Today, I read in a Filipino newspaper that Philippines was ranked the 17th happiest country in the world (and Singapore wasn't listed in that article, though other South-east asian countries were). When I finally reached home, I tried searching for this article online but didn't find it. Instead, I found an earlier article, which claimed that Philippines was ranked 7th happiest country.

However, whether 7th or 17th, I'm quite sure that Filipinos are happier people than Singaporeans. There is a gentle tolerance in them that I admire but can't really understand. A colleague explained matter-of-factly how he got stuck for 2 hours in traffic (on a journey which normally lasted 45 minutes). Another one mentioned how 16 years back, he had to chase an ice truck down to buy a block of ice home (they had no refrigerators then). Or how certain areas would have electricity only 8 hours a day.

Somehow I found this level of patience would be unfathomable here.