Get Over it … It’s how we fly!

A recent story, In China, American Apparel courts controversy – but not over what you would expect, drew my attention, mainly because I current live and work in China so I am always trying to avoid controversy or problems. The story went on to describe the theft of a cell phone in an “American Apparel” store and the response of the store’s manager to a request to view the videotapes in an attempt, one assumes, to identify the perpetrators of the crime.

As the story progresses the authors seeks to chastise the manager because the manager stated that the “upper management” must be contacted before the videotapes could be released. This comment, according to the author incensed the Chinese public because an employee refused to provide the tapes stating that the “American Apparel” was an American company and it should not release the tape without permission from the “home office in Los Angeles”.

Please understand I am not refuting the comment as trite or even disrespectful. What I am focusing on is the reaction.

For those of us who live overseas and aware from the “Western” societies that we are used to many things do not make sense in the countries we have adopted to work or live in for extended periods. However, unlike the individuals in the characters in the article we take things in stride.

Many times over the years I have sought an item, a piece of information, an explanation and especially in China and its Asian neighbors; I get the comment, “I have to ask my superiors”. I and from anecdotes I have heard from others this is not uncommon so why the uproar. Someone received what they have been dishing out for years, but since it was an “American” company now everyone is upset.

Over the course of years many things have happened to me personally or I have been told of them. Some examples are:

·     Several years ago I sought some paperwork at a government agency. Now, in most places the required actions would take only a few minutes at most. The employee(s) made the incident extend over a three-week period. The locals had their identical paperwork completed in less than twenty minutes. Only difference I was able to discern was that I was a foreigner and the individuals from the office manager down to the employees wanted a bribe (oh, I forgot, it was a government office with a sign saying that bribes were illegal). Duh! A note on the wall does not mean it won’t happen.

·     Recently, a colleague, new to China, came into the office bemoaning a local restaurant with two different menus. One was for the foreign visitor and the other for the locals who frequented the establishment. It seems he had been provided, by mistake, the local menu and was upset about the difference in prices. Those of us in the office felt his pain but pointed out that that is business as usual in many places.

·     Anther incident, years ago, involved the wife of the director of a foreign business. She happened on a street vender with fruit for sale. It needs to be said she was from a country in close proximity to where this incident happened but happened to have blond hair and blue eyes as her grandparents immigrated in the late 1880s. The vender of course, seeing what he supposed was a ‘foreigner’ hiked the prices. As she put it later, “I lite into him like a rapid dog, how dare he increase prices because I look like an gringo”.

My point is this … you live in a foreign country … get over it … it seems as if a large part of the population of the world is governed basically by two things: trying to avoid responsibility and greed.

However, are we in the United States any better? There are upscale shopping centers just for the Chinese tourist in may cities in the United States. Someone asks a clerk for something and they need to get permission from their manager. We, of the U.S. even hurt our own as well as foreign students when we tack on extremely large “out of state” and “foreign student” tuition fees. These actions just like the items listed above are not justified. They are simply based on “greed”.