No women serving lunch at Hague summit

I always like to have matching Nubian eunuchs with oiled chests and biceps serving my dinner.

Mine seem to have gone on strike so I'd better go and get my own.

Absent however do you manage to recruit those in the wilds of New Zealand?

Absent naked of course with gold armlets just above their biceps.

Glad you all find blatant sexism and sexual abuse a topic for light banter.

This is surely sex discrimination. Apart from that, I find the whole idea quite creepy, not just for the implication that females are a mere fluffy distraction to serious (male) business, but also for the notion that waiting staff should be a sort of characterless and robotic workforce, displaying no signs of individuality.

I feel that humour is often quite effective in ridiculing something which is so blatantly ridiculous.

I can't see that it (the use of only male serving staff) constitutes sexual abuse, felice unless you meant my Nubian eunuchs. That would be both abuse and assault but they are not just a dying breed [sic] but a dead one these days, I think. Surely the biggest insult was not to the female catering staff but to the world leaders – apart from any women present – who might have been distracted. It was an absurd decision but in the great scheme of things it is difficult to get hot under the collar about it.

Surely the fact that a young woman, it was not an example , I could name and shame the Hotel and the men involved. The fact was that just 4 years ago a young woman was sexually assaulted, in a much more serious way than some of the 'celebs' we are seeing on TV just groped a bit.
So it is Ok for a woman to be assaulted, as she is just a robotic worker, surely that is also demeaning her working role, not everyone is sitting on the bench. Running major EU companies, I am sure you are very happy when your drinks are served and your rooms are cleaned.
Absent, you are not living within the EU and World leaders on their visits here, DD and I went for our usual walk today and were turned back by a lot of men with sunglasses on., These men really do think they have the rule over everyone, individually and physically.
Again i can name and shame.

Eleothan my DD did not find it funny, the things the men were saying about her could not be laughed off, it was abuse, and she has a sense of humour but them discussing what they would do to her as a threesome was not at all funny. The fact that she was censored for reacting to their abuse is even worse, she was treated as a robot, any one out there with partners who go away for work, perhaps you should be telling them to give a bit more respect to the staff serving them.
She is not stupid and i wonder how many people would like to work 12 hours straight on their feet for the minimum wage.

Oh and by the way the museum in the Netherlands Obama was visiting was not in the Hague but in Amsterdam, pity they cannot get at least the basic facts right.

If you can name and shame, felice, why don't you? (I don't mean on gransnet).

Where did that come from? I thought we were talking about the decision in the Netherlands. I usually read whatever everyone else has said – at whatever length – but I have obviously missed something serious but quite different here, for which I apologise.

For the record, having been gang raped in my twenties, I don't regard sexual abuse of any kind as light matter.

Felice we were being light hearted about the twit of a man who thought it was appropriate to make this sexist, agist decision. Not about your daughter's horrible experience. You must feel furious still about this. The bar manager was as culpable as the hotel guests.
Hotel manager obviously more concerned about offending guests and creating bad publicity than defending a temporary staff member.
Not sure though what can be done now other than perhaps find a way of channelling your energy into feminist issues.

This wouldn't be an excuse to overcome cultural / religious problems would it?

Sorry, my post was answering the OP, not remarking on Absent's and Felice's daughter's terrible experiences.

felice I was referring to humour in the context of this particular thread, i.e. the stupid and discriminatory rulings made by idiots in relation to the Hague conference.

Obviously the behaviour your daughter was subjected to was absolutely outrageous and not at all funny - and I'm sure no-one here would use humour in such a context.

*thatbags Wed 26-Mar-14
If you can name and shame, felice, why don't you? (I don't mean on gransnet).*
A point well made, thatbags.

I named and shamed the Hotel, the Bar Manager and reported the clients to their employers immediately.
Locally, I am happy to say here that it was Crowne Plaza Hotel. There is more than one here.
I had worked with agency as a Chef for them happily 10 years ago so thought , Ok no problem.

No comments now I see, would you like me to name the clients , the bar manager, and the particular Hotel,,,, It was in the EU District.
any hotel directory will give the details. Although the way Hotels change ownership at the moment it may no longer belong to the same chain.
Obama stayed on Tuesday/Wednesday in what used to be a Hilton. At least that was one of the areas of the city out of bounds to ordinary citizens on those days. Just along the road from us annoyingly.