It brought to my mind my school days. It reminisces the times I was engrossed in Mr LKK's history class with his verbose almost theatric narrations of events of history as if LKK was a time traveller glancing at events through a panoramic crystal ball!
The very same approach is used by the compere of an ongoing history podcast in commemoration of Singapore's 50 years of existence as a nation. Of course, the history of Singapore cannot exist without Malaysia's, it may appear like as a subtle gesture to put straight Malaysia's own history!
The interesting thing about history is that it has a weird sense of humour, repeats itself and in its own way tells us, "I told you so!". We think we are wiser, only to repeat the whole fiasco all over again in another way.
I heard about a certain strike by rickshaw pullers in 1919...
Rickshaw pulling was the go-to job for unskilled job then. You do not need capital. All you need was brute energy and the tenacity to work. The rickshaws were owned by rich businessmen who decided to raise the daily rent. The pullers were naturally unhappy as the living condition was hard and competition was stiff.
Their plight was not the highest on the owners' list. The owners, if fed-up with workers, would just bring ever-willing coolies from overseas who willing to work for peanut and would dance to their tunes. The officials were not bothered. They saw the rickshaws as an eyesore, not in keeping with the city's clean image. The pullers were a source of many social ills like opium smoking. Anyway, they slowed down traffic, speeding at man's speed only. How could the officials then try out their spanking new automobiles which is their signal of their status symbol! The powers that be decided that the pullers themselves should settle their problem.
Well, how about the urban poor could had to depend on public transportation? The officials saw the public transportation as functional even though it was only skeletal and was hardly subsided by the colonial masters and was pathetic at best.
Plans by other private entities to introduce other models of transportation was met with great resistance by the cartels and their same minded officials. In the end, it was time to put down the rickshaw handles! Does that ring a bell?
Come to think of it...
I remember a time a couple of centuries ago in Indian and Malayan history when a certain delegate from aland far away landing on their shores spreading the peace with gifts of love and kinship with the sole purpose of spreading business. They were talking new jargons friendly bonding and 'win-win' situation like it not already there. Was it not a co-incidence that their arrival marked many uncertainties and pandemonium? And what do you know? Visitors became peace brokers who later became buddies with our leaders and before long we were dictating what is best for the nation. Think TPP! (Topple People Plans, To Pulverise Plebeians)
Anyway, Man has been trying to make sense of the best formula for prosperity. Whether the prosperity is meant for all or just merely to satisfy his own 'selfish gene', it will be answered in time. Again and again, we have seen the losers of the economic game come out in droves demanding for bread and blood in their pitchforks. It happened even before Bastille and Rasputin.
The very same approach is used by the compere of an ongoing history podcast in commemoration of Singapore's 50 years of existence as a nation. Of course, the history of Singapore cannot exist without Malaysia's, it may appear like as a subtle gesture to put straight Malaysia's own history!
The interesting thing about history is that it has a weird sense of humour, repeats itself and in its own way tells us, "I told you so!". We think we are wiser, only to repeat the whole fiasco all over again in another way.
I heard about a certain strike by rickshaw pullers in 1919...
Rickshaw pulling was the go-to job for unskilled job then. You do not need capital. All you need was brute energy and the tenacity to work. The rickshaws were owned by rich businessmen who decided to raise the daily rent. The pullers were naturally unhappy as the living condition was hard and competition was stiff.
Their plight was not the highest on the owners' list. The owners, if fed-up with workers, would just bring ever-willing coolies from overseas who willing to work for peanut and would dance to their tunes. The officials were not bothered. They saw the rickshaws as an eyesore, not in keeping with the city's clean image. The pullers were a source of many social ills like opium smoking. Anyway, they slowed down traffic, speeding at man's speed only. How could the officials then try out their spanking new automobiles which is their signal of their status symbol! The powers that be decided that the pullers themselves should settle their problem.
Well, how about the urban poor could had to depend on public transportation? The officials saw the public transportation as functional even though it was only skeletal and was hardly subsided by the colonial masters and was pathetic at best.
Plans by other private entities to introduce other models of transportation was met with great resistance by the cartels and their same minded officials. In the end, it was time to put down the rickshaw handles! Does that ring a bell?
Come to think of it...I remember a time a couple of centuries ago in Indian and Malayan history when a certain delegate from aland far away landing on their shores spreading the peace with gifts of love and kinship with the sole purpose of spreading business. They were talking new jargons friendly bonding and 'win-win' situation like it not already there. Was it not a co-incidence that their arrival marked many uncertainties and pandemonium? And what do you know? Visitors became peace brokers who later became buddies with our leaders and before long we were dictating what is best for the nation. Think TPP! (Topple People Plans, To Pulverise Plebeians)
Anyway, Man has been trying to make sense of the best formula for prosperity. Whether the prosperity is meant for all or just merely to satisfy his own 'selfish gene', it will be answered in time. Again and again, we have seen the losers of the economic game come out in droves demanding for bread and blood in their pitchforks. It happened even before Bastille and Rasputin.
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