jpatokal

Attempting a serious reply to a rather banal question...

Because time is perceived differently. In Singapore, people get chewed out if they arrive for a meeting 5 minutes late. In Jakarta, I've seen somebody show up for a meeting three hours late, say macet ("traffic jam"), and everybody just shrugged their shoulders -- nggak popo pak! -- and continued.

And yeah, this applies to flights too. In Indonesia, I've never seen the people at a departure lounge even start to look antsy until the flight is delayed by over an hour.

huntejm

The Second World used to refer to the USSR and other Eastern Bloc countries (as opposed to the First World of Western democracies). It's pretty much gone out of use since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

etch5895

I must perceive people differently, then. My experiences have been that the people who usually create a stink are self-important business people who believe that their time is more valuable than others. My third world country experiences have been that people in general tend to take delays with a grain of salt (within reason). I don't like sitting on a plane on the tarmac any more than others, but I've done it. Several weeks ago I sat on the tarmac at RDU for 3 1/2 hours after landing because thunderstorms were moving through the area. I felt that was ridiculous, but I didn't raise a stink or curse the airline or humanity.

So, I wondered, why would the assumption be made that people from 3rd world countries would be more impatient than those from the so-called civilized world?

And as a side note, if personal attacks are in order, maybe certain members need to have posting privlidges revoked. This is a civilized thread. If you want to bash people, go to Aljazeera.com.

Emma65

Flew NWA from AMS to DTW where I was to connect to MCO.

Well, once aboard the plane the captain announced that they were one pilot crew short due to foodpoisoning so they had to go down in Boston to change the flight crew.

During the 4 hours on Logan when we were not allowed to deplane, waiting for new pilots, the cabin crew was unusually nice to us travellers. Surprised me as before and after the wait in Boston they were rude to just about everyone.

So haven't seen passanger revolt but I'd say the cabin crew did - kind of.

/E

greenery

To those posters who complained about my use of the term Third World Countries, here is my reply:

So the term is no longer politically correct and the correct PC term is "DEVELOPING COUNTRIES" I reject that term because many THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES have shown few if any signs of economic development in the last few decades. In fact, many of the worlds poorest countries have become less developed and wealthy in the last ten years.

I have visited many 2nd and 3rd world countries in 20 plus years of RTW trips. I see that the people are good all over the world but the chance of aggressive emotional or physical reactions to being wronged is more common in poor countries. Riots and killings in these third world countries is quite common. People are use to being abused by government and business organizations and the responses to this action can be quite aggressive and emotional.

tkey75

Wait - what was the toipc of this thread again?

Ocn Vw 1K

tkey75's Q was well-asked. Looking over the thread, we've had a wide variety of responses and the thread has now run its course. Closed. Ocn Vw 1K, Co-Moderator, TravelBuzz.