Singapore, the Ranked City

Everything is ranked in this tiny-island-city country called Singapore. There is nothing random here.
 Singapore’s airline is ranked No. 1 in the world in 2008.
 Singapore city (the Garden City as it is popularly known) is ranked as one of the greenest cities. There’s a strict cap on the number of vehicles allowed on the island, and there are fees for driving in downtown zones.
 Singapore city is ranked as one of the cleanest cities. Spitting is banned; first-time violators may be fined $611, while repeat offenders might find their picture published in the newspapers. Littering is also verboten ($611 or community service), as is smoking in public places ($611). The subway stations could pass for hospitals, and even restrooms are ranked by cleanliness. Remember to flush or, yes, you may get fined up to $92.
 Street food stalls are all graded. There are more than 120 centers—with a total of 16,000 stalls—all over the city. All the food stalls are again ranked and graded: A (for good food and hygiene), B (for okay) and C (for not good) and the owner have to display the grades on the sign board at all times.
 Singapore has been ranked as the world's third top convention city in 2003 by the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA).
 Singapore is the world's easiest place to do business
 Singapore’s oldest university, NUS is ranked 20 and its faulty of engineering is raked No. 9 and MBA program ranked No. 30 in the world.

Learn to say “Thank You”

It seems to me that saying “thank you” is so hard for a great many people. The other day, a group of college students were shouting for the bus to stop, even though the bus had already passed the bus-stop. Actually as per rule, the driver could drive on. But out of goodwill, the driver stopped the bus and let in the students. To my surprise none of the students said, “thank you” to the bus driver. They simply went inside the bus without a single word of gratitude. This kind of attitude always upsets me. How much does it cost to shout out a little “thank you”? A simple “thank you” makes people feel good. It makes them feel acknowledged and accepted. On the other hand, not saying thank you (especially when the person truly deserves) can make a person feel rejected and ignored. So I ask you all wonderful folks: do remember to say “thank you”. Say “thank you” when other people point out your mistake because you can’t possibly know everything. Say “thank you” when people do things for you no matter how small it is.

Nothing is impossible for Obama

When Obama ran for presidency, I thought he could never win. First and foremost, he was black and he had such humble background traceable to a tiny village in Kenya. There had never been a black president in the history of America. But he proved me wrong. He proved that you could be anyone you wanted. A colored man becoming the head of the world’s most powerful nation is simply amazing to say the least. As a Fulbright Fellow, I am always grateful to this nation for giving me a chance to learn and study from the best. By electing a president based not on color but merit, this country has once more shown us that it is still the best. Good luck, Obama.

Gruesome graphic warnings on Singaporean cigarette packs

Since 2004 Singapore has mandated that all cigarette packs carry graphics of what smoking can do. The first graphics carried diseased lungs and bleeding brains. In 2006, new graphics of miscarried fetus and a cheek eaten away by cancer were introduced. Studies showed that warning labels become stale over time. These extremely gross graphics are meant to instill fear of smoking. Survey showed that 40% become fearful of smoking after seeing the graphics.

Recently, the government also introduced a TV ad of smoker cancer patient but the video was so scary that it frightened children and as a result the ad was taken off. These kind of pictorial message are very effective and I think it is a simple way to keep young people away from harmful effects of smoking. This approach has not been tried in Bhutan. Instead, we went straight for the ban, which does not seem to be working.

Upcoming topics

I intend to write on the following topics in the coming days, perhaps months:

1. First world comfort in third world countries
2. Third world life in first world country
3. Global injustice that no one seems to be bothered about

Thank you, Tony Leung & Carina Lau for advertising Bhutan

Living in a Chinese society, where hardly anyone seems to have heard of Bhutan, I wished I get a dollar every time someone asked me where Bhutan was. But that changed after Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung and actress Carina Lau got married in the Bhutan in 2008. They are to Chinese (HK, Taiwan, Singapore, China, etc) what Brat Pitt and Angelina Jolie are to Americans.

The other day I went to a dentist and she asked me where I was from. I said, "Bhutan" and waited for her to say the usual "where the hell is that". Instead, she went, "oh the place where Tony Leung and Carina got married". She said she was honored to have me as her first customer from Bhutan. Similarly, all of a sudden many other Chinese people when they hear "Bhutan" they don't go point blank anymore. So the HK couple made Bhutan famous.

Many Chinese people now know Bhutan, at least now they know that there is Bhutan somewhere. And what's more, they have this beautiful image of Bhutan because unless there was something special about Bhutan, this super rich and famous couple wouldn’t have gone there for their most special day of their lives. Who am I to meddle in what they believe? For me I am just happy that I no longer have to convince for most of the people at least that there is such a country called Bhutan using Himalayas and Nepal as reference points. The star couple from HK had promoted Bhutan in a few days what our tourism would have taken years. Thank you, Tony and Carina for choosing Bhutan, the God's own country.

Going Green Tea

I had been drinking a lot of soda (coke, Pepsi, sprite, etc) for last few years. I was so used to drinking them that I didn't even consider their health benefits, which of course turn out to be none. Americans are such good business men. They can mass produce drinks from mixture of plain water and sugar and market it world-wide and make people crave for more by adding caffeine. How smart of them and how stupid of us, the consumers! I am going to say no to this and start going green tea from today. Why green tea? Because it actually has some health benefits besides quenching your thirst. Research has repeatedly shown that green tea has the following benefits (listed in order I like):

1. Drinking green tea inhibits the growth of certain cancer cells.

2. Green tea reduces the risk of heart diseases and heart attacks.

3. Green tea increases metabolism and increase fat oxidation.

4. Drinking green tea regularly helps prevent tooth decay.

5. Green tea helps make your skin smooth.

There are many more benefits besides what is mentioned here. So try green tea. It is cheap and easily available. As for soda, I will rather pay for plain water than soda so that at least, I will have better teeth and no fear of diabetes.