Wan of a Kind V2.0

by Guest blogger Sabrina Ma, 16, a senior high student from San Jose, California I came to Singapore expecting to be surrounded by uptight conservatives, arrested for chewing gum, and walking on sterilized sidewalks doused in antiseptic. But, as I stepped into the SKM office for the first time, with kindness paraphernalia littering the floor and embellishing the walls, and gregarious members of the SKM team greeting me, all of my stereotypes were shattered. Hi! I’m Sabrina Ma. I am 16 a year old senior from San Jose, California. As a high school student, I’ve faced my share of Goliaths, ranging from intense stress induced by academics competitiveness to self-consciousness induced by the societal depiction of beauty. Desiring to make high school a bit more bearable, I established a club at my school called the Acts of Random Kindness (ARK) Club, which has become pretty impactful in my (and surrounding) communities. Desiring to spread kindness utilizing social media, my friend and I ...

Last weekend, I was kept busy with the kindness business. I was privileged to have been one of the speakers at two inaugural conferences. On Sat morning, I was at the Keep Singapore Clean Conference organized by the Public Hygiene Council, and I spoke on “Keeping Clean: The Japanese Experience”. In the afternoon, I attended the Singapore Scouts Association’s Annual General meeting as a member of its Council. And on Sunday afternoon, I spoke at the Metta Convention organized by Singapore Buddhist Federation. “Metta” means loving kindness and I spoke on “Hearts Reach Out” in line with their theme “Meeting of Hearts.” What have these events in common? The simple answer is that kindness is the common element in all of them. Keeping the environment clean is about kindness to the environment and to one another. Kindness is essentially “other-centredness” or selflessness. It is about consideration for others by giving careful thought and attention to the needs of others. In sharing t...

After more than 30 years of service, first as the Courtesy Lion and then as the Kindness Lion, Singa has stepped aside. As Singapore’s mascot for kindness, Singa’s letter calling on real people to step up brought an unprecedented depth of discussion on the topic of kindness. Whether on social media or through letters to the press, Singaporeans were eager to share why they felt Singa should stay or go. There were also serious questions asked of the state of graciousness in Singapore. Press and blogs on Singa's resignation It is evident that kindness still matters to people and that is an encouraging sign of our potential for pro-social change as a nation. The conversations that took place were important in helping us to take stock as a people, and set the tone for how we can move forward in our quest for a kinder society. In his 30 years of faithful service, Singa served as a reminder of the positive values we should constantly strive for....

“Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” James Lane Allen. By now, most of you would have read about the 2013 Graciousness Index dropping 8 points to an all-time low of 53. The Index serves as a reflection of the state of graciousness in Singapore, but the survey does not ask for the reasons behind the Index’s movements. However, it is only human for us to want to know who or what is responsible. The bulk of the response to the story, as seen in online comments, has been to apportion blame. Here’s a smattering of some comments. “It is difficult to be gracious and to be kind when there are so much stress and frustrations out there in our daily lives. And people are crying out in pain when the leaders hear not. When people don’t have hope, or are in despair due to inequality and injustice, the society will disintegrate from within.” “Cannot be too friendly with people who come to steal our PMET jobs, depress our pay and discriminate us with their fake degrees.” “Ho...

I am known for not having a sense of direction, and have been found lost even in my own office and on the plane! Signs play a very important role in my life. Having travelled quite extensively, especially in my lawyering days, I am fascinated by the different signs in different countries messaging the need to be gracious. In Taiwan for instance, there are signs for keeping to the right (we keep to the left) for people using escalators. There are also signs for “Reserved Seats” in the public transport system and for queuing. Clearly they work, for to the best of my observations at several Taipei Metro stations and trains, commuters clearly practice the norms.  But the Taiwanese go further than us in that they have signs for “Female Waiting Zones” and for “Breast-feeding Stations”. There are signs for customer service for the handicapped and “free Wifi” and “Mobile Phone Charging Counters”. They encourage the use of stairs in public places “to burn calories”. ...

This year is a bumper Lo Hei year for me. I must have been to at least a dozen Lo Heis since the beginning of the lunar year, that is, just about one per day. Lo Hei is a wonderful local tradition that stems from the Cantonese dialect, meaning  ‘tossing up good fortune’. It is the tossing of a salad with Yu Sheng or raw fish as the key ingredient. The pronunciation Yu Sheng sounds like 'overflowing abundance' and therefore symbolises ‘an abundance of wealth and long life’. The word hei in Lo Hei means ‘rise’. It refers to a thriving business, hence it is understandably a very popular ritual with  businessmen during the New Year. From the kindness perspective, the ritual of Lo Hei is a very gracious act – an act where everyone wishes each other the best in every aspect of life.  There are many Chinese four-character phrases to express their kind greetings. The ritual begins by wishing everyone  prosperity (gong xi fa cai) and moves on to identify ...

Last night my wife and I drove through Eu Tong Sen Street to take in the Chinese New Year decorations. Chinatown was literally painted red. During this celebrative season, red is not the colour of desire. It is the colour of prosperity and happiness. Photo from TheStar Prosperity is a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; prosperity is about good fortune. Happiness is a subjective state of well-being related to good fortune, pleasure, contentment and joy. Reflecting on prosperity and happiness, I am struck by the idea that it is possible to be unhappy not because we are not prosperous (relatively speaking even as prosperity is always a relative thing), but because we are not aware of our own prosperity and therefore not content with what we have. It occurs to me that happiness does have a lot to do with contentment, which is essentially a state of satisfaction. It also occurs to me that the key to contentment is gratitude. It...