ラベル history の投稿を表示しています。 すべての投稿を表示
ラベル history の投稿を表示しています。 すべての投稿を表示

2008年3月17日月曜日

A Loner's Saturday

Well, last Saturday, after a very long while (from the week I went to India) I finally can go lepak around my usual favorite spots.

1.00pm
I went to a Comic Shop that offers crazy discount due to the owner's birthday. Got hold of this chance to purchase 2 volumes of Sandman Absolute Collection. The price was very forbidding at SD150 per volume before discount, after discount both for SD207. 4 volumes in total, next volume will be out this Christmas and the last in 2009.
2.30pm
Walked to Bugis Junction, and bump into Liaw Kok Keong and his wife! Wow... Singapore is small. They came down to attend his cousin's wedding. Had a short chat and I proceed to Kinokuniya Bookstore.


3.00pm
After a short browse, proceed to Sunshine Plaza to look for some Gundam models kits. Few of the kits are on bargain, but I could not bring my self to buy any more of the Kits. Must control.

4.00pm
Dhoby Ghaut. My main purpose to come out that day was to visit the museum for the exhibition of Greek Sculptures from Louvre of Paris. Seems that they only give free admission after 6.00pm, hence I decided to go Cathay Cine leisure to kill time. Better spend SD8 on a movie than the admission to the museum.


4.30pm
After buying the ticket for Spiderwick, I proceed to have a snack of Mee Sua and Cheese crepe from the Shih Lin Night Market stall, which SK introduced in his blog. A bit pricey, but quite satisfying.


The movie was okay for kids. The effects are so so, but the young actor who plays a twin is very good. I personally think the book is better with those colorful illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi.

6.30pm Greek Sculptures from Louvre
Finally get to see the marvelous sculptures which are all more than 2,000 years old. But when I went inside the hall, and saw those big sculptures that was displayed with minimum security with no fencing whatsoever, just a "Do not Touch" sign, instinctively I thought that those are just replicas made of plaster. And with close up looked, I saw fine silica grains which was shinny under the spotlights. Well, at least those smaller items displayed inside the glass cabinets should be real ones...


7.30pm
After the museum, I went to Carefour to get some humidifier. I was walking pass all those yummy & seductive snacks and cookies, but I managed to refrain from spending for "junk" food. Well, in the end, i spent more than 1/2 hour Q-ing up to pay for 1 item. Really Crazy!! Those cashiers are really slow and inefficient.


9.30pm
After 1 hour of bus ride, I finally reached home.
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2007年12月13日木曜日

Read this!! Fellow Malaysians


Finished this book, learned a very important piece of history of our country. By knowing the fact behind May 13, commoners would not have supported BN (Malay "Elites" capitalists who strongly withheld the "Malay special rights", supported by Chinese Biz men whose sole interest is their own $$ but not of the Chinese they represent, and the Indian "follower") but the Opposition Parties.
I am taking the synopsis from this site.
Synopsis:
This is the first credible account of the May 13, 1969 racial riots in Malaysia, using documents recently declassified at the Public Records Office, London, after the lapse of the 30-year secrecy rule.
These documents provide the only available confidential observations and memorandum by British and other foreign embassy operatives based on their intelligence and contacts with local officials and politicians. They include dispatches by correspondents which were then banned in Malaysia.
A social scientist, Kua Kia Soong provides a fresh political analysis of this "May 13 incident". In his view, the riots were by no means a spontaneous outburst of violence between Malays and Chinese but rather a planned coup d'etat by the ascendant state capitalist class against the Tunku-led aristocracy. He discusses the contradictions of the post-Independencec Alliance racial formula and traces the rise of this new Malay capitalist class which has ruled Malaysia since 1969.
These documents clearly show who were responsible for the violence and pose the question why the security forces allowed the violence to go on. With this publication, it is hoped that the frequently raised "spectre of May 13" by the Barisan Nasional government will be forever put to rest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Kua Kia Soong is a director and founding member of human rights organisation, Suaram. He was a Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya (1990-95), a former political detainee during Operasi Lalang (1987-89) and former lecturer at the National University of Singapore (1978-79).
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2007年12月5日水曜日

Power to the People!!


Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Just finished this book after 3 weeks. This book is thick and full load of information on how corporations and certain "elites/privileged" have used "Shock" Method or "Shocked" situation created by nature or human to exploit the public/nation.

Well, this book seems to be really well researched and edited, with facts backing up most of the claims. Histories and current affairs, on the evil face of Capitalism and Neoliberalism (a political movement that espouses economic liberalism as a means of promoting economic development and securing political liberty. in an easy word, more privatization and less government control). This did widen the polarization
of the wealthy and the poor where only the "elites" and corporations extract enormous wealth while leaving the public with huge debt and very little money just to barely survive.

Well, it was like reading a history book, I just read through it quickly to get the whole idea and message this book is trying to convey. This book really covers a lots of topics. Can be used as a very good reference tool in the future.

From this book, it leads to another 2 books I just bought:
1. The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek (Liberal, Capitalism, free from States)
This book is promoting liberal capitalism, free from states and government control. Human should have freedom from the control of government. Anti-communist. This powerful and famous book was ban in Russia and China.

2. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes (pronounced as "Cains") (Socialism)
This book is the oppose of the ideology of The Road to Serfdom, (although Keynes praised Hayek on writting the book), believing in wealth creation and distribution by wise government and responsible corporation and individual. (After the great depression, America achieved great economic growth in creating the vast majority of middle income population, seems was based on the ideas of Keynes.)

So... will try my best to finish this 2 books and compare their ideology. And go for Karl Marx famous book later.

Well... History and Politics are some of the most important subject we should learn from young. Really regret for not knowing the importance of it during school days, slept through most of the history classes at school.
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