Thursday February 09, 2023
Another fun day at sea today on our way to Penang. It’s always nice to see land and experience the local atmosphere of these amazing and dare I say exotic lands, but it’s also very nice and very educational to spend days at sea, where Cunard provides a lot to do and experience.
Today the British Diplomat Andrew Barber continued his fascinating talks (he lives in Malaysia) this time on the fall of Malay and Singapore, “owned” by the British during the early stages of World War II, to the Japanese. Given that Indochina (today Vietnam and Cambodia) was under French rule. India was under British Rule and the Dutch ruled Indonesia and the USA in the Philippines, it appeared to be a “safe” neighborhood as all these countries were allies. There was after the First World War a treaty of amicability between the UK and Japan, so all seemed well. However the continued deterioration in the relationship between the US and Japan and the strong alliance between UK and USA made relations with Japan difficult. So it was felt that any potential invasion would come from the sea and probably from the Penang Western coast. However after Germany had taken over France in WW3, French Indochina became open for the Japanese to amass troops. Thus the threat to Malay was suddenly from the Northeast across the Gulf of Thailand and not from the Andaman Sea and across the Straits of Malacca. The strike took place at exactly the same time as the strike on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (although books indicate the following day as there is that much of a time difference) and the British were defeated. As Winston Churchill said – “It was the greatest defeat of Britain”. As we are precisely in this area having passed the Andaman Islands (where we were a couple of years ago and was at a British penal colony for the Indian population during British India) and about to enter the Malacca Strait between Thailand / Malaysia on one side and Sumatra on the other, it was particularly interesting.
The next talk was Jane Corbin the BBC presenter, who this time spoke at length, and we must admit – rather alarming – of the way China particularly is taking over the world, not by force but by influence. This is through government backed businesses paying off lawmakers in various countries or by persuading countries to undertake projects and then when the country cannot pay, taking over strategic assets etc. We saw this in Yangon / Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma) jus a few years ago where all the teak and other hardwoods are now owned by China after defaulting on the loans. OR as we saw just 3 years ago in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where the Chinese are reclaiming land in front of what, during the British rule, and even when we were there, was the Oceanside and all the formal British built buildings. The reclaiming of the ocean is being done entirely with Chinese workers, Chinese materials and equipment, thus not benefiting the local economy, and the seaside will now be 20 blocks from the current shoreline, all owned by the Chinese. Also they have large swaths of land on the South Eastern shore of the island where they are forming major military basis so they will have control over the Indian Ocean. All this because the Sri Lankan government defaulted on their loans from the building of the Colombo Airport and the road between Galle and Colombo. This “Debt Diplomacy” as it is called is one of the key items in the influence arsenal that the Chinese are employing. Could COVID, which created major debt throughout the world as well as havoc on the world economy be a deliberate, successful tactic of the Chinese or just a mistake? She also gave some frightening reports over North Korea and the unsettled nature of the ruthless leader Kim Jong Un who assassinates his own family and puts all cash into the military to become a nuclear nation to ultimately strike back at South Korea to reunite the peninsula under his rule. So all in all a very unsettling but frank reporting she has done showing clips from certain Panorama features she has done interviewing many of the players.
Lunch as the fun part of the day as we had arranged to join friends of Cousin Christopher & Janey for lunch in the Verandah. They are lots of fun and are just on between Dubai and Singapore, so it was a lot of fun getting together with them.
After a quiet afternoon and changing to black tie for dinner, we enjoyed the always energetic and rapid costume changing Cunard singers and dancers doing a tribute to Broadway.
Roger & Anne Travels 