Mein Kampf a hit on Dhaka streets

By Alastair Lawson BBC News, Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Booksellers touting their wares amid the heavy traffic in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, have discovered an unusual best-seller.
Adolf Hitler's autobiography manifesto Mein Kampf is selling as well as Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol.
The street vendors in Dhaka are found at every major road junction and intersection.
Most of the sellers are young boys and many compete with beggars to attract the attention of motorists.
Last week, Mein Kampf did unusually well because many bought the book to give it away as an Eid present...

Click here for the full story on BBC.

Something to think about:
Hitler wrote his autobiography Mein Kampf in 1925 & 1926. The book sold very well. Hitler was able to buy a Mercedes when he was still in prison (according to Wikipedia).

Which of Hitler's ideas made him popular among Germans, and why? Why are Bangladeshis still finding him popular?

Excavation in downtown Singapore yields wartime artefacts

Straits Times, 18 January 2010

NO ONE would bat an eyelid at demolition works in Singapore, so a torn-up carpark between City Hall and the old Supreme Court has probably drawn few curious gazes.

But it happens to be the site of a rare downtown archaeological dig, which has yielded precious secrets about the island’s past.

Click here for the full story.

Singapore History Sites

Check out the following history websites:

- The online portal Access To Archives Online (www.a2o.com.sg) and a World War II resource site (www.s1942.org.sg) house an online collection of archives, records and oral history interviews recounting memories of World War II and the Japanese Occupation in Singapore's history.

- the National Heritage Board's (NHB) blog (yesterday.sg),

- NHB's Education & Outreach division's website (www.mystory.sg),

- Singapore Collections Online (www.sgcool.sg).

- the social media portal, yesterday.sg, reaches out to fellow netizens to discover and share everything on heritage, history and culture, and promotes active contribution through blog posts, forum discussions and photo sharing. With over 2,000 blog posts to date, these address a range of topics, from old Singapore to food and hobbies of the past, and are checked for factual accuracy before being published.

- mystory.sg, gives an interactive and personal site which pieces together a personal side to Singapore history. These nuggets of history are narrated through stories, photos and videos.

- Singapore Collections Online (sgcool.sg), the first online repository of artefacts and artworks in Singapore, allows visitors from all over the world to view highlights from NHB's collections from the comfort of their own home. These collections include photographs, rare books, fabrics, ceramics, modern art forms and many other categories.

Singapore History Tour

Singapore's city centre has an amazing amount of history sites to visit. Here's a suggested route (click to enlarge):




This tour should take around two hours at a comfortable walking pace.

Start: City Hall MRT

#1: Fort Canning

Before the 1500s, those who stayed in Singapore did not want to climb this hill as it was the site of palaces built by their ancestral kings. Indeed, archaeologist John Miskic has dug out artefacts that shown that a Malay kingdom could have been based on the hill.

Visit the Keramat Iskandar Shah at the foot of the hill. It is believed to be the resting place of Singapore's last Malay king (who ruled over 600 years ago).

Raffles also stayed on Fort Canning for a while. Check out Raffles terrace, the house where he lived in.

Fort Canning also has several cannons, built by the British to defend against attack. However, the cannons were never used for this purpose. They were only used to tell the time.



Also check out Battle Box, where British General Percival established his command post. The Japanese also used the fort for its military until 1945.

#2: Civic District

Visit:
- The Treasury: where Singapore's money is kept.
- The Supreme Court: Singapore's highest court.
- Parliament House: where Singapore's laws are made.

More importantly:
- City Hall. This was where the British accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945.
- Old Parliament House: the oldest existing government building in Singapore (built in 1827). It has a bronze elephant statue donated by the King of Thailand. The King of Thailand donated the statue to Singapore, as Singapore was the first foreign land to be visited by a Thai King.

#3: Singapore River

- Raffles' Landing Site: This is the spot where Raffles landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819. Look out for the white statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles



- various sculptures: several local artists have placed sculptures, to show how life in early Singapore was like. Look out for these.

#4: War memorials

- Lim Bo Seng memorial: remembers an anti-Japanese freedom fighter
- Cenotaph: remembers those who fought in World War I and World War II
- War Memorial Park: remembers the civilians that died during World War II under Japanese rule. The memorial is also known as "four chopsticks" due to its shape.

End: City Hall MRT station.

A Broken World

Some Grade 9 (Sec 2, 14 year olds) students in Clay Burell's world history class at Korea International School created this multimedia wiki textbook covering world history from World War I to World War II and the beginnings of the Cold War. It was created in June 2007.

http://brokenworld.wikispaces.com/A+Broken+World

Bold look at Singapore's origins

There is a new book "A 700-Year History: From Early Emporium To World City" about Singapore" history. It debunks the notion that Singapore's history truly began only when Sir Stamford Raffles docked at the banks of the Singapore River in 1819.

There is a bold attempt by the authors to pull back another 500 years of Singapore's history. The authors say Singapore did not merely take a back seat to history between its heyday as a trading emporium in the 14th century, and the time Raffles set up a trading post at the Singapore River.

Take a look at the full article on the Straits Times.


Questions:
1. What was Singapore's history before 1819 like?
(you can refer to your textbook)

2. What is the purpose of knowing Singapore's history before 1819?

3. Lets say there is no evidence of Singapore's history before 1819. History is the record of past events. Can we say that because there is no record of anything, Singapore does not have a history before 1819?

Invest in history to secure the future

HISTORY is boring. Dead boring.
That's the refrain of about half a dozen secondary school students I've talked to in the course of my work.
History is just about a bunch of facts and dates we have to cram for exams, they say. And what's the significance of these facts and dates? They shrug; they aren't sure.
Never mind that part of their O-level history examination is 'source-based', that is, testing their ability to assess the purpose, arguments and credibility of a historical source, such as a text excerpt, speech or interview...

See the full article.

Discussion Questions
1. What is history?
2. Is history all about facts?
3. If not, what else does history involve besides facts?
4. Do you think history is boring or interesting? Explain why.