1.
Glossary of vexillology
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Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display. Badge A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol, canton Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, emblem A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag, field The background of a flag, the color behind the charges. Fimbriation A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, for example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Fly The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Hoist The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the vertical width of a flag. Length The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole, width The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole. Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs and as a result patterns often share names, banderole or bannerol A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flying from the mast-head of a ship. Banner Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, in heraldry, a flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms, but usually in a square or rectangular shape, also known as a banner of arms. Burgee A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, Civil ensign, merchant flag or merchant ensign A version of the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality. Civil flag A version of the flag flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. Colour or color The flag of a military unit, courtesy flag or courtesy ensign A flag flown by a visiting ship in foreign waters as a token of respect. Ensign The flag of a ship or military unit, may also be used generically as a synonym for a flag of any kind. Fanion A small flag used by the French military, gonfalon, gonfanon or gonfalone A type of heraldic flag suspended from a crossbar. Guidon A small flag borne by a military unit, in Scots heraldry, a smaller version of the Standard. Pennon or pennant A flag larger at the hoist than at the fly, pipe banner A decorative flag for the Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag A type of flag found strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas, rank flag or distinguishing flag The flag flown by a superior naval officer on his flagship or headquarters
2.
National flag
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A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country, historically, flags originate as military standards, used as field signs. The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the flag, introduced during the age of sail. Most countries of Europe adopted a flag in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The specifications of the flag of Denmark were codified in 1748, the flag of Switzerland was introduced in 1889, also based on medieval war flags. The Netherlands introduced two national flags in 1813, the Ottoman flag was adopted in 1844. Other non-European powers followed the trend in the late 19th century, the flag of Japan being introduced in 1870, the Flag of the United States is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777. Minor design changes of national flags are passed on a legislative or executive level. A change in national flag is due to a change of regime. In such cases, the origins of the national flag. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a political symbol, the flag of Germany, for instance, was a tricolour of black-white-red under the German Empire, inherited from the North German Confederation. The Weimar Republic that followed adopted a black-red-gold tricolour, nazi Germany went back to black-white-red in 1933, and black-red-gold was reinstituted by the two successor states, West Germany and East Germany following World War II. Similarly the flag of Libya introduced with the creation of the Kingdom of Libya in 1951 was abandoned in 1969 with the coup led by Muammar Gaddafi. It was used again by National Transitional Council and by anti-Gaddafi forces during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and officially adopted by the Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration. There are three types of national flag for use on land, and three for use at sea, though many countries use identical designs for several of these types of flag. On land, there is a distinction between civil flags, state flags, and war or military flags, state flags are those used officially by government agencies, whereas civil flags may be flown by anyone regardless of whether they are linked to government. War flags are used by organisations such as Armies, Marine Corps. In practice, many countries have identical flags for these three purposes, national flag is used as a vexillological term to refer to such a three-purpose flag
3.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations
4.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
5.
Charge (heraldry)
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In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon. This may be a design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant. In French blazon, the ordinaries are called pièces while other charges are called meubles, while thousands of objects found in nature, mythology or technology have appeared in armory, there are several charges which have contributed to the distinctive flavour of heraldic design. Only these and a few other notable charges are discussed in this article, some heraldic writers distinguish, albeit arbitrarily, between honourable ordinaries and sub-ordinaries. While some authors hold that only nine charges are honourable ordinaries, the remainder are often termed sub-ordinaries, and narrower or smaller versions of the ordinaries are called diminutives. Apparently ceding the point for the moment, Fox-Davies lists the generally agreed-upon honourable ordinaries as the bend, fess, pale, pile, chevron, cross, saltire and chief. Boutell lists the chief, pale, bend, bend sinister, fess, bar, cross, saltire and cheveron as the honourable ordinaries. Thus, the chief, bend, pale, fess, chevron, cross and saltire appear to be the undisputed ordinaries, while authors disagree over the status of the pile, bar, inescutcheon, bordure and others. Several different figures are recognised as honourable ordinaries, each normally occupying about one-fifth to one-third of the field, the chief is the upper portion of the field. The bend runs from the left to the lower right, as \. The bend sinister runs from the right to the lower left. The pale, a stripe in the centre of the field. The fess is a horizontal stripe across the centre of the field. The chevron is a construction shaped like an inverted letter V, the cross is a geometric construction of two perpendicular lines or bands. It has hundreds of variants, most of which are common charges rather than ordinaries, the saltire is a diagonal cross, often called Saint Andrews cross. Most of the ordinaries have corresponding diminutives, narrower versions, most often mentioned when two or more appear in parallel, bendlets, pallets, bars, chevronels, in addition to those mentioned in the above section, other ordinaries exist. Some of these are variously called honourable ordinaries by different authors, the pall or pairle is shaped like the letter Y. The pile is a wedge issuing from the top of the field and its length and width vary widely
6.
