Vanan's Critique of British Reasons

So hello again to all, it's been a short time since the last blog entry but something more pertinent popped up in the form of a massive 500+ word essay during history class.

Hey everyone, time to get mugging on this! I spent all the time I had in class copying this down (of course with help from MSoh, who caught some parts I didn't have time to chiong down), so have fun delving into the midsts of Mr Saravanan's mind ... I present to you ... Vanan's Critique of British Reasons!

"European rivalry and Dutch monopoly in the region was the main reason why Singapore was chosen by the British as a trading settlement." Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

The British selected Singapore for a few important reasons. European rivalry against the Dutch, the importance of the rising China-India trade route, and the unsuitability of Penang and Bencoolen as trading ports were the prime reasons for the selection of Singapore by the British.

Let me begin with the first reason which was the great rivalry between the British and the Dutch for trading settlements in the East. The British and the Dutch were competing fiercely outside Europe for profit and monopoly of trade routes. The Dutch were the main and dominant power in the Malay Archipelago. They controlled a large part of the region including Java and Melaka, which made them a strong force in the region. The British were affected by Dutch domination, which restricted the British to trade only at Batavia and Java, besides the high fees for using these ports and heavy taxes on goods and services. By enforcing these rules, the Dutch enjoyed a trade monopoly which incurred the rivalry of the British in Southeast Asia. To overcome these obstacles and restrictions created by the Dutch monopoly, the British were desperate to look for an alternative port to rival the Dutch. Indeed, Raffles was concerned about the Dutch spreading their monopoly of trade and extending their authority over the Archipelago. This prompted the British to choose Singapore as a rival trading settlement.

The importance of the rising China-India trade route also triggered the British to seek for a strategic port. In the early part of the 19th century, Britain's trade with China and India became very lucrative. Commodities such as silk and porcelain from China were traded for European goods. Indian spices were very much in demand too. Moreover, the British sold opium that was produced in India to the Chinese. In return the British bought tea from the Chinese and sold it in Europe to the other European countries. Due to the tremendous volume of trade that was involved with India and China, the British needed a suitable port with a good geographical location to act as a hub for this lucrative business with China and India. If the British could not get a suitable port to act as a base for the increasing volume of trade with China and India, they had just too much to lose, especially with the Dutch constantly breathing down their necks to keep the British in check, to prevent the breaking of the monopoly in the Malay Archipelago. Thus, an alternative strategic port for the British became very necessary.

Singapore was also chosen by the British as a trading settlement due to tis great strategic location and deep harbour compared to existing trading ports which the British already controlled. Prior to Singapore, the British had two trading settlements in Penang and Bencoolen for their ships to stopover to replenish their supplies on their journey between India and China. But for trading settlements to thrive as successful ports, they had to be situated in a good location to act as a lucrative trading port. Unfortunately, both Penang and Bencoolen were located far from the main trading areas in the Malay Archipelago. Bencoolen had long proved to be a poor trading centre. It was situated on the wrong side of Sumatra, facing the Indian Ocean instead of the Straits of Melaka. Likewise, Penang, lying to the far north of the Straits, was not very useful for controlling the Straits, and Melaka, which occupied a better position in the Straits, belonged to the Dutch. Thus, due to the vision of Raffles, Singapore was chosen as a strategic port of the British. It occupied a central position in the Straits, and it was close to Batavia, the very heart of the Malay Archipelago. It was also with a week's sail to China and was closer to Siam. Moreover, Singapore had an excellent deep water harbour and a good supply of drinking water. Thus, Singapore became a raw diamond in the hands of the British.

In conclusion, I agree that the main reason was due to the European rivalry and Dutch monopoly in the region. If the British had a monopoly of trade in the Malay Archipelago, they would not have been desperate enough to seek out an alternative for Penang and Bencoolen for they would have command and control of many of the ports in the Malay Archipelago. The rising China-India trade route also falls into a subset of the main reason which was the European rivalry between the British and the Dutch. As the Dutch already had control over the trade in the region, it was pertinent that the British countered the ever-increasing Dutch dominance by getting their hands on a major slice of the pie which was India-China trade. In this way, it would be able to effectively rival the Dutch and also gain some pride and prestige against its arch-rival. Thus, I conclude that the main reason was due to the European rivalry and Dutch monopoly in the region.

This version encompasses my (slight) edits to the text to facilitate comprehension and improve grammar, as well as the bulk of which is Mr Saravanan's essay which I copied down in class. So happy mugging everyone, and leave a note on the tagboard will you? :P

Supposing I made some errors, could someone also kindly point that out? Or do something? Thanks.

