maintain, I've been stuffing my face, putting on weight, being really unfit.
00:16:13
Speaker
And so it's not like my body was in prime shape and going, hey, we'll recover real quick because our muscles are already strong and bones are strong.
00:16:24
Speaker
I drink too much soft drinks and probably just affecting my bones and stuff.
00:16:28
Speaker
I've really reduced it much more.
00:16:30
Speaker
At one point, I think I was drinking like three Pepsis a day or something like that.
00:16:34
Speaker
And I've reduced it quite a bit.
00:16:36
Speaker
I've been terrible lately, but I'm going to go back and try not doing that again.
00:16:42
Speaker
Anyway, this knee surgery, it happens.
00:16:44
Speaker
And I realize, first of all, the pain is so freaking strong and it lasts longer than I thought it would.
00:16:52
Speaker
And then the recovery took ages, right?
00:16:55
Speaker
It was three months before I felt like I could kind of walk around
00:17:02
Speaker
without crutches and not feel like it's dangerous anymore.
00:17:08
Speaker
And this is after physiotherapy.
00:17:10
Speaker
And I was, surprisingly, I was very disciplined about my knee exercises.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then it took another...
00:17:18
Speaker
three months before it got comfortable.
00:17:20
Speaker
I started playing some sports, I think, in the fourth, fifth month maybe.
00:17:24
Speaker
And it was all like the first few times I was just scared mentally as well because it leaves this scar in your head that I'm just going to fall and hurt it again.
00:17:34
Speaker
And you're just upset about that.
00:17:36
Speaker
And so you're like watching it.
00:17:39
Speaker
And not that my football soccer game was really good anyway.
00:17:42
Speaker
I suck.
00:17:43
Speaker
But...
00:17:45
Speaker
But the knee gave me an excuse to go, this is why I suck more.
00:17:50
Speaker
And you're playing with a little of hesitation and not really being spontaneous.
00:17:55
Speaker
And I remember it was like 9, 10 months in where one day I suddenly went, hey, it just feels normal again.
00:18:03
Speaker
Because for a long time through these 9, 10 months, I felt like...
00:18:09
Speaker
I will never be the same again, and this is it.
00:18:13
Speaker
And like an old man with a sort of a knee, it's gotten better.
00:18:16
Speaker
I don't have any pain, it's safe.
00:18:19
Speaker
But it's gone.
00:18:20
Speaker
And obviously, I probably will never become as explosive as I was when I was 18.
00:18:26
Speaker
But it feels nice to know it's not.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's recovered.
00:18:30
Speaker
And last couple of months, touch wood.
00:18:32
Speaker
There's lots of wood.
00:18:33
Speaker
I've been I've been great.
00:18:35
Speaker
And and it just goes to show you stick through with stuff.
00:18:39
Speaker
And sometimes in the moment, you're like, man, this is terrible.
00:18:43
Speaker
And you just want to like you just want to give up and everything.
00:18:46
Speaker
But if you keep going, sometimes things work out.
00:18:50
Speaker
And I say sometimes because sometimes they don't.
00:18:52
Speaker
Sometimes you die because of it or just sometimes I hate these self-help self where they kind of create this picture that everything will work out at the end.
00:19:03
Speaker
No, it doesn't.
00:19:04
Speaker
Right.
00:19:05
Speaker
Sometimes it won't.
00:19:06
Speaker
Why am I laughing at this?
00:19:07
Speaker
But it's the idea, right?
00:19:08
Speaker
The stupidity of it.
00:19:10
Speaker
That makes me laugh.
00:19:11
Speaker
And well, when it does, it's a beautiful thing because then you can live to tell about it and motivate people that they'll be all right and give them false hope and possibly make a lot of money along the way because you were lucky enough to recover.
00:19:24
Speaker
And so that's what I'm doing.
00:19:25
Speaker
Isn't it great?
00:19:26
Speaker
No, you're not on board with this.
00:19:29
Speaker
All right.
00:19:29
Speaker
Fine.
Economic Concerns: Travel Costs and Inflation
00:19:30
Speaker
Um, summer plans.
00:19:32
Speaker
This is, uh, this is something, you know, uh, I, I, I, I haven't got any summer plans now cause it's hot and expensive.
00:19:41
Speaker
Why are they linked?
00:19:42
Speaker
It's expensive right now to travel.
