Are Singapore rude and lack of civic mindedness?

Today, I was slammed with an article and was supposed to make a 2-3 pages response to the question. I choose "courtesy" over heritage, as I really have no interest in history. But I do like an argumentative essay question.

Though I was given 30 minutes, my ideas were free-flowing. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to complete it. And I really felt a pity not having to finish it.

Just some highlights which I have included in the essay - racial issue between Indian and Indian-Muslim family, smoking & banning of cigarette, loving pets & animal abusing.

Generally, I would think civic mindedness is very much associated with patience or EQ. We are generally nice people. However, in our society, we are hastened to excel, to accomplish tasks in any faster means. As a result, we lose on EQ.

Courtesy and kindness campaign, does that help at all? A recent article published in June, 2010: Singaporeans slammed for being rude in Australian newspaper

Campaigns are meant to be public broadcasting system, generating awareness. However, do we listen? And do we digest the message? Do education still have its power over people? Much on the surface but no "depth"? How can we do the "depth" in campaign messaging? What are the better alternatives in term of marketing communications?

Pink Taxi

I saw a pink taxi this morning and sparkled my curiosity. There have been some commotion on taxis in the past and I can see this cab having "Hello Kitty" in the vehicle.

Some of the past incidents as shown above.


Facts
There's many taxis on the road now. 2010 statistic compiled by LTA show a population of 26,000 taxis in Singapore, out of 945,000 vehicles registered. That gives us an approximately 2.75%

We have around 4 millions in Singapore and only 25% have cars. Such a small island but we do have a sizable car population. According to NationMaster.Com, we we are ranking #49 out of 133 countries involved in study comparison. (Source from United Nations World Statistics Pocketbook and Statistical Yearbook)


Back to the topic:
There were exposure gained from this "out-of-box" promotional tactic. But what is the overall net gain? Branding? ROI? or bad Publicity?