Arrogant & unpleasant expats...

[Bad_azz]

At 9pm tonight I was in the lobby of the Aston Rasuna, Jakarta. There is a nice sofa area set out with a decent rug (to give a homely feel, I guess).
On this sofa were some guys sat chatting and minding their own business & they appeared to be of some sort of arabic descent. They had removed their outdoor sandals & placed them neatly at the side of the rug, which I thought was quite respectful.

In marches this greying 50ish whitey and as he approached the sofa area he started cursing & swearing at these guys... & I shall quote "You fucking dirty bastards, you should fuck right off you fucking dirty bastards".
The guys on the sofa looked up, seemingly not understanding the words but definitely understanding the tone & body language of Mr A-hole Whitey.
He then went up to the innocent sandals & proceeded to kick them across the lobby floor... continuing his rant "what the fuck are these dirty fucking things doing here you fucking ignorant dirty fucking bastards!!!"
& off he stomped down to the resident lobby area.

He had a Nz or Australian accent , hard for me to pick out.
I was so busy picking my jaw up from the floor that I didn't get chance to challenge him, & boy, was I willing to!
I did apologise to the guys on the sofa for what an idiot that white person was & hoped that they don't think we all behave so appallingly.

So; if you happen to be a member of this forum & recognise your vile, offensive and abusive behaviour take a look at what a total prick you are & what an idiot EVERYONE who saw you tonight thinks you are.
I have some extremely powerful friends in that building & when I see them & tell them what an arse you are, you'll need to watch your step or you might find yourself out on your ear.
I am pretty sure the Aston does not want people like that in their lobby- you not the chaps on the sofas.

Anyway, rant over. I have to say that is the first time for a very very long time that I have witnessed such a disgusting racist diatribe.
People such as that make me feel embarrassed to share the same skin colour.

Any other forum members witnesses such verbal attacks here?

 

[Bad_azz]

** Sorry for all the swearing on the general board- if it needs moving to the cage, tis fine by me.

 

[Davita]

B_A...Happens a lot...everywhere....in all languages and all skin colour. Please don't fret, or be an apologist for your post, you are correct...racism is ignorance.
BTW ..It can also happen in reverse but I won't dwell on that. But, not only race, all sorts of differences are pertinent.
IMO...education, and the pursuit of knowledge, is the critical answer to obviate that narrow thinking to achieve a better equality of understanding.

At age 15, I was in a military barrack of 20, where 5 were Pakistanis.
We were surely strangers but, I saw the obvious....we were more than strangers, because of our different culture and background.
I asked my Pakistani room-mates if they would teach us about their cuisine and religion. In return, I would cut their hair to comply with our Saturday parade crew-cuts.
In hindsight, in our 3 years together, none of my Muslim colleagues ever tried to influence anyone, nor were they tormented. I led a general campaign of 'No Violence'....subsequently, I got beaten-up a few times.

The sorta' thing that B_A is talking about sickens me; those Islamic room-mates taught me more about hygiene than my Scottish mother did.

OK, it was 1952-1955...maybe different now that running water is available.

 

[Daniel50]

Any other forum members witnesses such verbal attacks here?

No.
This is not directly related but I remember someone from North Africa talking to me and he told me that the 'Arabs are even more violent then the white people' or at least this was his experience. It was kind of humorous for me 'even more violent then white people.'

 

[nd_eric_77]

Fortunately, I have never been to an Aston hotel in Jakarta (nor do I recall shouting and swearing at people on a sofa in a lobby).

I try really hard not to be "that guy", but I have failed to control my temper in the past. My biggest weakness is going to a restaurant where I have ONE favorite dish... I find it hard to resist becoming "that guy" when that one item is "kosong". Seriously, restaurant managers, get your **** together! My coping mechanism is kind of depressing... just assume that the restaurant will be out of stock (because supply chain management is apparently a bridge too far) and then be pleasantly surprised when they actually have something I want to eat.

All that said, thank you for the reminder to control myself; my 40-year-old self should not behave like an ill-tempered 5-year-old!

 

[Anglian]

When I was in the RAF I was posted to the Hong Kong Auxilary Airforce, our adjutant was a Indian Muslim, so proud to be British, he had walked to India across China to join the Airforce when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, a nicer man could meet, all the Chinese staff had fought the Japanese, some had been pilots, when Kai Tak was expanded, our headquarters was moved to the RAF base, the problem arose when the Chinese lads used the toilets, some of the RAF people didn't want the Chinese to use the toilets, there were four of us RAF attached to the HKAAf so we paid the complainants crew room a visit and informed them that the Chinese lads would be using the toilets,did anyone have a complaints please step forward, or forever hold their piece, they all sat there very quietly, we had no further complaints. We had some problems later when a typhoon hit HK, in those days Chinese lived in
huts made of any thing from cardboard to timber , several Chinese were let onto the camp to use the facilities, one person complained that the Chinese were using the showers, he was told to piss off and shower somewhere else, no further compliants

 

[Puspawarna]

What an awful story. Given the location, it may not have been a expat, perhaps just a guest at the hotel who was passing through. Not that this excuses the behavior - it's unforgivable!

I'd have happy joined you in taking that guy on, BA! Can't you just see us now - two (*cough, cough*)"women of a certain age" taking on some random, quite possibly drunken guy. Oh, we could have had fun!!! I think we should have pantsed him, for starters.