00:19:43
Speaker
I don't know who the people who are traveling.
00:19:45
Speaker
I'm like, man, you load it.
00:19:46
Speaker
All right.
00:19:47
Speaker
So great.
00:19:48
Speaker
Good for you.
00:19:49
Speaker
I can't believe how expensive tickets are.
00:19:51
Speaker
It feels pre 2008, the financial crisis, when everything just seemed really expensive.
00:19:57
Speaker
And I know that was followed by we're all expecting this recession.
00:20:02
Speaker
And it's like, oh, why is it always doom and gloom everywhere?
00:20:06
Speaker
I want happy stuff.
00:20:07
Speaker
Just right now is talking about keeping it real.
00:20:11
Speaker
But now I want happy stuff.
00:20:13
Speaker
Maybe that's why we all keep going back to the self-help stuff bullshit over and over again because life is kind of sad anyway.
00:20:22
Speaker
I mean, it's a dude.
00:20:24
Speaker
Have you guys seen the Sri Lanka thing like that?
00:20:26
Speaker
It's terrible, right?
00:20:28
Speaker
These people, they just they got to had enough.
00:20:31
Speaker
They've been going through a couple of months of like uncertainty and just I don't know what the government's done with that place.
00:20:38
Speaker
bad management.
00:20:39
Speaker
And so these people, the locals in Sri Lankans, they just stormed the president's palace and the prime.
00:20:48
Speaker
And I think they set fire to the prime minister's personal home.
00:20:52
Speaker
But the president's thing was hilarious as well because they all just all just decided to use the swimming pool.
00:20:59
Speaker
I love that Sri Lankans are such chill people.
00:21:01
Speaker
It's something about island people, right?
00:21:05
Speaker
Just this vibe of being chilled.
00:21:08
Speaker
So they all got into this huge mob and like, we're angry.
00:21:13
Speaker
We want answers.
00:21:15
Speaker
We've had enough of this government.
00:21:16
Speaker
We're going to storm the president's palace and we're all just going to chill out at the pool.
00:21:20
Speaker
All right.
00:21:20
Speaker
Everybody just in the pool.
00:21:22
Speaker
We'll make some drinks and shit and we'll just hang out.
00:21:28
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:21:31
Speaker
Right?
00:21:31
Speaker
Like in other places when you have like the Jan 6th committee going on in the U.S. right now, the story's coming out of it.
00:21:38
Speaker
Horror.
00:21:39
Speaker
Absolute horror.
00:21:40
Speaker
These guys had weapons.
00:21:41
Speaker
They were close to reaching the vice president then of America and possibly wanted to kill him.
00:21:49
Speaker
Right?
00:21:49
Speaker
Probably would have done it.
00:21:51
Speaker
A mob would have just destroyed any politician that would have caught in there.
00:21:55
Speaker
A couple of policemen died.
00:21:56
Speaker
Right?
00:21:57
Speaker
That's
00:21:58
Speaker
That's horrible.
00:21:59
Speaker
And their reasons were terrible, unlike the Sri Lankans.
00:22:03
Speaker
But you can see the contrast in what happened.
00:22:07
Speaker
I wonder
Humorous Cultural Contrasts and Social Commentary
00:22:08
Speaker
what else they did.
00:22:09
Speaker
Just go into the kitchen and make a sandwich.
00:22:11
Speaker
We'll just make a sandwich for ourselves, guys.
00:22:13
Speaker
We'll storm in there and we'll go into the living room.
00:22:16
Speaker
We're going to watch some Netflix.
00:22:18
Speaker
OK, Netflix and chill, everybody.
00:22:21
Speaker
Good.
00:22:22
Speaker
Good day of protesting.
00:22:23
Speaker
Now, let's all go home where we don't have electricity.
00:22:27
Speaker
All right.
00:22:31
Speaker
Amazing.
00:22:32
Speaker
Amazing.
00:22:33
Speaker
I love it.
00:22:34
Speaker
You know,
00:22:37
Speaker
One thing that happened to me yesterday was I was walking out of my building and I noticed someone was behind me.
00:22:46
Speaker
So I left the door open like I held the door open for them and just whizzed by without a thank you, without even a nod.
00:22:53
Speaker
Right.
00:22:53
Speaker
Just like with their chest up kind of shit, just walking by like I'm a freaking doorman for them.
