A moment or two passed as I tried to rationalize what had just occurred.
I handed my two year old son to my wife and gave chase. I didn't have far to go as he had run into a nearby toilet. I bowled into the swinging door full pelt and almost lost my footing due to the fact that I am so Singaporean-ized that I now wear sandals everywhere. Rounding a corner I found him hastily zipping himself up, catharsis interruptus.
I asked him with polite words, but very grim tone, if he had just spat at my feet. His replied semi-apologetically, whilst inching toward the door, that he was very angry with Americans.
I am not American; I am Australian, and not a particularly patriotic one at that. I let him know this.
By the end of my response he had exited the restroom, where my wife and a small group of bystanders stood by. He may have thought that he was much safer now, but in truth he was never in danger. Not because I wouldn't have beaten some sense into him without a second thought, but because I have a very strong habit of counting security cameras everywhere I go.
He began to elaborate on the alleged crimes of Americans and the complicity of Lee Hsien Loong in some SIA concern, but my wife had stood by long enough and began abusing him in such a way that reasonable discourse quickly ended. He wanted to go to the police station, evidently thinking that to feel so threatened must mean that some crime had been committed; when in fact no crime had yet been perpetrated against him.
I agreed wholeheartedly and began to lead him in the right direction, but my wife intervened again and insisted that he wasn't worth it. As a Singaporean Malay she believes that bringing governmental authority into any situation is deleterious. I tended to disagree, but hit upon a compromise and asked the unthinking abuser for his IC. Of course I had no right to ask anyone for their identification, but he was so full of his own self righteousness that he pulled it out readily. However he wasn't completely without wit and covered his name and left the number exposed only long enough to see, not memorize.
We left the scene then, with my wife hurling damning and unsubstantiatable abuse at him. Meanwhile he launched his own tirade, not at us, but to the crowd in damnation of Lee Hsien Loong.
I would have liked to have heard his story, and discussed the issue with him, but warmer heads than mine ended the opportunity. I would have been especially gratified to learn how, from the mere sight of me, he knew my politics in even the simplest regard.
