Singapore Short History

      According to legend Singapore was founded centuries ago when a prince from Sumatra landed on the island and saw a lion. He took it as a good omen and founded a city called Singapura (Singapore's old name ), which means lion city. The legend may or may not be true. In fact the name Singapura was not recorded until the 16th century and Singapore was really only a trading post with a small population not a city.

Modern Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826).

Raffles became a clerk for the British East India Company in 1795. He rose rapidly in the company. In 1805 he was sent to Penang and in 1811 he was made Lieutenant Governor of Java.

In 1818 Raffles was made governor of Bencoolen on the island of Sumatra. Raffles believed the British should establish a base on the Straits of Melaka and in 1819 he landed on the island of Singapore. The island consisted of swamps and jungle with a small population but Raffles realized it could be made into a useful port.

At that time two men were vying to become Sultan of the Empire of Johor, which controlled Singapore. In 1812 the Sultan died and his two sons quarreled over the succession. Raffles supported the older brother Hussein and recognized him as Sultan. Raffles made a deal with him. The British East India Company was given Singapore in return for an annual payment. In 1824 the Company was given the island in return for a lump sum of money.

The British established a new trading post at Singapore and it grew very rapidly. As well as Europeans, Malays, Chinese, Indians and Arabs came to live and work there. By 1824 the population had risen to 10,000.

In 1826 Singapore was joined with Melaka and Pelang to form the Straits Settlements. In 1867 Singapore became a Crown Colony ruled directly by the British government rather than the East India Company. By 1870 the population of Singapore had risen to 100,000.

Many grand buildings were erected in Singapore in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among them was the Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, which was built in 1862.

Several temples were built at that time including the Thian Hock Keng Temple,

which was built in 1842. The Sri Marimman Temple was first built in 1823

but it was rebuilt in 1843. The Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple was built in 1855.

The Leong San See Temple was built in 1917.

The Sakaya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple was built in 1927.

When the Suez canal was built in 1869 Singapore became even more important as a 'gateway' between Europe and eastern Asia.

In the early 20th century Singapore continued to prosper. Huge amounts of rubber and tin from the region were exported from Singapore. Meanwhile Chinese immigrants continued to arrive.

Then in January 1942 the Japanese conquered Malaysia. On 15 February 1942 Singapore was forced to surrender. The Japanese called Singapore Yonan, which means Light of the South but their rule was tyrannical. Thousands of Chinese Singaporeans were executed.


However Japan surrendered in August 1945 and on 5 September 1945 the British re-occupied Singapore.

However after 1945 Singapore slowly moved towards independence. In 1946 the Strait Settlements were dissolved and Singapore was separated from Malaysia. The People's Action Party was formed in 1954 and it proved to be a major force in Singaporean politics. In 1955 a new constitution was introduced. Under it 25 out of 32 members of the legislature were elected. In 1957 it was replaced by an elected 51 member legislature. The Peoples Action Party led by Lee Kuan Yew won 43 out of 51 seats.

Self government was granted in 1959. Lee Kuan Yew became prime minister.

In 1963 Singapore joined with Malaysia. However the union was short lived. Singapore left in 1965 and became completely independent.

From 1965 to the 1990s Singapore enjoyed rapid economic growth. By the 1990s it was an NIC (newly industrialized country) and the people had a high standard of living. However the government was authoritarian and society was strictly controlled.

In 1990 Lee Kuan Yew resigned as prime minister. He was replaced by Goh Chok Tong. He introduced a more liberal regime. Today Singapore is a prosperous nation and its economy is growing steadily. Singapore is also a very busy port. Today the population of Singapore is 5.6 million.

The not "LAOSY" Laos Trip

10/12/2016
Welcome to another blog about trip. This time, we are going to Laos. A country that has no ocean, a country that is surrounded by China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. We arrived an airport at Vientiane called Wattay International Airport. This airport was a gift from Japan, because Laos didn't really have enough money to afford an airport. Now u know how poor is that country. But wait, there are good things about that country too. We meet up with our tour guide named Raymon. He is actually my mom little sister's friend husband. This is the group name list:

-Me
-Mom
-Dad
-Little brother
-Raymon
-His wife                       A.K.A my mom little sister's friend, Gaik Lan Cheah
-His daughter                A.K.A  Angelina Foo
-His little daughter        A.K.A  Magdelina Foo
-A uncle that i forget his name
-A auntie that i forget her name
-Yi Liang
-Yi Guan

We travel by a travelling van, but Uncle Raymon and his family travelled by a Hilux. The first place we went was a hawker centre that sells Laos noodle. It was nice, really nice. Then we head off to a temple named That Luang.

