A Civilized Post

While reading online about the mini civilizations of "Skateboarders" and "Hip Hoppers" formed by our local young talent, I stumbled across an interesting article about a civilisation of the ancient world. Unlike the Skateboarders and the Hip Hoppers, the people belonging to this civilization are not remarkably capable or talented. They were merely the first to read and write. Not much an achievement when you compare it to our local mini civilizations. Anyway, this group of people were the first to use an alphabet for writing words. Vandalising walls with pictograms was not exactly their forte, I should say. They came up with 30 consonants and 0 vowles so I have a slight idea on how they would have spoken. Something like "Go away" would have sounded like "GWY!" And if you actually say "Go away" repeatedly at high speed it would sound like GWY. So they had actually figured a way to save time and breath. Not bad eh...

These people were also among the best sea traders of the ancient world ruling the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Lebanon. Apparently, their skills at sea can give Jack Sparrow a run for his Black Pearl. So who are these smart and seamingly talented bunch of people?

The Phoenicians. Members of a Semitic people in Syria or its colonies.

Thanks to them we have alphabets and Sesame Street.

What's in a name?

Singapore is strengthening its ties with Kuwait, working duly hard towards maintaining the creed," We have no permanent friends, just permanent interests." Oh well.. rather than just strengthening our ties with Kuwait maybe in the process our PM should try lengthening his name, to prove that Singapore is competitive in all possible areas. The Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was recently declared CHAMPION in the "Which state's Premier has the longest name?" competition. He was presented with a few barrels of oil from USA (rumour has it that these exact barrels had gone unaccounted for in the Middle East(M.E.) a few years ago, US is simply returning back what they had previously taken from the M.E.) The oily reward aside, let us just take one more look at that name. The only two known Al-s missing in his name are Al-Jazeera and Al-Qaeda. Maybe he decided to remove the latter after 9/11. Al-Mohammed, Al-Ahmed or Al-oha, no matter what the Al-s are, I have decided to call him Nasser. The name Nasser warrants minimal breath and therefore puts no strain on my breath control. Imagine announcing his name in a UN conference. By the time they finish saying his name, the UN assembly would have successfully commenced and ended the withstanding water issue between Singapore and Malaysia. Exaggerations aside, the Prime Minister is not the only one with such an eeelongggattted name. The President, the crown prince, many of the ministers and almost all of their sons carry such long names. If only the sons sat for exams in Singapore, the OAS would have been their biggest dilemma.

A country with a penchance for lengthy and interesting names, somehow didn't live up to the expectation when it came to naming the CAPITAL. Was it the lack of Al-s or the overused Sheikhs that made them name the capital Kuwait City? Now where did their desire for 'Name Variety' go? Or was it a sacrifice the capital was made to do?- Since no one recalls the names of the Premiers, it was decided that at least the capital city should be easily remembered by one and all. Whatever the case, I expected a tad more from the Al-Sabah dynasty. Disappointing it is... and its not like a power transfer will ever happen anytime soon in Kuwait since Al-Sabah is the Muslim version of the PAP. Both are here to stay for a very long time, not eternity hopefully but just a very loooongg time.