Oh well, if there is a sucker to be had, then such people as Mr Merry will continue to exist. What I am more disappointed with is the mainstream media picking this up as if it is some sort of national campaign. Way too much free publicity for this sham, in my opinion.

In any case, Mr Merry will certainly be the happiest of all – free major publicity, a successful stunt, and misinformed public who will flock to this let-me-tell-you-what-you-already-know (pricey) event.

Complacent citizenry I hear? Spot on….

The ALLEDGE leader is now roaming in the woods freely with no cuffs .

Thats happiness for him and he smiled his way to freedom

To be frank, if I have to spend the money, I’d give it directly to people to make them happy instead of attending the conference to learn how to be happy by making people happy.

I’d take the short cut.

Wow! what a simple way to have happiness. So if the people of Singapore show their gratitudes to the Leadership, magically we will have a country full of happier people. Is there happier people when 9 out of 10 feel stressed, whatever that means? Does the word ’stressed’ used by Philip connotes dissatisfaction, unhappiness.

I have not read on the subject of happiness, my opinion stems from direct intuitional feelings, a spontaneous and natural emotional unadulterated, unconditioned and unforced understanding of happiness.

And I am also naturally inclined to suspect that the search for the happiest man in Singapore is intended for social engineering. Say me wrong but I am happy to remain wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, the reason why I believed its a marketing thing is because I believe its meant as an event to promote your main event – the conference.

No offense, and I certainly didn’t mean that in a bad way – I’m also an advocate of the idea that happiness is beyond material comfort and achievements, and it would certainly be very interesting to explore on a wider scale just how many Singaporeans are inclined towards such thinking. I’m also a fan of David G. Myer’s research on Happiness.

I will post an edit to my article to let readers know of your response.

I wish you all the success for your event and look forward to finding out who the happiest person in Singapore is.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7182/happymaspeacedz7.jpg

1. its not just a marketing stunt – interesting that you can speak so definitely without knowing. i’ve lived here for 19 years and i really think singapore has a lot going for it and should be celebrated. but at least you do admit that “it would be interesting to look at happiness beyond material comfort” – thats why I’m doing this to get people thinking about happiness beyond material comfort.

2. “make singaporeans happy not just look for one?” – all the research on happiness says that by expressing gratitude actually makes people happier – so the search itself will make singaporeans happy. so far in one day i have had 80 nominations and you should see some of them. one person said it made her so happy to share how happy here mother was.

3. My search criteria are based on research in positive psychology – so it is possible to measure what happiness is all about

Many thanks to all of you – you’re talking about happiness and what it means – which was my intention. go on – get involved nominate the happiest person you know – http://www.simply-happy.com