In Lima

SOMEBODY in Peru's committee tasked with organising the Apec summit this weekend in Lima has a sense of humour - or maybe not.

Among the paraphernalia of paper that greeted journalists covering the meetings was a factsheet in English on "curious facts'' about the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Most of the countries had three such "curious facts''; Singapore has two. The first is that Singapore has a "large engineering project'' which expanded its territory by the size of two New Yorks. It had the Singaporeans among us scratching our heads and googling New York for its exact size.

The second had to do with just how Singapore expanded its territory. Indonesian islands which "have long been responsible 
for providing 80 per cent of the sand'' needed for the "expansion project'', it said.

Of all the curious facts about Singapore, it flummoxed us to think that the Peruvians thought these two points worthy of mention.

What about: 
Singapore is the only country in the world to ban chewing gum?
Or: Singapore has succeeded in making new water out of old? 
Or even: Singapore is the only country that requires you to not just have a licence to drive, but to bid for a licence to buy a vehicle to drive?

Some thing about our infrastructure, whether port or airport or even the Electronic Road Pricing system would be nice. After all, it says that China's Shanghai has the third largest port in the world, Malaysia has the world's largest hotel with 6,000 rooms and Taiwan has the world's tallest skyscraper at 508 metres.

Move away from such heavy-duty stuff and there can still be: Singapore's national flower is the orchid Vanda Miss Joaquim. At least, this will compare with the elephant being a national symbol of Thailand and pencak silat, which is defined as a "primitive martial art'', as the Indonesian national sport.

The Peruvian focus on Singapore's obsession with its lack of size is a tad better though, than what comes through as the South Korean's obsession with robots. Incheon and Masan cities will be the first in the world to have theme parks dedicated to robots, did you know?

The second admittedly extremely "curious fact'' is that the South Koreans have drawn up a set of ethical rules "to prevent abuse of robots
by humans and vice versa''. 

One wonders though what the Filippinos will make of the Peruvians choice of "curious facts'' about their country. All three facts had 
to do with Spanish, their erstwhile colonial masters.

So we are educated on the fact that the teaching of Spanish will be reinstated in high schools in the middle of next year; that the use of the Spanish language dates back 400 years and it was an official language until 1898.

Of course, being the host country, Peru is at liberty to create the best profile for itself.

For your information, the Peruvian sea is one of the "richest on Earth'' because the cold Humboldt and the warm Nino currents converge there.

This is probably why the Peruvians put out the second fact: that it is the largest producer of fishmeal in the world. And talking about
food, it says the Peruvians hold the Guiness record for having the "greatest variety of dishes in the world''.

The host country has also slipped in other details about itself, under curious facts about other countries.

In case the Chinese did not know, next year marks 160 years of Chinese immigration to Peru. The Japanese should also realise that the first Japanese landed in Peru on April 3, 1899, on board the Sakura Maru.

Next year will be Singapore's turn to host the Apec meeting.

Word of advice: Do without the "curious facts''.

They just make the guests bristle with indignation.