Crescent
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A crescent shape is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter, or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. It is used as the symbol for the Moon. It was also the emblem of Diana-Artemis, and hence represented virginity, in Roman Catholic Marian veneration, it is associated with the Virgin Mary. From its use as roof finial in Ottoman era mosques, it has become associated with Islam. The crescent symbol is used to represent the Moon, not necessarily in a particular lunar phase. When used to represent a waxing or waning lunar phase, crescent or increscent refers to the waxing first quarter, the crescent symbol was long used as a symbol of the Moon in astrology, and by extension of Silver in alchemy. The astrological use of the symbol is attested in early Greek papyri containing horoscopes, in the 2nd-century Bianchinis planisphere, the personification of the Moon is shown with a crescent attached to her headdress. Its ancient association with Ishtar/Astarte and Diana is preserved in the Moon representing the female principle, as such, it belongs to the class of figures known as lune in planar geometry. The tapering towards the points of intersection of the two arcs are known as the horns of the crescent, the word crescent is derived etymologically from the present participle of the Latin verb crescere to grow, technically denoting the waxing moon. Unicode encodes a crescent at U+263D and a decrescent at U+263E, the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block provides variants with faces, FIRST QUARTER MOON WITH FACE at U+1F31B and LAST QUARTER MOON WITH FACE at U+1F31C. The crescent shape is used to represent the Moon, and the Moon deity Nanna/Sin from an early time, visible in Akkadian cylinder seals as early as 2300 BC. The crescent was used in the iconography of the Ancient Near East and was used transplanted by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC as far as Carthage in modern Tunisia. The crescent and star also appears on coins of South Arabia. The combination of star and crescent also arises in the Ancient Near East, representing the Moon and Ishtar and it was inherited both in Sassanian and Hellenistic iconography. In the iconography of the Hellenistic period, the crescent became the symbol of Artemis-Diana, numerous depictions show Artemis-Diana wearing the crescent Moon as part of her headdress. The related symbol of the star and crescent was the emblem of the Mithradates dynasty in the Kingdom of Pontus and was used as the emblem of Byzantium. The crescent remained in use as an emblem in Sassanid Persia, in the Crusades it came to be associated with the Orient and was widely used in Crusader seals and coins. It was used as a charge by the later 13th century
7.
Pentagon
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In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting, a self-intersecting regular pentagon is called a pentagram. A regular pentagon has Schläfli symbol and interior angles are 108°, a regular pentagon has five lines of reflectional symmetry, and rotational symmetry of order 5. The diagonals of a regular pentagon are in the golden ratio to its sides. The area of a regular convex pentagon with side length t is given by A = t 225 +1054 =5 t 2 tan 4 ≈1.720 t 2. A pentagram or pentangle is a regular star pentagon and its sides form the diagonals of a regular convex pentagon – in this arrangement the sides of the two pentagons are in the golden ratio. The area of any polygon is, A =12 P r where P is the perimeter of the polygon. Substituting the regular pentagons values for P and r gives the formula A =12 ×5 t × t tan 2 =5 t 2 tan 4 with side length t, like every regular convex polygon, the regular convex pentagon has an inscribed circle. The apothem, which is the r of the inscribed circle. Like every regular polygon, the regular convex pentagon has a circumscribed circle. For a regular pentagon with successive vertices A, B, C, D, E, the regular pentagon is constructible with compass and straightedge, as 5 is a Fermat prime. A variety of methods are known for constructing a regular pentagon, one method to construct a regular pentagon in a given circle is described by Richmond and further discussed in Cromwells Polyhedra. The top panel shows the construction used in Richmonds method to create the side of the inscribed pentagon, the circle defining the pentagon has unit radius. Its center is located at point C and a midpoint M is marked halfway along its radius and this point is joined to the periphery vertically above the center at point D. Angle CMD is bisected, and the bisector intersects the axis at point Q. A horizontal line through Q intersects the circle at point P, to determine the length of this side, the two right triangles DCM and QCM are depicted below the circle. Using Pythagoras theorem and two sides, the hypotenuse of the triangle is found as 5 /2
8.
Ensign
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Ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern of the ship, the naval ensign, used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign or the yacht ensign. Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard, the European military rank of ensign, once responsible for bearing a units standard derives from it. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, liwa, derives from the command of a unit or units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a units ensign, and is a general officer. In Arab armies, ensign is a title equivalent to a Western brigade. In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its appartenance, while this includes its nationality, it may well indicate more information rather than being the national flag itself. This is particularly common for commonwealth and European countries, ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff or mast amidships when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag used as an ensign, A civil ensign is worn by merchant. In some countries the yacht ensign, used on boats or ships instead of merchant vessels. A state ensign or government ensign is worn by government vessels, a naval ensign is used by a countrys navy. Such ensigns are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, several Commonwealth countries national flags had their origin in the ensigns of their original colonising power, the United Kingdom. Most notable of these flags are those of Australia, New Zealand. It is also likely that the original design from which the flag of the United States developed was strongly influenced by the British Red Ensign or the flag of the East India Company. With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in aviation in the first half of the 20th century. These may be divided into air force ensigns and civil air ensigns, in heraldry, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge or arms. Distinguishing mark Maritime flag Znamierowski, Alfred, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
9.
Merchant vessel
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A merchant vessel or trading vessel is a boat or ship that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This excludes pleasure craft that do not carry passengers for hire, most countries of the world operate fleets of merchant ships. However, due to the costs of operations, today these fleets are in many cases sailing under the flags of nations that specialize in providing manpower. Such flags are known as flags of convenience, currently, Liberia and Panama are particularly favoured. Ownership of the vessels can be by any country, however, the Greek-owned fleet is the largest in the world. Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 16 per cent of the world’s tonnage, during wars, merchant ships may be used as auxiliaries to the navies of their respective countries, and are called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel. The term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in trade or that carries passengers for hire. In English, Merchant Navy without further clarification is used to refer to the British Merchant Navy, general cargo ships include multi-purpose and project vessels and roll-on/roll-off cargo. A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, thousands of cargo carriers ply the worlds seas and oceans each year, they handle the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload. Dry cargo ships today are mainly bulk carriers and container ships, bulk carriers or bulkers are used for the transportation of homogeneous cargo such as coal, rubber, copra, tin, and wheat. Container ships are used for the carriage of miscellaneous goods, a bulk carrier is an ocean-going vessel used to transport bulk cargo items such as iron ore, bauxite, coal, cement, grain and similar cargo. Bulk carriers can be recognized by large box-like hatches on deck, the dimensions of bulk carriers are often determined by the ports and sea routes that they need to serve, and by the maximum width of the Panama Canal. Most lakes are too small to accommodate bulk carriers, but a large fleet of lake freighters has been plying the Great Lakes, container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial freight transport. A tanker is a designed to transport liquids in bulk. Tankers can range in size from several hundred tons, designed to serve small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, gas Carriers such as LNG carriers as they are typically known, are a relatively rare tanker designed to carry liquefied natural gas. It has a deadweight of 565 thousand metric tons and length of about 458 meters, the use of such large ships is in fact very unprofitable, due to the inability to operate them at full cargo capacity, hence, the production of supertankers has currently ceased
10.
