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richardnixonlibrary · 2 years ago

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#Nixon50 #OTD 4/10/1973 President and Mrs. Nixon hosted a State Dinner honoring Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and his wife Kwa Geok Choo. Lee Kuan Yew served as Singapore’s first Prime Minister during the years 1959-1990. Their son, Lee Hsien Loong, is the current Prime Minister of Singapore, an office he has held since August 2004. (Image: WHPO-E0596-14)

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quill-ink-parchment · 8 years ago

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Day 12: Cambridge

I set out on this quarter century trip of mine as a sort of Harry Potter pilgrimage - I mean, the whole reason why I even decided to come here was because of the HPatCC tickets that I'd bought way back in November last year. But today was a pilgrimage of a different sort: I went to Cambridge, the city in which the couple I revere most studied. Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mdm Kwa Geok Choo studied law here in the years after World War II, and I wanted in particular to see the Bridge of Sighs, because they took a photo on Kitchen Bridge with the BoS behind it. (Incidentally, they filmed the May Ball dance scene in The Theory of Everything on Kitchen Bridge too.) I reached Cambridge at about 9.10am, and I had no clue what to do or where to go. So got myself a cup of hazelnut hot chocolat from the Hotel Chocolat, which I've been meaning to try. The chocolate whipped cream is amazing. After that I went to have a poke around, and saw Great St Mary's Church, and then went back to the visitor's info centre when it opened to get an idea of what to do. I bought a ticket for punting because I wasn't about to miss it again after stupidly not doing it at Oxford. Luckily, it was cheaper to buy tickets at the centre, at least for the brand Spudwhateveritis. Yeah, I do so make a good travel blogger. Not. Then I considered going on a walking tour.there were two kinds, and I went with the one that included admission into King's College, which was the one with the famous chapel that was completed in the time space of 100 years. My tour guide was an elderly lady named Jane who is extremely well travelled and well-read, and lovely to boot. She'd been to Singapore four times already and said that she loved it. She even KNEW the fall of Singapore, and that's saying loads because I've told my friends, hey, today is Total Defence Day, and they're like, what, really? Anyway, so she brought us round to the Cavendish Laboratories, where she told us a story about a girl named Anne Bell who married a scientist as she'd promised when she was a little girl, and then their son and grandson discovered some x-ray crystallisation technique that advanced the discovery of the structure of DNA. She also told us about Corpus Christie and how the term nosey parker originated from that college because of an actual dude with the surname Parker who has a ginormous conk and went around eavesdropping on and interrupting others' conversation. Hilarious, that. And the Corpus Christie building opposite the Cavendish labs actually don't have toilets so the students living there have to go out to take their baths. And that the building is held together by mostly dirt. Then afterwards she brought us to the Eagle, which is the pub that Watson and Crick frequented. There's a window at a room at the top that's always opened, because legend has it that there was a fire and a young girl died in that room, and if the window was ever closed again the building would catch fire. It's open whatever the weather. Jane said there was once a new manager who didn't know of this practice and had shut the window. That night, the residents woke up in thick smoke - an ice machine was close to exploding. Afterwards they examined the machine and found nothing wrong with it, but the window was open. So now they've nailed it so that it can't ever shut. Then we went into the pub, where we could see the smoke and lipstick marks of the royal air force soldiers (the lipstick was contributed by their girlfriends), who'd mark the ceiling with their squadron numbers after a night of revelry and fun. Because these were men who didn't know whether they'd still be alive the next week. We saw a plaque stating Watson and Crick's achievement. Then we headed to King's College, which was founded by King Henry the VI, who intended it for the study of just 12 young men from Eton. Apparently these young men just drank and did archery practice and rode their horses on nice days and didn't have to sit for exams of any sort, and at the end