excuse me

Yesterday was traveling home from Somerset MRT back north. Time was around 10pm and boy, was it packed! So imagine everyone squeezed back to back (probably as good as morning squeeze!), and the train stops at one of its station. A Chinese male (probably late twenties or early thirties?) barged in saying "Excuse me!" in a rather loud voice. He was wearing short sleeved shirt and blue pants, and carrying an oversized backpack. So imagine this guy with his HUGE backpack ramming into the passengers and saying "Excuse me Excuse me!" in a loud voice. He'll just push his way through without allowing enough time for the passengers to react. Obnoxious right?

He pushed his way right to the middle whereby this young couple stood. He started talking to the man (so loud that everyone is aware) something about liking the way he is dressed, and later on about being his best friend or something like that. Initially I thought "Oh, he was rushing in because he saw his friend..." But then, the man whom he was talking to, looked awkward and just responded via nods or a weak smile. Then all of a sudden, the backpack man just sat down on the floor (amidst this sea of people of course). He started reading his brochures, and then something else caught his eyes. He pointed his finger to an auntie and said, "Excuse me auntie!". And started saying how he liked her shiny watch. But I suppose the auntie was trying very hard to ignore him. After a while, the man got up and pointed to another female passenger and said, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" But she too was trying to ignore him. His face looked dejected, puzzled but luckily he didn't become violent or something. Next he went over to another part of the train and pointed to a young female passenger and said, "Excuse me! Your watch is very shiny." The young girl was surprised, but very very likely everyone must be thinking that this guy is a cuckoo case.

Some looked disgusted, some looked fearful and started inching away further from him. Some couldn't be bothered, some looked amused. But I suppose this guy has some deficiency or something. Easily attracted to shiny things, not quite aware of how to interact with the world... more like a child.

For us, when we label a person as 'siao', or a looney.. is it more out of fear for something that we know nothing of?