There we saw an enormous sleeping Buddha beside this golden temple.

After that, we taste the fruits that Uncle Raymon's friend sell. I don't really know whether he is the one who planted it. We leave That Luang after we tasted the fruits, and went to check in to our hotel named New Rose Hotel. I will just call it New Rose from now on. We placed our stuff there and brought the important things on our side. We had lunch at a restaurant beside the New Rose. It's a Thai Food Restaurant. Don't ask me why we are eating Thai Food while we are in Laos. By the way, we head off to French Protectorate of Laos. 

It is beautiful for me. This is like a castle or you can also call it a gate I guess. French gave it Laos when Laos became an independent country. Then we went to visit a place that produce Edible Bird's Nest.

It's not really that huge. Uncle Raymon also let us taste the Edible Bird's Nest that they produce. It's sweet. Sadly, one person can only have one bowl. Then, we head off to another temple. This temple is called Wat Si Muang. 

They have many god's statue there. How many??? More than one. We went back to New Rose to rest for a while. After that, we went to have our dinner. The dinner was a BBQ buffet. At New Sabaidee. My opinion to the restaurant is their ventilation is very bad. When you move in to the restaurant you will just see smoke.

Just took these picture online.

Then we call it a day.

11/12/2016

We had our breakfast at New Rose. Then the van come to pick us up. The first location for today is Buddha Park. 

There so many statues there and there is a special thing there. It looks like a huge vase and inside is full of statues.

You can climb up because there are stairs inside. And you can also go on top of it. It is very high, how high? My mom can’t even  stand up when she is on top of that vase. That place was one of my favourites. After that, we went to a waterfall. 

When we arrived, the driver lock me and my cousin in the van, because we fell asleep. LOL. The water was cold. We just had our lunch right there and me, my cousin, my dad, and Yi Liang got to taste fried cricket. 

It was cricketlicious (THIS JOKE IS COPYRIGHTED) . Hahahahahahahahahaha. Nice joke. By the way, we went back to New Rose to change our cloths. After changing, we had our dinner at a Chinatown. Then we head off to a night market which is beside Mekong River. 

The night market is 1.2 km long. It’s incredible. But I bought nothing because I didn’t follow my mom or my dad. I followed Uncle Raymon to play. And what I play was throwing arrows to balloons and get a Coke. It sounds boring but it’s fun. And we went back to New Rose and call it a day.

12/12/2016

Today, we are leaving Vientiane to go to another exciting place called Vang Vieng. Although the name of it was Vang Vieng, but it’s pronunciation is Vang Viang. Pretty complicated huh??? We stop at a rest area to use the toilet. 

There we saw enormous avocado. My mom bought them, because why not? We continue our road to Vang Vieng. After 4 hours, from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. We had reach our destination. We first check in to our hotel. It’s not really a hotel because that place was called Domon Guesthouse.

Anyway we put our luggage there and go find a place to eat. In the end we just ate western and Laos food at a restaurant near our hotel. The price was so expensive, that is why there is not many people in that restaurant. To be honest, except us, there is only one tourist in that restaurant only. After lunch, we head off to a beautiful lagoon called Blue Lagoon. 

The water there is clean, you can even see wild fish swimming there. Awesome right? There is 1 thing you need to beware there, and that is don’t go into the water without a life jacket if you don’t know how to swim because is very deep. But I don’t  know how deep is it. By the way, there is a tree there and what is special about that tree? I will tell you, because of that tree’s branch is hard and growing towards the water. I don’t know who but someone just made it into a I don’t know what is it called. You can climb up that tree and stand on that branch. And if you are brave enough, you can just jump of that branch and fall into the water. Damn cool. 

That branch is like 3 meters above the water. It sounds is not really that high. But it is really high if you are the one who is standing on it. Oh yeah there is also a lower one for little kids. It is only like 1.5 meters above water. There is also a slide there but not as fun as that branch. Blue Lagoon is also one of my favourite place in Laos. We return to Domon to change our cloths. Then we just walk out and find food to eat because there are many stall that sells food in front of Domon. 

We bought some of the food they sell and bring it to a restaurant to eat. We just order some drinks and extra food from that restaurant. Is nice but the mosquitoes keep interrupting us. Oh yeah about the food we bought from the stall. The food is like Roti Canai but is a Roti Canai wrapping random food like bacon, banana, onion slices, tomato and stuff like that. 

It was delicious. Then after having dinner, we had something special for dessert. It’s not ice cream nor John Cena. Its pork and there is also rice above it. 

