englishblog09

2009-03-26T10:24:00.003-07:00

Journal No. 10 (20th Week): The War Criminals

It is quite common for people to make derogatory remarks on war criminals. Some called them warmongers; others called them pesky creatures of mankind. After the Second World War, there were dictators in a number of countries who caused great loss of human lives, and people were quick to indict them for causing genocides. Some even called them the most reviled crooks of human civilization. However, the concept of war criminal is nebulous. Hideki Tojo and others were trialed as war criminals after the end of Second World War. However, the Japanese defence lawyers argued that they were trialed as war criminals because Japan lost the war. Had America lost the war, the American generals would be trialed as war criminals, so said the defence lawyers. They cited the examples of American generals who killed the Red Indians and Genghis Khan who killed millions in his conquest. The lawyers queried why were they not trialed as war criminals? No one could give a satisfactory answer the question.

2009-03-26T10:24:00.001-07:00

Journal No. 9 (19th Week): Emperor Qian Long

Emperor Qian Long was an Emperor who reigned during the Manchu Dynasty in China. His achievable was remarkable, and Chinese empire was at its greatest under his rule. Under the Manchu rulers, the Han Chinese intellectuals who rebelled against the Manchu rulers became expatriates in the deepest part of Manchuria where temperature could be as low as minus 30 degrees. However, the mendacious Qian Long was eager to rally support from the Han Chinese. He declared that all the fiats which were designed to suppress the Han Chinese were void. Further, all the charges against those who had been jailed for writing anti-Manchu books were exonerated by special trials. His most clever move was to declare an amnesty which allowed all the expatriates in Manchuria to return home.

2009-03-26T10:23:00.001-07:00

Journal No. 8 (18th Week): The Unlucky Prisoner-of-War

A group of Chinese soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the battlefield. They were then sent to work in a coal mine in Hokkaido in the northern part of Japan. The cells were they were locked up at night were small, and eight to ten inmates were often accommodated in one cell. They decided to escape by digging a tunnel under the cell. At night, when two of the prisoners were digging the tunnel, the rest were vigilantly watching out for signs of Japanese guards. Whenever a Japanese guard appeared, they would spontaneously sing songs to distract the guard. When the tunnel they dug came close to their escape point, water started to rush in, and they scheme became abortive. They decided to modify their plan by digging another tunnel which led them to a nearby river. However, before they finish digging the alternative tunnel, the war ended and they were released.

2009-03-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

Journal No. 7 (17th Week): The Superior Race

During the Second World War, a group of German scientists went for an expedition in Tibet to search for the lost superior race, which some German ideologists believed were the ancestors of the Germans. The mission of the scientists was to gather evidences and evaluate whether such belief could be substantiated. The scientists crossed several murky lakes in Tibet and came to a temple. The monks told them not to proceed any further as earthquake would soon take place. The scientists believed that this was a hoax created to prevent foreigners from land which they regarded as sacred. They proceed and found a cave where words similar to the German language were written on the walls. They went further in and discovered a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels. They were excited when they discovered words and pictures chiseled on the walls of the tunnels. One scientist looked at one of the pictures, and noticed that one component of the picture contained a world map, and it showed that Tibet and German were linked together by dotted line. The scientist thought he had finally discovered the ancestry of the German race.

2009-03-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

Journal No. 6 (16th Week): The Wild Men of Himalaya

Many Tibetans and Chinese claimed that indigenous in the snow mountain of Himalaya, there lived a tribe of wild men, the Yeti. Although their sighting of the wild men was cursory, they affirmed that the wild men were generally shy, and would run away whenever they were seen by the local habitats. One local said that once he trailed quietly for miles behind a hairy wild man, and finally saw a group of them and singing gregariously in a huge cave. Out of curiosity, he tried to join in to understand their living habits. However, when the Yeti saw the interloper, they did not welcome him and hurled stones at him.