Pleasure craft
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A pleasure craft is a boat used for personal, family, and sometimes sportsmanlike recreation. Such watercraft are divided into two categories, motorboats and sailboats. There are also rowboats and canoes and they are used for holidays, for example on a river, lake, canal, waterway, in an archipelago or coastal area. Pleasure craft are normally kept at a marina and they may include accommodation for use while moored to the bank
11.
Civil ensign
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Civil ensign is the ensign used by civilian vessels to denote nationality. It can be the same or different from the state ensign and its also known as the merchant ensign or merchant flag. Some countries have civil ensigns for yachts, and even for specific yacht clubs. Most countries have one national flag and ensign for all purposes. In other countries, a distinction is made between the flag and the civil, state and naval ensigns. The civil ensigns that are different from the flag can be grouped into a number of categories. Several countries use red flags with, in most cases, either the national flag or the Union Flag in the canton. British overseas territories fly the plain Red Ensign or a Red Ensign with the colonial arms in the fly. Saudi Arabia puts its national flag in the canton of an otherwise-green flag, Ghana stopped using its Red Ensign in 2003 with the adoption of a new merchant shipping act, which made the Ghanaian flag the proper national colors for Ghana ships. Similarly, Sri Lanka stopped using its Red Ensign in 1969, several countries have civil ensigns that are very different from the national flag, for instance Malta and Luxembourg. Well-known examples are the Italian civil ensign showing the shield with the arms of the sea republics or the Polish civil ensign with the arms of Poland, most of these emblems were added to distinguish the ensign from similar flags of other countries or from other signal flags. In several countries there are two versions of the flag, a simpler one and a more elaborate one with the national arms. The simpler one is used as ensign, whereas the version with the arms is mainly used by the government. In Spain and Argentina the flag without the arms is only a variant for civil use, in El Salvador, the civil ensign also differs from the national flag in the proportions. France is a case, the overall proportion is the same. Civil and merchant ensigns Civil air ensign
12.
Coast guard
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A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. However, a typical coast guards functions are distinct from typical functions of both the navy and a transportation police, at the time, due to high UK taxation on liquors such as brandy, and on tobacco, etc. The Coastguard was, however, also responsible for giving assistance to shipwrecks, each Waterguard station was issued with a Manby mortar, which had been invented by Captain George William Manby in 1808. The mortar fired a shot with a line attached from the shore to the ship and was used for many years. This began the process through which the Coastguard assumed a life saving role, in 1821 a committee of inquiry recommended that responsibility for the Preventative Waterguard be transferred to the Board of Customs. In 1845 the Coastguard was subordinated to the Admiralty, in 1829 the first UK Coastguard instructions were published and dealt with discipline and directions for carrying out preventative duties. They also stipulated that, when a wreck took place, the Coastguard was responsible for taking all possible action to save lives, to charge of the vessel. In the United States, the United States Coast Guard was created in 1915 by the merger of two federal agencies. The first, the United States Revenue Cutter Service, was a maritime customs enforcement agency that also assumed a role to the United States Navy in wartime. The second, the United States Life-Saving Service, was formed in 1848, the Coast Guard later absorbed the United States Lighthouse Service and the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection. Among the responsibilities that may be entrusted to a coast guard service are, search and rescue, enforcement of law, safety of vessels, maintenance of seamarks. The Coast Guard may, varying by jurisdiction, be part of a countrys military, most coast guards operate ships and aircraft including helicopters and seaplanes that are either owned or leased by the agency in order to fulfil their respective roles. Some coast guards, such as the Irish Coast Guard, have only a limited law enforcement role, usually in enforcing maritime safety law. It therefore fulfills the functions of other countries coast guards, and furthermore acts as a gendarmerie force policing navigable rivers and they belonged to the Ministry of Defence until the 1980s, and the corps´ highest official was a Navy rear-admiral. They have since transferred to the Ministry of Interior and, more recently. However, in case of armed conflict, they can be put under Navy´s command, while having 19,650 kilometres of coastline, the Commonwealth of Australia does not have a force purely to defend its coast. The duty of patrolling its coastline falls to the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Border Force, in addition, there are several private volunteer coast guard organizations, the two largest organizations being the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol and the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard. These volunteer organizations have no law enforcement powers, and are essentially auxiliary Search, in NSW these two organisations have joined to become Marine Rescue in 2009
13.
