Hayt to you: safety precautions are announced in the conditions of beach Russophobia

How to avoid conflict situations and unpleasant emotions on a foreign holiday

In the footsteps our publication about resort skirmishes between Russian and Eastern European tourists led by Ukrainian vacationers, we received an avalanche of responses, which, unfortunately, is divided exactly in half. Some fellow citizens assure that special cases are described, and personally everyone outside the Russian Federation, including Ukrainians, smiles and waves to them. And the other half of the compatriots who responded complain that the closer the vacation, the worse, because in the summer at popular resorts, Russophobia can grow in proportion to the number of our vacationers. On the eve of the holiday season, with the help of experts who have studied a lot of cases, we have identified the main mistakes of compatriots in the case of a “resort hat” (hait – hatred – English). What can not be done if you want to protect yourself and your family from unpleasant emotions on vacation?

According to security experts, the main mistake is to imitate. It can be illustrated by the most recent of the stories that came in response, including to our publication. Two young Russian women were offended by Polish drivers while traveling in Europe. The girls shared their resentment on social networks, which is quite natural today. At first, the message was laconic: “Booked a trip from Berlin to Amsterdam on a bla bla car. A Pole arrived, saw us and refused to take us, because we are Russians. And so 5 times. And one even filed a complaint against us that we dare to want Euro-blah-blah too.” But commentators in Runet are different: some expressed sympathy for the girls, while others expressed distrust and even suspicions of bias. The Russians were offended again and remembered that the Poles insulted them “in the bars of Antalya.” Here the soul flew to heaven, or rather Runet to the underworld: only the laziest user did not ride the “height” of the social responsibility of compatriots, otherwise why are they hitchhiking around Europe and sitting in Turkish bars with Poles ?!

“When you need to establish a dialogue with a counterpart, psychologists advise you to “mirror” the interlocutor – copy his intonations, gestures, postures, and even part of his phrases,” recalls a psychologist who advises domestic intelligence. – And if you need to extinguish this dialogue, then proceed from the opposite. Pretend that you not only do not understand offensive words addressed to you, but also do not hear them at all. And you don’t even see the one who says them. Even if he is standing right in front of you, look through him. The ability to “see through” will require a couple of days of practice in front of the mirror, but it’s worth it. A skillful ignore hurts worse than the notorious “surrender”, which puts you on the same level as a person who allows himself discrimination based on nationality in a vacation spot, while geopolitical differences are resolved at a completely different level.

Another incident from the recent history of the beach hatt illustrates the second common mistake of the victim of Russophobia – complaining to the wrong place. A tourist from the Russian Federation was insulted in a spa hotel at a popular (and relatively affordable) European resort for Russians (specifically, she asks not to specify).

I was in the SPA zone with several other guests of our very expensive hotel, – says the victim of the hate. – We did not communicate with each other, only with the staff in English. I had no idea where the other ladies were from, if not for the working plasma on the wall of the break room. European news started there, the first on the agenda, of course, was the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. And then two ladies, right from the jacuzzi, begin to let go of nasty things about all Russians in Russian: they say, they would rather die along with their children and grandchildren. I realized that they did not recognize me as a Russian woman: I apologized and asked not to say such things in front of me. In response, they roared how their native Transcarpathia had suffered throughout its history from the Russians and almost from me personally. To this, I asked them to switch to MOV, so that at least I would not understand the horror flying out of their mouths. But they, apparently, did not know the language, since they switched not to it, but to the Russian mat. I was so afraid to break out in response (unlike these traps, for xenophobic provocations beyond) that I called the hotel manager and asked to be protected from insults.

Everything that followed, according to the vacationer, made her feel that she really was an uninvited guest on European soil. The manager who appeared with a smile promised to inform the manager of the hotel about the emergency and kept his promise. The manager expressed sympathy and personally contacted the Russian tour operator. From there they called with a message that either the local police or our consulate is responsible for the personal integrity of our citizens “at the place of rest”. The latter turned out to be cordoned off by a triple ring of silent local security, but inside it showed no signs of life – non-working hours. And on the phone, the police, accepting the call, were asked to “clearly list the injuries.” On this, our tourist gave up, the residue from the rest remained unsplashed resentment.

– All listed instances – are erroneous, – the expert on safety comments. – Wherever the resort is located, the receiving party, especially the beneficial one (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc.), prefers to remain neutral. The native tour operator will also try to devalue what happened in the eyes of the victim himself, so as not to pay compensation for moral damage, which will be required if the case is given a legal course. The called law enforcement officers belong to the same host country, which is not interested in hurting tourists, no matter where they come from, so the security forces will intervene only in cases of assault and other danger to the life and health of any of the warring parties. The consulate decides the issue at the level of national diasporas abroad, and not the lady who was insulted in the sauna. I foresee the sarcasm that there’s nowhere to run. This is wrong. Under the current conditions, any large resort gathering an international contingent, large hotels and the police must have a unit or at least a couple of employees “for working with foreign tourists (after the massive invasion of relocants from the Russian Federation, such units appeared in Phuket, Bali and in a number of other popular areas). These people should be in control of the situation in every sense: they should have the competence, know the languages ​​and knowledge of international law in any case of inciting hatred on a national basis, in whatever degree and form it manifests itself. And the first thing to do when arriving at any resort outside the Russian Federation is to get a hotline number for this service.