Casinos in Singapore ? -- A Qing-dynasty Chinese perspective

The Qing-dynasty traveller 李鐘玨 (Li Zhongjue) published 新嘉坡風土記 ("A Description of Singapore") following his visit to the British crown colony in 1887.  Among Li's many observations and impressions, Spore Sprout found this topical paragraph, which he translates freely below (with apologies to more authoritative renderings that may be extant), for the amusement and reflection of fellow modern-day Singaporeans:

In spite of strict prohibitions imposed by the British, gambling flourishes in Singapore.  There is a casino known as Skymaster Co. that is particularly notorious for touting, and is difficult to shut down on account of its many affiliates.  In years past, some Chinese had petitioned the Executive Council to take a leaf out of the book of the Dutch and relax completely the prohibitions against gambling, but instead impose heavy taxation on the gambling revenues, which could then bring in several hundreds of thousands of yuan in additional tax revenue.  Notwithstanding significant support for the proposal at the time, the Colonial Secretary pronounced that the British could not follow Dutch ways in this matter, as the body politic would be injured thereby.  The Colonial Secretary put aside the proposal and continued to seek ways to root out gambling in Singapore -- it may be said that he too was capable of apprehending the greater good.

Li's text reads in relevant part 當時頗有韙其議者而輔政使司謂英國不能如荷蘭辦法致傷政體屏置不議仍求禁絕之法此亦可謂能識大體者矣。

How much was several "hundreds of thousands of [Qing-dynasty silver] yuan" worth?  By my rough calculation, this would run in the multiples of S$2,000,000 today.   Spore Sprout uses the following ratios: one Qing yuan = one tael of silver = 40g of siver @ US$360 per kilo @ S$1.40 per US$1.  So, as the children say, "millions and millions of dollars."

A whiter shade of pale

We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels across the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so I took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'You must be the mermaid
who took Neptune for a ride.'
But she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightway died

If music be the food of love
then laughter is its queen
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
and attacked the ocean bed

I was cleaning up in the kitchen the other day when A Whiter Shade of Pale came on and I tried to sing, or sync, along.  I can't for the life of me remember when I first heard the song, although it must have been years after Procol Harum had a big hit with it.  I know because I remember my very first pop song -- "Beautiful Sunday" by the singer Daniel Boone, which came out years later and had many of the school children in Singapore humming along happily for a while, and yelling "Hey, hey, hey."  When I read that PM Lee Hsien Loong sang a song about Sunday mornings at a recent karaoke session, I chuckled and recalled my school days fondly.  I am quite sure that it was this song that the PM sang, and not "Sunday Morning" by the Velvet Underground, which would have been a different proposition altogether.

Lucky me

 

Spore Sprout is a lucky man.  Look at the beautiful view from his roof top at sunset.

叻傻？

"叻沙"是新加坡美食，那"叻傻"呢？

維基百科介紹叻沙如下：

叻沙又称喇沙，是在新加坡和马来西亚存在的峇峇文化（即华人马来人混合）的地道食品，通常用作面条的汤底。材料包括虾米、虾羔、蒜茸、干葱、辣椒、香茅、南姜及椰汁，制法是将它们煮多个小时。

新加坡人皆知 laksa (ai hum) 之美味。

叻傻則是筆者所造一詞，指近日由南海网评论员黑靑的评论《新加坡人很傻》引發的一場風波。 黑先生文章在此。作者解釋他其實是运用反讽的写作手法來讚揚新加坡人守規矩，說法完全可信， 見此。

唯獨一群新加坡讀者如韓山元先生感覺“莫名其妙”， 指责有人“道德沦丧”。 我倒覺得我們大可不必如此义愤填膺地鞭笞作者。君不見作者早已自稱“黑青”，連聲叫“痛” （見黑青，我的痛，新加坡不懂 ）。

新加坡舊稱叻埠，源自巫文“石叻”（selat) 即“海峽”。 君可知“叻”乃粵語常用字，意指 “精明能幹”， 即“傻”的相反?

叻人不傻，何來“叻傻”有之？