We are so well-run it blows my mind.
16,000 delegates from the IMF and World Bank will be converging in Singapore next month and the country is getting ready. Which other country will:
- Brief all the taxi drivers in the entire country in a three-hour training course to be polite to delegates, not to have body odour, not to talk about sensitive political and race issues, and not to have too many accessories in their taxi? Haha!
- Launch a "Four Million Smile" campaign which plasters Singaporean smiles on billboards, bus ads, and prominent buildings? (even though a survey found us to the unhappiest lot in Asia. Of course this survey calculates happiness by multiplying life expectancy by life satisfaction and dividing that by something called the ecological footprint. I mean, by this calculation, although Singapore comes in 131st, USA comes in 150th!)
- Re-tar the roads and re-paint lane markings in August? (erm, this is just own subjective observation) Update: I really think they are re-tarring most of the roads here!
- Plan it so that high-level events such as the Singapore Biennial 2006, Raffles Forum 2006, and others coincide with the IMF and World Bank gathering? And co-ordinate it all via a well-organised website of activities, links and useful information for delegates?
- Close the entire Nicholl Highway for 11 days straight.
Just gotta be impressed.
4 comments:
I am impressed, especially with the taxi briefings. ;-) The ecological footprint is an intriguing concept...not surprising that the U.S. is less happy than most of Asia...I'd guess this has something to do with the U.S.'s self-centered, consumer-based (materialistic) culture.
I think Singapore is a control-freak frankly. :)
Considering that the ecological footprint is defined as "how much land area is required to sustain a given population at present levels of consumption, technological development and resource efficiency," it is no wonder that this is the obstacle that industrialised countries trip over.
Which really has nothing to do with being able to welcome our guests with four million smiles.
The four million smiles thing... why do they have to embarrass our nation like this? It's probably being reported all over the world in the freak section of the news...
I hope they didn't leave out one very important thing : Training the drivers NOT to complain about the government.
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