I can again confirm that here has been no instances of HAZING in CA! I sincerely hope we can rest that controversy now and move on with what is happening!
Coming to the use of "Sir" or "Mam" prefix to the first names...well what can i say ...even i found that funny when i landed here in this country!(I thought wow...a lot of people here have attained knighthoods!) BUT ....
One has to respect one's cultures and traditional practices.
Its a well known fact that in the west people usually address each other using their first names. In the Military we usually use sir / mam.
BAck in my country i have had the best of both worlds civilian and military.
In the Civilain society we Asians are very respectful to our elders. We would not call anyone by their names. We have the practice of suffixing sir/mam to first names (a slight variation to prefixing as they have here in the Philippines ...i guess being a colony of the British has its effect in that!)
When i worked for a German Mutinational company...we were used to using firstnames right from the bottom to the MD. However i made sure that whenever i went to a Govt.office i gave due respect to everyone....cannot risk hurting anyone's sentiments!
In an utopian society i feel the sir/mam should be disposed off with..BUT we aint in an utopian society!
So how can it be any different in the flighdeck now? In the West you can call the Capt by his first name. Due to CRM practices the F/O can challenge any risky decisions by the Capt. However that does not mean you dont end up with P+G- types of Capts?
In Asia agreed we would never call our Capt by first name....but then we would not call our capt by first name even if he was not our capt! We would not call any elder we meet in the street or office etc by their first name...So why would it be any different in the FlightDeck??? However what CRM pracitices teach us now is again the same as in the west! IF the Capt happens to be a P+G- type of pilot irrespective of being a Westerner or an Asian...the F/o will have to use tact to bring the capt's attention to a problem!
If I as a greenhorn S/O am to fly with a Westerner...i probably would first ask the Capt as to how he would want to be addressed. If he says just call me Mike or Jeff etc i would do that, but if i had an Asian Capt...i would not hesitate in addressing him as Sir!
I can think of an old proverb..BE A ROMAN WHILE IN ROME
Cheers....