Lots of love and reason,
Glen

Valentine's Day Special

Woo hoo happy Valentine's everyone!

I don't have much to say, really, but apart from the fact that I went on a spree during shootingcomp today and I didn't get much homework done, it's been a pleasant enough day. So here I am again, blogging to waste some quality time which could have been spent on doing more constructive stuff. Then again, I'm not sure if I really want to do stuff which I should be doing.

And this article we had for Philo is sweet. Egocentrism as a Fundamental Barrier to Ethical Reasoning.

The human tendency to judge the world from a narrow, self-serving perspective is powerful. Humans are typically masterful at self-deception and rationalization. We often maintain beliefs that fly in the face of the evidence. We often engage in acts that blatantly violate ethical principles. What is more, we feel perfectly confident in our righteousness.

In other words, humans naturally develop into narrow-minded, self-centered thinkers. In a way, this makes perfect sense. We feel our own pain; we don't feel the pain of others. We think our own thoughts; we do not think the thoughts of others. And as we age, we unfortunately do not naturally develop the ability to empathise with others, to consider points of view that conflict with our own. Consequently, we are often unable to reason from a genuinely ethical perspective.

Nevertheless, it is possible to learn to think critically through ethical issues. With practice and sound instruction, we can acquire the disposition and skills required to analyse and evaluate situations from opposing ethical perspectives.

At the root of virtually every unethical act lies some form and degree of self-delusion. And at the root of every self-delusion lies some flaw in thinking. For instance, Hitler confidently believed he was doing the right thing in carrying out egregious acts against the Jews. His actions were a product of the erroneous beliefs that Hews were inferior to the Aryan race, and that they were the cause of Germany's problems. In ridding Germany of the Jews, he believed himself to be doing what was in the best interest of his Germany. He therefore considered his actions to be ethically justified. His deeply flawed reasoning resulted in untold human harm and suffering.

We cannot develop as ethical persons if we are unwilling to face the fact that every one of us is prone to egotism, prejudice, self-justification, and self-deception and that these flaws in human thinking are the cause of much human suffering. Only the systematic cultivation of fair-mindedness, honesty, integrity, self-knowledge, and deep concern for the welfare of others can provide foundations for sound ethical reasoning.

Ethical reasoning entails doing what is right even int he face of powerful selfish desires. To live an ethical life, then, is to develop command over our native egoentric tendencies. It is not enough to advocate living an ethical life. It is not enough to be able to do the right thing when we ourselves have nothing to lose. We must be willing to fulfill our ethical obligations at the expense of our selfish desires and vested interests.

Just that this article caused me to reconsider lots of things, which is precisely why I've bothered to type it out. Chew on this and neatly swallow.

Glen

Happy Valentine's everyone!

I hate mockingbirds

I feel so disappointed in myself.

After days of endless procrastination I finally forced myself to accept the blank reality - I haven't been updating this damn thing, something which I promised I would do last year. Even then I have been literally dragging this for ages now, and I finally seem to have found some time to do up a decent entry. I really want to know how other people can do their work, game for a bit, update their blogs, be really active on facebook and lots more (practicing with musical instruments; cca commitments) without seemingly running out of time like I always do.

Oh and they also get to sleep like, what, 5+ hours a day? :(

Even now, I'm still busy slogging away at AJ's ToKAM presentation which I really have no idea when we will be presenting. I feel like ignoring orders from teachers over work. I envy others over what they can accomplish in the same 24 hours which is given to every single one of us every day. I feel miserable, disappointed, like I was an empty shell with the stuff inside sucked out by some external powers -glares at nobody in particular-. Rah.

So I'm done! with the presentation, hopefully we won't go through that thing tomorrow, I think I could squeeze in more content if I actually bothered to read the sources in the biblio more carefully. I kindof koped most of the stuff from wiki, some others from the sources I actually did state down. And yay for online radio, keeps people awake and infuses them with harmonic consonances and dissonances. Rah rah I love Mozart's Requiem, so damn chilling to the spine! >:D

It's nearly three (in the morning) now, so twiddles and muffinsticks I go! I'll either continue this post tomorrow or start a new one later on.

Glen

P.S. Yeah, twiddles and muffinsticks. What was I thinking.

Last post for 2008

Comrades.

It is on a melancholy and rather somber note which I shall end this year on; in a state of reflection, regret and reconfiguration. As I tick down the final minutes left till the new year, I leave behind a plethora of a mess (read; all the crap I got into during the course of the entire year), and to those I've really bothered with that sort of mess, I hope my apologies do sooth those smoking tinders. And as with the usual every year, I go into the next with a heavy heart and attempt to leave behind the past, but part of it clings on to me and claws at my core like digging into an artichoke.

