Thursday February 16, 2023
The lectures today continued the theme of what shaped this area of the world and how the countries arrived at what they are today. Keith Hockton talked about Penang while it was at war and how the Japanese were able to take over the city and indeed the country during the Second World War. The Malay people had been fighting different enemies for some time and when the British heard that the Japanese were about to invade they all cleared out of the city leaving the locals to fend for themselves. This had a great repercussion when, after the war, the British returned to resume their dominant position, but the locals remembering the abandonment in time of need, were not sure hat they wanted to continue to be colonized. This then lead to the independence of Malaysia within a decade.
The second lecture was a “Keynote” speaker. One can tell this, as usually the speakers are in Illuminations, but when a famous person speaks they do so in the Theatre, which holds a larger audience. In this case it was Major Charlie Lynn former Australian Army Major and Vietnam Vet. He spoke on his experiences being in Singapore at the time of the nation emerging from the British and the formation of a successful independent state. He was a poor speaker, who obviously read his entire speech and on the odd occasion he lost his place, he re-read the bit he had just read. The subject was interesting but the presentation was poor and most people were disappointed with the lecture.
We skipped the Taiwan speaker talking about why kids in Asia have the reputation of “all study and no play”. However, we did go to the 4th lecture of the day by Mark Fitzpatrick who spoke on Thailand’s troubles. It is a strong USA Ally, but it continues to have a lot of political internal strife despite having a strong, long-reigning and successful King Rama IX.
In the evening the Malaysian harmonica player Sharene, shared the stage with the very funny Jeff Stevenson.
The Bridge of QM2
Roger & Anne Travels 