Friday, April 10, 2020
Crusades And The Church Essays (757 words) - Christianization
Crusades And The Church Crusades and the Church At the time of the Crusades, the official church had become corrupt and politically motivated. It should be noted, too, that crusaders did not take vows to go on crusade. The very term crusade, in English or in any other language, is a much later invention. What we call crusades, contemporaries knew as pilgrimages or even simply journeys. Aside from a tiny elite, people were illiterate and even if they could read, there was no access to a Bible or any scriptural teaching. It was an age of superstition and magic, where visions, signs and wonders were claimed by many. The masses' only source of knowledge about God was whatever the often corrupt and greedy clergy decided to teach. The early crusades broke new grounds for the power of the Church. It gave the Pope the highest order of command and brought about new religious vows. The crusade was a holy war, which differed from earlier wars against the enemies of Christendom in that it was waged by command of the pope. In order to ignite the fire of the Crusades, the Pope had to take existing theology about violence and warfare and turn it on its head. Until this time a Christian soldier had to do penance for any violence in order to reduce the time he would spend in purgatory before going to heaven. Violence was considered a necessary evil, but nevertheless still evil. Popes Gregory VII and Urban II changed that. They said that an act of warfare against the infidel, i.e. the Muslims, was in itself an act of penance, and if a Christian were to lose his life so doing, he would go straight to heaven. Many Crusaders extended this concept to include killing Jews too. With many people facing what they believed could be countless years in purgatory, it is no wonder that tens of thousands willingly gave themselves to the cause of killing the infidel. Regardless of motivation, an individual underwent a specific ceremony before he could be considered a crusader. The ceremony evolved somewhat over the centuries, but its general outlines remained the same. A would-be crusader sought out an ecclesiastical authority (a priest, bishop or higher cleric) and swore to carry out an armed pilgrimage in support of the Holy Places. He then usually received a cloth cross which he could place on his clothes to signify his new status. Crusading vows were usually taken in response to official preaching of a crusade by licensed churchmen. They were supposed to be taken only by fighting men or those who could otherwise contribute to a military effort, and they were not to be taken without the permission of the crusader's wife, since his long absence would deprive her of what was delicately called marital rights (Pope Innocent III, in need of troops for his crusading proposals, changed this in the thirteenth century, but in doing so he violated longstanding Church tradition and the plain intentions of canon law). The crusader's property and people were then placed under the protection of the Church, and he was to begin preparing to leave. If he did not discharge his vow within a certain period of time, he might be excommunicated by the church until he kept his word. Crusaders were often offered an indulgence in return for participation in the hardships of a crusade. The indulgence was later seriously abused, and the word acquired a justifiably obnoxious connotation. But in the beginning it was another of those carefully thought out doctrinal innovations that attended the reforms of the tenth and eleventh centuries. In brief, the indulgence assumed that if an individual were truly penitent for his sins, he might obtain remission or forgiveness for the temporal penalties of those sins by performing some arduous, virtuous or unpleasant task to compensate for them. This remission could apply to penalties imposed by the Church on earth (i.e., to penance prescribed for sin), and it might also apply to penalties imposed by the Church in the next world (i.e., to time spent in purgatory). Most medieval people were deeply interested in their fate in the next world, and the indulgence was a powerful incentive
Monday, March 9, 2020
Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood
Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood Talking Writing, Music and Editing with Tom Flood Tom Flood helped us refine Reedsy from our earliest days. Now we want to share his amazing story. From songwriting to novels and finally manuscript editing, Tom has honed his knowledge of the writing craft over the years, and contributes today to our (aspirationally) literary blog.In one of our most in-depth interviews so far, what started as a conversation about Tomââ¬â¢s agency Flood Manuscripts moved on to cover his work as an editor, a writer, and an independent musician.Tom analyses the oft-invoked parallel between book and music publishing and what the future holds for both these industries. He also shares his own experience as a writer - he made this great observation about identifying oneself as a writer:ââ¬Å"When people ask, ââ¬ËWhat do you do?ââ¬â¢ and I answer, ââ¬ËWriter, editor, musician,ââ¬â¢ the next question is invariably ââ¬ËOh, what do you play?