Sunday, October 21, 2012

Being Chinese

I was waiting at the lounge in Cengkareng airport. A woman stormed into the lounge and hurled her back pack onto the scale.

“Is it light enough NOW?!!” she shouted. [What a rude woman, I thought. Oh dear, I know her. She was a client. She thought any rules should be bent for her convenience. I hope she doesn’t see me.]

“Not yet Ma’am,” replied the airline’s ground staff.

“So what on earth do I have to DO?!!!!”

“You have to choose what to bring and what to leave behind, Ma’am.”

“Then I will just carry these and leave the rest in the back pack!” [That would be pointless, wouldn’t it?]

“But that means you are still carrying excess baggage, Ma’am. You cannot do that.”

“But this cake is for a little boy!! A friend asked me to bring it for her son. The boy would be so disappointed!” [All this fuss is over a cake? I doubt it.]

The airport staff didn’t say anything.

“Fine!! Fine!!!” screamed the woman.

She threw the box on the floor and stomped on it.

“Biarin!! Biar kalian juga ga bisa makan tuh kueh!!” plus several other expletives. Then she threw the box into the bin.

“Sudah??? Sudah cukup sekarang????!!!!”

“Masih lebih, Bu. Tapi kali ini kami bolehkan.”

Gosh.. money, living abroad, children in America and Europe sure can’t buy manners. And what a typical Indonesian Chinese of olden days. Rich (and even the poor ones too), above the law and regulations (or so they think), arrogant and chauvinistic and proud of it. I am Chinese myself but at that moment I would rather be any other colour than yellow.

After that tantrum, with most people’s eyes still on her, the woman looked around and spotted me.

“Eh, it’s you!” she said and smiled. She walked towards me and sat next to me and started to complain about the situation. Then she asked me to carry gadget for an aquarium [What the...?] It was just a small item so I said yes. When we started the boarding process the same airport staff still looked at us as if we were smelly dog poo.