Singapore
Brief History:
14th C -
Singapore referred to
commonly as Singapura (Sanskrit for Lion City).
1819 -
Singapore founded by
Sir Stamford Raffles
15th Feb. 1942 - Singapore
fell to the Japanese and was renamed Syonan-To (Light of the South Island)
1st April 1946 -
Singapore became a crown
colony
3rd June 1959 - End of colonial
rule
9th August 1965 - Independence
and hence celebrated as our National Day.
For more detailed history, visit
http://www.sg/flavour/history.html
Significant Historical Sites: Sites
in Singapore that are worth conserving
Location: Southeast
Asia, at the tip of Malaysia (errr...no specific information since
I'm not all that informed :Þ). Oh yah...Singapore is an island...and
we have no city or capital...she's just plain Singapore :)
Climate: Equatorial
region...so the weather's generally hot and wet throughout the year...no
snow for us *sob sob*. Seems like global warming
is increasing our mean temperature steadily. So let's get together
and STOP THIS PHENOMENON before
it melts all of us!
Languages:
English, Mandarin, Malay,
Tamil and various dialects which are
unfortunately dying out because of their association with the less prestigious.
Singlish has a somewhat similar fate as the
dialects, because most of the population view it as 'broken' English and
hence something to be corrected. But what they don't realize is that
people do speak it consciously and it's just ANOTHER form of English rather
than a mutated one. Lecturers in my university teaching the English
Language has argued that we should refer to Singlish as Singapore
English to give it a better name. And of course there's all
the debate going on about the fact that English was nothing like the modern
day English in ancient times. So for all you know, Singapore English
may survive after all!
Religions:
Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity,
Catholicism and others
Population Composition: Multiracial
society with namely Chinese, Malay, Indian and
Others (all of those who do not fit into the
other 3 categories). This is the CMIO model the government uses.
Famous People (besides Lee Kuan
Yew :Þ): Kit Chan/Chen Jieyi (singer),
Liang Wen Fu, Li Sisong & Li Weisong, Mavis Hee/Xu Meijing (singer),
Dick Lee, Jimmy Ye/Ye Liangjun...etc
Guinness Book of Records:
Largest pizza (diameter 33.9m),
Fastest noodle maker (8,192 strings in 59.29sec),
Longest satay (83m),
Tallest wedding cake (14m, 71 tiers),
Longest apple strudel (25.6m),
Biggest mass aerobic workout (30,517),
Largest musical chairs party (8,238),
Longest human centipede (1,601),
Longest chain of toys (1,700 toys, 388.6m),
Longest paper-clip chain (31.572km),
Largest balloon display (54,258),
Largest bottlecap pyramid (263,810),
Longest chain of canoe rafts (376 canoes),
Longest stuffed toy (toy dragon, 500m),
Fastest vertical marathoner (up 1,336 steps of the Westin
Stamford in 6min 55sec),
Largest batik painting (300m),
Largest Chinese lantern (7m long, 2.5m wide),
Longest carolling session (27 members, 74hrs 5min),
Most babies born in maternity hospital (39,835 babies
delivered at KK Women's and Children's Hospital in 1966),
World's tallest hotel (Westin Stamford, 226.1m),
Smallest domestic cat (drain cats/Kuchinta, 2kg),
World's biggest fountain (Suntec City, base area 1,683.07sq
m).
National Anthem: Majulah
Singapura (children referred to it as Mari Kita because that's how it starts...wonder
if they still do it now?).
President:
S. R. Nathan
National Day:
9th Aug. 1965
Singapore Bashing?
Clarification: I'd
like to inform those who're not aware of this that it is definitely NOT
true that Singaporeans have a custom of tossing out their pet cats during
certain festivals for good luck. I've never heard such silly nonsense
before. And in case anyone still believes that Singaporeans are complicit
with animals abusers, it's time they took a real good look at the local
newspapers The Straits Times instead of doing so selectively. If
they noticed, there was a great outcry over the light sentence a man got
for bashing his neighbours' dog to death. No one accepted his lame
excuse that he did so because the dog had chased his daughter and caused
her to fall down. Now who still say that we are a nation of animal
abusers? I myself am a cat lover...and I'd feel equally outraged
if I saw such abusive behaviour in others.
For those who're interested, they can take a look at
the 'Singapore bashing' in the following sites. But I must warn them
first that a lot of antagonism will be raised if s/he proceeds to the sites.
http://www.sniksnak.com/singapore.html
http://members.tripod.com/~HouseofCats/singapore.html
http://www.wizard.net/~peacock/kitkat4.htm