Learning from history

Well, well, well, let me see. Been a week since my last post here. Not that I've run out of ideas on what to comment on. On the contrary, I was just busy with work. Got an internal audit coming up tomorrow, followed by an internal review, which will then be followed by the actual external audit. Damn, that's hard to even think about.

OK, enough about work, this blog's about me and my thoughts, not my job.

A lot has happened in this little red dot on the world atlas. The murderer/executioner of the businessman in Serangoon has, at last, been caught, in KL, of all places. Thank God for that. Just when we thought the streets are safe, another murder case echoes through the airwaves. a 2-year old girl allegedly murdered by her own doting stepdad. Having gone missing since 1st March, a search was conducted by the Police and relatives of the girl culminating in the discover of the body on the 4th. What was worse was the fact that the stepdad maintained that he didn't know what happened to her and pleaded with the public to assist in finding the victim. If it were a movie, he'd have gotten my vote for best actor.

Whatever the motive or the circumstances, both crimes, to me, are unforgivable. There is no justification for cold-blooded murder. I say, let's string them up, and then drawn, emasculated and quartered. Come to think of it, such medieval and archaic punishment wouldn't be out of place considering the crime.

Ooohhh, talking about history.....

The recent passing of Mr S Rajaratnam made me think. How many of us knew who he was and what his contributions were? Well, from the deserved publicity the man got, some of us has finally begun to rediscover our national heritage and history. I mean, talk about the old guard of the government, people like, Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Othman Wok, Dr Toh Chin Chye, Mr David Marshall and a lot of other dignitaries, how many of us had ever even heard of their names, let alone knew of the significance of their contributions? How many of us can tell who penned the Majulah Singapura and who came up with the National Flag?

I remember flipping through the old secondary school history textbooks and reading about how Dr Sun Yat Sen became the Father of modern China, how Sang Nila Utama discovered Singapore, how Raffles founded Singapore and the history of the Straits Settlements. The thing about learning history is that we must be able to relate history and learn from it. Do we know what caused the racial riots of the 1950s and 1960s? How do we relate the founding of modern China to Singapore's growth and independence? I think it's about time for our Education Ministry to rethink the syllabus and ensure such figures and events which shaped our national identity are not forgotten.

I've never really spoken about the root of the problems which I've had. I think I had better pen it down somewhere, and it just so happens that I have an online blog!!!!!!!!! What convenience!!!!!!!!

What better way to wash your dirty linen than online. I think I'll leave it for another day. A day's worth of blog ain't enough to quell my anger and frustration.