Services and mannerism

As salam and Hi

I had a chat with a western white individual recently, a friend who has an adopted black son who is in Malaysia studying. The two of them went to a bank (Local bank) to do money transaction. He said his son was looked at as though he was a criminal and the staff of bank were talking about him in national language (Bahasa malaysia) which I think they understood. The couple were very unhappy towards the people in the bank. The comment made by the white individual father among other things were

"They rather leave the job given to them to talk about my son."
"My son is an educated man who has traveled a lot, these people (the bank staff) may have not even been to Singapore."

Though in principle, we Asian (including Malaysians) are supposedly polite and well mannered but in reality we are not. Experiences living in Malaysia most of lives, America and New Zealand, I can see the difference. Don't get defensive or offended.
Of course there are always nice people around but these people are reducing in numbers rapidly.

I am going to categorize and list the services provided by Malaysian. For example when traveling (I did a lot and lots of traveling), I usually use national airline. I am talking about traveling in economy class and services provided by the flight attendants (female in particular). The categories of individual receiving services from the best (1) to the worst (4) are:
1. white men
2. White women
3. good looking well dressed men
4. Women of color or sloppy dressed person

The way the whites were treated makes me wonder, whether these people paying more than the Malaysians, which in actual fact, they are not or they may be pay less than us. The same happened on land (hotel, restaurant...)

Malaysians work in National carrier need to treat the Malaysian first, but best treat everyone the same. Services is services no matter who they are.

When we are in the Western world, we were not treated badly (but rarely we are) because of the color of our skin but in general the services they provided are equal because they "sell' services. Despite not favoring people of color, they will not compromise on the services, because the services are money. Poor service less money coming in.

The phrases "how are you today." "sorry for keeping you waiting", "How can I help you", "are you okey" ,are very common. They were said with a smile.

I once went to a pharmacy in NZ, looking for a vitamin. I picked up one bottle and looking at the ingredient and there is something which I am not clear (gelatin, whether it was vegetable or animal, it was not stated). The sale person was also unsure, so she said to me "let me call and find out for you". She did not want to say some something which is is unsure.

Hopefully we get better. That is the idea of my blog. What is good must be told and the same if otherwise. We cannot hide the bad things or attitude because without knowing it we will never improve and get better.

Enjoy

Dr Aishah