ON May 23, 2021, a first-time meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the 10 foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) did not take place as scheduled. Even as the Asean diplomats had the forbearance to wait long, the new US state secretary did not appear to have the slightest graciousness to explain his nonattendance at the virtual forum.

When the minutes of waiting wore out, it was never made clear whether Blinken's absence was an innocent failure, hence pardonable, or a deliberate slight - in which case, it deserves a commensurate counter-snob.