of their terms they'd get a Gentleman's Degree (the king believed gentlemen shouldn't have to work). We went to the back, where we admired the river Cam and looked at the flowers. Then went into the chapel, where she told us the history of the place, built over a period of 100 years under the rein of 5 kings. Lady Margaret actually helped in it cos she asked for a service to be held in the chapel (apparently they examined her body and found her knees to be so severely damaged from all the praying she had done while alive - !!!) The ceiling was really gorgeous. And a stonemason left his face instead of a flower. Plus the Virgin Mary's face was older than it should have been. Apparently the organ had Anne Boleyn's initials cos that was back when she and the king were still matey. Jane also showed us a painting which was done only in 8 days and sold for £275K or more in the early 1900s - while another painting by the same artist went for £40+mil recently. Instead of a crucifix statue, there was a crucifiz on the painted glass. I'm ashamed to say that at that point, I was nodding off. It wasn't that she was boring, it was that I'd only slept for 6 hours and was really exhausted. She ended off, and some people asked questions, and then I went to show her LKY and KGC's photo at the BoS and she was said, "I have that photo at home!" She brought me to see it at St John's college, passing by a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton's apple tree on the way, and there she helped me take a picture of the bridge. I found out that apparently Singaporeans left the picture at the bridge and flowers, too, when LKY passed on. :'( he was never a member of St John's college, but the college choir sang at his funeral service (they happened to be in Singapore at that time). KGC was at Girton college. After I parted ways with Jane (she had to go to the bank and couldn't join me for a drink or a meal), I stumbled upon Heffers where I examined the HP merchandise they had available. But managed to restrain myself, ha! Then I got ice-cream at Jack's Gelato - per ice-cream and some strange spice flavour that I have no idea how to pronounce or spell. After that, I walked leisurely to Mill Lane, where I chatted with Winston. My punting tour would start at 3.30pm, and it was just me and a Taiwanese Canadian on the punt, as well as the punter. I feared awkwardness, but it was okay - restful silences. The punter told us about how the ducks always lose their ducklings, and he also told us how some baby swans were squashed and killed between two puns and the mother swan thereafter attacked all punts and had to be removed. :'( such a heartbreaking tale. We got to see the Wedding Cake, and the ivy that grew in abundance at the back. Boston ivy, if my memory doesn't fail me? Apparently it turns a glorious red in autumn, so I guess I'll just have to come back then. We also saw the Mathematical Bridge, where the legend is that Sir Newton constructed it purely of straight wood planks without the use of any nuts and bolts. Some Cambridge engineering students took it apart to see how it worked but couldn't put it back together again so now there're nuts and bolts. But as the punter said, if they couldn't put it back together how could they be in Cambridge? Oh - apparently Prince Charles was a student of Trinity college, and he declared that he didn't want to be treated any differently from the other students. Which was why he arrived at school in his private helicopter, and had an entire floor of the residences to himself. Apparently they had to create an agricultural course just for him; he did very poorly in his A Levels and only got in because of a letter of recommendation from his mum (the Queen). He had a batch mate who did better than him. I went to check out Peterhouse after the punting session, which is the oldest college in Cambridge, then I went to take in the lovely grounds of King's College again (the chapel was unfortunately closed for choir practice; there was to be a free service at 5.30pm which I couldn't attend cos I had to catch my train. I did hear snatches of music and singing though, which was nice. And I saw the slab of stone by the Chinese poet who attended King's College (our punter actually recited the first line of the poem Farewell to Cambridge in Chinese, which was great LOL - it went: 轻轻的我走了). I missed the bloody bus to the station and so power walked and ran back to Cambridge Station, and now I'm going to join Steph for dinner at Burger and Lobster - I CANNOT wait. All I've had today was half a Sally Lund bun, seven-eighths a packet of raspberries, a hazelnut hot chocolat, and two scoops of ice-cream. I need me some sustenance, pronto.

#09May2017 #Quarter century trip #lee kuan yew #Kwa geok choo #cambridge #st john's college #King's college

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arcticdementor · 4 years ago

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Generic reasons for any technocracy’s overdoing things include those associated with the intrinsic nature of elitism. The corporate-minded folks who run the Red Dot (a.k.a. Singapore) consist of the high ranks of the People’s Action Party and the senior managers who direct its ministries, agencies, and two sovereign wealth funds. To give an extreme but not entirely uncharacteristic example of the tightness of this networked and not infrequently family intermarried elite, the CEO of Temasek is the wife of the current Prime Minister (who is the son of Singapore’s first and most illustrious Prime Minister). Ho Ching and Lee Hsien Loong—although several rungs down the ladder from the late iconic duo of Lee Kwan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo—are Singapore’s current power-political couple; when they walk together arm-in-arm, small explosions issue from the heels of their shoes.

…

All insular and confident political elite clusters tend to generate a sense of privilege—earned privilege, perhaps, but privilege all the same. When coupled with the longevity of high status and a perception of success at doing the “job,” a certain rigidity of personality, defensiveness about criticism, and, at times in some people, arrogance about their own presumed infallibility can result. It can also lead to a belief that the über-elite are entitled to warp and wind the law to their own purposes. The tendency isn’t new: See II Samuel, chapter 12, for an example concerning King David and a family friend named Nathan.

…

Which begs a better question: What are the historical and cultural facets of overdoing it, in part at least, “with Chinese characteristics”? Since I am not and never will be expert on anything Chinese, I rely for parts of an answer on Singapore’s 89-year-old sage Wang Gungwu—whom I have read, known, and worked with now and again for 25 years. For present purposes, three insights demand a hearing.

First, the paternalistic nature of leadership in Singapore owes much to a path dependency planted amid its 1965 origin, and it has little to do with anything culturally Chinese. When Singapore was thrust into independence against its will, the leadership faced a parlous situation in which maintaining social order and political control was paramount. Traumatic 1964 race riots were vivid in their working memory. The trauma of the 1942-45 Japanese occupation was still felt, partly in the form of the psychological shock of the sudden, ignominious dethronement of British superiority that rattled the self-confidence of the Chinese elite whose members had modeled themselves as Westernizing Anglophones.

…

But second, yes, Singapore’s paternalistic political culture does owe also to the Taoist/Confucian prism that splits civil light into the colors of Chinese culture. It is a deep shaping factor that is much more powerful than a mere two generations of Anglophonic affections and affectations.

At least as much as China itself these days, whose intellectual traditions have been whipsawed by forced-march Marxism-Leninism and its partial relaxation, Singapore’s elite prizes orderliness above all else. There is right and wrong, diligence and laziness, loyalty and disobedience. Despite the existence in the Analects of a right to oppose unrighteous, ruinous rule, history has bequeathed the de facto obligation that authority and expertise are due respect and honor. There is, in short, a natural hierarchy inherent in all things that guides virtuous behavior, and in that hierarchy all things fit together. Reality exudes symmetry. Ambiguity and loose ends make some people in all cultures nervous, but in Confucian-accented Singapore, those personality types dominate.

…

Another illustration of the general point can be gleaned from something as anodyne as a high-end restaurant experience. At most very high-end Western restaurants, menus offer at least some choices. At nearly all very high-end East Asian restaurants, chefs dictate what is best among the foods available, and know how to cook and present them. Both a Westerner in a high-end Western restaurant who refuses to choose and an Easterner in a high-end Eastern restaurant who deigns to choose are inexplicable in their respective cultural contexts.

This difference echoes across political cultures: Multiparty politics and wide-open elections are menu-like; one-party paternalistic systems are not. Asian democracies are unlikely ever to fully mimic Western types, whatever other reasons may also explain differences.

The difference appears, too, in the nature of counsel in high bureaucracy. In the United States staffers are expected to present options to the President. This is the Goldilocks method: Create three options, one too meek and one too bold, so that the President will choose B, the option in the sweet middle. East Asian staffers do not typically relate to their principals in this manner. If a responsible executive asks an expert his or her view of what to do, that expert gives one view. To offer alternatives would signal indecisiveness and a lack of self-confidence and self-respect, and no East Asian leader—emperor of old or head-of-state at present—wants a wavering adviser, the kind of person, Dean Acheson once commented, who writes memoranda not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

…

Rather, the great man approach to historical interpretation is the baked-in default mode of the Far East. LKY succeeded in part because he understood and went with the “soft” authoritarian cultural flow, not because, as some have argued, he was a crazed megalomaniac. He was not; he was merely blunt on occasion, as when he remarked in April 1987 that, “I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. . . . We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”

Gungwu explains that Chinese do not hold much with airy abstractions, preferring pragmatics when it comes to politics. They speak of the “thought” of the flesh-and-blood great man—from Mencius, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all the way to Mao, Deng, and now Xi—rather than of disembodied abstract theories. LKY was Singapore’s great man, shaping the first half-century of its independence like no other, and his legacy is his “thought”—even if most here avoid calling it that, at least when speaking English. But some get real close: A popular 1998 book about LKY is entitled Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas.

Third, that the high political elite here embody this paternalism is quintessentially mandarin in origin, but its broader institutional shape owes something as well to the aforementioned Chinese elite’s Anglophonic choices and experience. A lot of what the British brought to Singapore worked pretty well, and Singapore’s first generation of independence leaders were wise enough not to want to screw with it for the mere sake of change. A new photography exhibit at the Sun Yat-sen Museum, highlighting early commercial photo studios here, illustrates the backdrop. The featured photos show well-to-do Chinese dressed in then-stylish Western garb, down to the pocket watch chains emerging from vest coat pockets.

Thus, between the crisis of birth etched into the psyche of the managing elite, a perduring Confucian heritage, and a deliberately adopted (and adapted) Anglophonic legacy, you have the basic formula for the singularly Singaporean technocratic character. With it, you also have the formula for how the “family firm” state occasionally overdoes things.

#adam garfinkle #the american interest #singapore #confucianism

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creatision · 2 years ago

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Mr Lee Kuan Yew taking questions in Hong Kong

Lee was born at home on 16 September 1923, the first child to Lee Chin Koon and Chua Jim Neo, at 92 Kampong Java Road in Singapore, then part of the British Empire. Both of Lee's parents were English-educated third-generation Straits Chinese, with his paternal side being of Hakka descent from Dabu County. He was named 'Kuan Yew', meaning 'light and brightness', alternately meaning 'bringing great glory to one's ancestors'. Lee's paternal grandfather Lee Hoon Leong, who was described as "especially westernised", had worked on British ships as a purser, and hence gave Lee the Western name 'Harry'. While the family spoke English as its first language, Lee also learned Malay Lee would have three brothers and one sister, all of whom lived till old age.

Lee was not close to his father, who worked as a storekeeper within the Shell Oil Company and had a gambling addiction. His mother Chua would often stand up against her husband for his poor fiscal management and parenting skills.The family was considered prosperous with a high social standing compared to recent immigrants and had the expenses to hire servants.[26] During the Great Depression the family fortunes declined considerably, though Lee's father retained his job at Shell.[19] Later in life, Lee described his father as a man with a nasty temper and credited his mother with holding the family together amidst her husband's gambling addiction.

In 1930, Lee enrolled at Telok Kurau English School where he spent six years of his primary education. Attending Raffles Institution in 1935, Lee did poorly in his first two years but later topped the Junior Cambridge examinations. He also joined the Scouts and partook in several physical activities and debates. Lee was the top scorer in the Senior Cambridge examinations in 1940 across the Straits Settlements and Malaya, gaining the John Anderson scholarship to attend Raffles College. During the prize-awarding ceremony, Lee met his future wife Kwa Geok Choo; she was the only girl at the school. His subsequent university studies at Raffles College were disrupted by the onset of World War II in Asia, with the school being converted into a medical facility in 1941. The war arrived in December of that year and following the British surrender in February 1942, the Japanese occupation of Singapore began.

#youtube

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jesuskissick-blog · 7 years ago

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Nyon at Amber Road

Another prominent and famous landmark in the area was the Mandalay Villa. Due to its historical importance, the Mandalay Villa was a meeting point for many communities over the years due to the residents. The founding prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, proposed to his wife Kwa Geok Choo at the same villa, after the two attended a party there. The villa was built in 1902 by a prominent businessman who resided in the area, Lee Cheng Yan from the Peranakan Community. The 53,000 sq ft house was then inherited by his son, Lee Choon Guan, another prominent businessman.

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metropolitant · 3 years ago

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Kwa Geok Choo - Singapore and the story of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew

Kwa Geok Choo – Singapore and the story of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew

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bunnygiggles · 4 years ago

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The Greed for Power: Culture of Corruption in Two of Southeast Asia’s Authoritarian Regimes

In the world of politics, corruption is inevitable. No matter how a government would implement strict laws, if there are these types of people who would do anything to satisfy their interests in a do or die kind of way, it would be useless.

Look at Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal. The 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, a sovereign wealth fund that the government managed for an investment that has one purpose – for the country’s economic development and formed in the year 2009 during the time of the former prime minister Najib Razak. During 2015, the funds were nowhere to be found for it missed payments owed to banks and bondholders. Later on, it was discovered that the money was used for private pockets. Unfortunately, in the end, he was cleared of all allegations by the authorities while he was still in office. But on the brighter side, this became one of the factors of his defeat in the 2018 elections following the reopening of the investigation regarding the said scandal. He even pleaded not guilty to charges that were being thrown at him – criminal breach of trust, money laundering, and abuse of power. He was not even satisfied with the investigation. He denied everything, maybe because he believed that the truth should prevail, but little did he know that what prevails in the court becomes the truth. Finally, he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after proving him guilty of several multi-million-dollar corruption trials. The prosecution did a fantastic job, but this also tells that the Malaysian government’s response to corruption needs to improve, making this a lesson to be learned.

