I just realised that at least two large chapters in the SS syllabus deal with this highly debatable and sticky issue. Our prime minister came forward to say that in sports, there is nothing wrong in it as every country does it. That may be true, but even if many people do something, does that make it right?Check this out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7574379.stm
Tan Dawn Wei in the Straits Times was arguing that in age of Globalisation, citizenship is a very fluid thing. There are literally millions of people in the world who are living and working in places not of their birth. And like reasons our own ancestors came to this small island, people still move to find better opportunities and lives. to live better and for their children to live better. We cannot fault people for wanting that.
The issue then becomes one of loyalty, patriotism, nationhood and the integrity of sports. Many intangible concepts which are prized but are not easily defined. We, Singapore have been accused by others in the SEA games for fielding a China team and there is some truth to that. All our table-tennis girls are born in PRC.
This makes for a complex issue. We cannot fault them for wanting better opportunities by coming here. There is no question in that. But what we should expect are the accusations that we are buying our medals and incapable of producing our own. This statement has quite a strong element of truth in it and it is a deliberate policy on the part of the government. But, at the rate the immigration is going, the non-Singapore born in Singapore will make up half of the country and when that happens, fielding such teams is inevitable. This is happening all over the world and nothing can stop this tide.
For me, I think that the spirit of sports in a nation is the most important. Get people to like it, get people involved and slowly, somethings will come. In Singapore, sometimes we focus too much on results and not the process. Hopefully the youth games can change that. This is one issue to tackle, do we really need these players or could we slowly do well ourselves? That is the question we should try to answer as a nation.
Maybe our Olympic success is a true reflection of Singapore now. Achievement through new immigrants and the need for them in order to survive. One thing's for sure, our Singaporean identity is sure to be in caught up in the complexities of globalisation.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
World War II
So...Whose fault was it? Pointing fingers was never an easy job and you always have to think long and hard, evaluate all causes before you can reach a conclusion, which, usually is never straight forward.
Let's take a simple but morbid example. A man points a gun at another man points the trigger and fires. He kills the man. A week later he is arrested. He says that it was an argument and the gun misfired. The gun itself has gone absolutely missing. Untraceable. There is only one other witness who did not see the shooting but says that the murdered dude told him that he was going to start an argument to get himself killed. Question is: who is responsible for this man's death? Is it the arrested man, the witness, the gun or the man himself?
The truth is often murky and very often we must evaluate a situation based on what we know. One of the most cherished skills of a historian is being able to evaluate according to the evidences presented like a detective, forming a picture from the pieces of jigsaw.(hint: this is what you do in source-based). Some pieces smell iffy, some are useless, some slant the image according to what it wants to see. So you must sort through each piece, pick at it, dissect the meaning and see the nuances of what its trying to do. After all, humans are imperfect and every evidence presented by anyone comes with perspectives.
But I digress, think about this, when we truly evaluate any event of situation, we can follow the lines of logic but most of the time, we make value judgements on what is important and what is not. Even being practical involves a value judgement. So begs the question, what do we value the most? Is it money? Is it honor amongst friends? Is it the ability to do what's right regardless of the consequences? Or is it self preservation?
It is with these do we finally come to any type of conclusion.
Let's take a simple but morbid example. A man points a gun at another man points the trigger and fires. He kills the man. A week later he is arrested. He says that it was an argument and the gun misfired. The gun itself has gone absolutely missing. Untraceable. There is only one other witness who did not see the shooting but says that the murdered dude told him that he was going to start an argument to get himself killed. Question is: who is responsible for this man's death? Is it the arrested man, the witness, the gun or the man himself?
The truth is often murky and very often we must evaluate a situation based on what we know. One of the most cherished skills of a historian is being able to evaluate according to the evidences presented like a detective, forming a picture from the pieces of jigsaw.(hint: this is what you do in source-based). Some pieces smell iffy, some are useless, some slant the image according to what it wants to see. So you must sort through each piece, pick at it, dissect the meaning and see the nuances of what its trying to do. After all, humans are imperfect and every evidence presented by anyone comes with perspectives.
