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Land of four million smiles

Its less than a month to the World Bank-IMF meeting in Singapore. And to welcome the expected 16,000 delegates that will be attending the meeting. The Singapore government has launch the Four Million Smiles campaign and to the uninitiated, four million is the population of Singapore, which means everyone has to start smiling.

Now, after NUSSU flag day, where I went to a few places in Singapore to sell flags, it seems like some people still can’t smile even if their lives depended on it… When I approach those people asking for donations, instead of smiling and declining to donate, they stared at me and looked as if I’m holding them up at knifepoint and robbing. Hellooo… I’m only asking you to donate out of your free will, not forcing you or anything…. And don’t give me that kind of attitude.

After my brief stint as a sales assistance, I found that a good smile can actually brighten a person’s day and that guy will be willing to go all-out to help you.

Children should be taught from young to have good manners and be courteous. Screw the Speak Good English and Speak Good Mandarin campaigns in schools… I find that our standard of English and Mandarin for youngsters are ok. Its the manners that need to be worked on. Like what one of my lecturer said, ‘You have your whole life to work on your grammar, you should start on your manners now.’ I agree very much with her.

Kee Wee

Kee Wee is an IT Specialist specialising in High Availability and Messaging solutions. He is a curious person who likes to build things and figure out how stuff works. This is where he share his thoughts with the world.

One Comment

  1. Singaporeans, they stare at you as if you are an empty space. Our hospitality standard is damn pathetic.

    Anyway, land of 4 million smiles, according to the population census, we have 4,326,000 residents. The government only targeting 4 million, so prolly the bad services and frowns u received might have been from the remaining 326 000 residents whom are not targeted by this campaign. Hopefully.

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