In Singapore, their anti-corruption laws are stringent. Even the little feud of a political family about the house of their parents, who were the late former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and his late wife Kwa Geok Choo located in 38 Oxley Road, has been a heated issue regarding on what to do with it. They wished that after their death, this historical house – which was used as a venue to hold meetings for the People’s Action Party and other political discussions, would be demolished if their daughter Lee Wei Ling would move out but their son, the current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong seemed to be against it. This blew up after the two siblings, Lee Hsien Yang and his sister posted through Facebook about their sentiments regarding to the feeling of being threatened about Hsien Loong’s misuse of political power and influence over the government to obtain his personal agenda. They wanted to follow the wish of their parents but pointed out that Hsien Loong wanted to do the opposite – preserve the house and utilize it for political use, but later on was denied by the current prime minister stating that he was disappointed for it was a private family matter, and no need to be exposed. This shows how Singapore is meticulous in fighting corruption even if it involves one’s family, not minding the famous quote – “blood is thicker than water.”

The greed for power will always be there after being blinded by how shiny every penny is. Abusing one’s authority can lead to not just self-harm but also endanger the welfare of the people. Funny how the government officials should be appointed to serve the people, but instead, they are being served by the people for personal pursuits. How long will this absurdity go?

#comparative politics #south east asia #malaysia #singapore #corruption #government #politics #political regimes #authoritarian regime

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sundayswithsarah-blog · 5 years ago

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Whatever your political affiliation, I really find the love story between Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo to be truly romantic - the life-long kind of love that's so rare these days.

He would not have been who he ended up being, if not for her unwavering, caring love and support. And he was never the same after her passing.

Here are excerpts from his eulogy for her, which I've merged with a little bit from an article on how LKY was like in the time after.

____

"My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today (Wednesday), when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life

...

As a young man with an interrupted education at Raffles College, and no steady job or profession, her parents did not look upon me as a desirable son-in-law. But she had faith in me.

We had committed ourselves to each other... We gradually influenced each other's ways and habits as we adjusted to and accommodated each other.

...

We knew that we could not stay starry-eyed lovers all our lives; that life was an on-going challenge with new problems to resolve and manage.

...

We never argued over the upbringing of our children, nor over financial matters. Our earnings and assets were jointly held. We were each other's confidant.

She had simple pleasures. We would walk around the Istana gardens in the evening, and I would hit golf balls to relax. Later, when we had grandchildren, she would take them to feed the fish and the swans in the Istana ponds. Then we would swim.

...

She had an uncanny ability to read the character of a person. She would sometimes warn me to be careful of certain persons; often, she turned out to be right.

When we were about to join Malaysia, she told me that we would not succeed because the Umno Malay leaders had such different lifestyles and because their politics were communally-based, on race and religion.

I replied that we had to make it work as there was no better choice. But she was right. We were asked to leave Malaysia before two years had passed.

...

After her first stroke, she lost her left field of vision. This slowed down her reading. She learned to cope, reading with the help of a ruler. She swam every evening and kept fit. She continued to travel with me, and stayed active despite the stroke. She stayed in touch with her family and old friends.

She listened to her collection of CDs, mostly classical, plus some golden oldies. She jocularly divided her life into "before stroke" and "after stroke", like BC and AD.

...

Her second stroke on 12 May 2008 was more disabling. I encouraged and cheered her on, helped by a magnificent team of doctors, surgeons, therapists and nurses.

...

Her nurses, WSOs and maids all grew fond of her because she was warm and considerate. When she coughed, she would take her small pillow to cover her mouth because she worried for them and did not want to infect them. Her mind remained clear but her voice became weaker. When I kissed her on her cheek, she told me not to come too close to her in case I caught her pneumonia. When given some peaches in hospital, she asked the maid to take one home for my lunch. I was at the centre of her life.

On 24 June 2008, a CT scan revealed another bleed again on the right side of her brain. There was not much more that medicine or surgery could do except to keep her comfortable. I brought her home on 3 July 2008. The doctors expected her to last a few weeks. She lived till 2nd October, 2 years and 3 months.

