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My first experience of English people after having left Russia very early this morning was at Riga airport - two men, one aged around 50, paunchy and attention-seeking, the other younger, big, sick of his companion. They stood in front of me in the queue for check-in, flying to Liverpool. The following made me ashamed of my home country and long for Russian Romanticism (overdone as it can be!)
"Look at that."
The second man, the younger of the two, glanced up. "What?"
"Look at the piece of arse on that blonde. We've been here two days and I haven't had one like that."
He was ignored. A few Latvians around the men shuffled away, as if afraid they would catch his pig-headed 'Englishman abroad' attitude.
"The only thing good about Riga. The arse. The women."
A young girl of about fifteen or sixteen walked past, pretty in an unassuming kind of way, but without the prepossessing sense of style that one sees in the developed woman.
"Nah..." the older man remarked. "Not enough tit."
"Hmmm..."
Now, I am ashamed of my retort, lowering myself almost to his level in the puerility stakes, but I remarked, out loud, just loud enough for them to hear, "Why do I always find myself behind the complete twats in the queue?"
(Yes, I know...but it seemed like something they'd understand. And after it, they certainly quietened down...)
"My nail's broken", the older man whined, his paunch shaking as he bit at his middle fingernail. "Look. Look." He shoved his half-bitten nail in his companion's face. "Look, my nail's broken."
And this - this immaturity, this viewing of women (and perhaps all people...I am not a feminist in the fanatic sense of the word!) as objects to be used and discarded, to be commented on in passing by people not worth the patch of ground they had stood on - this was what I had come home to? I found myself blushing for my nation. Where have we gone wrong?!
Now, Russian men may be - for the most part - really bad dressers, over-macho and fond of being looked after and moaned at by their women, but they do have a wonderful sense of what a woman is or can be, and how to treat her. This, for a girl who dislikes presents unless they are truly personal, affectionate and with a point, is occasionally a little embarrassing (for example, when given non-wild flowers or a soft toy as gifts - I simply do not see the sense in it), but at least Russian men know that a woman does not have as much strength as a man and may struggle when lifting a suitcase or trying in vain to push open a metro door, and they help. It's not because you're a woman, necessarily, it's because you're struggling - and that is the important distinction. The men in front of me at Riga did not have the first idea about chivalry, or even about helping a fellow citizen - truly, they simply disgusted me.
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Posted by ruth_e_moody on 2007-10-16 13:43:42 | Rating: | Views: 91
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Good post and I'd of said the same thing stuck behind two males like that.
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Posted by kentlass
on 2007-10-16 14:06:19
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im glad you stuck up to that ignorance .... there not all like that in england!! they sound like idiots ... i really loved this post though x
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Posted by heartonsleave
on 2007-10-23 06:56:38
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