Monday, May 4, 2015

From First World To Banana Republic

His son has called for further reflection on how best to remember the late "papa and yeye", whose demise boosted champagne sales in some quarters, saying that any decision must "stand the test of time". The deceased, when not connected to an artificial ventilator, had refused to allow statues of himself and rarely lent his name to institutions, despite dominating politics for half a century.

Still, some have managed to work around his expressed wishes, the most notable being the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Before things get carried away, the boot-lickers should realise there is a fine line between hero worship and sick humour. Imprinting his image on Singapore's currency will bring back horrible memories of the banana notes when Singapore was Syonan-to (昭南島 Shōnan-tō). And that quip of Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, at the Bandung Conference in 1955, “Lee is like a banana – yellow of skin, white underneath.”

The late Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar (Tamil: லக்ஷமன் கதிர்காமர், Sinhalese: ලක්ශමන් කදිර්ගාමර් ) had a fine and refined sense of humour.  At an after-dinner speech to congratulate the Sri Lankan cricket team in London, shortly before he was assassinated by a LTTE sniper in Colombo, he recounted the story of how the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin had once wanted to change the name of his country to "Idi".

Amin instructed his foreign minister to canvas world opinion and return in two weeks. When he did not do so, he was summoned before the megalomaniac to explain.

The Ugandan foreign minister said: "Mr President, I have been informed that there is a country called Cyprus. Its citizens are called Cypriots. If we change the name of our country to 'Idi', our citizens would be called 'Idiots'."

12 comments:

  1. A good one to start the week, Tattler. Be careful though or the IDIOTS may stop you from blogging further. It's easy to call you names and then hang you.

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  2. Then we can truly be called Lickers or Sinners.

    Dumbest, however would be more appropriate.

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  3. What is a...Lidiot?
    A lidiot is a little idiot. If you look it up in the dictonary you'll most likely find a picture of some robot master from any Megaman game.

    http://lidiots.tripod.com/id8.html

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  4. Jokes aside, there is a fine line between humour/commentary and sedition, scandalizing the judiciary, harrassment, religious and racial sensitivity, anti-foreigner sentiments, the Internet Code of Practice (ICOP), etc. The TRS was taken down yesterday, not to mention letters of demand on cartoonists, bloggers, protesters etc. When they find things "objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public order and national harmony,” you have to wonder what "public" and "national" connotes. Anyway, GE akan datang.

    Myanmar comedian Zarganar: "The American says, 'We have a one-legged guy who climbed Mount Everest.' The Brit says, 'We recently had a guy with no arms who swam the Atlantic Ocean.' But the Burmese guy says, 'That's nothing! We had a leader who ruled for 18 years without a brain!" For remarks like this, he was jailed in 2008. Does our leader still have half a brain, because he has 8 more years to go?

    As one Nazi prosecutor of the time said: "The better the joke, the more dangerous its effect, therefore, the greater punishment."

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  5. Interesting quip by Zhou Enlai : "Lee is like a banana, yellow of skin, white underneath". I'm puzzled, did anyone ever ask him why he liked to wear those mandarin suit?

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    1. Now I understand why Amos ate an banana on the way to the courthouse. Unfortunately it pissed off the dead man's son who proceeded to jail him instantly.

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    2. mandarin suit = Fu Manchu

      http://horrorpedia.com/2013/01/25/the-blood-of-fu-manchu/

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    3. Kangaroo court is out of date, why Amos has done by eating banana is to show that it goes by another name of Banana court.

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  6. The Son may be glad if someone propose Yewtopia. Its unoriginal but the PM is anything but.

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    Replies
    1. Loved it man! Same with the idi-ot and lidiot wise cracks! Let's have more to balance our otherwise dull and sad existence in this Little Red Dot.

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  7. Is this the fate of all Founding Fathers?

    "Founding Father of France's National Front - Suspended"

    https://sg.news.yahoo.com/frances-le-pen-due-disciplined-fn-leaders-002918506.html

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  8. Hahaha!! Thank you Tatler. Read this at the start of a dreary day and it made me laugh out loud in tears.

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