Oldest World Democracy

In the year 507 BC, Athen introduced a system of political reforms called demokratia, or “rule by the people.” Thus Athens is regarded as the birthplace of democracy.

 

The United States and Great Britain are among the oldest modern democracies. 

 

The United States very first presidential election was 1788, while the British general election was held in 1708.

Absolutely Obsolete

Bus ticket hole puncher. The job is overtaken by the contactless stored value card.

The card communicate with a terminal by radio waves.

Contactless cards were first used for electronic ticketing in 1995 in Seoul, and 1997 in Hong Kong.

The turning indicator of the old days is a pop-up lever to indicate the driver's intention to turn.

Today, all vehicles are installed with electric blinking turn signal lights.

 

The manual car window winder has gone electric power.

  

Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp have ceased production of CRT television sets.

Blood Brotherhood

Sworn blood brotherhood is associated with the secret societies during the Manchu rule.

It binds non related friends to honour the brotherhood grouping.




Countries too are also forming groupings.

The Eurozone was created in 1999 to make trades easier among Eurozone 17 members and to give Eurozone nations an advantage while trading with other countries.




North Borneo and Singapore were granted independence and formed Malaysia with the Peninsular states on 16 September 1963.

ASEAN, a gropup of 10 members was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Christmas Island

Christmas Island became an Australian territory in 1958.

In 1957 the Australian government acquired Christmas Island from Singapore for a price of £2.9 million.

Christmas Island was originally annexed by Great Britain in 1888. It was transferred to Australia by the British Government – Singapore had not achieved independence in 1958.



The first contingent of 200 Chinese labourers were imported for phosphate mining, mainly from Malaya and Singapore.

The population comprises 60% Chinese, 25% Malay, 15% European and others. Most are Australian citizens. Total population 1500.

Christmas Island is near to the equator giving it an advantage over other locations as a site for a commercial space launch facility. The first launch took place in 2003 for the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)

Malay Town

One often heard of Chinatown.

But rarely a Malay town. Well, outside of South East Asia.



In South Africa, it is estimated that there are 250,000 Malays mostly living in Cape Town.

This is the largest Malay settlement outside South East Asia. Bo-Kaap is an area of Cape Town, and was formerly known as the Malay Quarter.

It began in the 1600s when the Dutch East India Company transported slaves from Java and followed later by others from the Southeast Asian regions.



The 'Cape Malay' community generally speak local dialects. They no longer speak the Malay language which their ancestors used. Simple Malay phrases can still be heard in Cape Town, for example: 'terima kasih'. Tradition like Ramadaan is still being observed.

Black or White

In a landmark ruling in 2008, the Pretoria High Court officially declared the Chinese in South Africa as “black”.

The ruling is the culmination of an eight-year struggle by the Chinese Association of South Africa (Casa) to obtain clarity from the Government as to the status of Chinese people since the end of white rule in 1994.



Under white minority rule the Chinese were classified as Coloureds.

Casa welcomed the court ruling, saying that for the first time in years Chinese South Africans had a firm legal status in society. The Chinese community is now entitled to the benefits from preferential legislation such as the Employment Equity Act and the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Act which seek to promote and uplift the economic status of people of colour in South Africa.



This is a blast into the past.

Researchers have fresh evidence that Chinese people are descended from Africans.



In 1988 Professor Stephen Oppenheimer broke the news that everyone alive on the planet today carries DNA that can be traced back to a single woman living in Africa over 150,000 years ago.

No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat said Deng Xiao Ping the late leader of the Communist Party of China.

Why ?

In this era of high technology and living standards, there are rogue leaders in the global communities that has no qualms to kill their own countrymen to stay in power.

The charred remains of more than 50 bodies were found inside a warehouse in Tripoli. They were believed killed on Tuesday 22 August, in the dying days of Col Gadaffi regime.

It has been estimated that about 60,000 men were arrested by the regime in the past six months. The fear is that more atrocities will come to light.

And 60 years ago during the second Worls War, Germany's Adolf Hitler carried out a programme of genocide which killed about 6 million people mainly of Jewish descent.

Research from Britanica has proven that Hitler actually had breeding farms in Germany where volunteer teenage girls were impregnated by blond, blue-eyed SS- men, to bear children for the Fuhrer. He was was trying to play God, he wanted to create a new world order.