Compass rose
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It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass. The modern compass rose has eight principal winds, 8-point compass roses us the eight principal winds—that is, the four cardinal directions plus the four intercardinal or ordinal directions, at angles of difference of 45°. 16-point compass roses are constructed by bisecting the angles of the winds to come up with intermediate compass points, known as half-winds. The names of the half-winds are simply combinations of the winds to either side. 32-point compass roses are constructed by bisecting these angles, and coming up with quarter-winds at 11 1⁄4° angles of difference, north-by-east is one quarter wind from North towards East, Northeast-by-north is one quarter wind from Northeast toward North. Naming all 32 points on the rose is called boxing the compass, the 32-point rose has the uncomfortable number of 11 1⁄4° between points, but is easily found by halving divisions and may have been easier for those not using a 360° circle. Using gradians, of which there are 400 in a circle, linguistic anthropological studies have shown that most human communities have four points of cardinal direction. The names given to these directions are usually derived from either locally-specific geographic features or from celestial bodies or from atmospheric features, most mobile populations tend to adopt sunrise and sunset for East and West and the direction from where different winds blow to denote North and South. The ancient Greeks originally maintained distinct and separate systems of points, the four Greek cardinal points were based on celestial bodies and used for orientation. The four Greek winds were confined to meteorology, nonetheless, both systems were gradually conflated, and wind names came to eventually denote cardinal directions as well. To restore balance, Timosthenes of Rhodes added two more winds to produce the classical 12-wind rose, and began using the winds to denote geographical direction in navigation, eratosthenes deducted two winds from Aristotles system, to produce the classical 8-wind rose. The Romans adopted the Greek 12-wind system, and replaced its names with Latin equivalents, e. g. Septentrio, Subsolanus, Auster, Favonius, uniquely, Vitruvius came up with a 24-wind rose. According to the chronicler Einhard, the Frankish king Charlemagne himself came up with his own names for the classical 12 winds and he named the four cardinal winds on the roots Nord, Ost, Sund and Vuest. Intermediate winds were constructed as simple compound names of these four and these Carolingian names are the source of the modern compass point names found in nearly all modern west European languages. The following table gives an equivalence of the classical 12-wind rose with the modern compass directions. The sidereal compass rose demarcates the compass points by the position of stars in the night sky, arab navigators in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, who depended on celestial navigation, were using a 32-point sidereal compass rose before the end of the 10th century. The other thirty points on the rose were determined by the rising and setting positions of fifteen bright stars. Reading from North to South, in their rising and setting positions, the true position of these stars is only approximate to their theoretical equidistant rhumbs on the sidereal compass
14.
Republic of Singapore Navy
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All commissioned ships of the RSN have the prefix RSS standing for. The Republic of Singapore Navy traces its origins to the Royal Navy in the 1930s with only two patrol craft, the Straits Settlements Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve was established on 20 April 1934 and in 1941 became the Singaporean division of the Malayan Volunteer Reserve during World War II. On 16 September 1963, Singapore was admitted as a state of Malaysia under the terms of confederation, on 9 August 1965, Singapore seceded from Malaysia to form an independent and sovereign nation within the Commonwealth of Nations. The fledgling navy had two wooden ships then, namely RSS Panglima and RSS Singapura. Panglima was replaced with another vessel in 1956 with the same name. On 22 January 1966, the SVF was renamed the Singapore Naval Volunteer Force, on 5 May 1967, the ensign was hoisted for the first time. A few months later in September, the SNVF was renamed the Peoples Defence Force under the Sea Defence Command, the SDC was again renamed the Maritime Command in 1968. Under its charge, it set out on a program to be able to carry out its seaward defense more effectively. During this period, the Navy saw the addition of six first generation of Independence class patrol vessels in December 1970. The growing constraints and strategic need for a base located nearer to the Singapore Straits necessitated a new base, and the Brani Naval Base on Pulau Brani was formally opened in December 1970. Four patrol vessels, RSS Sea Hawk, RSS Independence, RSS Sovereignty and RSS Daring together with the Marine Police, were able to surround the fleeing ferry, around this time the Navy was commanded by a certain Colonel James Aeria, the first head of the Navy. The RSN came into being on 1 April 1975, when the SAF established its component forces into three services, and has kept the name ever since. Colonel Aeria stepped down from his post as Chief of Singapore Maritime Command, the fleet has expanded massively since 1975 and is now equivalent to the navy of a Nordic nation. It took part in relief missions during the 2004 Asian tsunami. The Singapore Navy has increased its capability to deal with increasingly complex environments both abroad and close to home, in addition, it has engaged in anti piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa under international task forces. Wars involving Singapore Navy, 2004–2008 Multi-National Force – Iraq, ships participated in the Iraq War and returned home after two or three months deployment in the Persian Gulf without any ground troops involved. Singapores withdrawal was acknowledged on 23 December 2008, the RSN is led by the Chief of Navy, and he reports directly to the Chief of Defence Force. The CNV is responsible for the RSNs overall operational capabilities and administration and his deputies are the Chief of Staff-Naval Staff, Commander Maritime Security Task Force, Fleet Commander and Master Chief Navy
15.
Naval ensign
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Naval ensign is the ensign used by Navy vessels to denote nationality. It can be the same or different from the civil ensign and its also known as the war ensign. A large version of the naval ensign which is flown on a warships mast just before going into battle is called a battle ensign, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. Most countries have one national flag and ensign for all purposes. In other countries, a distinction is made between the flag and the civil, state and naval ensigns. Some naval ensign differ in shape from the flag, such as the Nordic naval ensigns which have tongues. Naval ensigns that are different from the ensign and the national flag
16.
