WWAOD (What would an Orc Do?)

As I have written in the past, certain types of crime are virtually unheard of here in China. I would class these as Burglary, strong arm robbery and violent crimes against persons. Other types of crime are simply an ingrained part of the culture and are seen not only as normal, but in positive terms. These would be embezzlement, fraud, and "plain old cheating." The general feeling is that if Joe is able to cheat Jeff, then it shows that Joe is smarter and more deserving than Jeff.

I had several of these WWAOD moments while visiting Kunming. The first one happened just as I arrived in Kunming. I was waiting at the bus stop to go to the hostel and there were several people there also. They were boarding the buses that came before mine. It seems that the bus to the Hostel that I stayed at was a rather infrequent bus.

In the larger cities here in China, a lot of people use pre-paid bus passes that, when they enter the bus, they place in front of a reader and have an amount subtracted from their account. I was watching people use these passes to enter the bus and saw a woman get hers caught in the door as the door closed. Her pass was pulled out of her hand and wound up on the pavement outside the bus. I was able to hear her screaming to the driver; but, he had already closed the door and was leaving. I headed over to the pass, which was lying on the ground, in order to throw it in one of the open windows on the bus with hopes that it would be passed back to her.

However, I was under a full pack so I was not moving all too quickly. Another person got to the pass before me and I was first expecting him to do what I had intended. However, instead he put it in his pocket after showing it to some of his fellow Orcs', who laughed. This was no punk kid, it was an adult. I found the "good luck for you" attitude disturbing. To make it clear that he had no intention of returning it, he proceeded to use that pass as he entered his bus.

My next WWAOD moment came when Debra and I went to get some passport photos. I will discuss the reasoning for the need in another letter, this one is about Orcs'.

We went to a Kodak shop, the one between the Viet Namese Embassy and the main Kunming Train Station, to have the photos taken. We were told it would be 30RMB by one woman, who we paid. We then stayed in the shop and waited for our pictures. When the pictures were ready a second woman told us that it would be 30RMB, the first woman was standing right next to her and didn't say a word. I insisted that we had already paid. This situation devolved pretty fast. They knew that we needed the pictures and pointed out that we would not be able to get to anther shop and get other pictures before the time that we needed the pictures; and besides, we would have to pay there too. After plenty of grunting and shouting (applying WWAOD) I told them that we would pay; however, as Kodak share holders we would then be contacting Kodak and telling them that we had been stolen from. At that point the manager (who had been watching) told the first person to check her pockets. Of course, she had the 30RMB. We were then apologized to and told that she had just forgotten that we had paid her (anyone who believes that is a fool) and I agreed to not contact Kodak over the misunderstanding (I don't think there was a misunderstanding, I understand what happened). I applied WWAOD and won that one.

The last WWAOD moment in Kunming came just as Debra and I were leaving. We had purchased bunks on a sleeper bus to the China-Viet Nam border; they were about 95 RMB each. We got on the bus and were positioned on our bunks when this person, who claimed to be the owner, got on and told all the westerners that we had to pay an additional 30RMB, "for petrol."

In simple terms, I got angry. It was clear that the other westerners were looking for leadership and I took it. I said that I would burn my ticket before I would be stolen from. I told the owner that he was a thief and I would not ride on his bus (I was pretty loud about my pronouncements; think Orc). I then got off the bus, I noticed that the other westerners were following me, which made my position stronger, and told the driver to take my bags off the bus.

At that point the owner said something and I responded by simply shouting, "Bullshit!" A moment later the conductor politely told me that the owner said we would not have to pay extra if we would get back on the bus (it was almost time for him to leave and he was looking at about seven paying passengers walking off). I then agreed and we got back on the bus.

It was then that one of the Chinese told me that he (the owner) regularly does this to westerners and that if you just get loud he will back down. All I can say is that it would have helped if someone had told me that to begin with; however, they were afraid to get involved. Again though, the correct guiding principle was WWAOD.