new kid on the blog

This is a crisis. Does anyone notice Singaporeans just can’t smile? Well, it’s probably a well-known fact, but well, I just want to blog.

You see, I’ve been thinking (cue: gasp of disbelieve and sniggers from background), which cues me to say, "Yes, I’ve been THINKING." Smiling, well, at least to me, is one of the simplest skill you would ever pick up in life, or at least be forced to. I mean, look, by the time you realise, after you are born, that you possess hands, someone tells you to use them to write. Or the day you weep when you saw a ballet performance and realise that at age 24, you can’t even run in a straight line.

BUT, smiling. No one, not as far as I know, is told to do a 360 degree point turn smile or a round house flying smile or a one inch smile that sends people flying through the air, thus making you a star of "Smile of Fury". No, smiling is simple and it ends there, simply simple.

So, which brings us to our next point. Is smiling so simple that it insults the intelligence of millions of Singaporeans, and soon to be Singaporeans, to smile?

I have a theory that I have observed over many years of my existence. Smiling, to a lot of Singaporeans, is NOT a greeting. It’s rude to smile AS a greeting. You do not smile, you must say something. I think most of you descendants of that huge land mass whose ancestors spent their free time building a long wall where brought up to greet their relatives by calling them by seniority. For example, the second brother of you dad’s would be "2nd Uncle". And you HAVE to say it! You cannot say, "Hello." or "Nice to see you again." And you CANNOT JUST SMILE.

So it becomes that. It’s all about saying something. So you walk into most departmental stores and the cashier thanks you with a straight face. Or a fellow diner and a food court takes her change from the food seller with nary a thank you nor a smile, because, well, that’s not her relative and there’s nothing to say. 

Agree?