Respect By Jamil Shawwa

I was talking to a friend, hope that she will allow me to call her a friend, and the focus of the various conversations has been on the importance of respect to her and the way she was raised. In almost all conversations, the word respect would come up. She was sensitive even if I was silent for few moments or minutes and she would consider this silence as a sign of disrespect. I answered her once saying that all humans ask and demand respect and courtesy but I did not stop at that but added that specially for Asians, the word or the symbol respect means more than other cultures or people. I kind of regretted that last part, the Asian part, and felt that it is a stereotype of me to cast a big chunk of humans as different from others. Having said that, I thought about it and found out in my own mind that the statement I made was not a stereotype but was coming from my own experience with people of Asian descents. It is not at all that they are different but that they, those that I dealt with, mention respect more and by far than any other group of people that I met. Again, we all humans want to be respected but maybe not all of us would mention it as often. That conversation with that friend reminded me of an incident that took place in the early months of President George W. Bush presidency when China said that spy USA planes entered its space for undeclared missions. China’s focus was not on the incident but on the demand that The US apologizes. China did not stop at that until it got its apology and its formal papers published it in big headlines stating that the US- I quote-“was very sorry” for the incident. Again, back to my friend, I wonder if she with the way she demands respect, she also would provide others with the respect that she demands from them. I noticed and I ignored in that conversations that she also went sometimes for minutes without replying but she did not feel consciously or not for the need to apologize and I did not mention it to her. Very interesting human analysis, do not you agree.