ââ¬â¢ Writing is both less and more mysterious. Nearly everyone writes, so it engenders the second q uestion ââ¬ËWhat do you write?ââ¬â¢ way less often. The more revealing ââ¬ËHow do you write like that?ââ¬â¢ comes rarely. People think skill in musicianship comes with practice and dexterity, but skill in creative writing? Like art, they believe itââ¬â¢s a gift. The reality is theyââ¬â¢re the same.â⬠His tripartite career gives Tom a unique lens through which to see whatââ¬â¢s happening right now in the new world of publishing. His advice to writers is both practical / motivating - persevere, keep going - and informed by years of experience editing self-published authors.Hi Tom, you have an impressive portfolio and experience in writing, editing and proofreading. Which one came first in your career? In other words, what made you become an editor?Thanks, Ricardo. I came to editing via writing. I have always been a songwriter but in the 80s, buoyed by a boom of new Australian fiction engendered by the infrastructure built by the short-lived, ground-breaking Le ft government of the 70s, I began to try my pen at short stories, got one published in a short-lived journal, and finding that slow going, switched to the big picture of the novel. The success of that move (three national awards) led to connections in the world of publishing and I began occasional award judging, assessment through our major residential writersââ¬â¢ centre, and some editing for publishers throughout the 90s, also being commissioned to write a theatre piece and a feature film. That all petered out as I moved back towards music performance and had a stab at academia.In 2003, with a string of part-time jobs, and looking to find new income streams, I began working through the net for a few large assessment/appraisal services in other states, a relatively new industry, reading and advising across a wide range of prose writing. A year later my artist partner suggested I start my own to fund living through a PhD, and a writing client created the first Flood Manuscripts w ebsite. Within a year it was full-time assessment and clients began to ask if I would mentor them, act as agent, ghostwriter and all manner of services I had no intention of taking up. Dumping the doctorate to ride the growing self-pub wave with Flood Manuscripts, the next step was mentoring, structural editing and copy editing, and finally proofreading, as Aussie writers began to become impatient with the trade publishers and adept at dealing with the digital, their needs evolving. I keep the service personal, despite many suggestions to expand into an agency, because I like to be at the coalface.You have also both won and been a judge to major writing awards in Australia, how did that start, and what do these awards represent for you as an author? (Is that just a nice acknowledgement of your craft or something youââ¬â¢re genuinely proud of?)Awards! Without them Flood Manuscripts wouldnââ¬â¢t exist. Despite both parents writing pretty successfully (my mother, Dorothy Hewett, was a well-known poet and playwright), neither had published with a mainstream press. I made my name in fiction by winning our premier manuscript award, the prize including publication by Allen Unwin, and that novel then took out more awards, including our oldest and best known fiction prize, the Miles Franklin Award. Everything else I have been lucky enough to be involved with has stemmed from those awards. Flood Manuscriptsââ¬â¢ clients have since taken out even more awards, mostly international, and yes, Iââ¬â¢m very proud to be a small part of that.We are in London, and most of our audience is in the US. But you live in Australia, so can you tell us how the publishing landscape looks like over there? How ââ¬Å"bigâ⬠are ebooks and self-publishing?I think weââ¬â¢re trailing a decade behind USA in some aspects, particularly genre, as we are a small market and still retain a certain English literariness in our publishing landscape, largely fed by our tertiary educat ion system. That said, we were and still are ahead in acceptance of manuscript assessment /appraisal as an essential part of that landscape. Once convinced, Australians do have a fast technology take-up and self-pub is really developing into a snowball.Has the ââ¬Å"digital revolutionâ⬠truly changed your career, or do you feel you continue working with authors more or less like you did before?Flood Manuscripts is a child of the digital ââ¬Ërevolutionââ¬â¢. 