Cultural Collision

Note: It's a real story about how ignorant some people can be. I'm not nailing on any particular citizen nor religion. There are perhaps only a handful of rotten apples from each nations, each religions that are giving their homeland and faith bad names. A few bad apples made the rest looks bad. Anyway, it's important to throw away these bad apples because it smells so bad, it taste so awful! Yikes!

I realized her blouse was transparent from shoulder to hand. Thus, I began to look at the chest part. The blouse was transparent until her bra line. I was feeling uneasy but I was still able to sit still, until she stood up from her seat and walked to her friend at another counter.

Her blouse was entirely transparent!

Her bra was clearly visible and I couldn’t stop my mind from mentally undressing her again and again!

It was harder to undress her lower body part as her pants luckily weren’t invisible.

I looked at my male friends who were sitting in front of her counter. I was shocked; they looked just fine!

They looked unusually undisturbed with her appearance. I was thinking; are they sick? It was really hard for me not to look at her chest, how could they easily pull their eyes away from that part? Impossible!

My other male friend didn’t look around. He fixed his eyes on his phone’s screen since we entered the premise while the other two guys kept on dealing with her and smiling at her.

They continued to converse in a language I couldn’t understand.

While I was waiting for them, I wrote a note and slipped it onto her keyboard.

“Miss, please wear a cardigan now. It would help us decide on the ticket easier. Thank you so much. =)”

She smilingly took the small piece of paper and read it in front of us. Her face changed within a second. She returned the small note back to me, gave a small node and continued talking with the two guys.

I was expecting her to get up and took any clothes to cover herself but she did not.

After a while, I knew she would not do anything about it. It’s better for me to focus on what was being discussed. When I asked to speak in English, she replied “Oh, yes…of course I can speak English. But why you want to know? You’re not flying.”

She gave an unusually stupid, plain, obvious reply to pay back at me.

I could have given a solid counterargument which would dropped her silent afterwards but to save her from humiliation, I did not.

Upon deciding which date to fly would require not just the passenger’s concern but other people as well. It’s not one-person’s decision. A husband who wants to buy ticket would need to know his wife’s work schedule. A father needs to ask if his daughter is available or not to pick him up and spend her time with him upon his arrival. A son needs to know which date is the best time for him and everyone else to prepare for his home coming.

Can your mind process this daily life routine or not? Have you been living alone and never bother anyone else when deciding on something? Lame excuse! While trying to pay back at me, it just shows your lack of credibility (or brain).

Later on, one of the guys smilingly asked me, ”Why are you angry?”

Every time people asked me an obvious question, it just made my jaw dropped. Makes my mind temporarily paralyzed.

“Whenever I saw something goes against Islam, it makes me feel really angry”, I replied.

He still smiled.

“But she’s not a Muslim. She’s a Russian. That’s her lifestyle. We cannot do anything about that.”

“Wrong. Who says we cannot do anything? This is a MUSLIM COUNTRY. When you visit a house, can you just do anything you wish?” Both guys were silent.

“When you visit a house, you must follow the rule. If the house owner says you cannot do this and that, you must follow his wish. Or else, you should get out from his property. I know that Uzbekistan Airlines usually cater foreign customers, not Malaysians. If I didn’t remark her, other Malaysians would have pointed out her not-so-decent appearance. She might have done it many times before because Malaysians are not regular for them. Unfortunately for her, today, I came into that premise. Even Chinese who are citizens, who lives in Malaysia since birth does not wear clothes like that.”

“Why you, men, did not say anything to her just now? Why let me remarked her? As a man, once you get married, you become a husband, a father, which means you’re the boss, you’re the leader. If you see something wrong but unable to do anything about it, what kind of leader are you?”

Both said nothing.

Moral of the story: Respect the house owner. Respect the local people. When you’re visiting or working abroad, bear in mind where you’re. You should leave if you cannot adhere to our local culture, our local rules. And be a firm house owner too! You have your very own right to regulate your wish within your property!