                                     

It was nice. Best one yet. Then we call it a day.

13/12/2016

Another day in Laos, and time to guess what we had breakfast. We had the same thing last night we had. We had the food from the stall in front of Domon because why not. Today we are going to go tubing, what is tubing you ask? Go Google it, but now I will just explain for you. Thank me. Just kidding. Tubing=you will be sitting in the hole of the tyre and then you will float on water. Easy as ZYX (THIS IS ANOTHER COPYRIGHTED JOKE). 

We went to a random place where you can go for tubing. We took our tyre and sat on it. We grab the string and we pull our self into a cave which has water inside. Duh. Inside there, it is dark no light no nothing. So before we went into the cave of water a staff there gave us a headlight. Looks a little something like this. The water is cold, Uncle Raymon said the water temperature is at least 12 or 13 degrees. So when I leave the water my teeth was shivering and my legs were numb. Anyway we went back to the hotel not to change because later we are going to go for another tubing adventure. We had instant noodle for our lunch pretty simple huh? But that’s not all, my dad went to bought that Roti Canai food again. LOL. Then we go to another tubing adventure. But this time, Yi Liang and his family didn’t follow because Yi Liang complained that tubing is very hard. First we went to rent a tube……. or you can also call it a tyre pick one you like. Then we head off to our tubing destination. But, unfortunately the tuk tuk we rent suddenly explode. Just kidding, it’s just some problem with the engine. Then he called his partner to send us there. We arrived beside Nam Song river. Why we arrived there. It’s not mistake made by the driver. We are going to tube at the Nam Song river which is 12 km long and it’s going to take at least 3 hour to reach our finish line. Cool right? 

                                       

Although it’s cool but after that I got sun burn. LOL. But it’s worth it. It’s one of my favourite activity. After 3 hour, we arrived at Domon, why Domon? Behind Domon there is a river. And that river behind Domon is called Nam Song river. But when I arrived I heard that Uncle Raymon ring was lost. And then my dad and Uncle Raymon went to find it. And then, they can’t find it. So Uncle Raymon pay 3 local snookers to find his wedding ring and they find it in just 15 minutes. Close one huh? We went to change at Domon and start to search for dinner we ended up having our dinner at a restaurant that sells BBQ. 

Uncle Raymon ordered grilled fish, grilled pork, Taiwanese sausage, vegetables, and mineral water. That is for dinner. Then we call that a day.

14/12/2016

Today is the last day at Vang Vieng. Pretty sad for me because I like Vang Vieng. It has 2 of my favourite things there like that tubing and Blue Lagoon. By the way, I had Laos Noodle for breakfast others just had something else for their breakfast. 

After that, we went back to Domon to tidy up our stuff and start the journey back to Vientiane. In the middle of the journey. We passed by a town that looks like the cowboy town that we always saw on TV. Most of the plants there was orange because it was covered with dirt. 

We arrived at a jetty to have our lunch. This lunch was special because we are going to have our lunch on small sized ferry looks a little something like this. 

After one and a half hour we are back to the jetty where we started. Than we continued our journey back to Vientiane. Then we reached Uncle Raymon’s Laos house, because me, my cousin, my mom little sister and my little brother is going to stay there. So exciting. And the others just stay at New Rose again. Since Uncle Raymon has urgent things to do. We just went to the worst shopping mall I ever seen in my life called Vientiane Centre. Since I said it’s the worst. So we didn’t go shopping we just went to a coffee corner to have drinks. And when Uncle Raymon Is done. We head off to have our dinner. Today’s dinner is BBQ………….again. 

New Sabaidee is better than this one. And then I went back to Uncle Raymon’s Laos house to rest and call it a day.

15/12/2016

This blog is coming to an end because today is the last day at Laos. I woke up early so as everyone and went to New Rose to meet up with mom and dad and the others and went to Wattay International Airport. So we board the airplane and fly back to Malaysia. That’s all. THE END. 

About Steve Jobs

   
     As people around the world wondered if innovation at Apple had stopped with Steve Jobs, we want to share with you a snapshot of the genius’s life.

     How did Steve Jobs start? His life story is not a straight line, but more like a winding path. From his early years it’s clear that Jobs had no grand plan in the beginning. His search for himself took Jobs through India, Buddhism, psychedelic use, attempts to become an astronaut and start a computer company in the Soviet Union.

     However winding his path at time, Jobs did find inspiration and creativity in himself at certain periods of his life. If there is a pattern of creativity and genius that his life can reveal, here is his timeline.

