One particular lunch I had in Australia

While watching the 44th National Day Parade, I was reminded of a lunch I have had with a Caucasian in Australia. I worked for a short period of time in Sydney in 1995. One day, I was having lunch at a cafe and a total stranger came in and sat opposite me. We started talking, after he realized that I was from Singapore. He started to berate Singapore for all the stereotype that the Western media wanted their readers to believe – no freedom of speech, no chewing gum, no smoking, no picking of flowers, no littering; he went on and on.
At the end of his ranting, I told him that as a child, I stayed in a 1-room flat with four other siblings, my parents did not have much expectations of us. In 1995, I owned and stayed in a executive apartment, drove my own car, a graduate and a decent job. I attributed the transformation for the better to our government and I have great respect for them. I gave him some examples to show that the Singapore government has foresight. After I finished, he did not utter a single word.