Take the way Indonesians drive. Here more than any other country that I have driven in, and the list includes over 60 countries including many in Africa, people are impatient and will cut you off to get in front, even just to stop and park a hundred meters further down the road. many times I have been cut off by a public minibus with the driver forcing his way in front only to have them drive slowly in front of me. The “me first” attitude takes precedence over any kind of good manners.

In banks, at airport counters and supermarket checkouts many Indonesians will just cut in front and when rebuked take offense. Any Indonesian in any sort of position of power will just refuse to queue at all simply walking to the front of the line, often with a herd of handlers pushing others out of the way.

Another example of rudeness is the way that the whole country is run at full volume. Every mosque, cafe, PA system or any other form of amplifier is driven to maximum distortion level in the search for more volume. Recently the primary school across the road from my house started playing music over their PA system starting at 06:00 AM in the morning and naturally it is at maximum volume.

At least four of the almost twenty mosques that can be heard from my house have upgraded their amplifiers in the past few months and are also pumping out maximum volume in a hideous cacophony of sound that lasts not just the few minutes for the call to prayer but for more than half an hour. At the maternity hospital where my wife gave birth a mosque just down the road had one of the loudest sound systems I have heard and had the call to prayer lasting for about an hour each time with two of the loudspeakers aimed directly at the hospital.

I have just begun mentioning this sort of thing to my friends and acquaintances. Westerners here are often thought to be rude by their direct speech (in comparison to the locals) but there are very few westerners who would even contemplate playing music at maximum volume early in the morning on a normal stereo, far less over a PA system.

Most westerners would not consider this clever or in any way indicative of status, they would simply consider it rude and offensive.