Why did Hitler hated the Jews so much ?

Firstly it was suspected that the jews were the cause of Germanys downfall in WW1.

Hitler’s animosity towards Jews is that his rejection from the Vienna Art Academy (in which Jews were prominent) embittered him.

Hitler lived in Vienna from 1907 to 1913. He wanted to become an artist to make himself a name in field of arts. He was twice rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Art. He claimed that the professors that rejected him were Jewish.

Hitler said in a speech given in Munich in July 1922 - the Jews are a people of robbers.

And during the same period of the war, Japan carries out the mass genocide of chinese civilians in Nanjing.

After the war, an International Military Tribunal indicated the total number killed were over 200,000.

Will such killings ceased as the world enter a period of economic growth ?

No one can answer that. Not even God.

Phenomenon

Beatles Phenomenon
Brian Epstein manager of the Beatles got the group an audition at EMI on May 9, 1962. By October 1962 their first single, "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You," were worldwide hits.

Today 50 years on, no groups or song writers can match the unreachable level of the Beatles.


Bill Gates Phenomenon
In November 1976 Bill Gates and Allen Ballmer registered the trademark "Microsoft". Gates has given up his Harvard studies altogether. In December 1978 Microsoft's revenues exceed $1m. Three years on in 1981 Microsoft's revenues reach $16m. The company employs 128 people then.


Search Engine Phenomenon
Yahoo was originally built as a web directory by two Stanford graduates David Filo and Jerry Yang in January of 1994. They started it as a hobby. David Filo was born in 1966 in Wisconsin, while Jerry Yang was born Yang Chih-Yuan in Taiwan in 1968.


After earning her MBA in 1998, Susan Wojcicki bought 232 Santa Margarita Avenue for$600,000. She rented the garage to two Stanford students for $1,700 a month to help with the mortgage. The two were Larry Page and Sergey Brin who incubated Google right there.


Personal Computer Phenomenon
In 1983, 18-years old Michael Dell began selling upgraded PCs out of his dormitory room at the University of Texas.

A Walk In History

The Singapore Telephone Board was set up in 1955 the same year election for the Legislative Assembly was held.



Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) was incorporated in March 1992.

sketch by edric hsu

Colourful Ancestors

They did not receive any education. Yet they named streets and areas with names that are easy to remember and many are still relevant and in use today.

kin jeo ka - Petain Road
mang ka kar - Bendemeer Road
teck kar - KK Hospital
lam po ley - Strathmore Avenue
po ley long - Henderson Road
gor chang chiu kar - Esplanade

tua bey lor - South Bridge Road
ji bey lor - Victoria Street
sa bey lor - Queen Street
si bey lor - Waterloo Street

twa po - South Bridge Road
seoh po - Victoria Street

pek sua pu - Bugis Street
gu chia chwee - Chinatown
keow keng kau - China Street
tau hu kway - Chin Chew Street

kek sng kio - Sungei Road
ang sa lee - Serangoon Gardens
or kio tao - Havelock Road
si kar teng - Jalan Bukit Merah
si pai po - Singapore General Hospital
huay shia - Kallang Road

lak ko chio - Bukit Timah (Sixth Ave)
cheet ko chio - Bukit Timah (Beauty World)
chap ko chio - Bukit Timah (Bt Panjang)

pek kio - Owen Road
tok lip kio - Nicol Highway
kow chap kow wan - South Buona Vista Road
char kio - Institute of Mental Health (Woodbridge)
ang teng bey tow - Collyer Quay
chap lak lau - Commowealth Crescent
bo buay kang - Queenstown MRT

Final Days of a Dictator

It is 4 p.m., Jan. 13, 2008.
The main entrance to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta is besieged by dozens of journalists.

Gen. Suharto, the 86-year old former military dictator who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, is lying somewhere deep inside this unattractive concrete structure, dying or more precisely in a "very critical condition" after almost all organ functions failed, so his doctor said.

According to the United Nations and the World Bank, Suharto tops the list of embezzlers with an estimated $15-35 billion, followed by former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos. An impressive achievement considering that Suharto's salary in 1999—the year he was forced to resign after massive demonstrations that shook Jakarta—was only $1,764 a month.

