Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Remembering December 8

Bad things do happen on December 8, not just in Little India, and some events of historical note include:

1941 - Surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan) led to the United States' entry into World War II.

1949 - Chiang Kai-shek and his remaining Chinese Nationalist Party (known as the Kuomintang or KMT) forces fled the Chinese mainland and moved to the island of Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted people critical of his rule in a period known as the "White Terror".

1962 - Sheik A.M. Azahari of nationalist Partai Rakyat Brunei (PRB) mounted a failed coup in Brunei, after the Sultan of Brunei ignored the election results of August 1962 to press forward with his own pro-federation policy .

1963 - 3 fuel tanks exploded when Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707-121 registered as N709PA, was en route from Baltimore to Philadelphia, when it crashed near Elkton, Maryland after being hit by lightning, killing all 81 on board.

1980 - John Lennon was shot in the back four times by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of his New York apartment in the Dakota. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.

1987 - Occupied Palestinians start First Palestinian Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which lasted from December 1987 to 1993.

1994 - China's deadliest fire in 15 years at the Friendship Hall cinema in Karamay killed more than 310, most of them children performing and watching a cultural show, unable to escape because all but one of the doors were padlocked and the iron bars blocked the windows.

2012 - Philippine President Benigno Aquino, announced a state of national calamity after Typhoon Bopha claimed over 450 lives, the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit Mindanao, making landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 175 mph (280 km/h).

Depending on whether you find housing really affordable in Singapore, you may wish to add one more:

1952 - Minister Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang, Malaysia. Best remembered as the guy who paid just $8 for a bypass surgery, all because he had signed up for the MediShield scheme. Also suggested that Singaporeans can consider sending their elderly parents to nursing homes in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which are more affordable to lower-income Singaporeans. And defended National Parks Board's (NParks) purchase of Brompton foldable bikes for its officers because "the decision on the foldable bikes could be justified."

16 comments:

  1. KBW is the curse of Singaporeans.

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    1. and it will be the same with LeeBW, IreneNg, Puthucheary, if they end up as ministers, courtesy of PM Lee.
      Remember Chan SK, the ex CJ ? Recall how our 3 stooges Tony, Lau Goh and Ah Loong were let off the hook by his Kangaroo logic ?

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    2. Well, KBW's heart bypass cost him coincidentally $8.

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  2. Dec 8, the PAP had it's party convention at the Kallang Theatre, the same Kallang-Moulmein GRC as Little India. While these like-minded weazils were toasting and feeding off each other, Keechiu made his "we shall fight everywhere" speech, and Little India was going up in flames just a stone's throw away.

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    1. Didn't Roosevelt say something about a "day of infamy"?

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    2. Shamugam : There is no evidence the workers are unhappy with the G or employers.

      Going by that logic, we now have the following :

      Unhappy people go online and troll.
      Happy people go burn cars and riot.

      It's hard for conspiracy theorist not to believe that when Keechiu says he will battle every street corner and cyber corner, "a confluence of events" had triggered and led to the event in little india.

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    3. Day of Infamy was declared on 7 December

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    4. Happy people go for Happy Hour, then,
      Happy people go burn cars and riot.

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  3. so now we get a little clearer as to why a traffic accident could snowball into a 400-men free for all with batman cars and ambulance apparently abandoned. The party convention followed by birthday bash must have required the close attention of the top police commanders and their gurkhas bodyguards. Cannot be at 2 places at once can they? Ok, COI can start writing their version of "report" now.

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  4. The Shit Times did not see it fit to devote the once-in-40-years riots at Little India as the headlines for the next day papers but have it reported in a sub-page that did not catch anybody's attention. At first I thought it was something that happened in India.

    Was it because they paid more particular attention to that PAP Convention just like the official mouthpiece of PRC's communist party?

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    Replies
    1. Of course... That's why I stop reading Shit Times. Always hiding important news and displaying propaganda.

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  5. 1998 – Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.

    2007 – Three unidentified gunmen storm an office of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party in Balochistan. Three PPP supporters are killed.

    2009 – Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 and injure 448.

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  6. Oh please........

    The Date nothing to do what happened that Day

    It was the anger, frustration and helplessness that had caused the flare.

    Do be mindful that the anger is mounting.

    patriot

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    Replies
    1. Says you....

      Don't anyhow say okay, today is Friday the Thirteenth hor........

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  7. 天搭下来当被盖.
    When the Sky collapses, use it
    as a blanket. Literally meaning
    face and respond to the situation as it happens. Face the challenge and make the best out of it.
    Worse comes to worst, perishes as destined.

    Those who go to war must be prepared to die.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete