Tourists killed in terrorist attack in Yemen

[Dixie]

Some Catalan tourists were killed in a terrorist attack in Yemen yesterday.

news

The tourists went to Yemen on vacation through an agency, even though they were warned about the danger of travelling there.

[Vega]

Really? I have a friend from Yemen (he studys with us), he says it's a peaceful country. However, terrorist are everywhere..

[MissLT]

I haven't read this news yet, but I have a little personal story I witnessed between a Yemen guy and an Italian guy last time.

Weeks ago, I went to a store near my house to buy a notebook and a drink. While I was in the store checking out their notebooks, I saw one guy standing in front of the cash register talking to the owner.

Italian guy: where are you from?
Yemen guy: Yemen. You?
Italian guy: Oh yeah? I'm Italian. I have many friends from your country. They're all nice people, but sometimes you guys can be such assholes.
Yemen guy: *a pause of silence...then...* Get out of my store!
Italian guy: C'mon man, it's true you guys can be such assholes.
Yemen guy: *yelling* GET OUT OF MY STORE! You don't come in my store talking like that. GET OUT!
Italian guy: Oh, don't be such an ~! You're acting like one of them.
Yemen guy: *losing his patience and pulling out the gun he had underneath the counter* GET OUT OF MY STORE!

I was almost peeing in my pants, because I was standing couple steps behind the Italian guy. I wanted to get out of the store so bad, but they both were locking the entrance. I had to run to a corner to hide. It was a bad experience....

[Dixie]

Wow Lennye, that surely was a terrifying experience. Both the owner of the store and the customer behaved like assholes. First, the Italian guy shouldn't have said that. And the Yemen guy shouldn't have behaved like that. A gun? Just for that comment?

How did it end?

[MissLT]

The Italian guy kept laughing and making imbecile remarks, and the Yemen guy kept waving his gun and yelling. Finally, the Italian guy left. I haven't been back to that store after the incident. The owner and his workers are nice people. They have given me and my little cousins free ice creams before. Also, they always smile and make nice jokes in front of us. However, I guess even a nice person can't keep his cool if he's too ethnocentric?

[Vega]

If someone comes and says that your people sometimes are assholes, I don't think I would sit and nod. Not because my people might behave themselves as assholes or something, it's their business. Simply, whom does he consider me by saying that to me?

[Dixie]

If someone comes and says that your people sometimes are assholes, I don't think I would sit and nod. Not because my people might behave themselves as assholes or something, it's their business. Simply, whom does he consider me by saying that to me?

I would have:

a) Asked him politely why he thought that about my people and what were his reasons, if he had ever met someone from my country and what had happened, etc. But all in a friendly way.

b) Just ignore him.

[Danyet]

I think that it is wrong to get upset with the Italian man even if he was wrong or right. We do not know what the intent of the Italian man was.
We should not judge him.

There is an old American Indian proverb:
"Great Spirit, let me not judge my brother before I have walked a mile in his moccasins."