98% of my work is sourced, contracted, paid and completed via the net. That has grown from about 70% over a decade. Iââ¬â¢m receiving around one paper manuscript a year. I prefer to read and edit digitally for work, although I still like to read paper for pleasure. I like the ancient craft of bookbinding. It will be a shame if we lose that art form to the economics of the trade.Songwriting, though, has not changed for me. The pen is still mighty, the pencil mightier, and scraps of waste paper litter the study on ev ery surface. With the novel, I began handwriting it in ââ¬Ë85, moved to a borrowed typewriter, then a borrowed word processor, and finally finished the last drafts on a redundant computer with bootlegged software (WordStar) from my partnerââ¬â¢s work place. I was over 30, on the dole, and on the rebound from an art pop band in Sydney. I donââ¬â¢t think I actually got on the net until 2003.This is a traditional question in our interviews: does working directly with an author (indie or hybrid) make it easier or harder for you? Does the absence of a traditional publishing structure change the way you communicate with the author?Except in the early days before Flood Manuscripts, Iââ¬â¢ve almost always worked directly with authors. I donââ¬â¢t court the trade publishers because there are so few here and they donââ¬â¢t outsource much anyway. How it continues to change is in the speed, volume and creativity of new digital ventures and what they offer to litworkers. As an assessor, keeping up with even a small part of that change is a challenge.You are also a musician, singer and songwriter in the acoustic trio Blues Angels. The music industry and the publishing one are often compared, many people proclaiming that what happened in music will happen to books. Whatââ¬â¢s your opinion on that?Conventional wisdom has had the popular music evolution in four phases: 1) sign with a big label; 2) music publishers make big money from big musicians and use some of those profits to develop new talent; 3) big musicians realise theyââ¬â¢re leaving money on the table and set up their own labels (self-publishing), resulting in music publishers dwindling and new musicians having no corporate sponsorship; 4) digi-platforms like iTunes do the same as Amazon/KDP/Kindle and new musicians go direct to consumers (less 30%), but there is new pressure to discount or give away material for free; and we can now add phase 5) big musicians realise how much money they are leaving on the distributorsââ¬â¢ table and abandon digital platforms (Taylor Swift/Spotify, Radiohead /iTunes). New musicians have no sponsor, make no money from Spotify and canââ¬â¢t sell on iTunes without a massive marketing spend.The book trade significantly differs to music in that it doesnââ¬â¢t have a regular large performance aspect, although writers are often performers at festivals, schools, readings, etc., and libraries arenââ¬â¢t really a power in the same way in the music trade, although ideas like Self-E and the digital library may significantly endanger lending rights payments in the pursuit of ââ¬Ëgoing viralââ¬â¢. Itââ¬â¢s not a matter of ââ¬Ëwill happenââ¬â¢; it already has, at least to level 4. Writing, like music, has gone digital and that digital product is being given away in the millions to create traction towards a fame of sorts and is being streamed, not quite like Spotify et al, through Kindle Owners Lending Library, but podcasting and YouTube are pushing text more into performance re audiobooks, book trailers, and even as the music industry has been digitally driven back towards the single as its principal product, so Kindle Shorts, blogging, social media publishing and other developments continue to drive fiction back towards the heyday of shorter forms. Will this be a boon to poetry? It should be, but I havenââ¬â¢t seen a Shorts- or YouTube-based boom in verse, though itââ¬â¢s early days yet. I do see bundling going on in either form by both indies and trade, both live and product-based, and I expect weââ¬â¢ll see even more specific-subject social media appearing, like mootis, a Twitter for legals, and new models for crowdfunding, like Patreon.This is the big picture, but as with BluesAngels, who donââ¬â¢t operate in the world of popular music, we do our gigs and small festivals, make our recordings and sell our music at those live gigs, then rinse and repeat. Sure, weââ¬â¢ve put it up digit ally on iTunes and Spotify, but we donââ¬â¢t expect to compete with the pop forms; we donââ¬â¢t have that kind of money. So far weââ¬â¢ve made eight cents from streaming. Indie authors can and do still exist at this same level. I have a long term client with Flood Manuscripts who self-pubbed a hardback verse novel, offset printed, and took it on the road to sell ââ¬â door to door! Heââ¬â¢s sold 15,000 over a number of years, making him a best seller in Australian poetry, and funded an audio CD, but he doesnââ¬â¢t register on Bookscan, nor have the poetry awards or Amazon ever heard of him.A hard question now: do you prefer being an author, and editor or a musician? Where do you feel you have more creative freedom?The last one was hard. Creative freedom might just be a curse to some. Many artists prefer a given structure within which to work, although Iââ¬â¢m not one of them. Some like to push the boundaries of form, others to innovate within those boundaries, a nd others prefer to capitalise on proven market structures. Creative freedom is not a term I think about or relate to, perhaps because I have it? Perhaps not: like writersââ¬â¢ block, I donââ¬â¢t think you can pin down what it is. As to author, editor, musician, all three can be personally satisfying.Some say that certain media are better than others to express a particular message. Do you think music allows you to express some things that you cannot in writing, and vice-versa?As an aural form based on sound, not words, and not limited by language, only taste, music is probably capable of appealing more indefinably to the emotions, but Iââ¬â¢m a songster, so for me itââ¬â¢s a vehicle to carry fewer words more urgently to the audience, kinda like poetry, but it can and does operate differently. Unlike writing, there are also visible tools, and people do appreciate visible, live craft. When people ask, ââ¬ËWhat do you do?