Straits Settlements
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The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the controlled by the British East India Company. The colony was dissolved in 1946 as part of the British reorganisation of its Southeast Asian dependencies following the end of the Second World War, the Straits Settlements originally consisted of the four individual settlements of Malacca, Dinding, Penang and Singapore. The Penang territory included Penang Island, formerly known as Prince of Wales Island, christmas Island and the Cocos Islands were also included. The island of Labuan, off the coast of Borneo, was incorporated into the colony with effect from 1 January 1907. Most of the territories now form part of Malaysia, from which Singapore separated in 1965, the Cocos Islands were transferred to Australian control in 1955. Christmas Island was transferred in 1958 and their administration was combined in 1996 to form the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. This resulted in the exchange of the British settlement of Bencoolen for the Dutch colony of Malacca, the Settlements were largely Chinese in population, with a tiny but important European minority. Their capital was moved from Penang to Singapore in 1832 and their scattered nature proved to be difficult and, after the company lost its monopoly in the china trade in 1833, expensive to administer. During their control by the East India Company, the Settlements were used as penal settlements for Indian civilian and military prisoners, the years 1852 and 1853 saw minor uprisings by convicts in Singapore and Penang. As there was little or no vernacular press in the Settlements, such an act seemed irrelevant, earlier, on 4 February 1867, Letters Patent had granted the Settlements a colonial constitution. Penang and Malacca were administered, directly under the governor, by resident councillors, the Dindings, which included Pangkor Island as well as the towns of Lumut, and Sitiawan, were ceded by Perak to the British government under the Pangkor Treaty of 1874. Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite the island of Penang, was ceded to Great Britain in 1800 by the Sultan of Kedah, on its northern and eastern border, the boundary with Kedah was rectified by treaty with Siam in 1867. It was administered by an officer, with some assistants. About a tenth of the area was covered by low hills with thick jungle. Large quantities of rice were grown by the Malay inhabitants, the governor of the Straits Settlements was also High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States on the peninsula, for British North Borneo, the sultanate of Brunei and Sarawak in Borneo. Since the administration of the colony of Labuan, which for a period was vested in the British North Borneo Company, was resumed by the British government he was governor of Labuan. During World War II, the Japanese invaded Malaya and the Straits Settlements by landing on Kelantan on 8 December 1941, on 16 December Penang became the first Straits Settlement to fall into Japanese hands
17.
Malacca
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Malacca, dubbed The Historic State, is a state in Malaysia and located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. The state is bordered by Negeri Sembilan to the north and west, the exclave of Tanjung Tuan also borders Negeri Sembilan to the north. This historical city centre has listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008. Although it was the location of one of the earliest Malay sultanates, the head of state is the Yang di-Pertua Negeri or Governor, rather than a Sultan. Before the arrival of the first Sultan, Malacca was a village inhabited by local Malays known as Orang Laut. Malacca was founded by Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah or Sri Majara and he found his way to Malacca around 1400 where he found a good port—it was accessible in all seasons and on the strategically located narrowest point of the Malacca Straits. According to a legend, Parameswara was resting under a tree near a river during a hunt. In self-defence, the mouse deer pushed the dog into the river, impressed by the courage of the deer, and taking it as a propitious omen of the weak overcoming the powerful, Parameswara decided then and there to found an empire on that very spot. He named it Melaka after the tree where he had just taken shelter at, prominent Malaysian artist Syed Thajudeen visually depicted the epic tale of the founding of Malacca on canvas. The Beginning, a 4 panel painting measuring 183 x 512 cm is now a permanent collection at Galeri Petronas, because of its strategic location, Malacca was an important stopping point for Zheng Hes fleet. Her attendants married locals and settled mostly in Bukit Cina, the Chinese Emperor also ordered the Malaccans to raise soldiers and fight back with violent force if the Vietnamese attacked them again. In April 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque set sail from Goa to Malacca with a force of some 1200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships and they conquered the city on 24 August 1511. After seizing the city Afonso de Albuquerque spared the Hindu, Chinese and Burmese inhabitants but had the Muslim inhabitants massacred or sold into slavery and it soon became clear that Portuguese control of Malacca did not also mean they controlled Asian trade centred there. Their Malaccan rule was severely hampered by administrative and economic difficulties, rather than achieving their ambition of dominating Asian trade, the Portuguese had disrupted the organisation of the network. The centralised port of exchange of Asian wealth had now gone, trade was now scattered over a number of ports among bitter warfare in the Straits. The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier spent several months in Malacca in 1545,1546, the Dutch launched several attacks on the Portuguese colony during the first four decades of the seventeenth century. The first attack took place in 1606 under the command of Dutch Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge who laid siege to the town with the help of his Johor allies and he engaged the Portuguese armada which had been sent from Goa to offer armed relief to the besieged port. In 1641, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese in an effort to capture Malacca, the Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1798 but they were not interested in developing it as a trading centre, placing greater importance to Batavia on Java as their administrative centre
18.
Penang
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Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts, Penang Island, where the city, George Town, is located. Penang is bordered by Kedah to the north and the east, known as the Silicon Valley of the East for its industries, Penang is also one of the most urbanised and economically-important states in the country. George Town, which was founded by the British in 1786, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Penang has the third highest Human Development Index in Malaysia, after the State of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. Its heterogeneous population is diverse in ethnicity, culture, language. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite, Penang Lang or Penangkaran, the name of Penang comes from the modern Malay name Pulau Pinang, which means the island of the areca nut palm. The name Penang may refer either to Penang Island or the state of Penang, Penang is also known as the Pearl of the Orient, 东方之珠 and Pulau Pinang Pulau Mutiara. Penang is shortened as PG in English, or PP in Malay, early Malays called Penang Island Pulau Ka-Satu, meaning The First Island, because it was the largest island encountered on the trading sea-route between Lingga and Kedah. The Siamese, then the overlord of the Kedah Sultanate, referred to the island as Koh Maak, in the 15th century, Penang Island was referred to as Bīnláng Yù in the navigational drawings used by Admiral Zheng He of Ming China in his expeditions to the South Seas. The 16th-century Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Eredias map of the Malay Peninsula in his Description of Malacca in 1613 referred to the island as Pulo Pinaom, archaeological evidence shows that Penang was inhabited by the Semang-Pangan of the Juru and Yen lineage. Both of these are now considered extinct cultures and they were hunter-gatherers of the Negrito stock having short stature and dark complexion, and were dispersed by the Malays as far back as 900 years ago. The last recorded aboriginal settlement in Penang was in the 1920s in Kubang Semang, the first evidence of prehistoric human settlement in what is now Penang were found in Guar Kepah, a cave in Seberang Perai in 1860. Based on mounds of sea shells with human skeletons, stone implements, broken ceramics, and food leftovers inside, other stone tools found in various places on Penang Island pointed to the existence of Neolithic settlements dating to 5,000 years ago. One of the first Englishmen to reach Penang was the navigator, sailing from Plymouth for the East Indies, James reached Batu Ferringhi in June 1592, remaining on Penang Island until September of the same year and pillaging every vessel he encountered. In the early 18th century, ethnic Minangkabaus from Sumatra opened up a settlement on Penang Island, Haji Muhammad Salleh, known as Nakhoda Intan, anchored at Batu Uban and built a seaside settlement in 1734. Later, the Arabs arrived and settled mainly at Jelutong, the Arabs then intermarried with the Minangkabau, this gave rise to the Arab-Minangkabau admixture now described as Malay, as they have assimilated into the local Malay community. However, the history of Penang only began in 1786. On 17 July that year, Captain Francis Light, an English trader-adventurer of the British East India Company, landed on Penang Island, Fort Cornwallis was later built at the site where he first set foot
19.
