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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (203385)	4/20/2007 3:57:29 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793955

True. <why should I give you any cash, your govt. apparently would only take it from you for their fancy offices > Not to mention their first class travel, plush accommodation and perquisites of office. "Baubles of office" is the expression. But charity isn't much fun anyway. I'd rather suffer without the cash. Charity would be like rubbing it in. 40 years ago [nearly] I was working at the wharves as a wharfie [loading and unloading ships]. One day I was handling suitcases and stuff off a passenger ship. I unloaded an American lady's suitcase and put it on a trolley or something. She was wanting to give me a dollar. We don't have tipping in New Zealand [not in those days]. We have an agreed pay rate and do a good job for it. I hadn't done anything special and it felt like I was some sort of loser who needed a bit of money or something. I didn't know then that she probably felt the need to tip as strongly as I felt the need to reject it as not an insult, but a sympathy vote and I didn't need sympathy. She shoved it in my pocket in the end and I thought it would be rude to insist on my point of view, so let it go. She was a nice lady. Years later, fresh off the boat in Canada, as an immigrant, the boot was on the other foot and as a salesman for Texaco I was buying dinner for a customer and distributor. I didn't tip! I didn't even think of it. It wasn't as though I was paying the bill myself or anything - I had a huge expense account I could barely dent. The distributor explained to me afterwards my error. I felt like a total idiot. I still find it weird to tip but it's not too difficult now. "Here you are waitress, a nice insult for you. Thanks for lunch and begging me for money". Those misunderstandings were with goodwill. When running around somebody else's country with guns, shooting at them, it must be much more difficult to have good communication and understanding. I wouldn't fancy my chances. Mqurice