THE LAND OF HAPPY SMILES…

Here’s the heartfelt winning submission in the non - Thai category of the Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards 2…The theme was…”My Thailand My Dream”…

One needs only seventeen muscles to smile; yet one should never underestimate its power. A smile can reconcile two enemies, brighten the life of a stranger, cheer up a room with an atmosphere of goodwill and happiness, or give a glowing first impression.
From this, one can logically surmise that since Thailand is the renowned Land of Smiles, it is one of the most powerful countries in the world. No, Thailand does not have enough nuclear weapons to obliterate our world. Neither does it have a ridiculously large army, hundreds of angry battle ships, flocks of military planes, nor hidden away Weapons of Mass Destruction - but 64 million grinning people should be a force to be reckoned with.
Events of the past few years, however, have seriously shaken my belief in the power of a smile - or indeed, in the power of any single person’s benevolence and hope. Thailand’s war on drugs’ during February and March 2003 ended in the death of over 2,000 people, including children under the age of 16 months.
SARS descended on South East Asia, and after menacingly circling Thailand, it finally struck in March 2003. We became consumers in panic, seemingly unable to protect ourselves with anything but flimsy white masks. Avian flu came a few months after that, and was referred to as merely “the dark side of globalisation” by the Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra. We watched in awe at how quickly it spread.
In the same year, Muslim separatist activity in the South of Thailand reached boiling point, and from my sheltered home in Thailand’s favourite tourist island Phuket, I learnt of the terrorist attacks in Pattani and other states of the South, where students my age live in fear for their lives.

http://www.escati.com/phuket_island.htm

Then on December 26, 2004, a tsunami hit our shores and we could not smile for a long time.
Like most teenagers, I went through a period of fierce idealism Fuelled by John Grisham’s The Street Lawyer, I was determined to become a lawyer and help all manner of people (although I wasn’t exactly sure how, but my thirteen-year-old self smoothed over these details).
I was a feminist, who did not hesitate to speak out against the pettiest barbs thrown my way by boys, and I was intensely defensive; over both my countries: Germany and Thailand.
Feeling the challenge of being divided between two nations, yet feeling them united in me, I held all manner of Utopian dreams: peace, equality and education for all, the complete eradication of social injustices, non-corrupt governments, and so on.
A year passed, and I sank into the typical despair of a cynical teenager. Feeling jaded and cheated by a world that had not changed, no matter how hard I’d tried. I buried myself in my studies.
It was not a miraculous epiphany that pulled me out of this mindset,
but merely an innocuous comment by my physics teacher, on a wholly ordinary Wednesday morning. “Newton’s Third Law stipulates that every action has a reaction force,” he said. Seeing half-asleep faces, he grinned and continued, “that means that if I push the earth, the earth should push me back. Anyone care to test that theory?”
My friend and I glanced at each other, glad to get away from mind-numbing physics formulas. I got up and looked at the teacher expectantly. He gestured to me encouragingly and said “Jump.” We both did so, half-heartedly.
Turning back to the rest of the class, secret amusement showing through his face in light of our own bemusement, he said proudly, “Congratulations. You have just moved the world.”
It was then that I realised that it’s the little things that make our lives infinitely more wonderful, as my grandmother insists, and which I had always dismissed as a touch of senility. Perhaps the smallest thing of all is a smile; so often acknowledged and so often forced for the flash of the camera, smiles dominate all my earliest memories of Thailand.
I remember being three years old, in the arms of my father as he strolled through the muggy heat of Bangkok’s streets, people smiling at me from all sides, flashes of white teeth against brown skin.

Back inGermany, I experimentally smiled at people in shopping centres or on crowded streets, only to have them glance back at me with faint confusion, wondering if they knew me, and then dismissing me as soon as they remembered something more important. It seems that Thailand is one of the few nations left where Newton’s Third Law holds true in the context of smiles: if you smile at someone, they will smile back.
After the tsunami, many of us were afraid to smile, for fear that it would be insensitive to those who were grieving, but when one feels so utterly powerless in the wake of a natural disaster, the one thing one can do with absolutely certainty is smile.
And smile we did. Amongst the shock, and grief, Thais were strong enough to still smile and show compassion to the thousands of foreigners who had suffered equal losses. - ;
In Phuket, smiles surrounded us in all forms: relieved, sympathetic and brave, to name a few. Hearing Germans rave about the empathy consideration and care they had been shown in a foreign land, made me feel distinctly proud of my country, and my various half-formed hopes and dreams settled themselves into one coherent thought: My dream for Thailand is to keep smiling. :
Smiling is universal and simple. It does not matter whether white teeth contras to dark skin or white skin, or if your teeth are crooked or yellowed with age. It does not matter if your wrinkles show or if sunlight reflects off your shiny new braces.
What matters is that we are all capable of it, regardless of gender, nationality, religion or political belief. A smile might not go very far in stopping a bullet, or bringing money into a desperately poor country but it is a start. We can all do our part, no matter how infinitesimally insignificant it may seem compared to other events.
As the Land of Smiles, we have an obligation to set an example to the rest of the world.
If smiles really are infectious, then…We might as well start…An Epidemic…

Does anyone know who wrote this excellent article?…It’s way ahead of my writing abilities…I think it’s tremendous which is why I have included it here…

Join us & Escape to Thailand…The Land of Happy Smiles…

http://www.escati.com/thailand_of_escati.htm

Keep smiling!

Yours truly

Thousands of people from all over the world are making their Escape to Thailand and taking lots of photos while they are here in this Land of Happy Smiles…When someone takes my photo I am always told to say ‘cheese’ to create a Happy Smile…

My Thai friends have a better way of creating the best photos of Happy Smiles…They ALL SHOUT…’PEPSI’…

Try it…It works…

Join us & Escape to Thailand…The Land of Happy Smiles…

http://www.escati.com/thailand_of_escati.htm

Keep smiling!

Yours truly

Everywhere you travel in Thailand there are Happy Smiling People…

Whenever I am walking I greet people with a friendly Wai, a Sawadee Kap and a Smile and I get a great Smile and a Wai in return. A Wai is a Greeting in the traditional Buddhist way…Thai people don’t expect a Wai from a foreigner and when they get one they never forget you… You can see Sawadee Kap - Greetings from Thailand…On our Escati website…

http://www.escati.com/thailand_of_escati.htm

All my many Thai friends love to party…Any excuse for a party day and night…When you watch them talking to each other…They are always smiling as though life is one big joke…The more I act a bit crazy…As I tend to do from time to time…The more I am accepted into their society…

The Thai people are very tolerant and to lose one’s temper is a…Loss of Face…Living in Thailand has taught me to be patient and to relax and not to sweat the small stuff…As it really is…All small stuff…It is a like a breath of fresh air to live here and I appreciate it everyday…

When you are in Thailand…Remember to Smile…And do it often with everyone you meet… Smiles spread Happiness around the world…

SMILES…Is the longest word in the English language…Do you know why?…

Join us & Escape to Thailand…The Land Of Happy Smiles…

http://www.smile-a-day.com

Keep smiling!

Yours truly.