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So, essentially, my question would be whether regardless of their childish, innocent culture it was right to respond by returning them to the ship and registering these official complaints, however far they might go.
The culture issue*, as I see it, is relevant insofar as whether or not the individuals in question would have had prior reason to expect that what they were doing (i.e. taking pictures of children) would cause offense or alarm, which in turn might (ideally) inform the response - was it a deliberate misdeed, with sinister overtones (as the concerned citizens mentioned above seem to believe), or a cultural misunderstanding to be talked over (e.g. simply letting the people involved know that such things aren't allowed here, now you know, etc.).
As for filing formal complaints, I think some kind of notice to the ship asking them to inform their crews of the problem, to avoid difficulties in the future, seems appropriate. The police call and shore ban seems excessive, assuming we're hearing the whole story, and by the time things get to the grading agencies, it's just ridiculous. Was race a factor? We don't have enough information to be more than suspicious - it's the easiest assumption, based on overwhelming precedent, but even when race isn't an issue, people do still get extremely defensive of their children, and simple incidents can snowball very quickly (e.g. filing complaints with regulatory agencies directly instead of working things out with local management, or more generally interpreting rather than asking).
Where race really comes into play is whether or not this incident with a particular Chinese crew affects the local population's feelings and behavior towards other Chinese crews in the future (as distinct from a general suspicion of "sailors," say).
*and it should go without saying that a culture need be neither "childish" nor "innocent" to have generally a more relaxed attitude about children - that stereotype is a red herring |
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