Blue Ensign
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The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain, or defaced with a badge or other emblem, the evolution of the Blue Ensign followed that of the Union Jack. The ensign originated in the 17th century with the St Georges cross in the canton, the Acts of Union 1707 united England and Wales with Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain, thus producing a new Blue Ensign with the new Union Flag in the canton. With the Act of Union 1800, Ireland joined the United Kingdom and St Patricks Cross was added to the Union Flag and, accordingly, to the cantons of all British ensigns from 1 January 1801. Prior to the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864, the blue ensign had been the ensign of one of three squadrons of the Royal Navy, the Blue Squadron. The number and rank of such crew members required has varied over the years, as have the conditions required. Royal Research Ships by warrant whether manned by former Royal Navy personnel or Merchant Navy personnel, british-registered Yachts belonging to members of the following yacht clubs, Permission for yachts to wear the blue ensign was suspended during both World War I and World War II. Since 1864, the Blue Ensign is defaced with a badge or emblem, the blue ensign was approved by the British Admiralty in 1868 for use by ships owned by the Canadian government. net
20.
Pall (heraldry)
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A pall is a Y-shaped heraldic charge, normally having its arms in the three corners of the shield. An example of a pall placed horizontally is the portion of the Flag of South Africa. A pall standing upside down is named pall reversed, a pall on a shield may indicate a connection with the clergy, particularly archbishoprics, although in these cases the palls lower limb usually stops short of the bottom of the shield and is fringed. Such a pall is often called an ecclesiastical pall or pallium and this is in reference to the ecclesiastical vestment from which this heraldic charge derives. If there is symmetry within the arms, its blazon can be simplified in the English language by use of the term between -- in the midst of, so as to make a symmetrical composition. The coat of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon is an example where the French blasonnement is similar to the traditional English blazon, a pall can be modified by most of the lines of partition, such as the pall wavy in the coat of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon
21.
Japanese occupation of Singapore
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The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II took place from 1942 to 1945, following the fall of the British colony on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied it after defeating the combined British, Indian, Australian, the occupation was to become a major turning point in the histories of several nations, including those of Japan, Britain, and the then-colonial state of Singapore. Singapore was renamed Syonan-to, meaning Light of the South, Singapore was officially returned to British colonial rule on 12 September 1945, following the formal signing of the surrender instrument at the Municipal Building. The Japanese captured all of Malaya during the Malayan Campaign in a more than two months. The garrison defending Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942, only a week after the invasion of the island commenced, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history. The Kempeitai, committed numerous atrocities towards the common people and they introduced the system of Sook Ching, which means purge through purification in Chinese, to get rid of those deemed to be anti-Japanese. The Sook Ching Massacre claimed the lives of between 25,000 and 50,000 ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaya and these men were rounded up and taken to deserted spots around the island and killed systematically. Moreover, the Kempeitai established a network of informants around the island to help them identify anti-Japanese and these informers were well-paid by the Kempeitai and had no fear of being arrested. Japanese soldiers patrolled the streets and commoners had to bow to them when they passed by and those who failed to do so would be slapped or beaten and some people would be taken away. To remove Western influence, the Japanese set up schools and forced people to learn their language, every morning, children had to stand facing the direction of Japan and sing the Japanese national anthem. In the cinemas, only Japanese movies and propaganda films were shown and these films showed the virtues of the Japanese and made fun of the British. Going to the cinemas at all has its danger, since the Japanese might suddenly appear, sometimes, they would plant themselves in the cinemas and would listen secretly to conversations, hoping to overhear anti-Japanese remarks. The local Chinese and English newspapers had very little local news, most of what was reported was the Japanese version of the war and pro-Japanese speeches. Radio stations were controlled by the Japanese and radio owners could only to local broadcasts. Tuning in to foreign broadcasting stations was done at risk and those caught doing were severely punished or even killed. The Japanese stuck chopsticks into the ears of those who listened to British or American radio broadcasts. Resources were scarce during the occupation, the prices of basic necessities increased drastically due to hyperinflation. For example, the price of increased from $5 per 100 catties to $5,000 by the end of the occupation
22.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
23.
