UBER CONTROVERSY: How Uber Has Partnered With Mafia
The next time you order a car from Uber, make sure you paid your debts to organized crime. From now on, Uber will be cooperating with organized crime figures to help them get their debts back. It will likely use its vehicles not only to help mafia find the creditors, but also to dispose of their dead bodies, if they don’t pay.
Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick has explained this decision with the following words:
“I’ve been acting all my life as an a-hole. So far I’ve been very successful. So why stop? It’s better to continue and become even more evil. Helping organized crime is one way to do that. As long as it brings profit, I’m totally okay with it.”
Later on, however, this statement was found to have been leaked by an executive Travis has fired. Indeed, this brutally honest statement by Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick was not meant for public consumption. It was said during a private conference among Uber’s top level management.
The official statement which announced Uber’s partnership with Russian, as well as Italian, American, and Japanese, mafias, goes like this:
“We are happy to announce our partnership with the world’s most notorious criminals. They would help us eliminate our competitors at Lyft, not to mention anyone who says anything bad about us.”
In return, Uber would provide criminals with its customers’ data, including the movements of its VIP users. This way, the criminals could easily rob Uber’s VIP users immediately after they step out of the car. Uber would also offer its drivers bonuses for helping organized crime do its dirty deeds. Hardly a surprise when the economy is that bad.
Travis Kalanick is said to be very happy about this new partnership. He is known to be very warlike and likes to fight whenever he can. Now he has a whole army of criminals at his disposal.
However bizarre this development may seem, it should have been expected, and not only because of Travis’ warlike character.
Vanity Fair has long ago reported about Uber’s warlike attitude toward everyone and everything:
Whereas Silicon Valley start-ups tend to give their conference rooms whimsical, sweet names, like Twinkie and Pong, the main conference room in Uber’s swanky new offices on San Francisco’s Market Street is called War Room. It’s an appropriate lair for Kalanick and his ever growing team. He needs the help, because as Uber expands to cities across the U.S. and around the world Kalanick must continue to wage what has already become a very ugly and protracted battle with the taxi industry and the regulators that Uber claims are deep in its pocket.
Travic Kalanick is especially angry. This is the attitude that seems to have worked for him so far. But will it work again in the future? The world-famous billionaire Mark Cuban is dubious:
“From the outside looking in, Travis seems to want to fight wars instead of win battles. He doesn’t seem to be focused on making Uber indispensable. I hope that, combined with the relentlessness, doesn’t backfire on him.”
Apparently, Travis doesn’t think anything can backfire on him, or he wouldn’t be enlisting the help of Russian mafia. But can you blame the guy when everyone is turning against you, and some people are even using violence against your company’s drivers?
Indeed, some people used violence against Uber’s cars. Vanity Fair has reported that “Parisian cabbies have gone as far as slashing Uber cars’ tires and smashing their windows.” But the violence did not stop there. Businessweek has reported that:
The rivalry between Paris cabbies and Uber turned violent today, as striking taxi drivers began attacking cars booked through Uber and another private-hire service.
“Smashed windows, tires, vandalized vehicle, and bleeding hands,” passenger Kat Borlongan said on her Twitter feed, describing what happened after an Uber car picked her up at Charles de Gaulle Airport (aka Roissy Airport). “Attackers tried to get in the car, but our brave Uber driver maneuvered us to safety, changed the tire on the freeway, and got us home,” she said.
Two other cars, booked through the local Chauffeur Privé service, were targeted in similar attacks near Orly Airport and the Montparnasse train station. “Eggs and stones were thrown, and there were violent blows that broke the cars’ windows and rear-view mirrors,” Chauffeur Privé said in a statement.
So are you still wondering why Uber is partnering with mafia? Is not it obvious Uber executives want to slash a few throats?
