some kid got thrashed and you didnt DO anything?! where is your sense of justice?

either way, welcome back.

e-mail me if you want tips on what to do to kill time in dubai…

arabs seem to slap their kids around a lot – it’s pretty damn ridiculous. then again, so are their kids (loud, obnoxious, spoilt). i’ve seriously decided against procreating.

yeah, let me know if you want my dubai friend’s email address. also, you get an F- for travel planning, sucka.

i watched this Spanish guy berate his wife on the streets of Madrid and follow up his tirade with a few choice slaps. A strong feeling of outrage demanded that i should intervene, but i have to admit i was one of the crowd standing there and watching this all happen…what to do?

Live and let live man. All rights are a trade off (says me incitefully).

what to do? i dont know! something! isnt it a natural instinct to react when you see someone inflicting violence on someone else right under your nose? not that its always the convenient or even safe way out, not that it will for sure get you anywhere, but isnt it normal to get charged by a rush of adrenaline and want to do something? shout, or say something, or…SOMETHING? i dont know…i just cant imagine myself being able to watch some kid or a woman getting beaten up. maybe in that moment id wouldnt be in a position to do something, but i’d *want* to.

in principle it’s always a terrible thing for people to hit each other. in reality it’s one of those culturally-sensitive things; sarah’s comment makes me think maybe it’s just the acceptable punishment for naughty kids. (i still disagree with it, but i have to approach the subject differently when it’s not my culture and i open my big mouth.)

in america, i’ve frequently been party to men getting violent with women or people getting violent with kids in public. it’s particularly awful when you’re on the subway and there’s a whole car full of people watching. usually i or someone will intervene, just asking “is there some problem here?” or telling the aggressor to cool off. in the US it’s definitely not acceptable culturally, so just the threat of being-seen is a deterrent. i think you’re not really putting yourself at physical risk unless the aggressor is drunk or something. however you totally run the risk of getting yelled at by that person–or insulted.

i’ve had that happen and though (one time) it was scary it was also sort of affirming. then again, i worry that the victim is just going to get it worse later in private, and that they too are (obviously) embarrassed by the whole thing.

*sense of justice*: to be completely honest, I was the most pissed that they were blocking the escalator. I guess I should feel bad for that, but what am I going to do about some kid getting slapped? Adopt him?

but that must sound awful. I was sorry to see the kid getting hit and was never and would never hit a child. I just don’t think someone in an airport has any rights and responsibilities much beyond minding the escalator.

Sophist – Live and let live man … are you referring to the observer, son, father or mother? I guess somebody has to make that tradeoff less worthwhile eh!

Sara, Reb – what if that naughty kid happens to have autism, aspergers or something similar would this also be acceptable.

However, I have to agree that speaking up against such wrongs in another country/culture is much more uncomfortable not for Reb’s reasoning (I’m guessing “culturually sensitive” means respect for the cultural norms as opposed to the fear of them) but out of self-interest, also known as the “fear of getting my ass kicked”.

I agree with Ivap – of course i felt like i wanted to do something but a greater feeling was one of self-preservation – didnt really want to risk getting slapped myself..

There may be such a thing as an acceptable beating , or rather …an accepted beating. Have witnessed a few would-be thieves in Sri Lanka getting the shit kicked out of them and then handed over to the Police for more of the same. In no way am i saying this should happen – just that i can live with that much easier than with the idea of a woman getting slapped around in the street.

Ivap…touche!

The Japanese guy a couple of doors down from me ‘beat up his girlfriend’. I sleep like the proverbial baby and have made it through bomb blasts and earth tremors so there was no way I was going to wake up for some screeching woman and ambulances. Apparently bloody had been dripping from her nose and she was drenched in red, and he was covered in the same. These all second hand stories.

People have started shunning him, and he is visibly embarrassed since everybody on the corridor, and subsequently everybody in the hall knew about it.

In no way was what he did right….even if all he did was push her off and connected stronger than he expected to (it happens, I didn’t WANT to split open the Buckinghamshire fly half’s head but he had it coming). But she told the police she started it. Whether you want to believe that or not is upto you. But the fact that she said it means that her affection for this man, is stronger than her sense of indignation and fear. Is it within our rights to make him feel worse about what happened by ostracising him and advising her to leave what may well be a fulfilling relationship which we choose to benchmark on one incident?

Sometimes people are abusive. I got whacked as a kid and I’m no worse off for it. Several of my friends got whacked as kids too. I remember my glasses flying across the classroom in Year 9 because I was trying to get my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pencil case back from some thieving bastard, and the teacher took exception to it. I think they heard the slap in the floor below.

I didn’t complain, my parents didn’t complain, the other kids found it hilarious. I picked up my glasses and got on with it.

May as Reb says it’s the cultural lag. Maybe the more ‘advanced’ societies and more socially evolved among us frown on the practice. But chastisement is necessary. Some people only respond to certain things. In school, I found that you could reason with some troublemakers and you had to essentially beat the crap out of them. I’m no sociologist and don’t know why this is. But that’s the way it is.

Indi maybe the kid at the top of the Dubai escalator was a bastard beyond description. Parents too get frustrated. It is a human failing. There’s just so far some people can be pushed. It’s no excuse or justification for their reaction, but it should be a deterrant for us in passing judgement. Audi alteram partem.

Once again maybe it’s the cultural acceptance, but I would never attempt to get in the way of a parent disciplining their kids or a domestic argument even if it is in a public place. I draw the line of course when there is a potentiality of real physical harm being done. I don’t condone it, but I don’t condemn it as vigorously as to get involved without good cause.

Dunno…it’s complicated.

catch a flight to Bahrain from Duabi on Air Arabia and you can get a connecting to wherever u wanna from Bahrain, btw, id love for you to come over to the 9th Bahrain bloggers meetuop tomorrow. The flight would be about a max of 40 mins to 45 mins, you don’t need to get a visa for bahrain before hand, they’d issue u a 72-hour one at the airport, cost about 40 dollars – CDN and i’ll tour u around the place :)

hope u can make it indi,

kudos,
strav.

PS. Reb – the same reb from VolunteerSriLanka? and the fullbright scholar?

oh dear thought u meant july 22, didn’t see that u posted it as of june 19th, am late, well hope to see u soon anyways :)

You should see how we do it Miami style, you should shoot him, drag his dead body to the front lawn, stick the water hose up his ass, and turn it on full. Hey, in Miami just like in Dubai….violence and stupidity are the norm!

Hey, you guys are really ignorant people! Figures, you all sound like Americans. Just cuz the reader sees one incident, whole of Dubai is labelled voilent and stupid? Get real you idiots. What about the US where fukin kids shoot their classmates. What about the pyschos that roam the streets? Gang wars? Look at yourselves first before preaching. Morons!