Flag of Japan
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The national flag of Japan is a white rectangular flag with a red disc in the center. This flag is officially called Nisshōki in the Japanese language, but is commonly known as Hinomaru. The flag embodies Japans nickname as the Land of the Rising Sun, the Nisshōki flag is designated as the national flag in the Law Regarding the National Flag and National Anthem, which was promulgated and became effective on August 13,1999. Although no earlier legislation had specified a flag, the sun-disc flag had already become the de facto national flag of Japan. Two proclamations issued in 1870 by the Daijō-kan, the body of the early Meiji period. A sun-disc flag was adopted as the flag for merchant ships under Proclamation No.57 of Meiji 3. Use of the Hinomaru was severely restricted during the years of the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II. The name of the country as well as the design of the flag reflect this importance of the sun. The ancient history Shoku Nihongi says that Emperor Monmu used a flag representing the sun in his court in 701, during the Meiji Restoration, both the sun disc and the Rising Sun Ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy became major symbols in the emerging Japanese Empire. Propaganda posters, textbooks, and films depicted the flag as a source of pride, in Japanese homes, citizens were required to display the flag during national holidays, celebrations and other occasions as decreed by the government. Different tokens of devotion to Japan and its Emperor featuring the Hinomaru motif became popular during the Second Sino-Japanese War and these tokens ranged from slogans written on the flag to clothing items and dishes that resembled the flag. Public perception of the flag varies. Historically, both Western and Japanese sources claimed the flag was a powerful and enduring symbol to the Japanese, since the end of World War II, the use of the flag and the national anthem Kimigayo has been a contentious issue for Japans public schools. Disputes about their use have led to protests and lawsuits, the flag is not frequently displayed in Japan due to its association with ultranationalism. To Okinawans, the flag represents the events of World War II, for some nations that have been occupied by Japan, the flag is a symbol of aggression and imperialism. The Hinomaru was used as a tool against occupied nations for purposes of intimidation, asserting Japans dominance, several military banners of Japan are based on the Hinomaru, including the sunrayed Naval Ensign. The Hinomaru also serves as a template for other Japanese flags in public, the exact origin of the Hinomaru is unknown, but the rising sun seems to have had some symbolic meaning since the early 7th century. In 607, a correspondence that began with from the Emperor of the rising sun was sent to Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui
24.
Colony of Singapore
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The Colony of Singapore was a British Crown colony that existed from 1946 until 1963, when Singapore became part of Malaysia. When the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War II, in 1946, the Straits Settlements were dissolved and Singapore together with the Cocos-Keeling and Christmas islands became a separate Crown colony. The colony was governed by the British Empire until it gained partial internal self-governance in 1955, incidents of looting and revenge-killing were widespread. When British troops returned to Singapore in September 1945, thousands of Singaporeans lined the streets to cheer them, Singapore was ruled by a British Military Administration between September 1945 and March 1946, during which it also served as the headquarters of the British governor general for Southeast Asia. However much of the infrastructure had been destroyed, including electricity and water systems, telephone services. There was also a shortage of food including rice, and this led to malnutrition, disease and rampant crimes, unemployment, high food prices, and workers discontent culminated into a series of strikes in 1947 causing massive stoppages in public transport and other services. By late 1947, the economy began to recover, facilitated by the demand for tin. But it would take several years before the economy returned to pre-war levels. On 1 April 1946, the Straits Settlements was dissolved and Singapore became a Crown Colony with an administration headed by a Governor. In July 1947, separate Executive and Legislative Councils were established, the failure of the British to defend Singapore had destroyed their credibility as infallible rulers in the eyes of the locals in Singapore. The British, on their part, were prepared to embark on a program of gradually increasing self-governance for Singapore, the Crown colony was dissolved on 16 September 1963 when Singapore became part of Malaysia, which ended the 144 years British rule of the island. On 9 August 1965, Singapore officially left Malaysia to become the independent Republic of Singapore, the first Singaporean elections, held in March 1948 to select members of the Legislative Council, were rather limited. The right to vote was restricted to adult British subjects, of which only 23,000 or about 10 percent of eligible registered to vote. In addition, only six of the seats on the Legislative Council were to be elected. The other three seats were won by independents, since the left-wing groups were the strongest critics of the colonial system, progress on self-government stalled for several years. The colonial government also tried to prevent contacts between Singaporean Chinese and China, which had just fallen under the rule of the Communist Party of China, tan Kah Kee, a local businessman and philanthropist, was denied re-entry into Singapore after he made a trip to China. A second Legislative Council election was held in 1951 with the number of elected seats increased to nine and this election was again dominated by the SPP which won six seats. This slowly contributed to the formation of a government of Singapore
25.
Coat of arms of Singapore
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The National Coat of Arms of Singapore is the heraldic symbol representing the Southeast Asian island nation of Singapore. It was adopted in 1959, the year Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire, the committee that created it, headed by then Deputy Prime Minister Toh Chin Chye, was also responsible for the national flag and the national anthem of Singapore. While the use of the coat of arms is restricted to the government, the symbol enjoys wide use on the currency and state decorations. The coat of arms and the flag were created over a span of two months by Toh and his committee, a law establishing the state symbols of Singapore was presented to the National Assembly by the Minister of Culture, S. Rajaratnam, and approved in November 1959. On 3 December 1959, the coat of arms, flag. Toh further stated, In the case of the state crest, again we got the five stars, a lion next to the tiger. Tiger of course is a local animal than the lion. The old City Council had a lion and it did merge with our own ideas of self governing of Singapore. Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man and white pervading and everlasting purity, the crescent represents a new moon, which reflects a young nation on the ascendant, while the five-pointed stars stand for the nations ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. The supporters of the shield are a lion and a tiger, below the supporters is a blue ribbon on which the national motto, Majulah Singapura, is written in gold. Majulah Singapura is also the title of the anthem, it means Onward Singapore in Malay. In 1985 the Monetary Authority of Singapore began to issue their second series of coins, the coat of arms is displayed on the obverse side of these coins, surrounded by an inscription comprising the name of Singapore in the four official languages and the year of minting. In 1987 the dollar coin entered circulation with this same pattern, according to the MAS, the coat of arms has also appeared on all Singaporean banknotes since the Orchid series of 1967. State decorations of Singapore also depict the coat of arms on the medallions, for example, the medallions of the Darjah Utama Temasek and the Sijil Kemuliaan use the full achievement of arms, while the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang medal displays the shield. According to the Singapore Arms and Flag and National Anthem Rules and it is also forbidden to use any symbol that can be easily mistaken for the coat of arms. Persons who wish to use the coat of arms in a work must also obtain prior permission from MICA. The only exception provided by the Rules is that the arms can be used by government officials and ministries on their buildings exteriors, Flag of Singapore List of coats of arms used in Singapore List of Singaporean flags Singapore Heraldry History Singapore Infomap
26.