ââ¬â¢ and I answer, ââ¬ËWriter, editor, mus ician,ââ¬â¢ the next question is invariably ââ¬ËOh, what do you play?ââ¬â¢ Writing is both less and more mysterious. Nearly everyone writes, so it engenders the second question ââ¬ËWhat do you write?ââ¬â¢ way less often. The more revealing ââ¬ËHow do you write like that?ââ¬â¢ comes rarely. People think skill in musicianship comes with practice and dexterity, but skill in creative writing? Like art, they believe itââ¬â¢s a gift. The reality is theyââ¬â¢re the same.Finally, if you had one word of advice for authors (mainstream, indie, hybrid) in 2015, what would it be?Iââ¬â¢m a novelist! Even tweets give us more than one word, but when it comes to publishing, I shuffle between ââ¬ËPersevereââ¬â¢ and ââ¬ËQuitââ¬â¢, but ââ¬ËTime Managementââ¬â¢ may be two words worth contemplating. Things are both worse and better for authors than at any time in the history of printing, but the history of authors is millennia older. What weââ¬â¢re seein g today is the very rapid furthering of the democratisation of publishing. Making money is a relatively new notion in that history. What is an author? A writer: or a writer who is published? With the rise of self-pub, ââ¬Ëis publishedââ¬â¢ is changing to ââ¬Ëhas publishedââ¬â¢, from passive to active, but an author is simply an originator. So my advice to authors, as always, is mundane; if you enjoy writing, keep learning by reading and doing, and you will be constantly challenged to go further. It is principally a vocation. If you want to become a publisher, youââ¬â¢re back to square one ââ¬â an ingà ©nue - set out to learn your new set of jobs thoroughly, and keep learning and doing.Thanks a lot for your time, Tom, and for sharing these fantastic insights with us.Thanks, Ricardo, for this opportunity, and thanks to the Reedsy crew for authoring this quality new service.Follow Flood Manuscripts and Reedsy on Facebook!What do you think about Tomââ¬â¢s story? A re we right in drawing parallels between the book and music industries? What fundamental differences do you see, and whatââ¬â¢s the future going to look like? Leave us your thoughts, along with any question for Tom, in the comments below.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
American Well Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
American Well - Assignment Example This leads to resolving medical issues early hence a better quality of life for the patient and reduced costs in the end. Also, a patient can choose a physician of their liking in quick fashion (Internet health care, 2). Apart from physicians and specialists, patients can access services of pharmacists and NPs. The biggest disadvantage of using this platform is that often the doctor will be communicating with the patient via phone or chat and may not obtain all the facts. The result can be offering advice or prescription that is erroneous. Also, the ease with which patient access drugs may not be safe for them since they may omit some information either knowing or unknowingly. Physicians would have preliminary information before they finally meet their patients. This generally means a lot of time being saved hence the physician could attend to more patients. With this system, patient visits are expedited hence improved hospital efficiency. Physicians who are in low demand geographical areas can work with patients elsewhere (Putnam, 34). What this means is more work for them hence better pay. On the down side, data that the physician accesses about a patient may be erroneous because of editing of the same by unreliable persons. This can present serious legal and health issues. Insurance companies can improve their reputation by having such a service. Overall, people are distrustful to insurance companies (Kabbes, 21). By providing a service that is cheap and reliable, some form of goodwill is developed between the insurer and the public. Also, the insurance firms can align their financials with those of the physicians. The results would be better margins for the insurance company. One drawdown, the insurance may encounter logistical problems in incorporating this platform into their already complex system. If not properly streamlined this platform could lead to
