‘You are an Indian, you are very bad…’, Chinese driver crosses limits of rudeness with Singapore woman
A Chinese cab driver in Singapore has been accused of misbehaving with a woman and her daughter during a journey. Surprisingly, the driver misbehaved with the woman because he thought she was an Indian. “He said, ‘You’re Indian, you’re stupid,'” Janelle Hoeden, 46, of Eurasian descent, said of the cab driver’s abuse on Saturday.
The woman was traveling with her 9-year-old daughter, The Straits Times reported. Hoden recorded the conversation on his phone. He had booked a cab on ride-hailing platform Tada around 2 pm on Saturday afternoon.
Hoden said the cab started unexpectedly and she was talking to her child when suddenly the driver became upset. “He started shouting at me and saying that I had given him the wrong address and wrong directions,” the woman said.
The video was uploaded by a TikTok user to his Facebook page and account and later shared by news site Wake Up Singapore. The driver (a Chinese man) is seen accusing Haoden’s daughter of being less than 1.35 meters tall. He repeatedly said that his daughter was less than 1.35 meters and the female victim, Hoden, could be heard saying that the child was 1.37 metres. After this the driver called the girl very illegal.
This height is believed to be for the safety of passengers requiring child seats. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) states on its website that for safety reasons, all vehicles in Singapore must have booster seats or child restraints for passengers under 1.35 meters tall.
The driver shouted at the woman while driving and said, “You are from India, I am Chinese. You are a very bad person.” Howden corrected the driver, saying: “I am Singaporean Eurasian, not Indian.” Eurasians are generally brown in color and sometimes appear Indian in appearance. “Because he was being verbally abusive, I was afraid he would start getting physical with me, so I asked him to record,” the Singapore broadsheet reported, according to Howden. Whether I have black skin, or Indian, or otherwise, what he said is unacceptable.”
