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Burn your bridges before arriving there

Monday 27 January 2014, 12.51pm HKT

11.30am local time, 20°C (68°F), warm and humid

THERE are many things I’m not terribly fond of about my hometown, but most of the time I keep my own opinions to myself because it’s not the done thing to bitch about them in the open.

But sometimes I’m faced with such insultingly insane work specifications (and/or insanely insulting attitude of the customer himself) that I’d rather burn my bridges on the spot even before I get to my bridges.

Such as yesterday morning’s drama with a prospective customer. In the end, it came to this:—

the bitch slap

Me: “What exactly am I being called to do here? It’s not cool in the eyes of others to work like that. You’re looking for some general dogsbody to carry your workload, and I’m not it. That hopefully will short-circuit the inevitable ‘like-it-or-lump-it’ discussion.“

B(w)anker (pausing): “Then we can’t use you.”

Me: “Thank you. I’m glad that you can see it from my position.”

(image via c4c)

Sometimes you’ve got to fight fire with fire.

Fire works well enough for the normal run of assholes. Against industrial-strength assholes, napalm is the only answer. Ergo, my ‘short-circuit’ phraseology.

Somebody friendly took me aside and asked that I try to change this personage’s mind somehow.

Goddamit, I don’t want to change his mind! I can’t use or work with a man who NEEDS convincing or persuading — he might just change his mind once too often.

I don’t want to change MY mind either — not after the crap and the airs that he’s been giving everyone once too often.

assholes bitch

(via c4c)

Uh-oh, here’s comes the digression, like in every one of his post

One of the top things I hate and detest about Hong Kong has always been the way it gets things done.

Don’t get me wrong — The Hong Kong Way gets results, no question about that. It’s just that I don’t like how it gets results. It’s uncool and, not to put too fine a point on things, insulting more than a little once in a while for those at the receiving end.

Now if a place could be sung as a song — for instance, a pop song that could represent the national identity, the cultural psyche — then it’s something that reflects the people and society of that place.

Many songs do exactly that.

There being nothing else to say, that should lead in nicely to my next post, which is about the signature tunes of this ex-British/now-Chinese ring-a-ding-ling colony of Hong Kong.

Be here or be queer for that story.

are the assholes still in charge

(via c4c)

_____

Posted by thenakedlistener

Filed in random words ·Tags: attitudes, comebacks, conversations, insults, retaliation, work, work atmosphere

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Better a tourist than a disgrace like you

Monday 30 December 2013, 5.32am HKT

Hong Kong, 4.16am local time, 12°C (53°C)

I received the following email only minutes ago from a visitor to this blog, and I’m floored.

“I find your posts uneducated. You have a poor attitude to life. You are a bad example of the further destruction of our great Hong Kong culture and identity.

“You are just another tourist who came to live here but choose to take the side of equally pathetic foreigners.

“You do not write about the many good things of Hong Kong, which is one of the best cities in the world. You will not even write in your own mother language Chinese because you have not learned self-respect.

“You refer to yourself in some of your posts as a ‘Chinaman,’ which I need to remind you is a term of discrimination against the Chinese people used by foreigners who you love so much.”

— ‘Butthole Surfer’ (email, received 30 Dec 2013 at 04.10 hours HKT)

My reply:—

“Dear Butthole Surfer,

YOU’RE AN IDIOT.

“Well, that’s just your opinion, man.

“As a true-blue Chinaman myself, you need to go to hell and don’t come back.

“You’re a disgrace.

“Do you know what a f*ckface looks like? Get a mirror.

“在未來，請使用中文來寫 (‘In future, please write in Chinese’)

“Now pull up your knickers and go play with the wall socket.

“Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear to you, c*nt.”

(Email sent 30 Dec 2013 at 04.11 hours HKT)