I somehow wonder if unrealised dreams, unfulfilled interests and undying passion can somehow fit together. Toxic soup, perhaps, but worthy soup nonetheless. The emptiness in the heart, the gut-wrenching uselessfeeling and bouts of self-imposed depression...I guess I'm doing it wrong. Wonder if 2009 can bring about the same old surprises (they wouldn't be surprises though) and the same old failures which tended to plague this year. And again and again I keep thinking of the future, of what it holds in store for this helpless person who is mournfully chugging away at a keyboard oblivious to his brother's antics on facebook.

Indeed I feel alone. I may be surrounded by manymany people whom I interact with, whom I know pretty well, but I highly doubt that anyone is perhaps in sync with my inmost self. Mostly my fault for not having a bestest friend, but I don't know why I keep my innersoul under such tight lockandkey. I can't open up properly. Socialise. I tend to clam up and keep my comfydistance from a group. Not as bad as what my brother would do, but so much so that it shows. I would rather prefer silence than engagment, peace than struggle, aloneness than relationship.

Even then I have to go on and find a balance. Liberty-security, mind-body, harmony-dissonance. Blah. Really. I should have better control of the mind over the body rather than the body over the mind. Then I can go without sleep forever. Really.

Um.

Right. but finding a good balance in itself is tedious. Factor in bias and boom goes your idealistic calm. Factor in external influences and all you've got is one complex screwed-up system. Like the security issues (more like insecurity issues) with facebook which someone was trying her best to likewise chuck in front of my face. "Oh you posted your birthdate openly on the internet? You posted your picture (a silhouette) as a profile? And who are all these people you call your friends? You know or not arh? Boy ah this world today got a lot of predators you know, you shouldn't even be touching all these things lah, blog lah, what facebook lah, games lah, you know all these type of stuff."

Looks like I'm trapped in another shell. Overprotectionism. And I feel too restrained. Apparently she feels that posting pictures online on a social networking site (look, everyone does that eventually) is a horrendous breach of privacy and blogging is the same, except for the fact that it's a horrendous waste of time, and so is surfing the internet, listening to podcasts and gaming. I tried to explain the internet generation-internet immigrant gap but I don't think the message got through.

Oh dear, I didn't check the time closely enough.

Less than five minutes to midnight! Happy new year peeps!

Glen

P.S. Is my tagbox going wonky now? It is on my com.

Yay chalet!

I was reluctant to write anything down here until chalet (or maybe not, perhaps only bbq-reunion) was over, so as to conserve my energy for this post.

So I'm still slightly hyyyyypeeerr after the reunion, lots of faces I haven't seen in a fair while already. All the initial difficulties getting there (apparently, somebody had muddled up the location of the place - it's not at downtown east; but that contributed to the fun anyway...) kindof abated after a while. It was admittedly pretty freaky having the girls scream at us to remove our shoes inside the place, but that didn't really matter. And I had a tough time imagining how 15 people would squeeze into the bedroom upstairs the first time I saw the room - two single beds, an absolute dearth of space. Later I was proven wrong.

The fire for the bbq was screwed up. Veeery badly. Look we tried almost anything and everything we could to get the damn thing going, but the screwed matches and a fonky lighter and some imbecilic firestarters resulted in failure. I feel ashamed of ourselves. We come from top-notch schools and are the creme-de-la-creme of the cohort, yet we utterly fail at simple life skills. Really. I mean, look, even the fire started when we burnt some potato chips was still stronger than the mess we created. Next time we go bbqing again someone should really bring along some kerosene/solid fuel. Or we could just rely on the oil and chemicalpotentialenergy stored in the chips.

A few ppl brought their laptops along and I don't really want to discuss the wallpaper which clarence put on mingjie's laptop. And besides watching videos on youtube (oh the hilarity, pokemon themesong played backwards and with a very generous interpreter; hitler ranting about windows vista), we (the boys) were really messing up the place before the rest of the ppl (some other guys and most of the girls) arrived.

I mean, like, well maybe the chaos should have been expected, it's been a long time ever since we've held the last reunion. I should treasure the opportunities I've filched over the times we've been together. Oh well, the batch should be meeting again in around three weeks. CNY celebrations; usually it's a halfday. Oh yay I have nothing better to do than blog. I should get down to doing something serious like finishing up my yuedubaogao. And start thinking about potential precautions for nasty teachers. First day of school is three days away.

That sucks. D:

Glen