 

[harryopal1]

My impression is that many Indonesians do not particularly like Arabs. You can make generalizations about different groups of people that may be accurate. "Chinese tourists are appalling. Somalis are loud and quarrelsome. Australians are slobs and arrogant". And insurance companies make these generalizatons when working out insurance charges for different races based on health studies. The difference between making such generalizations is that it becomes racist when one applies it to the next person of that particular group without allowing them the probability that he or she is a perfectly decent, reasonable and good human being. The mark of a civilized society is that it allows everyone equal opportunity and equal rights regards of their religion or ethnicity. That said it is not easy to let go of one's prejudices.

The Australian columnist, broadcaster and writer, Phillip Adams has said, I have struggled all my life against prejudices... my own.'

 

[Anglian]

I didn't finish my write up, power cut, anyway what I was going to say, you are a very determined lady BA, I think I would have hesitated as you never know what drunks react too, probably sober a great wimp, I've watched Saudis fight, they slap each other and take their sandals off if it gets really serious, hopefully they would in this case ignore the arsehole and call the hotel management and have the drunk thrown out

 

[Jim69]

BA, next time you are there give me a shout, I look out of my window to the lobby, we are in tower 6 across the road.

 

[Bad_azz]

Ok... some interesting comments, thanks.

1 the guy went down to the elevators/lifts for the apartments , not the hotel- I am not 100% sure but I think the hotel is in a separate block/tower.

2 I didn't get the impression he was drunk at all, but he stormed in off the street and threw his wobbly , kicked some sandals about on his way past & was gone, so he might have been- he was deffo arrogant, deffo agressive & deffo out of order though.

3 I'm not generalising about people of certain nationalities, I commented on the factual things I witnessed in a bid to perhaps identify him other than looks- a greying fifty-ish caucasian chap is hardly going to be useful, I could add that he was well dressed in business attire & had the air about him that he lived there adding his accent to that narrows it down further. In hindsight , I should have watched what floor the lift stopped at.. but I ain't quite Miss Marple yet... working on that.


4 Nice to know it isn't only me that finds his behaviour appalling. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling for the fellow forum members :* Mwaah.

 

[Davita]

At the end of WW2 I was about eight years old when the soldiers returned...there was a big celebration in my home town (Dundee).
I recall the bagpipes were playing, confetti floating and lots of singing. My mum rushed to hug our uniformed neighbor's return....he was a black man.
He picked me up, kissed me on both cheeks and gave me a banana he'd brought back from somewhere he called North Africa.

I was gobsmacked and overwhelmed by emotion...I'd never seen a banana before.

 

[Bad_azz]

Jim, I will be down that way regularly for the forseeable future- however ,I rarely get time to spare- its a case of head in, do my thing there for 2 hours & head back off out again & grab a Gojek back up to west jkt. getting back around 10 or 11 at night. & Having been up from 6am & working through until I finish there, I am probably not at my most sociable.
However, sometimes I arrive early & grab a coffee & a meal down in the restaurant there. Will sms you, next time it looks like I have a spare hour or so.

 

[Anglian]

Davita has reminded me of when I went to the Catholic school, which I hated, the love of my life was a little black girl, Mary, we were only about 7, at play time we would play catch with a tennis ball, we would sit and look at each other's hands and we would wonder why her palms were white, we just couldn't figure it out, colour difference wasn't even thought about, any my mum took me away from the school due to one of the Nuns beating me, funny old world really, my parents sent me to a Catholic Boarding, even worst than the previous school, my best pal there was Fransisco, he was from South America, sadly I never saw Mary again

 

[Jaime C]

Really sad to see this type of behavior in this day and age. I've seen Indonesian and others remove their sandals when seated. Not a big deal at all.

I'm sorry he left so quickly, as I'm sure you would have taken a bite out of his hide!

 

[nosox]

that guy missed the "Don't be a Dick" sign on the way in country. What a knob

 

[Minuteman]

I was in the hotel bar in Douala, Cameroon and gave a greeting to a guy from China. He was there only a few minutes and left. The Cameroonian barman told me not to talk to people from China. I asked why not and he said that Chinese sleep with snakes. And he believed that.

 

[Davita]

I asked why not and he said that Chinese sleep with snakes. And he believed that.

Don't really know if Chinese sleep with snakes but in Southern China they do eat them. Especially before winter comes as they believe it's medicinal and prevents colds.

Given it's plausible success I've often wondered.....what else causes Asian Flu'.

 

[jstar]

I can be arrogant and unpleasant and I'm an expat. What is being described here however, are bigots and racists.

 

[Anglian]

I was in the hotel bar in Douala, Cameroon and gave a greeting to a guy from China. He was there only a few minutes and left. The Cameroonian barman told me not to talk to people from China. I asked why not and he said that Chinese sleep with snakes. And he believed that.

I had a walk round a market at Guangzhou, not recommended for Europeans, the sell everything bats, kittens, puppies, big and smal lizards, many types of snakes, there was a lady picking small snakes from a buckets full of small rightly snakes snipping of their heads with a pair of scissors , I came across two English ladies crying their hearts out, I asked if I could help, but they were upset at the kittens for sale, I did say you where warned