00:22:59
Speaker
And I know, I know you do good deeds for the sake of it, but I just hate when people don't have common, like, basic courtesy.
00:23:07
Speaker
It just makes me really angry for some reason.
00:23:09
Speaker
Like, I don't know why.
00:23:10
Speaker
It's a big thing in Dubai because it's a melting pot and a lot of these expats, they won't say thank you when you've got, you know, held the door open.
00:23:18
Speaker
You walk into the lift, you say hi, just a common courtesy morning, you know, and they don't.
00:23:24
Speaker
A lot of them don't reply or they want to initiate.
00:23:26
Speaker
Sometimes I walk in and go, if I just stand here and not say a thing, will anyone else?
00:23:30
Speaker
And no one ever acknowledges people with each other.
00:23:34
Speaker
It's like just bizarre to me that you human beings just meet each other.
00:23:39
Speaker
And it's not like they're on their phones either.
00:23:41
Speaker
Sometimes when people are on their phone, I'm like, I get it.
00:23:44
Speaker
But this is just the thing people do in Dubai.
00:23:46
Speaker
Sometimes when I'm feeling really annoyed about it, I walk in and deliberately say,
00:23:51
Speaker
Just say hi loudly and look at people in their eyes.
00:23:55
Speaker
Let's make them uncomfortable.
00:23:57
Speaker
And I don't want a conversation.
00:23:58
Speaker
That's the last thing I want either.
00:24:00
Speaker
But there's nothing wrong with just saying hi to people.
00:24:03
Speaker
Common courtesy is just missing out here.
00:24:05
Speaker
And I don't know why.
00:24:06
Speaker
I try to make excuses for these people.
00:24:08
Speaker
And I go, maybe they're afraid of something.
00:24:12
Speaker
And I'm like, look at me.
00:24:13
Speaker
I'm like short and fluffy.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:18
Speaker
What are they scared I'm gonna do?
00:24:21
Speaker
Or I sometimes tell myself, oh, maybe it's not a thing they do in their culture, right?
00:24:26
Speaker
You don't have to say thanks.
00:24:27
Speaker
Or maybe they just don't hold doors open and they're just like, what's he doing?
00:24:32
Speaker
What's he doing to us?
00:24:33
Speaker
Why is he doing that?
00:24:34
Speaker
Is this disrespectful?
00:24:36
Speaker
So I don't know, but I make this example.
00:24:39
Speaker
I think those are dumb excuses and you have no reason.
00:24:42
Speaker
So if you're listening to this podcast, man, next time someone does something for you, just say hi.
00:24:47
Speaker
All right.
00:24:47
Speaker
Just say thanks.
00:24:48
Speaker
All right.
00:24:49
Speaker
Doesn't take much.
00:24:50
Speaker
Just means you have to move your mouth.
00:24:52
Speaker
Open your mouth.
00:24:54
Speaker
You know, push some air through it for like five seconds and you're done.
00:24:58
Speaker
All right.
00:24:58
Speaker
Makes everyone's day much better.
00:25:01
Speaker
All right.
00:25:01
Speaker
That's the most basic thing I'd like all of you to do, because if I catch you next time and I hold the door open for you and you don't say thanks, I am I'm just going to like see under my breath about it, just really mutter something.
00:25:17
Speaker
And I'm going to go on my podcast and whine about it.
00:25:19
Speaker
OK, if you don't want that to happen to you,
00:25:23
Speaker
You say thanks, Mr. and Mrs. whatever.
00:25:27
Speaker
All right, cool.
00:25:27
Speaker
All right, guys, it's been a pleasure.
00:25:30
Speaker
I hope, you know, it was Eid, and I hope you're having a great weekend.
00:25:34
Speaker
It's almost the end of it.
00:25:35
Speaker
And Eid Mubarak to people, and enjoy your summer holidays.
00:25:40
Speaker
I'll see you next week anyway for those of us who are still working.
00:25:44
Speaker
All right, cool.
00:25:45
Speaker
Remember to share, leave a comment, leave your feedback.
00:25:49
Speaker
It helps a lot in spreading my podcast.
00:25:52
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:25:52
Speaker
Show the love, please.
00:25:53
Speaker
And also take care of yourselves.
00:25:56
Speaker
And as I like to say, goodbye.
00:25:59
Speaker
Or as a dog would say, woof.