More than $73 billion is said to have passed through the family's hands during Suharto's 32-year rule.

On the night of Sept. 30/Oct. 1 1965, Suharto joined surviving right wing Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution to spearhead a propaganda campaign against the Communist Party of Indonesia.(P.K.I.)
What followed was a military takeover and a months long orgy of terror, the mass murder of P.K.I. members, citizens of Chinese origin, left-leaning men and women, intellectuals, artists, and anyone who was denounced by neighbors or foes.

The West did not protest. Suharto was viewed as an ally by the United States, Britain, Australia, and other nations who were delighted to have the leader of Indonesia a free-marketer and an ally in the Cold War.

Suharto may be a man responsible for more deaths than any other dictator since World War II.

Suharto may die a free man, but it is not easy to forget a million people, a million deaths.
Standing next to each other, they can fill enormous space and their screams, coming in unison, can break the walls of any hospital—even a private one. And once these screams and cries reach him, he will know that he departs a criminal.

It seems this state of affairs suggests that he has not lived a decent life, but rather has much to account for and that keeps him lingering on, dying this long death.

There is the story of a local village leader who took advantage of his position, was corrupt, took land and money from the village, and enriched himself at the expense of others. When he lay dying he could not die. So, the village came together and discussed this problem and it was decided that they would just let it all go. Not to forget. Not to forgive. But just let it go. The man quickly died soon after their meeting.

In fact, yet another side story says Suharto can’t die so easily cause he’s got too much ilmu. A designated person will have to cross a river with Soeharto’s underpants on his head so he can die.

Suharto claimed that he himself was a dukun and there is real evidence that he studied under one. Another reason he cannot die a clean fast death. The diagnosis among believers here in Solo, the heart of Javanese culture, is that powerful occult forces in his body will not let him go, that certain rituals that would cleanse his spirit have not yet been performed or that nature has not yet signaled that it is ready to receive him.

After the death of Mr. Suharto’s wife in 1996, spiritualists as well as political scientists saw Mr. Suharto becoming less deft as a ruler.
In his desperation near the end, he called in a West African spiritualist to help him.

Lucky charms that have been spiritually implanted in Mr. Suharto’s body have become malevolent and are prolonging his suffering. Spiritually, he is ready to die and should be relieved of his pain, but those charms will not release him until they have been ritually removed. A Muslim cleric named Nasruddin Ansory suggested that the removal could be done by having 40 pure-hearted people pray by his bedside.

Another solution was proposed by a spiritualist named Permadi, who is also a member of Parliament saying the spirits would release Mr. Suharto if he apologized to Sukarno, the man he supplanted as president in 1967.

Suharto Died — 27 January 2008 aged 86.

Orchard Road Legends

With the passing of Ng Teng Fong, the rag to riches fairytale of some great legends of Singapore is nearing the end.


In 1958, Tang Choon Keng bought a 14,500-square feet piece of land at the corner of Orchard Road and Scotts Road at a cost of $10,000 which work out to 70 Singapore cents per square foot.





Ng Teng Fong first foray into Orchard Road was to built Far East Shopping Centre in 1974, then made a fortune with Lucky Plaza in 1978 followed by Far East Plaza in 1983.





Khoo Teck Puat with a few partners founded Malayan Banking (Maybank) in Kuala Lumpur. The bank grew rapidly to more than 150 branches within 3 years. In 1968, he bought over the Malayan Banking's Singapore properties including Goodwood Park Hotel for $50 million.

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd

Phua Chu Kang the contractor is now a familiar name on television but is not in any way associated with Singapore history.

In the early immigration period, Lim Chu Kang Village was founded by Neo Tiew, a Chinese immigrant who was the headman of the village. The village is on the banks of the Sungei Kranji and was controlled by the Lim clan.

Further inland there is another village known as Chua Chu Kang.
The name "Chua Chu Kang" is derived from the Teochew word "kang chu" the word "kang" means river and "chu" means owner. "Chua" is the clan name of the first headman.

Similiarly Yio Chu Kang were established by Chinese settlers in the 1840s with the headman surnamed Yeo.

