Happy 47th Birthday, Singapore!!!

ok now must faster finish typing this before i join in the celebrations at 5! 

first up, Happy Birthday Singapore!!! thank you for everything (and i mean everything). Wishing you many prosperous and blissful years ahead and wishing you many more other grand birthdays celebrations to come c:. 

decided to type this long article just now so here goes ... some of what i am writing here is to the best of my knowledge and memory  (based on one Singapore Studies module i took - Evolution of a global city state) and my ability to decipher my own handwriting on my SSA2211 lecture notes and the research i have done on the assignments i have completed for the module so any errors will be purely one me. so lets start. This would be a short one, i think i'll expand or add more details when i have the time to go through my readings and notes.

Singapore was strategically located as what the prof says the gift of geography and Sir Stamford Raffles acquisition of Singapore was due to its strategic location and to serve as a functioning node in the trading networks (SSA2211 Notes). Goods were exported from and imported into Singapore. So, on 30 January 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles signed a preliminary treaty allowing East India Company to set up a trading post. When Colonel William Farquhar and Dr John Crawford took over the reigns of developing Singapore, it flourished under their leadership.

Then the island of Singapore became Synoan (Kwa, 2004: pp138) after Lieutenant-General A.E. Percival surrendered unconditionally to Lieutenant-General Yamashiata Tomoyuki, marking the the start of a dark period of Singapore under the Japanese Occupation. And this period is especially significant because this period was great leaders emerged and the first person anyone would think of would be Mr Lee Kuan Yew (when I was writing the assignment, he was Minister Mentor). On 9 August 1965, Mr Lee announced the separation of Singapore from Malaysia and he cried, saying, “For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I have believed in merger and unity of the two territories." I came across this image / video while watching The Singapore Story at the discovery center (a excursion in Primary School, I think it was the discovery center) and have never forgotten the image. You just need to see the video once to remember it for life. It was such historic, such heartbreaking moment. So i'm not going to put any image here, go watch it on youtube and you'll remember it for life, I am serious. 

For a long while, and i think now also, mention Singapore and the first thing I think is Mr Lee, the pioneer and not forgetting Mr Toh Chin Chye and the founding fathers of PAP. 

Please go read Men in White and other Mr Lee's books. 

Happy Birthday Singapore, I wish you many more successes to come. Happy happy birthday!!