2009-03-26T10:03:00.002-07:00

Journal No. 5 (15th Week): Attempted Murder

A passer-by saw Mr Ong wielding a knife and repeatedly stabbed someone lying on the ground with the knife. The passer-by called the police, and Mr Ong was taken to the police station. The passer-by accompanied the policeman, and at the police station, he alleged that Mr Ong murdered the man. Mr Ong demanded that he be allowed to speak to a lawyer of his choice; however, the police denied him access to the lawyer, thinking that this could come after their interrogation. When Mr Ong was subsequently charged in court, his lawyer argued that by precluding Mr Ong access to lawyer during interrogation, he was coerced into making false statement. Accordingly, his lawyer argued that the statements made by Mr Ong should be invalidated. The presiding judge agreed, adding that the right of access to lawyer is well laid down in the Penal Code, and any abrogation of such right would invalidate statements made by the accused.

2009-03-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

Journal No. 4 (14th Week): The Battle of Shanghai

The year was 1937. The Sino-Japanese war was in its second month. The victorious Japanese Imperial Army had captured Beijing, and had planned their next target: Shanghai. Day and night, the Japanese war planes bombed Shanghai and razed it into a sea of fire. Japanese warships came near to the coast and started shelling, adding havoc to the city already ruined by air raids. The Chinese government wanted to repulse the Japanese attack, but this was a mammoth task, considering the fact that the Chinese army was poorly equipped. After intensive shelling by the navy, the Japanese troop landed in Shanghai and advanced rapidly through the Chinese defence lines. A company of Chinese soldiers were down to only hand grenades, but they decided to fight to the end. When the Japanese soldiers crossed the trenches where they laid, they leaped from their supine position and hurled grenades at the Japanese soldiers. Eventually, after fierce bayonet fighting, they sacrificed their lives for the nation.

2009-03-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Journal No. 3 (13th Week): An Underground Project

Singapore is a country where water resources are scarce. One day a university professor came out with an idea of storing rain water in subterranean cavern. The government thought it was a good idea and formed a task force to study if the professor’s idea was viable. Initial finding shows that a subterranean cavern would eventuate in earth movement or soil collapse unless the cavern formation is of granite material. Further study shows that even if granite formation is available, harmful gases could be emitted by trapped organic substances. Ultimately, the task force concluded that the project is so cost prohibitive that it was not viable.

2009-03-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Journal No. 2 (12th Week): The Civil Service Job

Mr See was awarded the prestigious President Scholarship thirty years ago to study engineering. On his return to Singapore, the government found him a job in the civil service where the remuneration was much higher than that of his contemporaries. On his first day at work, his boss told him to invite tenders for rice cookers for the uniformed group. At first, Mr See did not know what tender invitation was all about, and thought that it means putting up placards in the market place and let members of the public bid for the supply of rice cookers. Later on, he realized what tender invitation was all about, and he got down to work. Six months later he was bored and asked his boss what has calling tenders for rice cookers to do with engineering. His boss replied to him that it was an integral part of his engineering training. Another six months passed by, and he realized that his engineering training was nominal. He decided to break his bond and leave the civil service.

2009-03-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Journal No. 1 (11th Week): A Criminal Trial

This is a fictitious story and the names are unreal. Some time in the 1960s, a person by the name of Mr Alfred Low was arrested by the police and charged in court with the offence of murdering his girlfriend. If the crime is proven, Alfred would be hanged. His lawyer was a phlegmatic person; he carried out a comprehensive study of all the evidences against him and argued that his guilt was not proven. A zealous person by the name of David Chang claimed that he saw the murder and he testified as a witness in court. David said he saw Alfred and his girlfriend swimming together in the sea. He said that when Alfred’s girlfriend appeared to be struggling with breath, Alfred simply watched and did nothing to help. Alfred’s lawyer argued that that there was no corroborative evidence to support the proposition that Alfred was aware that his girlfriend was about to be drown. Subsequently David admitted that he was coerced by a relative of Alfred’s girlfriend into making false statement in court as David owed him $200,000 and was unable to pay.