Stopped at a nearby garage/convenience store this morning.
At the counter two customers – 50ish white men, complete with beer guts and crap tattoos – discuss the recent events in Tunisia. Lots of hang them-shoot them-flog them-bomb-the-bastards rhetoric.
Meanwhile the Turkish proprietor keeps an admirably blank and neutral face.
I pay for my petrol and as I turn to leave one of them says to the other: “I’d never go on holiday to a fucking shitty Muslim country anyway. You never know what’s gonna kick off!”
Well, you know me; I do my best but I’m weak. I can’t help myself. So…
…I chip in with “Damn right, pal. Me neither”
He responds eagerly. “Yeah? Nice one, mate!”
“Absolutely,” I continue. “Who wants to spend their holiday worrying about the Yanks bombing the shit out of you and your kids? Mind you, if all your kind have a similar view, at least I’d be guaranteed a bigot-free holiday zone so you know; swings and roundabouts, eh?”
Silence.
As I leave I catch the faintest trace of a smirk on the proprietor’s face.
Harry Paterson 