I have just returned from Vietnam and on the flight back I was reading the (Singapore) Strait Times. I was greatly bemused for the extensive promotion given to various St Valentines Day promotions and articles. The issue was full of true romance and relationship stories and heavy advertising for gifts especially jewelery.

Not bad for a country that has never had a christian tradition, but one that is not known to let a commercial opportunity pass it by either.

The fact is that the sudden appearance of the St Valentines Day tradition in Australia was an engineered phenomena rather than a spontaneous gesture.