Not many in Singapore have heard of Chan Chu Kang, a village at Seletar River.
The village was named after its owner, and was later renamed Nee Soon Village after Lim Nee Soon for his contribution to the rubber industry.

Ancient Wonders

The Eqyptian pyramids and the Great Wall of China - what do they have in common ?



Beside being the famous duo of the seven wonders, they were built without the luxury of modern day machinery.
Sheer manual labour, grit, sweat and blood. No cranes, no lifts, no bulldozers and no excavators. And no professional engineers from the top universities.


It took 20 years to construct a pyramid with 100,000 forced labourers.
And millions over 1,000 years for the great wall.
Is the modern man with state of the art machines able to carry out these similiar projects ?

concrete pump

Many civil engineers suggest that modern man does not possess the structural genius required to build the Great Pyramid even today. Forget about building a new wall of China, as human rights and cost will ensure the project will never see light.

tower cranes

Until you stand in front of the Great Pyramid in Giza everything you read about it is just theory. Once you see it in person, lots of those theories begin to simply vanish into thin air, so say Craig B. Smith author of his book "Building The Great Pyramid". So, how big is the pyramid ?

The base length of the Great Pyramid is calculated as 230.33 meters or 756 feet. Its height is146.59 meters or 481 feet. The angle of inclination or slope of its faces  are 51° 50' 40".

A total of over 2,300,000 blocks of limestone and granite were used in its construction with the average block weighing 2.5 tons and none weighing less than 2 tons. Till this day no one is able to give a clear picture how the Eygptians manage to move these blocks progressively up to the top.

Then, and Now

The Douglas DC-3 first passenger plane and flight was in 1935. Early U.S. airlines like United, American, TWA and Eastern ordered over 400 DC-3. Capacity 28 passengers.
The Airbus A380 seat 525 passengers in 3-class layout.




Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is the first commercial handheld mobile phone in 1983 boasting 60 minutes talk time on a 10-hour charge. The Nokia E63 today has a talk time of 4 hours.
In Hongkong it was known as tai kor tai, probably referring to the triad bosses who will lose face if seen without one.


The first car manufacturers in the world were French:
Panhard & Levassor (1889) and Peugeot (1891) with output of 24 hp.
The new Peugeot 207 1.6l has 175 hp.


The first practical use of television was in Germany in 1929.
Then screen size was 12" standard. Today 42" screen is the rage.



IBM introduced in 1986 a personal computer with 256k RAM, Floppy Disk Drive and DOS operating system.


In the 1970s the 8 track car stereo system was the rage. No decent car owners will be seen without one.

Today's car stereo boast of iPod compatibilty beside radio/CD/MP3.
In the 1980s self-respecting adults would be out of place without a pager, also called a beeper. When beeped, the holder would head to a nearest public phone to return the call. That was convenience!
Today primary school students would be out of place without a 3G phone equipped with camera.


The legendary Walkman was such a hit then, equivalent to the iPod, playing on cassett with probably twenty songs.

It was not so long ago during the internet explosion in 1997 the first digital camera to hit the market was the Kodak DC210 boasting of 1.3 mega pixel and cost a princely sum of $1,300.

What's in a name ?

A history professor from Thammasat University is organising a campaign to officially call Thailand, Siam. If the professor get his way perhaps other countries may also want to use their ancient names too. Lets do a trial run...


Name : Siam





In 1939, by Government order, the name of Siam was changed to Thailand. Thai was the ancient name of the Siamese people and meant the 'free.'

Name : Formosa

In 1517 Portuguese sailors fleet sailing through the Taiwan Strait on the way to Japan sighted Taiwan and called it Ilha Formosa, meaning beautiful island.




Name : Ceylon






Ceilão was the name given to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese when they arrived in 1505. The british called it Ceylon until 1972.




Name : Nusantara

Nusantara is a Javanese phrase meaning "outer islands" (from nusa, "island")
Nusantara is an Indonesian word designating the Indonesian archipelago.



Name : Persia



For more than three thousand years Iran was referred to as Persia, until 1935.



Name : Mesopotamia


Iraq was part of the Mesopotamia region until the arrival of the Islamic Caliphate, when the region came to be known as Iraq.




Name :Temasek



Singapore was founded in 1819.
'Sea Town' in Javanese, spelt Tumasik