She remained lucid. That gave time for me and my children to come to terms with the inevitable. In the final few months, her faculties declined. She could not speak but her cognition remained. She looked forward to have me talk to her every evening.

Her last wish she shared with me was to enjoin our children to have our ashes placed together, as we were in life.

The last two years of her life were the most difficult. She was bedridden after small successive strokes; she could not speak but she was still cognisant. Every night she would wait for me to sit by her to tell her of my day's activities and to read her favourite poems. Then she would sleep.

I have precious memories of our 63 years together. Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life. She devoted herself to me and our children.

She was always there when I needed her. She has lived a life full of warmth and meaning.

I should find solace in her 89 years of a life well lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief."

____

After her passing... LKY missed his wife deeply.

"For a week after his wife died, Mr Lee Kuan Yew fussed over her photographs on the wall of the living room at their Oxley Road home.

He placed pictures of their favourite moments together at the foot of his bed and by the treadmill which he used every day. A few days later, he would move them around again.

He repositioned his grey plastic chair at the dining table to have the best view of her pictures on the wall. As he ate his dinner, he listened to classical music, which she enjoyed - her favourite composer was Johann Sebastian Bach.

But nothing seemed to comfort Mr Lee in the days after Madam Kwa Geok Choo, his wife of 63 years, his best friend and confidante, died on Oct 2, 2010.

He slept erratically. A memory would bring tears to his eyes. When her ashes arrived at Oxley Road in a grey marble urn three days after the funeral, he wept.

It took three months before he began returning to normal.

"Slowly, he accepted that Mrs Lee was gone," said his youngest and only surviving brother, Dr Lee Suan Yew.

It was nine months before his health stabilised, said his only daughter Wei Ling.

...

He would usually get home at around 9pm and he would spend a few moments looking at his wife's urn in the living room.

He kept to his new routine in the disciplined way with which he had led his life. But he told his friend Dr Schmidt, who visited in May 2012, that his wife's death had left a deep hole in his life and nothing could fill it.

After Mrs Lee died, elder son Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister, and his wife Ho Ching began visiting Mr Lee on Saturday afternoons whenever their schedules allowed, to keep him company.

...

Throughout, Mr Lee kept up his Mandarin lessons, and continued his exercises and outings. Titanium, as his daughter once described him in an article, is light but strong. It can bend a little, but it will not snap unless it is under overwhelming force, she wrote.

On Feb 5, he was admitted to the Singapore General Hospital, this time with severe pneumonia.

News in mid-March that he was critically ill saw an outpouring of good wishes across the island he loved and called home."

___________

A story shared by a Singaporean who bumped into them at a museum:

"He requested to push his wife. And even in his weakness and old age at that point in time, I saw him struggle to push his wife in her wheelchair. They stopped at almost every painting (I followed them behind, keeping my distance and pretending to look at those paintings too). And at every painting, he would bend down and asked her gently for her thoughts. They would share a quiet moment of discussion, and sometimes laughed together. It felt like no one else was around, and they felt very much still in love."

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elita-t-blog · 5 years ago

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Word Of The Day “Jocular”

Last night at our Toastmasters Chapter Meeting, our language evaluator gave us the word of the day “Jocular”. Today, I find it in this article on Facebook. Expanding and upgrading my vocabulary every day...

________________________________________________________________

Whatever your political affiliation, I really find the love story between Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo to be truly romantic - the life-long kind of love that's so rare these days.

He would not have been who he ended up being, if not for her unwavering, caring love and support. And he was never the same after her passing.

Here are excerpts from his eulogy for her, which I've merged with a little bit from an article on how LKY was like in the time after. Full sources cited below.

____

"My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today (Wednesday), when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life ... As a young man with an interrupted education at Raffles College, and no steady job or profession, her parents did not look upon me as a desirable son-in-law. But she had faith in me.

We had committed ourselves to each other... We gradually influenced each other's ways and habits as we adjusted to and accommodated each other. ... We knew that we could not stay starry-eyed lovers all our lives; that life was an on-going challenge with new problems to resolve and manage. ... We never argued over the upbringing of our children, nor over financial matters. Our earnings and assets were jointly held. We were each other's confidant.

She had simple pleasures. We would walk around the Istana gardens in the evening, and I would hit golf balls to relax. Later, when we had grandchildren, she would take them to feed the fish and the swans in the Istana ponds. Then we would swim. ...