In Reply to: now about other posts posted by peter mack on Tuesday, 7. June 2005 at 09:34 Bali Time:
I know how to say no to traders without them taking offense.
What the discussion was about is traders who refuse to take no for an answer, and grab your arm to drag you to their shop. That's crossing all lines of politeness, and Indonesians especially frown upon it.
What I was saying is that, rather than screaming and making a huge scene when that happens (as I have seen people do), and making everyone look foolish, you can quietly, passively, and effectively make this situation stop without alerting the whole street.
AS for bagging... I was merely responding to the question. Your posts added nothing to the topic on this thread and were merely posted to have a go at me. I didn't even know what you were talking about at first. As for my response to last week's post, I think I explained my point of view pretty clearly. I had assumed you were aware that I was making a joke about you embracing Balinese culture because the Balinese blame everything on the Javanese, which is what you did in the same post that argued against adopting an "us and them" mentality. And it was still on the topic of the thread. I didn't just insult you and leave no explanation.
And I'm NOT bagging you by saying this, but... read the whole post and the post it's referring to before you get all het up. You seem to be getting upset over things you've misunderstood, and I don't like having to waste time explaining things that are clear in the first place.