But I digress, think about this, when we truly evaluate any event of situation, we can follow the lines of logic but most of the time, we make value judgements on what is important and what is not. Even being practical involves a value judgement. So begs the question, what do we value the most? Is it money? Is it honor amongst friends? Is it the ability to do what's right regardless of the consequences? Or is it self preservation?
It is with these do we finally come to any type of conclusion.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Cold War
There are many issues regarding the Cold War. If you think really hard about it, it seems almost like a little boy's school yard brawl taken to a global scale. Which of course got a bit scary with the Cuban Missile Crisis. But thinking about it, if i could sum up all the reasons for the war, it should the lack of communications, and communal hysteria fueled by politicians with their own agendas for making people believe what they wanted them to believe.
Its a bit sad, but many of the veterans who fought in the Cold War on the American side were seldom welcomed back as heroes. Some were even villified as they returned. This was a huge change from the scenes of jubilation that greeted the vets returning from WWII. What changed? Was it that people realised that the war was just not worth it? Did some people think that they were fighting the war the wrong way? Of course. Esp during the 1960s and 1970s. But thats a whole different topic althogether.
If you look at the speeches of Kennedy and Krushev, we have to be thankful that these men were not as insane as they seemed to be and Kennedy especially, the global implications of both countries hitting out at each other. Its almost like an old western with two gunmen facing off but luckily, these gunmen are quite smart to know about the kind of gun they both had. Krushev came off worse and was replaced because of the way he handled the situation. Kennedy unfortunately was assasinated in 1963 by what was believed to be a lone gunman (which is another point of historical contention).
Looking back, whose fault is it? Why not ask Cuba? They should know. Castro is still alive. but they often get ignored in discussions. Too small an island. (sound familar?)
Strangely, we still are arguing about the crisis even til today and it is a hot topic that perhaps can never truly have one answer. So it boils down to our own value systems to make the judgement.
Its a bit sad, but many of the veterans who fought in the Cold War on the American side were seldom welcomed back as heroes. Some were even villified as they returned. This was a huge change from the scenes of jubilation that greeted the vets returning from WWII. What changed? Was it that people realised that the war was just not worth it? Did some people think that they were fighting the war the wrong way? Of course. Esp during the 1960s and 1970s. But thats a whole different topic althogether.
If you look at the speeches of Kennedy and Krushev, we have to be thankful that these men were not as insane as they seemed to be and Kennedy especially, the global implications of both countries hitting out at each other. Its almost like an old western with two gunmen facing off but luckily, these gunmen are quite smart to know about the kind of gun they both had. Krushev came off worse and was replaced because of the way he handled the situation. Kennedy unfortunately was assasinated in 1963 by what was believed to be a lone gunman (which is another point of historical contention).
Looking back, whose fault is it? Why not ask Cuba? They should know. Castro is still alive. but they often get ignored in discussions. Too small an island. (sound familar?)
Strangely, we still are arguing about the crisis even til today and it is a hot topic that perhaps can never truly have one answer. So it boils down to our own value systems to make the judgement.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Beginnings
The purposes of this blog are fairly simple.
I have been frustrated that I have little time to establish a history club and having being inspired by one of the speakers at the ICT conference, I decided this might be a good idea.
As an experiment, I shall leave this open to comments and participation for this year and see where it goes.
I will try to post each week and focus on the lessons that I taught during that week. What I'll definately do is bring up more critical questions and share my thoughts on pervasive or nagging issues on each topic.
This can be thought of as musings and discussions beyond the four walls of the classroom and is meant to be provocative and hopefully enriching.
If you do get thinking by the posts or post comments yourself. Then congratulations.
You are a member of the secret history club. Welcome. :)
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