Is Singapore really the least emotional country in the world?

A recent survey that spread around Singapore faster than the news of a free gift event at Tangs said that Singapore was the least emotional country in the world. Ironically Singaporean residents reacted with fury and great emotion!

The Gallup survey reported gleefully in places like pro-western brand Bloomberg was not only flawed it was clearly just a means to an end for people writing a negative story about Singapore. Bloomberg tried to tie in supposedly long working hours in Singapore with emotion and also happiness. They have little to do with each other.

Bloomberg’s article took the survey results and made mass assumptions that sounded like out of touch American Republican who rails against the Chinese ultimately making themselves look foolish. “Fun city it ain’t” it says when reporting the story!

Hello, have they actually been here? Fun city it is, every day of the week in fact! More so than many a city in the USA that’s for sure.

There are more people out in the sun and warmth in Singapore every day of the week till all hours enjoying eating and drinking with friends than anywhere in the US where many places shut down when darkness falls.

Are meetings with friends and work colleagues not emotional occasions when you connect and enjoy life?

If you’re happy in your work and you work long hours, you’re increasingly happy! You could actually argue that being less emotional (were it true) was actually a positive asset when it comes to effectiveness as work.

No emotions means rational and focused decision making. It could explain the productivity of the nation if we did indeed live amongst a Vulcan nation of unemotional Spocks'.

Emotion does not equal happiness. The most emotional country in the survey was supposedly the Philippines and everyone seems to want to leave there and come here or go to Australia!

Interestingly the Philippines comes way down the list of happy countries in another survey so the Bloomberg story was contradictory. The same happiness survey said that Philippines people are said to be the most depressed in South East Asia! Emotional is clearly not always a good thing!

People are no less emotional and no more ruthless here than they are elsewhere.

There is no welfare safety net here so people have to be focused on the financial and emotional wellbeing of their family. That makes them work hard and care passionately about the future. That is a deep seated caring emotion to provide a better life for themselves, their seniors and their extended family.

Do countries like the US and UK produce more emotional people because they don’t have to work as hard because they have that safety net of welfare? No. They produce more emotional freaks for deranged daytime TV shows who use emotional wrecks and showcase their emotional weaknesses for all to see on car crash TV that other unemployed emotional wrecks empathise with before shooting up! (exaggeration I know but you get the picture!).   

I wonder whether there is also a cultural anomaly with the report. Many Chinese Singaporeans don’t like to reveal emotions of any kind.

The whole losing face syndrome that can drive Western business negotiators to distraction is all about not showing emotion and not showing that you wish to decline to do business with someone but dare not say for fear of losing face. This survey’s questions will have led to many answers being neutral so as to save face on what they really felt, giving the wrong impression of the country.

One local academic put the lack of emotional engagement down to the fact that Singaporeans are “are taught to keep going and not make too much of a fuss”. Were that even true however that is surely an admirable quality not a negative one?

It even comes from the whole English “stiff upper lip” determination to not show weakness or...emotion! Keep calm and carry on being the marketing slogan of the year across much of the economically depressed Western world.

I’m not sure where the English came in this survey but since they obviously came lower than Singapore they must have all lied on their survey!

Another academic quoted in Bloomberg’s biased and wholly one sided report slamming Singapore said that he had “been to concerts where people don’t even applaud as much as they should.” I would say that having been and enjoyed many concerts in Singapore where the crowd of expats and Singaporeans have gone loopy with excitement that he must have been going to some bloody awful concerts!

If he had seen New Order’s raucous and emotional encore of “Love will tear us apart” at their Fort Canning Park concert this year he would have seen tears and felt hairs stand up on the back of his neck as the rest of us did!

If he had been to the KPOP marathon show in front of 24,000 screaming fans at the floating stadium in pouring rain in November he would also have seen raw emotion on show from beginning to end. No lack of excitement, screaming and cheering going on!

However I think that the whole survey produced a false report. Singapore is indeed a very passionate and emotional country. Just look at all the on line comments and arguments to see that. Look at the passion for family and pride for the military.

See the passion for various football teams and how these are manifested in wearing of shirts or watching games in the middle of the night in pubs and food courts. Look at any forum for debate and you will see a million different views and all are very passionate and emotional.

Check out any on line discussion which goes into politics or foreign workers and you will see emotional and passionate debate. Even purely domestic ones about politics or HDB’s produce great comment.

Some is abusive but most is thought provoking. Singapore is also an emotional place where family ties are key and unrelated loved ones welcomed into the family home.

If you don’t think Singapore is emotional you have never seen Singaporeans on National Day, full of pride, excitement and singing along with the NDP songs of old. Even those who don’t like NDP show full emotion when discussing it!