Oriental courtsies

The nagging habit of Asians to play to rhetorics can sometimes be truly stifling. On the pretext of politeness or courtesy, we almost never express how we truly feel. Instead, we put on a masks of false modesty and waive all offers of help when we really need them.

And while this may be seen as an Oriental character for politeness which many in the West would like to label (and thereby adding to their already misconception of the eastern “mystique”), it is nothing more than an inability to admit to certain inadequacies.

Yes, I said inadequacies and no, I make no apologies for that.

See, the very act of not being able to accept defeats, regardless of how small they may seem, is what stands between us admitting that we need help at times and refusing help even when offered.

Here, I must commend our neighbours in the West that will literally “tell you to your face” what they really think and their reciprocal ability to accept in-your-face criticisms and comments without having to resort to an endless cycle to “get back” at each other for “face lost”. Yes, we are a vengeful bunch that cannot accept words that mean what they mean.

Honestly, after more than 5,000 years of Oriental civilisation, I think it’s high time that we learn from those who have surpassed us despite having only a third of the time to build their civilisations. It’s time we got off our high horses and come to the realisation that yes, we may have had a longer history to begin with, but we also buggered up along the way, resulting in others having better developments, both from the standpoint of humanity as well as economic advancements.

For the sooner we come to accepting our inadequacies and shortcomings, we earlier we’ll start on moulding a more advanced civilisation. Well, perhaps we can start here then. Just the simple act of saying what we mean even if it means hurting another in the face because at least then, they’ll start respecting us for being straight-forward. At least then, we’ll also be able to stop hiding behind the mask of “politeness”.