Today marks the 49th birth day of Singapore. Many of the buildings - private and public alike - have been covered with red and white for the past few weeks to celebrate the occasion. Also many cars sport a little Singapore flag on the windows or colored pouches over rear view mirrors. In addition shops are heavily promoting Singapore t-shirts and related paraphernalia at this time.
I actually find it rather charming this hype about a nation. The pleasant observation is that there is only a positive spin on the national pride from what I'm able to see. Sadly nationalism has been somewhat smudged and owned by the right wing extremists in Finland and several other European countries. I wouldn't think of wearing a shirt with Finnish flag unless I intentionally wanted to risk being labeled as red neck neo-nazi.
Big surprise for this year's birthday festivities was that it rained a little during the National Day Parade. From what I have heard they actually seed the clouds to prevent rain on special days like NDP and formula one race day (!). Probably not something that you would see in Europe...
Finally cannot do much but to have a wry smile when reading the neverending bright eyed touting for the prime minister by the National news paper:
"The crowd's enthusiasm reached an all-time high with the arrival of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who received the loudest cheers from the audience. He arrived before Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long [current PM's father] . As the former prime minister took his seat, the audience gave him a standing ovation. - See more here"
But then again I have no doubt that that really took place earlier today. Singaporeans seem to be truly happy and proud of their nation and genuinely appreciate the work Lee family has done for this place over the past 49 years.
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