From the above two articles, it would seem that master-servant class division and discrimination is very alive in these countries. I'm sure these are two isolated incidents but they do highlight how the society view members of the service industry. Instead of seeing them as professionals in their own right, they are viewed as servants to be discriminated again. It is no different from India caste system where the lower caste members are heavily discriminated against.

Where these people are serving a customer in a shop, bank, restaurant or airline, they are professionals in their own right. There is a major difference between a teenager just playing basketball in the neighbourhood and a professional basketballer training and competing in major leagues. Both are playing basketball but the latter is a professional who does it for living and works hard for it. Nobody looks down on a professional Basketball player just as nobody looks down on a dancer or an actor. They are all professionals in their own rights and so are the air stewardess.

How a person behaves to those around them reflects both on their family upbringings and on the societal influence. I am so tempted to say that maybe the Chinese passenger in the AirAsia flight came from a poor family background and therefore do not know how to behave on an airline. But then I'm discriminating because not all poor people will behave that way. Many are well mannered and are well brought up to know what is right or wrong. I'm also being discriminating also because the lady in the Korean Air incident is the CEO daughter and therefore, in theory, should have the well mannered behaviour associated with members of her class. But she did not.

The Chinese passengers demanded alot in spite of the fact they paid little for a budget flight and therefore should not expect full service. The Korean lady demanded alot because she felt she's the CEO's daughter and therefore expects the stewardess to give in to all her demands on top of all the other passengers on that Korean flight. In both cases, the small mind cannot see the big picture. In the Chinese passenger case, that their's is just a budget air and that's how it works and all that ruckus in the air is another black mark to the Chinese tourist image abroad. In the Korean case, that her demand to turn back the flight is in contravention to flight protocol, creating massive inconvenience to other passengers and a stigma to her father's and country national airline.

I often wonder how parents will behave towards service industry professional like air stewardess if they their child are also in that profession. All we need is more understanding of the work of those who are serving us and more awareness of our own behaviour and attitude.