     Steve Jobs summarized his guiding principle in life in 2005 at the commencement at Stanford in a talk titled “How to Live Before You Die”. He said, You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.

     This biography is unusual in the sense that Jobs gave the author complete freedom – he didn’t edit, review or even read the biography. On top of that, Jobs encouraged the author to talk to his former girlfriends, enemies, and employees he fired. Why? Throughout the biography, Jobs’s brutal honesty comes across. Somehow it co-exists with his ability to hype things up. Jobs is not trying to make you like him. But he really wants you to care about what matters to him.
One of the first things we learn about Jobs in the book is that he himself studied biographies of his heroes. Polaroid co-founder, Edwin Land, impressed on him the importance of people who understood both the humanities and the sciences, creating something at the intersection of the two. He just that. Friends from the early days shed light on how Steve Jobs acquired his “reality distortion” – he perfected two skills: staring a person in the eye, and practicing long periods of silence. Combining showmanship, technical knowledge and salesmanship, he became a true hybrid. The biography manages to show Jobs this multi-dimensional personality, with his many contradictions on full display: he does primal scream therapy, audits physics classes at Stanford, grows apples on a commune farm in Oregon, and wants to dedicate his life to spirituality. Conflicted, he unleashes his erratic management style on his many loyal employees at Apple. Once fired, he soul-searches again and comes back a new man, the one most of us know about.

     The story doesn’t end here. Four years later, another biography Becoming Steve Jobs came out to challenge what some people thought was an incomplete picture of Jobs’ personality. While Isaacson’s book focused more on personal life,  Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender chronicles the business decisions and products.

     To understand how Steve Jobs’ role in the history of computers fits with others like  Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Tim Berners-Lee, a comprehensive look at the the entire timeline from Isaacson  The Innovators by Walter Isaacson will put Steve Jobs’ legacy into context.

     Movie directors made many attempts to capture Jobs’ complex persona on screen. The most successful of them is  Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). Even though Jobs himself disliked the script and the director, he liked the acting of his character and personally reached out to him. The latter two movies  Jobs (2013) with Ashton Kutcher and  Steve Jobs (2015) with Michael Fassbender are generally incomplete and non-chronological.

     Although we don’t have anyone quite like Steve Jobs now,  Elon Musk is often compared to him. It turns out the two did meet in person, but the encounter did not go well. Perhaps the world is not looking for a next Steve Jobs, but I think we expect that it takes someone with a vision as big as his to lead this world forward.

Steve's Story

STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH

- Steve Jobs

Barack Obama's STORY

President Barack Obama-------The 44th President in United State of America.

     President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on 4/8/1961.

Father                               Mother
Barack Obama Sir           Stanley Ann Dunham
Kenya, Africa                  Honolulu, Hawaii

     When Obama was still a kid. Every one didn't call him as Barack Obama, Instead everybody give him a nickname as "Barry". When he was only 2 years old his parents split up. His father went back to Kenya, but his mother stayed at Hawaii with Barry. Every morning, his mother will wake him up at 4 o'clock to give him english lesson because she doesn't want Barry's english to be bad. But Barry didn't like it. He would try anything to miss the english lesson, but he failed, his mother won't listen to any of his excuses.

     4 years later (1967) his mother married to a guy name Lolo Soetoro. Barry did not hate him. But instead he liked Lolo right away. Lolo come from Jakarta, Indonesia. When Lolo return to Indonesia, Ann and Barry followed him. At  Jakarta, Barry got a new ape, named Tata. He also got a new baby sister named Maya. Lolo Soetoro also taught Barry Boxing, because he always get picked up by some bullys at the school.

     Then, Barry was sent back to Hawaii, because his mother want him to learn at a better school. So he was sent to Punahou school.

                                                           Punahou school (now)

     At Punahou school, everyone made fun of Barry because he's black. Every one was a racism back then. He always try to fit in with other student. But he fails most of the time. Days pass, he found out that his father was coming to Hawaii. When Barry's father arrived, what he saw was a thin and tall man with a pair of spectacles. That wasn't what he expected, what he was expecting was a man with a heroic and handsome man. Barry didn't really get along with his father because every time Barry wants to watch television, his father would tell him to go do something useful. When he heard that his father wanted to give a speech about Kenya at Barry's class, Barry was shocked and worried about how will his classmate think about his father. But what happened that day was ONIXPECTED.

Get it???

     Everyone liked his father's speech, and someone told Barry that his father was cool. Since that day, Barry started to fell proud of his father. Sometime, Barry's father will teach him some African dance. And sometime they will sit together and read books. But one day, his father went back to Kenya and Barry didn't know that. Maybe he was sleeping?