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Peppermint Candy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Peppermint Candy - Essay Example The events of the movie coincide with the actual events in the history books. Yeong-Ho, an emergency military member fights the uprising as a soldier. He serves the dictatorial government and tends to uphold the orthodox practice of dictatorship. Yeong-Ho kills a schoolchild. In the real world, the dictatorial military fought against the uprising. This led to mass murder and accidental deaths of innocent bystanders in the same time span depicted by the movie. Historiography as evident in Peppermint Candy serves a crucial role in the society by highlighting the concepts of consciousness and mind. Organizations, governments, individuals and families can understand the motivation behind specific actions by gathering mental experiences within a given time in a process known as consciousness. Additionally, as one studies the mind of an individual, it becomes simple to determine the reasons behind specific actions especially dictatorship. Yeong-Ho tortures the uprising captives. The captiv es are in bad shape as seen in their health. The national historic attack of 1980 where the dictatorial government deployed more than 20,000 troops in Gwanju, documents that many people died, others survived with severe physical or mental impairments while others permanently separated with their family members. The unsettled conscience of Yeong Ho as he transforms from innocence to brutality is clear. However, the perpetrator indicates the universal struggles of South Korean citizens at the time of the dictatorial rule and subsequent attacks. Peppermint Candy story begins in 1970. Soyoung Yeong-Ho emerges as the main character to join the military system of the land. Prior to this period, people were mostly peaceful though there were other earlier uprisings. This accurately depicts that the countries were calm before the Gwanju uprising gained momentum and the country fell into internal wars and massacre of its own citizens. The movie properly describes the dictatorial ideologies and structures employed by the existing government. The claims of upholding anti-communism ideas allowed the dictatorial military to perpetrate their unjustified and inhumane attack on citizens. According to history, after the Korean War, South Korea marked North Korea as its enemy due to its communist ideas. The south forged a National Security Law to foster national security. However, this served to provide a platform for the dictatorial government to classify various social groups that poses threats such as labor societies and advocators of d emocracy. It is evident that enemies of the state experienced imprisonment, detention, torture and death. The movie portrays this fact because the raids were not secretive and soldiers were not worried about their actions because the National Security Law protected them. Soyoung Yeong-Ho takes the audience through the military brutal operations because he is a perpetrator himself. According to Soyoung (63) while the movie describes the period as time of ââ¬Å"ice warâ⬠, cold war was taking place. The worldââ¬â¢s cold war was characterized by economic race. This was a period of financial crises across parts of Europe that reflected on Asian countries. Korea hit its highest peak of financial trouble in 1997, six years after the USAââ¬â¢s cold war allegedly ends. The timelines in the movie coincide with the actual IMF crises that befell the country after the cold
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Critical Perspectives on Accounting Essay Example for Free
Critical Perspectives on Accounting Essay In this article Marcus Milne provides critical overview and analysis of literature devoted to establishing evidence for positive accounting theory in regards of corporate social disclosure. The central argument of the paper is that positive accounting theorists are trying to colonize social and environmental accounting research. The present article is empirical research and the author employs qualitative and quantitative data to support the claim that positive accounting theory of social disclosure has failed in its endeavor. The authorââ¬â¢s purpose is to challenge the perceptions of positive accounting theory and to illustrate why efforts of theorists to social and environmental accounting has failed. The author focuses on the original work of Watts and Zimmerman and tends to present their concern and ideas with the lobbying behavior observed in US oil companies. The companies were claimed to be monopolists and self-interested politicians that had pursued mainly wealth transfers in the form of taxes and other political costs. For them, social responsibility is passing remark. The article is useful to my research topic as Milne suggests that modern businesses and companies should be more concerned with social and environmental responsibility as our worldââ¬â¢s resources are not unlimited. The main limitation of the article is that only one original work is incorporated ââ¬â the article presents one viewpoint without presenting multiple views on the problem. The author indicates that literature on positive accounting theory has failed to provide arguments for self-interested managersââ¬â¢ wealth maximizes. The article will be useful supplementary information for my research on social and environmental responsibility.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Capital Punishment :: essays research papers
