To the East and Back- for quite a while

 

I’m not superstitious but I admit to having had a slight sense of trepidation about returning to Singapore after my last somewhat harrowing trip there back in May, but this time (so far, at least as I am drafting this in the departure lounge at Changi on my way home)  all has been well.

The fact that ultimately it’s all about shipping strikes you immediately you approach Singapore with the approaches to its several docks absolutely crammed with merchant shipping. No shipping, no shopping indeed.

I find myself getting increasingly interested in all that side of the ‘maritime affair’ now that Edition 5 of the Seapower book is consigned to the hands of the printers. For once I was really pleased with the cover design that Routledge came up with. I got the original picture from the German manufacturer – of one of their frigate designs but the cover designers were really imaginative in what they did with it. I think though that it’s going to miss the Christmas stocking market unfortunately.

The  2.5 weeks I was away were very busy with maritime things, the centrepiece being presiding over a large course for local coastguard and naval types  the naval base at Changi. 140 of them indeed. It was all very matey. Loads of selfies etc, but this one shows us all. I’m in the white coat. Otherwise it was a series of small seminars and workshops in Vietnam and Indonesia. I think the word had got out about my health adventures. Everyone was extremely solicitous to the point of my beginning to get a complex about it. Such things as a senior Indonesian naval officer insisting on holding my hand as I walked down some steps after a meal. I can see why Joe Biden tried to dispel such perceptions by bounding up stairs in public whenever he could !  

That apart it was  nice meeting up with innumerable friends and colleagues from around the region and former students who still seemed quite pleased to see me, which is always encouraging. I hope it’s not just seeing that I am still alive !

But, of course, it wasn’t all work. I packed my time with going round all the Singapore sites I like in my spare time and getting a bit of swimming in whenever possible. The highlight has to be joining in Singapore’s 60^th National day celebrations one extremely hot Saturday evening. The real thing is in August but they put on a couple of preview/rehearsals for the general public. The (free) tickets are like gold dust. The Navy sent Jane, my boss sort of, 4 of them and she added me to the family. I must say it was fantastic. Everything from fly-overs, parachutists to parades of Leopard tanks [curiously for all my military interests I have never seen tanks on a road in a parade before- we don't do that kind of thing]

and an extraordinary sound and light show about Singapore’s multicultural character. A cast of thousands. They impressively emphasise the sense of community that distinguishes the place from other countries in the region. Also the notion of ‘total defence’ – i.e. everyone has a role to play directly or indirectly in national defence, whether as part of the serried ranks of the military services, or as firefighters, police, educators etc. They were all represented by the large numbers of civilian organisations that marched along behind the military.  There’s a lot of talk about we Europeans now having to revive this kind of thinking in the light of the Russian threat. I think the Singaporeans have a lot to teach us one way or another, but I do wonder about how receptive or for that matter anyone else in Europe is to that kind of thinking. Let's hope we don't suffer the consequences.

The other highlight had no such strategic overtones. It was a grand son-et-lumiere about the maritime history and legends of Hoi An in Vietnam, that the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam arranged for us to go and see. If anything, this was even more spectacular. One element I found particularly striking was a very long procession of girls in illuminated conical hats and ancient court dress walking past in darkness to the beat of a distant drum. Somehow they all seemed to be leaning backwards. It was mesmerizing. I just couldn’t see how they did it.  I managed a video of it, but it failed to capture the magic of the occasion and  any case I need instruction on how to attach videos to transmissions like this. This wasn't it, but it gives a taste of the whole thing.

 

Otherwise I did things on my own, at the weekends. Taking advantage of the need to go back to my old and future apartment to collect a suitcase I left behind last time, I popped in the botanic gardens to goggle at strange plants, and have a Tiger at the Bee's Knees..

Of course I revisited my favourite bar on Emerald Hill in front of the old ship-houses. I sat and beavered away on my lap-top in the historic Fullerton Hotel, the old Post-office building, Fish and chips in the Cricket Club, lighting a candle for Cherry in the Armenian church and  a fascinating couple of hours in the nearby National Archives, reading old copies of the Straits Times. I did the first week of 1931 and chanced across two stories that struck me as being more than a touch apposite, both about America. The first was of a Republican congressman suggesting in all seriousness that Britain pay off its war debt to the US by selling them Canada. This elicited the pained response that didn’t this ignorant man realise Canada wasn’t ours to sell ? The other story was about a ban on illegal migrants being allowed to return to the US after leaving to spend Christmas at home. Generally, the US needed to rid itself of these unwelcome and often criminal guests. Some things, it seems don’t change. Instead these stories  tend to support the notion that anyone who imagines that Trump’s eventual departure will ushed in an new age of enlightenment  is likely to be sadly disappointed. Trump is a symptom of the problem, not a cause.

To end on a happier note, I was amused to come across this in the loo in an Indonesian restaurant. Strange to find I have been doing it wrong all these years.