Thursday 8 November 2007

NEVER INSULT ANYONE

This is just a joke downloaded from forwarded email. Nevertheless, the massage is clear. “Never insult anyone”

An American and a Japanese were sitting on the plane on the way to LA when the American turned to the Japanese and asked, "What kind of -ese are you?"

Confused, the Japanese replied, "Sorry, Sir, but I don't understand what you mean."

The American repeated, "What kind of -ese are you?"

Again, the Japanese was confused over the question. The American, now irritated, then yelled, "What kind of -ese are you...Are you a Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Javanese or other kind of -ese?"

The Japanese then replied, "Oh, I am a Japanese."

A while later the Japanese turned to the American and asked what kind of 'key' was he.

The American, frustrated, yelled, "What do you mean what kind of '-key' am I?"

The Japanese said, "Are you a Yankee, donkey, or monkey?"

Moral of the story:

Never insult anyone if you don’t want to be insulted!

The terminology that people often used to call other races based on their skin colour usually appears to be very sensitive, offensive and insulting, such as the followings:

In Hong Kong (after being colonized for 100 years), the Hongkee called the British and other westerners Kui Loi (“ghosts). The Singaporeans called them Ang Moi (red hairs). In China, they are politely called Lao Wye (foreigners).

The Indonesians called them Bule (Indonesian-English Dictionary: white skin people) just as the blacks are known as Negro (Indonesian-English Dictionary: a black – esp. in colonial period) to the Americans. In Malaysia, the white men are known as Mat Salleh to the Malays.

One has to be humorous about his skin colour and feels great about it :

One pastor from Ambon joked about his skin colour saying that he’s a “Hitachi”, meaning “Hitam tapi Cina” Well, well, well. He told us that he was born in a mixed marriage family of a Chinese father and an Ambonese mother.

If you are born in a mixed marriage family, you are just great!

I remember I was having lunch in a Chinese restaurant in London in 1972. A family of 3 generations walked in. Guess what I saw? The elder of the family was a Punjabi with a Chinese wife. Their daughter-in-law was an English lady. Obviously their grandson was having Punjabi, Chinese and English blood and a grand good-looking fixture of 3 great races!

When you travel out of your country, you may be white, black, brown, yellow in skin colour, but you can be Americans, Australians, South Africans, Brazilians, Cubans, Koreans and so forth depending on which country you are citizen of.

During our recent trip to Beijing organized by CTC travel in Singapore, there were 33 of us from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. All of us are of Chinese origin (whether we are keturunan Cina or suku Tionghua). The Chinese Immigration Officers at Beijing International Airport recognized us as Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians. That’s because we were holding passports of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and we are citizens of the respective countries. Undoubtedly, we are all proud to be Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans when we were tourists in Beijing,China.