Xenophobic? No. Just Fed Up.

When we were having our dinner at the famous beef kway teow stall at Geylang Lorong 9, a British-accented Caucasian man was having his beside our table.

I was quite curious at the fact that a Caucasian was at a place almost only familiar to the locals, so I took a quick look at what he was having. I saw that he had a half- or one-quarter-eaten plate of white rice with the famous beef on his table, and he seemed to be smsing or whatsapping someone on his phone with an unamused face.

"Quite weird," I thought."Whoever comes here to have rice with beef?"

After a while, as we were having our kway teow, the Caucasian started talking to one of the younger waitresses who could speak good English. I could not hear what they were saying but both of them did not look friendly to each other.

William said that the man was complaining to the waitress that the food was not good, and the waitress asked why.

I vaguely heard that the waitress said,"You are the only one who says this."

After a while, the Caucasian got up and started to leave, apparently not happy with his food.

As he was leaving, a local Chinese man sitting on the other side of the Caucasian man said,"Get the fuck out of here! Go back to your country!"

And the Caucasian turned back.

I could not hear the exchange between the two men, but fortunately, no fight broke out.

Before the Caucasian left, he said that the local was "racist".

I thought it such an irony. When we were in London, the racial discrimination sentiment was so strong we could see it in their expression, feel it in their behaviour and sense it in the atmosphere.

In Singapore, I dare say that the locals are always friendly, even over-friendly, to Caucasians. And this British, who apparently basked in superiority complex, came to one of Singapore's local favourite stall just to diss the quality of the food. After behaving in an ungracious and unacceptable manner, he called the locals 'racist'.

I find it totally ironical and laughable that a nation of people with superiority complex call people they deem inferior 'racist'.

I had thought Coco and I could have been over-sensitive, but what I heard from colleagues and friends confirmed what I felt - that the Caucasians look down on us. In fact, my colleague said,"They despise Asians."

Yes. Go back to your country.

Just like how you order us to go back to China, GO BACK to your country.

I am not sure if the locals are truly, in William's word, "fed up" with the number of foreigners invading the Singapore they used to know, which gave rise to the Chinese man's verbal outburst.

Right after the meal, I went to place an order for a packet of beef kway teow to take home for Coco.

As I was placing my order, a Filipino woman butted right in - in between the auntie I was ordering from, and me - and asked,"Auntie, is that my packet?"

I said,"I came first." and continued to speak to the auntie.

What I am fed up with is the rudeness of these lowly educated foreigners. If they jump my queue, I would go in front of them and jump theirs. If they walk a distance ahead of me to hail a cab, I would go right in front of them to hail my cab. I have made up my mind not to be gracious to ungracious people. I If they do what they want, I shall also do what I want.

However, I don't think I can stoop as low as a British - to criticise the quality of the food enjoyed by the locals. That, I should think, takes years of training since childhood, as evident from what the little British children did - threw stones at my sister's friends when they visited their land.