Oh no - I'm complaining right?

I looked aghast. Call that complaining?? You're commenting, mentioning, noting. Dude you haven't even met complaining. You wouldn't know it if it came up and offered you it's services down a dark alley for RM20. In fact, now that I think about it, no one here complains very well. Not like us, we should start up an exchange program, us Sydney folk really know how to complain. We know the nuances of a good complain - we can do it in several positions, in several languages. The whiny complain, blustery complain, the on and on and on until your ears bleed complain, the sharp bark of a service related complaint, the echoing ring of a reproach, these are our friends and accessories in the bustle of daily life.

There is some strange ven diagram of complaining - or maybe a mandala, or a sliding log scale -that I can't quite work out. On the one hand there are people putting up with injustice and crap treatment who should complain, but don't, and in doing so let the selfish and greedy rule. Then there are those who live in the same system and are the ones the others should be complaining about, who in turn complain about ridiculous things, like maids talking to boys, or people taking fruit from their fruit tree (which sure happens to be on public land that daddy bought from the officials but whose counting) children acting like children, or any petty mishap that happens to affect them and theirs. And all of these people think that not complaining is a virtue, especially if it's other people not complaining, that's particularly virtuous.

And where I come from is it the same? Are the complainers better at complaining precisely because they have so little to complain about that they've recalibrated their scale from molehill to mountain and have all the time in the world to complain about little things that affect their family, their view/car parking space/tax return, their lattes? Where are the complainers who complain on other people's behalf? Who complain with a calm and dignified voice? Who complain articulately for hours across counters or let their fingers complain across a keyboard writing a letter. The complainers who on the face of it have nothing to gain from their complaint but know that they have everything to gain from adding a voice to the words that need to be spoken.