Respect: On a Tip of a Tongue and On a Glimpse of Mirror

I missed my connecting flight today because my earlier flight was delayed for 2 hours. Once I landed, I reported to transit desk, and they printed a new boarding pass for another connecting flight (at 2 pm). 30 mins before schedule, I got a call from L*on Air that the 2pm flight is full, and they couldn't take me, so they suggested me to wait until 4pm. Of course, I couldn't accept that, cos my original flight supposed to be at 11am. I've been delayed for hours!!!

So, I walked to their counter, and asked what the problem is. His answer was uncertain "Mungkin engga bisa, Bu, sepertinya penuh" (= maybe we couldn't take you, mam, seems the flight is full). I don't understand why he kept on using "uncertain" words. Seems like they sold some last minutes tickets and try to waive me.

So, he asked me to wait. I started making phone-calls just to let my bro know that I'll arrive very very late because of stupid delays. Btw, I was (unintentionally) speaking in English. Ehm... Soon after that, I heard the counter guy busy on his walkie talkie, asking a seat for me.

Apparently, he thought I am a foreigner or someone important cos I speak English. This is not the first time...

 A few years ago, my uncle passed away. And I need to take a flight from Jakarta to Medan to attend the funeral. After a series of delays, M*ndala Airlines announced that the flight was CANCELLED. God damn it! Cancelled! 

I went to their counter to talk to the girls there, and they gave me unsympathetic look and asked me to wait. I didn't mind waiting, but they didn't do anything. Just sit, chit chat and laugh. I was so pissed off. I started to yell at them in English until their manager showed up and talk to me. He spoke English to me, and I was pretending to speak broken-Indonesian (just like when foreigner speak Indonesian). And voilà  I was quickly transferred into next flight to Medan in no-time, using another airline. And he also helped me to carry my luggage. Thanks to speaking English!

Things like this don't just happened in Indonesia. 

A few years ago, I went to a China trip with my parents. We were staying in a hotel room, I got an extra bed. But they didn't give us any extra pillow + blanket. Since it's China, my dad who is fluent in Chinese, called up house-keeping to get extra pillow + blanket, he was replied with a monotone "mei you" (= don't have it). My dad explained that we have extra bed, they supposed to provide pillow + blanket with it too. And the answer was still a cold "mei you".

My dad was about to complain to the tour leader, but I tried to call the house keeping again, and this time, I spoke in English. I asked for 2 extra pillows and a blanket. I didn't even need to explain that we actually have extra bed. She answered me "Sure, Madam, right away. Anything else, Madam?" Heheheh...

The above mentioned incident can only happened because the conversation was made on phone. 

Not face to face. 

I believe the whole thing would just failed if they saw my super-Asian look. Hahaha...

When my Asian look is exposed, any language wouldn't be able to help me in racist situation.

Once I was in K*pu-Kupu Barong, Bali because a relative worked there as a chef, I went there with another chef to taste her cookings. We waited for more than 30 mins to get served. Not that the cafe was busy or anything, there were only 3 customers (incl. me). And those 2 came later than me, but they got serve earlier. 

Why?

Cos they were bule 

(bule = Indonesian slang for any "white" people, could be Americans, Germans, Australians, French, etc; the term doesn't carry any negative racist sense)

We tried to call the waiter (she's a Balinese), wave at her, calling her, etc. Not that she didn't notice us, she just said "tunggu ya" (= wait). My chef friend was about to give the waiter a punch on her face if I didn't stop her. Hahaha... The waiter finally "notice" us when a janitor saw me kept on waving (the waiter just stand lazily as if I was invisible). And later, the waiter walked toward us and rudely throw us a menu.  

I didn't wanna make a scene there. If my relatives didn't work there, I think I would called up the manager and complain. 

Seriously, not like me or other Asians couldn't afford the food there. We could. In fact, those bule just order little things. Bule can be kere (poor) too, you know.

If Asian themselves look down on other Asian, How would bule see us? 

Well, sadly, they look down on us too. (though not all)

In Europe, some aunties who dressed casually often ignored by boutique attendants. No matter what goods you wanna buy, they kept on saying "no stock", but in fact, another bule customer could get the goods in question and they even get to choose. How rude!!! 

Hello? Don't you know hardly any bule able to buy those luxuries? They are on crisis. The one that have abilities to buy are Asians! Just look at those faithful crazy queues at Champs-Élysées or Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. 

I hardly see any bule in those luxury boutiques, even if they were, they took forever just to buy a small wallet. Asians can easily pinpoint a few bags in 5 minutes and pay with HARD CASH! Yes! Those aunties' bags are full with bricks of 500 euros! 

I have to admit, I think these shopaholic aunties are crazy, not because they are Asian, but because they are just slaves for luxury brands. Just for ever-hungry pride!

I just don't understand why Asians look down on other Asians? 

Why bule look down on Asians or any other race? 

And why do Asians idolize bule so much?

Well, maybe I am exaggerating about this racist things, but it happens... a lot.