How often have we heard the statement ââ¬Å"Two wrongs donââ¬â¢t make a rightâ⬠? Yet, is this saying ever really applied to our lives? When do we ever turn the other cheek? As far as history is concerned, the human race has never felt the sting of a hand consecutively on both sides. Evidence to this can be found anywhere. Soldiers kill the enemy to win the war. Athletes become violent in order to obtain a trophy. And, in the judicial system, the ultimate crime of murder is dealt with the ultimate punishment of death. Yet, it poses the question does the end really justify the means? Can societyââ¬â¢s practice of the death penalty be considered a moral disgrace? Justice is not without faults. Canadians Guy Paul Morin and David Milgaard were both wrongfully accused of murder. Both men spent many years serving out a penalty which should have never been bestowed upon them. Although, if the death penalty was common practice in Canada, these innocent victims may have been executed. They may have been killed. Murdered. All because of a guilty verdict and societyââ¬â¢s desire to extinguish the flame of violence. The desire to have revenge. Yet, does the elimination of an offender bring back their victims or heal the wounds of the families? Should we consent to causing pain for another family by killing their child? If the offender was your child, would you want to watch them die? Of course, there is always the argument that the threat of death acts as a deterrent to threatening offenders. However, the claim that this act really does deter violent crime is inconclusive, not proven, and extremely difficult to disprove. For every set of statistics saying that it lowers the amount of violent crime, there is another to say it doesnââ¬â¢t and another that states it does both. Using such an ambiguous argument to support a controversial act is not only unacceptable, but it is irresponsible. If there is any validity to this argument, it is negated by the actual amount of time an offender spends on death row. Endless appeals, delays, technicalities, and retrials keep those condemned to death waiting for execution for years on end. If the majority of death row residents live to an old age anyway, why would anyone be afraid of capital punishment? It would be just as easy to sentence offenders to life of captivity and work in a prison.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Reminiscences of the Japanese Occupation
In his seventies, Mr Rajoo is my uncle. He showed great enthusiasm and related his experience in Tamil during the 3 hours interview. His accounts shed light on the ways how individuals inject meanings to a particular subject. Background Mr Rajoo was born in 1930. He was the second son in a family of 10 children. His family lived in a village in Sembawang which was near to one of the Naval Base which was owned by the British. When the Japanese invaded Singapore, Rajooââ¬â¢s family staying in North of Singapore then they moved as far as Tampinese. His family used a bullock cart to transport some of their properties.They stayed away from their home for a year. Then they returned to their village. So he had a chance to witness the Japanese rule in other parts of Singapore as well as his own hometown. The Dark Years of Japanese Occupation The impending presence of the Japanese on Mr Rajooââ¬â¢s daily life was felt as early as 1941. As a 11 years old boy, his family and he faced seve re shortage of food and other necessities like medical. ( Q1 ) When the British surrendered, they did not want Japanese to enjoy the fruit of their labour. All the rice in the warehouse was sprayed with limestone.As limestone is white, the Japanese did not suspect any foul play by the British . So those who ate the rice had diarrhea . Japanese took over much of the foodstuffs and other goods for the use of their army. Due to the food shortage, essential food stuffs like rice, salt and sugar were controlled. Ration cards which limited the amount of food for each person was given out. ( Q4 ) His family lived on a simple diet and found other food substitutes for those food items which were scarce. Tapioca and sweet potatoes were used as substitutes for rice ( Q3 ) and palm oil or coconut oil was used as cooking oil.Even in schools pupils grew and took care of the vegetable plots. This was the widespread situation in Singapore during the Syonan-To years. Many historians have written abo ut the food scarcity during the Syonan rule. There are a lot of evidence to state that during the Japanese rule, many people suffered from malnutrition and diseases as they did not have well balanced meal. Those taken as prisoners of war also suffered under the iron grip of the Japanese and many died out of malnutrition. Transport during the Japanese reignMr Rajoo recalls bicycles being widely used as mode of transport during the Japanese reign. (Q6) So much so that even after the Japanese surrender, Rajoo and the other villagers working in the Sembawang Shipyard used bicycles as mearns of transport to travel to work. Tri-shaw which consisted of a bicycle with a side-car attached for a fare-paying passenger replaced the former richshaw. He stated that the Japanese bicycles had only thin solid rubber tyres. He also recalls in the interview to have seen a lot of motorcars before the Japanese rule and not during the Syonan-To period.Some historians state that there must have been tens of thousands of vehicles, many new and the majority of the rest in good condition were used by the Japanese. These great fleet of transport fell to the Japanese as booty, when they captured Singapore. However, the lack of spare parts, or technical skill, or both, made the fleet diminish rapidly to a deplorable state so much so that it almost faded by the time the Japanese surrendered. Transport was a big problem for the local people tthroughout the Occupation. (1) The Japanese were in control of the worldââ¬â¢s rubber and many oil fields. 