Politics at what cost (WWII)

On 16 November 1941, two battalions arrived from Canada as reinforcements for the defense of Hong Kong (the city surrendered to the Japanese forces on Christmas Day 1941.) I remembered reading elsewhere that most of the soldiers were in their early adulthood or 20's. 

However, the writing was on the wall for the end of Hong Kong in early 1941. The British Empire gave up on defending the city as early as 7 January 1941. In response to a telegram asking for reinforcement of Hong Kong, Winston Churchill said: “If Japan goes to war there is not the slightest chance of holding Hong Kong or relieving it. It is most unwise to increase the loss we shall suffer there. Instead of increasing the garrison it ought to be reduced. Japan will think twice before declaring war on the British Empire, and whether there are two or six battalions at Hong Kong will make no difference. I wish we had fewer troops there, but to move any would be noticeable and dangerous.”

Guess the 'we' do not include Canadians. While the poor soldiers were defending Hong Kong, the Empire was occupied with how to re-take Hong Kong after the surrender of the Japanese Imperial Army.

Historically, the period between 8-25 December 1941 has been known as the Battle of Hong Kong or Defense of Hong Kong, however, it was never that because it had been already been decided as the 'Fall of Hong Kong' before it even began.   

References:

How Untrained Canadian Troops Fought and Died in the Defense of Hong Kong

The Fall of Hong Kong, Christmas 1941

Spider? More like parasite

Always wondered why and how the city of Singapore became a financial centre. Perhaps its genesis lies with the city of London. Now part of the question can be answered. Courtesy of Wolf Street's World's Worst Tax Haven to Expand Its Operations:

Unbeknownst to even many Brits, the “City of London Corporation” has functioned for centuries as an offshore island inside Britain, even inside London, a tax haven in its own right,

... Not only is the City of London paradise on earth for rights-seeking corporations; it is also the rotten, beating heart of a vast, secretive financial web cast across the globe. As Shaxson points out, each of the Web’s sections – the individual havens in the Caribbean and elsewhere (all of them Crown dependencies) – trap passing money and business from nearby jurisdictions and feed them up to the City, just as a spider catches a fly.

Corporations in the city of London, which are mostly financial types, are able to vote as an entity in council elections. Each entity is able to garner a certain number of votes. The bigger the corporation the more votes. Sort of like the functional constituency sector in Hong Kong.

Think of how Singapore became a financial centre. The city consistently blows its trumpets by saying that its success was built on people because of its lack of natural resources. All these years, it is a known fact that individuals and businesses from the nearby region park most of their funds in financial institutions in the city.

After alcohol, tobacco and fat, Sugar is the new evil

In the pre-Internet days, we wouldn't even have the slightest chance to know about how the sugar industry colluded with universities to hide the negative effects of sugar in the 1960s. We can add this to the long list of hidden truths that are slowly being re-discovered. Not only was the fact that sugar contributes to heart disease. etc. but the additive was added to tobacco in order to increase addiction i.e. the extra kick. From How Sugar Helped Hooked American on Cigarettes:

“Were it not for sugar,”... a former U.S. Department of Agriculture tobacco official quoted..., “the American blended cigarette and with it the tobacco industry of the United States would not have achieved such tremendous development as it did in the first half of this century.” The combination... was a “stroke of genius.”

Still think genius only in the positive? A movement has started to label sugar as a toxin which was written about in a book called Pure, White and Deadly by John Yudkin published as far back as 1972. If you think that drinking fruit juice is any better, you might want to think again. Robert Lustig is the person who started the above-mentioned movement.

Did anyone mention the 'Sugar King of Asia'?

Newsbyte January 2017

👉 2017, year of the rooster, will be a make or break year for China. For the past couple of years, the China economy has run on credit at a pace of around 30% every year. As recently released data pointed out, in 2016 the government extended a record-breaking 12.56 trillion yuan in loans (in 2015, the figure was 11.72 trillion yuan). Latest debt to GDP stands at 280%, the highest among developing countries.

👉 Pollution has taken the form of a new life. From 'Beijing Blue' to 'Beijing Cough'. Its consequences are not just short-term but worryingly long-term. In December 2016, the China government issued its first ever red alert, the highest level in its four-tier pollution alert system. The real long-term effects on health is still unknown because such high levels of pollution have not been seen before -- even after taking into account the London smog of 1950s and the smog that beset Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Taken from STEM to STEAM: Science and Art Go Hand-in-Hand:

Dr. Jerome Kagan says that the arts combine the three major tools that the mind uses to acquire, store, and communicate knowledge: motor skills, perceptual representation, and language. He further adds:

“Art and music require the use of both schematic and procedural knowledge and, therefore, amplify a child’s understanding of self and the world.”