     Years pass, now Barry is on a basketball team. And everyone gave him a nickname.
Barack O'Bomber.

    His mom and his sister came back from Jakarta and she was no longer married to Lolo. But not for long, his mom went back to Jakarta again for a PhD in anthropology study. In June 1979, Barry graduated from Punahou school.

     After that, Barry went to study at Occidental College. A college at California.

     Barry was very smart, but he never push himself to be the top student. He always talk about politics with his friend. He likes to read American history. Especially  history about black history.
Barry also invited speakers to come talk about South Africa. Barry also decided talk about it too. When he started to talk, he realised that everyone was listening to him. And he like it. 2 years later, Barry was transferred to a new university named Columbia University.

     For summer job, Barry work at a construction site. Sometimes, his mother and sister would come for a visit. Years pass, a letter from Barry's father arrived. Barry's father invited Barry to come to Kenya for a visit. Barry promised to his father that he will go to Kenya when he is graduated. But, one year before Barry graduate, his father passed away. But Barry never give up on his study, he take things more seriously than before. After graduating at Columbia University. Barry moved to Illinois, Chicago and he work as a community organizer. His job was to was to work directly with poor people to fix problems. That job made Barry want to help people even more. And he thought, how can he help people. And he made a conclusion, he can help people with law, so he went to sign up to study at Austin Hall, Harvard. But before school starts, he wanted to go to a place, a place that he wanted to go for a long time......KENYA.

     When he arrived Kenya, he suitcase was lost. It wasn't a good start. But when the bag handler heard that Barry's surname was Obama, he/she was surprise, because in Kenya, Barack Obama Sir is a very famous doctor. Barack Obama come from a small village called Kogelo.

Barry and his grandmother

     He lived in his half sister named Auma's house. Everybody in the village welcome him and Barry felt like home. Barack Obama Sir had 4 wives so Barry has a lot of relatives there. They even had a party just for Barry. He also met his grandmother. His grandmother told Barry his father's story. Barry's grandmother describe Barack Obama Sir as a smart, restless and eager man. Barry went to his father and grandfather's grave. He kneeled and prayed, and cried he was sad. Very sad.

     After a few days in Kenya Barry went back to study. He was one of the top student at Austin Hall.
Instead of making condition himself, he liked to listen to others opinion. One year had already pass, during the holiday, he went to Chicago because he was hired to a big law firm. On his first day, a young and beautiful lady named Michelle showed Barry around the office. Barry liked her because she was smart and has a striking look. After Barry graduated, he went back to Chicago to meet Michelle. Barry was also elected president of the Harvard Law Review. It is a magazine with articles on important question of law. He wrote a book in 1995 and named it.....

     In 1991, Barry and Michelle married at Chicago.

NOT BAD..

     He also took a job at a law firm and also taught at University of Chicago Law School. While Barry is still living happily with his family, something terrible happened, really terrible, Ann passed away. Barry's mother passed away because of cancer, and Barry wasn't there for her. This was the biggest regret of Barry's life. But he didn't give up on his dream of helping people. 1995, Barry won the election and became the government of Illinois. So Barry has to spent part of the week at Springfield, the capital of Illinois and also the home of the Simpsons.

     In 1998, Barry had his first baby girl. He named her Malia.

     This made Barry felt even more guilty whenever he left home for work. Barry also found his work fascinating, because different part of Illinois has different problem. Barry really enjoyed the give and take of working in the Senate.



     In 2001, Malia became a big sister because Michelle just give birth to a new baby girl named Natasha.

     They settled their life as working parents of young child. Michelle work as a staff at the University of Chicago's hospitals. She was in charge of setting up health clinics for the poor.But Barry still remains at Illinois Senate.

     By the following year, something happened to America on September. If you already realised what happened then yes it is. 911. Kabooooooooooooooom. Terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon building In Washington, D.C.

     The terrorists belonged to a Muslim group called Al Qaeda and the leader was Osama Bin Laden.

     This made Barry started thinking about running for a higher office. In 2004, Barry wanted to win his Senate seat badly. Very badly. He spent 2 years to plan his campaign. By the summer of 2004, Barry was chosen to make an important speech called the Kenyote speech. He talked about himself and his dream for America. His speech was by millions of people and overnight he became famous.

     That November Barry won the election in Illinois. 2 years later, Barry announced he was going to run for president. The next election would be on November 4, 2008. But there was one problem, he had only been serving U.S.A for 2 years and nobody had an idea who he was. someone thought his name was Barack Yo-MaMa, Someone thought it was Barack Alabama.