Going up the bus today. Crowded bus. Caucasian couple in front of me. Caucasian male's ez link card doesn't work/has insufficient credit. Digs for coins in his pocket. Is short of 30 cents. Passenger 1 enthusiastically offers to help. Caucasian Man declines and says he has coins somewhere in his bag. Passenger 1 puts his hand into his pocket and takes out a variety of coins. Caucasian Man declines again. Continues searching for coins. Passenger 1 insists that he can give him 30 cents. Caucasian Man politely declines. From somewhere behind in the crowded bus, Passenger 2 comes up the front and asks how much Caucasian Man needs. She then proceeds to push her transitlink card into the machine and punch in the required amount (all this done with a semi-scowl). She says "never mind" to Caucasian Man and recedes back into the crowd. Caucasian Man is stunned. Does not look too happy.

Melissa thinks that Singaporeans try to hard to please the Ang Moh. Let's recap: Passenger 1 was extremely polite, very smiley, very helpful (ie. "how much do you need, sir? *helpful smile deserving of the courtesy award this country offers). Passenger 2 thought she was doing Caucasian Man a big favour.

Let's just say that if I had been the one short of cash, I don't think there would be any helpful smiles or, "how much do you need, ma'am?". I would probably have had to approach the least threatening passenger and malu-atingly ask for some money. Please, Singaporeans, have more confidence in yourselves. Stop trying to be extra nice to white people. They are normal people too. Why don't you try being nicer to your fellow Singaporeans?

Needless to say, I was tremendously irked by the entire incident. I was disgusted too. I thought Passenger 2 was being really rude. I was ashamed of being a Singaporean at that moment.

On a lighter note, had a nice dinner and coffee with Lilian at Holland Village. It's still a safe place to me. Ironically, it's not the barricades or police cars that are making me feel safe. It's just that, well, I grew up in that area and that'll always be HV to me. Not some potential bomb target. Anyway...

Thanks for the Ketchup Song Cheryl. Groovy.