A talk by author John Burgess on his book "Temple in the Clouds", about the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia over a Buddhist temple on their border, Preah Vihear.
http://www.amazon.com/Temple-Clouds-Faith-Conflict-Vihear/dp/6167339546

Its a privilege to have access to these kind of talks that very quickly inform you about a topic that you didn't even know existed ('didn't know that you didn't know') and in addition fill out some detail on the larger  South East Asian story. This talk was particularly romantic and poignant.

Preah Vihear -  would this have come from "Priya Vihara" ?

I'm taking a course this semester from Drs. Asit Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada  on Water Governance and Policy. 

Robert Wasson of the Institute for Water Policy spoke on the 2013 Uttarakhand disaster; there's a research paper forthcoming. 

Kishore Mahbubani talked to us today on "Why Mr. Lee Kuan Yew Succeeded?".  According to him it was "Meritocracy", "Pragmatism", "Honesty". And a strong dose of 'cunning' ; LKY was the most astute politician he had ever seen. Many more interesting vignettes: how the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing made a $100 Million donation to the School, and that 80% of the bottom 20% economic strata of Singapore own their own home - a signal achievement. How one of the key elements of pragmatism for Singapore has been copying the best of other countries. He claimed that Deng Xiaoping learnt something from Singapore and some Chinese classmates were not amused :-) . 

Comparing cultures

My sister asked me today if I preferred Singapore to the US and I didn't have an answer but it set me thinking. Singapore is like a busy buzzing place, people running around making good things, running countless retail shops, good quality, good design, pleasant, keeping the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) going etc. The US brings to mind individualism and a self-destructive streak ,great creativity and achievement, all the attitude and ego and drug addition. One surmises that Lee Kuan Yew really could not handle the nihilism of the drug culture that he saw in the West and hence the draconian anti-drug laws in Singapore. It scared him at some deep level.
And what to say about India in comparison to the above ?

In the profusion of cuisines that is Singapore, one particular dish stood out for me (in my limited exploration). This was the Japanese  counter at the food court in the Lee Kuan Yew School. They serve a noodle soup with slices of pork that is so clean and refined, and other little details about the experience work too. I will maybe write a post and put up a photo of that later, but the reason I bring it up here, is that Japan is another distinct cultural stream. I would love to go there and experience it,

Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the LKYY explained Singapore's small size this way: "On the island of Sumatra there is a mountain. In the middle of the mountain there is a mountain lake. The mountain lake has an island in it. And that island is bigger than Singapore".

This weekend is Singapore's 50th Anniversary as an independent country. They call it an anniversary, rather than "Independence Day" like India. Singapore didn't fight for Independence like we did, there is a curious history of it being asked to leave Malaysia of which it was a part. Something to understand more of, later.
All is not perfect in the island nation, and there are challenges ahead of it and hopefully I'll learn enough about that to write about it later, but this weekend is a time to celebrate, as they say, Singapore's transition from a third world country to a first world country in 50 years. A group of us from the school went to a waterfront restaurant for dinner to catch the fireworks, which are a prelude to the real deal which will come on Sunday.

Majulah Singapura is the anthem : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdb_O91d92M