2) They forced many motor vehicles to run on coal gases or inferior petrol made from vegetable sources. Public vehicles dwindled and cars ceased to be available for almost all other than Japanese. School Experiences Mr Rajoo recalled how he had to learn Japanese language in his school. He could still recall some Japanese sentences. ( Q5 ) It is remarkable to know that even after 60 years he is able to remember some Japanese sentences. (Q5) All t his had been instilled in the young minds at a very tender impressionable age to gain peopleââ¬â¢s allegiance .School children were taught to face the direction of Tokyo where the Japan Emperor resided and sing the Japanese Anthem. (Q5 ) So the Japanese tried to influence the school children to become patriotic towards Japan. This is another aspect of their rule where they tried out propagandas. Several historians have concurred the same evidence regarding the Japanese intention to remove the western influence and premote the Japanese culture and values. Japanese lessons were published in the newspapers and broadcast over the radio. In order to encourage people to learn the Japanese language, job privileges and extra allowances were given.Different methods were used to influence the minds of the people in Singapore. Radio stations were controlled by the Japanese and radio sets were sealed so that people could only listen to local broadcasts. Those caught tuning in to foreign broa dcasting stations were severely punished or killed. Through the interview, I realized that Rajooââ¬â¢s family and the villagers also did not own any radios. They were afraid of being punished. Japanese ââ¬â The Disciplinarians Tthroughout the Syonan-To rule, the people were constantly living in fear because the Japanese took harsh action to establish control over the people.Those caught looting were shot or beheaded and their heads were displayed at public places. Those who were passing by must witness such a scene if not they will be called back to look directly at the decapitated head. ( Q8 ) Barbed wire was also put up across roads to form roadblocks. The Japanese guards would make the people passing by to bow to them as a sign of respect. Anyone who did not do so would be slapped, killed or punished in some ways. When the children forget to show respect to the Japanese soldiers, these soldiers will use their knuckles to hit on the childrenââ¬â¢s forehead .Those sthrong men found at home not working will be immediately sent to work. ( Q8 ) Those who were sick should still report to work. They despised men idling. The Japanese Treatment of the 3 main races in Singapore According Mr Rajoo the Chinese suffered the most during the Japanese Occupation. Many Chinese in Singapore had sent money to help China fight Japan. So the Japanese wanted to weed out the anti-Japanese sentiment among the population. They carried out the Sook Ching Operation. They ordered all Chinese men between 18 to 50 years of age to report at the mass screening centers. Then the men will be questioned.The Japanese, however, had no proper way of finding out who were against them. Those who the Japanese thought were against them were taken away in lorries. Thousands of Chinese were taken in this way to Changi Beach or other beaches where they were shot. ( Q7 ) Some Chinese who very desperate to save their lives disguised themselves as Indians or Malays to avoid the scrutiny of the Japanese soldiers. Mr Rajoo recalled that Japanese were not overly suspicious of Indians nor the Malays. However, anybody who were thought to have acted against the Japanese interest were severely dealt with.They will be either punished or killed. (Q7) Japanese role in instigating nationalistic feeling According to Mr Rajoo, the Japanese associated Indians in Singapore with Gandhi and his movement in India. Gandhi was fighting for Indiaââ¬â¢s freedom from the British Colonial power. Japanese told the Indians in Singapore that Japan would help India to get rid of the British rulers. They also wanted all Indians to join the Indian National Army to fight the British in India. Subhas Chandra Bose, the founder of INA was allowed to come to Singapore to collect funds for his establishment.Historical facts also seemed to prove the relevance of his statement. From the interview, Mr Rajoo didnââ¬â¢t portray as someone anti-Japanese. Probably his family and he did not really undergo muc h torture by the Japanese. He definitely seemed to have welcomed the Japanese for one reason. The Light of the South From the interview one would deduce that Mr Rajoo sthrongly feels that the Japanese brought on the nationalistic fervor among the citizens. ( Q9 ) Nationalistic feeling caught onto some people like the forest fire and the thirst for independence was ignited due to Syonan-To.
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