4 million smiles outside, crying inside

In case you still do not know. Singapore wants you to welcome the world with smiles when the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group come to town in September.[see news report]
We are going to welcome the world with 4 millions smiles, literally. Singapore 2006, whatever that is, has set up a web site and is encouraging singaporean to send in pictures of them smiling.

We seems to have borrowed the idea from Thailand, traditionally known as the land of a thousand smiles, and not wanting to be outdone, have upgraded it to a staggering 4 millions smiles. I thought my primary school days of impelling courtesy champion like movements are over. Apparently not. Well, by jolly! If we need to smile at those ang mohs, we better learn to do it properly. Since we are going to hire native english speakers to teach us how to speak english, why not have native smilers teach us how to smile? Our more experience friends in Bangkok have been kind enough to share their experience with us.



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Updated 14 July

I just found out that Singapore is the most unhappy nation among Asean and Asian nations.[see news report]
The Happy Planet Index ranked Singapore 131th base on our "relative success or failure of countries in supporting good life for their citizens, whilst repecting the environmental resource limits upon which our lives depend."
Well, we certainly need more reasons to smile.

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