Tag Archives: Singapore

Goodbye Mr. Lee and Thank You

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Singapore woke up on Monday morning to a news they all feared and dreaded. Mr. Lee Kwan Yew, the man who is credited for making Singapore the world-class city state it is today, was no more. 

 

Mr. Lee or LKY as he is known, had been in hospital for over a month, battling pneumonia and had been deteriorating in the past week. 

Widely regarded as the man most intrumental in shaping the path to Singapore’s prosperity, he was a man who was loved and feared in equal intensity while alive. However, it is in death that an entire nation – from young to the old, from citizens to residents – mourn together for the man who is synonymous with the nation.. 

He fought for our independence, built a nation where there was none and made us proud to be Singaporeans. We won’t see another man like him.  

These words from PM Lee Hsien Loong’s televised message to the nation reflect perhaps what a lot of people were feeling. 

He gave us a country we can be proud of, a home to bring up our family and a better life we can aspire to…Much of today’s ‘Singapore DNA’ can be traced to his personal character, philosophy and values – Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong in a letter to the late Mr. Lee’s son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. 

National Day this year is going to be bittersweet. Singapore is celebrating 50 years of independence and the architect and man responsible for this celebration will not be around to celebrate with the nation he helped found. SG50 will not be the same without LKY. 

This post isn’t going to be about LKY’s vast achievements which can be found online and in the various media, but a small tribute to a great man who shaped this country I now call home. 

Later today, I am going to take BB & GG with me to our nearest CC to write in the condolence book and in our own small way, honour the man, they have the privilege to share a birthday with. I always tell them even if they are able to do a fraction of Mr. Lee’s achievements in their life, they would achieve a lot in this life. 

 

Goodbye Mr Lee Kwan Yew and a heartfelt THANK YOU for making Singapore what it is today – a place we are proud to call home and be a part of. Each time I come home from a trip, when I land in Changi airport, I am so happy to be home. The Singapore efficiency, especially when you compare to the country you’ve just come from, makes you happy to call this place yours and it is all due to your foresight and planning.

To his family, be strong – the whole of Singapore is with you in your time of grief. 

#ThankyouLKY #RIPLKY #LeeKwanYew

In My Hands Today…

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My Mother-In-Laws Son – Josephine Chia

My Mother-In-Law’s Son centers round a Peranakan woman, Swee Gek, who is in an abusive marriage but is constrained by the limitations of women in her time to take positive action.

Her marriage is further strained by Choy Yan, the eponymous Mother-In-Law of the title whose values are archaic and patriarchal. Taking place in a 1949 -1950 Singapore that is just recovering from the onslaught of the Japanese War, Swee Gek’s Chinese husband, Wong Kum Chong, is inadvertently drawn into participating in Communist activity against the Colonial Government by a communist agitator, Teng Xin Nan.

Narrated from the perspectives of different characters, My Mother-In-Law’s Son is a revealing story of a Singapore and her people struggling to find their feet in the aftermath of a war. It also shows how people going through difficult circumstances can be susceptible to revolutionary ideas. Through Swee Gek’s personal fight against her oppressors, this novel also explores the meaning of love: of whether love can be unconditional or that it is always accompanied by possessiveness.

2015 Week 11 Updates

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A very uneventful week for us. The children has their school holidays about which I mentioned yesterday. 

Work has been pretty much in a suspended state for me now. My new boss comes in in the end of April and that’s when I plan to speak to him about my future here. But, I did start one thing though – I contacted a resume writing company and have started working with them to get my resume properly done. Even if I stay on here, I am sure they will want to see a copy of my resume. So it better to have a nice, polished copy 😊

Woke up today to learn that another of Singapore’s founding fathers (random thought – why are there hardly any founding mothers?) and Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kwan Yew passed away early this morning. He had been in hospital for more than a month now and in the last week had been deteriorating almost daily. 

 RIP Mr. Lee. 

You were perhaps the single person who was the architect of Singapore’s sucess and in my opinion the person responsible for making Singapore what it is today – a first world country! You will be sorely missed, especially since Singapore celebrates its 50th year of Independence this year.#RIPLKY

We actually share something with LKY – BB & GG were born on his 80th birthday and I remember the nurses in the hospital asking me if I had planned this! I always tell BB & GG that even if they achieve in their lives, a tenth of what Mr. Lee did, they would still have done so much and be so much successful…

Chinese New Year

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Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xin Nian Quai Le

With these words, the Chinese diaspora across the world welcomed the Year of the Sheep yesterday. This is also called the Spring Festival in China and is traditionally celebrated for 15 days. The Chinese New Year is also called the Lunar New Year.

The Lunar New Year is a time to honour both deities and ancestors and is celebrated not only in China, but also in countries with significant  Chinese populations like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines etc.

Regional differences ensure differing customs across the diaspora, but cleaning the homes thoroughly before the new year, buying new clothes for everyone in the family, putting up auspicious sayings and calligraphy in the home, giving away ‘luck-money’ in the form of angpows or red packets and having a reunion dinner on the eve of the new year are common across different dialect groups.

According to tales and legends, the beginning of the Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One day a villager decided to get revenge of the Nian. A god visited him and told him to put red paper on his house and to place firecrackers. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. When the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu’s mount. (source Wikipedia)

The first two days of the Chinese New Year is a public holiday in many countries, including Singapore and when it comes at the beginning or end of a work week, like this year, it means a long weekend!

Many workplaces will have a special Chinese New Year lunch and lio-hei or yusheng for their employees. Lo Hei or the Prosperity toss is something which is pretty unique to Singapore and Malaysia and maybe other parts of ASEAN. The lo hei usually has fish served with white radish, carrots, capsicum, turnips, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, daun limau nipis (key lime leaves), Chinese parsley, chilli, jellyfish, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder and other ingredients, laced with a sauce using plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil, for a total of 27 ingredients. While putting each ingredient, auspicious couplets are said, each with a special meaning, to increase your prosperity in the coming year. Then everyone in the table grabs a pair of chopsticks and toss the ingredients in the air, repeating the auspicious wishes while doing so, the reasoning being, the higher you toss, the better your luck for the year. Some people believe that if the ingredients fall on your head, you will be very lucky that year!

My workplace had a lo-hei earlier this week, but I was held up and by the time I reached the place for lunch, the lo-hei was over…

In My Hands Today…

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Bitter Sweet Harvest – Chan Ling Yap

Bitter Sweet HarvestSet in a Malaysia emerging from the outbreak of racial conflict in 1969, Bitter-Sweet Harvest tells of the difficulties and tensions involved in a marriage between a Malay Muslim and a Chinese Christian. Atmospheric, dramatic, action-packed and intriguing, it is peppered with local flavour evoking the heat, colours and sounds of Southeast Asia. Prepare to be taken on a spell-binding journey through contrasting cultures: from the learned spires of Oxford in England to the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia; from vibrant Singapore to Catholic Rome and developing Indonesia.