One wouldn’t expect an engineer to be interested in anthropology – assuming I’ve got the right “-ology” here, for the study of human behaviour – but working in the places I do with such a bewildering array of nationalities, mere observation provides considerable insight into the subject. \u00a0I struggle to explain why certain peoples behave as they do, but that they do behave in such a manner is beyond question.<\/p>\n
One of the things I noticed about Russians back in my Dubai days was their unwillingness to socialise with one another when abroad. \u00a0There were tens of thousands of Russians living (on various visas) in Dubai at the time, yet there was no Russian bar. \u00a0There was a sort of Russian nightclub in the Ascot hotel called Troika, but none of the Russians I knew went there, and I don’t think the main clientele were Russian. \u00a0There were one or two restaurants serving Russian food, but they also served western and Arabic fare. \u00a0Towards the end of my stay a nightclub opened called Red Square or something, and the few Russians who went there said it was gaudy and shite and I don’t think anything became of it. \u00a0Outside one or two friends, most Russians in Dubai kept themselves to themselves and had no interest in socialising in “Russian” bars with their compatriots, let alone setting up and running such an establishment in the first place. \u00a0I remember being surprised at how fragmented the Russian diaspora in Dubai was, and when I learned more about Russian culture I discovered this was not untypical. \u00a0This unwillingness to form groups left ethnic Russians exposed in two situations I have read about. \u00a0In the Gulags, the ethnic minorities – the Balts, Chechens, Kazakhs, Poles, etc. – quickly formed groups for protection, and immediately brought any newcomer under their wing. \u00a0By contrast, the ethnic Russians arrived alone and were the softest target for sadistic overseers or criminal gangs. \u00a0The same thing gets reported in the present day Russian army where the worst victims of\u00a0Dedovshchina<\/em> are almost always ethnic Russians having the shit kicked out of them by their own kind. \u00a0Rarely is it a Tatar or Buryat who is on the receiving end, they having grouped together for protection. \u00a0Among ethnic Russians, there seems almost no concept of mutual support or socialisation outside ones immediate friends. \u00a0Making new friends and expanding the group is almost actively avoided, or at least no attempt is made to further such goals.<\/p>\n At the other end of the spectrum you have the Filipinos. \u00a0If keeping abreast of the minute details of every friend, family member, and their friends’ work and life is nowadays called social networking, the Filipinos beat Facebook to it by two decades or more. \u00a0I have a Filipino colleague in Lagos, who told me of the large Filipino social scene in the city which no outsider would even be aware of. \u00a0He stopped taking lunch in the staff canteen after the first couple of weeks when he was invited into a system whereby one of them brings a whole load of others to his apartment and prepares Filipino food, with somebody else doing the honours the next day and so on. \u00a0I asked him how he found the other Filipinos in Lagos. \u00a0He said they found him. \u00a0If any Filipino is in a supermarket and he spies one of his compatriots (they can spot each other a mile off) that he doesn’t recognise, he will go up and ask him if he “knows everybody” yet, and if he doesn’t he will be provided with the necessary phone numbers to get himself into the next social event. \u00a0I’m not sure exactly what they do in the evenings, but I heard they have their own parties at the weekends and so have no need to frequent bars or nightclubs. \u00a0The Filipinos are mad about basketball, and I asked my colleague if the Filipinos in Lagos had a basket team. \u00a0They have a basketball league<\/em>.<\/p>\n It was the same in Sakhalin. \u00a0Every Filipino knew exactly which projects in other locations his friends and family were working on, which positions were available, and how much the going rates were. \u00a0They shared information in order to get the best deal and get their countrymen on board. \u00a0They stuck together like glue, even if they weren’t particularly good friends. \u00a0There was strong evidence that a sauna located not far from the Sakhalin Energy housing complex was actually a brothel catering mainly for Filipinos. \u00a0I took an 8-hour overnight train ride up to Gastello with a Filipino once, and we were supposed to be sharing a cabin. \u00a0But as soon as he boarded he went up and down the train poking his head in the compartment doors until he (inevitably) found one crammed with other Filipinos and he returned to me, grabbed his stuff, and said he was going to be bunking down there instead. It’s impossible to imagine Russians doing this.<\/p>\n So where do the Brits fit in? \u00a0In the oil towns, we don’t actively seek one another out but we end up meeting anyway. \u00a0Brits don’t necessarily want to hang out with one another, but we do want to watch football, rugby, and cricket and that means going to a pub which, if you’re abroad, is most likely to be an Irish or British pub. \u00a0And once you’re in a pub watching sport more than two weekends on the trot, you’ve pretty much got your social life sorted out. \u00a0For me personally, I meet a lot of Australians in Phuket mainly because the best place to watch sport is the Aussie Bar on Bangla Road.<\/p>\n But meeting and socialising with one another isn’t the Brits’ greatest strength. \u00a0That is our ability and willingness to socialise with absolutely anybody<\/em>. \u00a0Even the French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One wouldn’t expect an engineer to be interested in anthropology – assuming I’ve got the right “-ology” here, for the study of human behaviour – but working in the places I do with such a bewildering array of nationalities, mere … Continue reading