Multicultural curiosity...

[fajrdrako]

In my Paratranspo ride today, there was a sticker on the dashboard of the car in a language I couldn't read. I was fascinated. All through the drive I was thinking about what it might be - for no good reason, I was running through East Asian (and South-east Asian) writing systems in my head, and it didn't look quite like any of them. It was making me think of Cambodian, though I didn't think it really was Cambodian. I was almost too shy to ask, but I told myself sternly that if I didn't ask now - as we arrived at the hospital for my physio - I'd never know and I'd always wonder. So I asked the taxi driver what it said.

He said, "'God is in charge here.'"

"That's lovely," I said spontaneously and honestly, and then wondered why I thought so, since the same sentiment from a non-immigrant would have been vaguely annoying to me. Since he didn't seem to mind the first question, I asked the second one: "What language is it?"

"Ethiopian."

Right! He certainly looked more Ethiopian than Cambodian, being black and bearded. (How stupid am I?) Afterwards, I wondered if he were Christian, Muslim or Jewish. At first I guessed Christian, but on reflection, perhaps the lack of indicators (like a cross) might mean Muslim - and would a note like that in a Christian's car not be more likely to say Jesus was in charge? Or am I overthinking it?

And of course there are many Ethiopian languages, and different scripts, though I'm assuming it was Amharic, for lack of other indications. It looked like this or this.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the Cambodian (Khmer) script, and it looks like this. Okay, not the same, but looking at them side by side, I see why I was confusing them.

Not so stupid, after all.