Modesty turned vice?

I think we've managed to heal the rift between me and my boss. I mentioned here before that I may have not demanded enough while his point of view is that whenever I demanded something I got it. In all fairness, I must admit it's true to the extent that, as he put it, 50% is his responsibility, 50% rests on AIESEC shoulders so he fulfilled 30% out of his part (very smart actually) and gave every now and then a little more.

My attitude for the whole traineeship has been one of self-sacrifice and modesty as I gave up lots from my needs and my own culture and accepted local way of doing things. That means, by the way, I don't wait for green lights and cut it short through one-way streets...

It hurt and confused me a lot though when new trainees came and started to criticise me that because I hadn't complained they couldn't change anything either. All of a sudden, I was the one to blame for lots of things and the low point really was when after a series of accusations I heard that the Czech Republic after all is the only country in Europe that has problems with gypsies...

Well, I've been thinking a lot about all this and I already admitted that I should've been perhaps more assertive at times but on the other hand, modesty surely doesn't turn vice because someone can't put up with as little as I could?