Majulah Singapura
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Majulah Singapura is the national anthem of Singapore. Composed by Zubir Said in 1958 as a song for official functions of the City Council of Singapore. Upon full independence in 1965, Majulah Singapura was formally adopted as Singapores national anthem, by law, the anthem must be sung with Malay lyrics, but there are authorised translations of the lyrics of the anthem in Singapores three other official languages, English, Mandarin and Tamil. Originally composed in the key of G major, the anthem was officially relaunched in 2001 in the lower key of F major as it was said to allow for a grander. The composition of Majulah Singapura occurred during a push for independence from the United Kingdom, while Singapore was a British colony, its national anthem was God Save the King. In 1951, the colony was conferred city status by a charter from King George VI. This phrase was chosen as it was a motto to be displayed in the Victoria Theatre after its renovation in 1958, Zubir took a year to finish composing the music and lyrics for the song. In a 1984 oral history interview, he recalled the process, he difficulty is in such a short melody, T must be very simple, understandable for all the races in Singapore. I consult also an author in Malay language so that I can do it in proper Malay language but not too deep, summing up his philosophy when composing the anthem, Zubir cited the Malay proverb Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung. In 1959, Singapore attained self-government and the City Council was dissolved, the Government felt that a national anthem was needed to unite the different races in Singapore. The Deputy Prime Minister Toh Chin Chye selected the City Councils song as it was already popular, at Tohs request, Zubir modified the lyrics and melody, and the revised song was adopted by the Legislative Assembly on 11 November 1959. On 30 November, the Singapore State Arms and Flag and National Anthem Ordinance 1959 was passed to regulate the use, Majulah Singapura was formally introduced to the nation on 3 December when Yusof bin Ishak was inaugurated as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, Singapores head of state. At the same occasion, which marked the launch of Loyalty Week, the national flag. After Singapores full independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, Majulah Singapura was formally adopted as the Republics national anthem. In Singapore primary schools at lower levels, lessons relating to the national anthem, both the anthem and the national pledge must not be used for commercial situations. In November 2004, Olivia Ong, an 18-year-old Singaporean based in Tokyo, sang Majulah Singapura at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying rounds at Saitama Stadium in Saitama, due to National Service commitments, Taufik had to decline and was replaced by singer Jai Wahab. It is conventional for persons present when the anthem is performed to stand with their arms by their sides. When the national flag is raised or lowered and the anthem is played, persons in military or paramilitary uniforms who are outdoors don their head dress, if they are in formation under the orders of a commander, only the commander salutes, otherwise, all service personnel salute
27.
Prime Minister of Singapore
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The Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore is the head of the government of the Republic of Singapore. The President of Singapore appoints as Prime Minister a Member of Parliament who, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was the first prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. Lee was succeeded by Goh Chok Tong and was conferred the title of Senior Minister in the Prime Ministers Office, Goh retired on 12 August 2004 and was succeeded by Lee Kuan Yews son Lee Hsien Loong. Goh was appointed Senior Minister, and the elder Lee Minister Mentor, Lee and Goh resigned in 2011. The role of Deputy Prime Minister is the second highest post, the holder will sometimes assume the role of Acting Prime Minister when the PM is temporarily absent. Since the mid-1980s, Singapore has usually had two Deputy Prime Ministers at a time, only Ong Teng Cheong and Tony Tan served under more than one Prime Minister during their time as Deputy Prime Minister. In the cabinet of Goh Chok Tong in the 1990s to 2004, President Tony Tan, currently, the deputy prime ministers in office are Mr Teo Chee Hean and Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Prime Ministers Office Cabinet of Singapore Spouse of the Prime Minister of Singapore Prime Ministers Office
28.
Toh Chin Chye
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Toh Chin Chye was a politician from Singapore. He served as the Chairman of the Peoples Action Party from 1954 to 1981, after he left the Cabinet in 1981, he continued to serve as a Member of Parliament on the backbenches until he retired from politics in 1988. Toh began his career as an academic and he was a Reader in Physiology at the University of Singapore from 1958 to 1964. He became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Singapore while concurrently serving as the Minister for Science, following this, Toh implemented a cadres system to prevent from the newcomer ordinary members, including leftist sympathisers, from having undue influence over the membership of the CEC. Toh was elected as a PAP member for Rochor in the 1959 Singapore general election, Toh was a key member of Lee Kuan Yews faction in their fight against their rivals within the party. The vote was tied, and Toh, as the partys chairman, Toh was a tenacious fighter in the battle against the Barisan Sosialis party, a splinter group from the PAP. He managed to defeat Barisan chairman Lee Siew Choh by a mere 89 votes in the 1963 Singapore general election, Toh held several Cabinet portfolios in pre- and post-independence Singapore, including Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Science and Technology and Minister for Health. He served as the University of Singapores Vice-Chancellor from 1968 to 1975 and his stint at the university drew mixed reactions from staff and students. Toh stepped down from the Cabinet and party chairmanship in 1981 and he served a further two parliamentary terms as a vocal backbencher, during which time he criticised his own party on a regular basis. He retired from Parliament at the 1988 general election, majulah Singapura was chosen by Toh as the national anthem of Singapore. In 1959, he headed the team designed the Singapore coat of arms. Toh completed his education at St Georges Institution in Taiping, Perak. He obtained a diploma in science from Raffles College in Singapore in 1946 and he furthered his studies at University of London and in 1953 he received a PhD in Physiology from the National Institute for Medical Research. Toh spent his last years away from the public eye, the Straits Times featured Toh twice in 2005 and 2006 respectively, once on 2 May 2005 to pay his last respects to former president Wee Kim Wee. He was seen being assisted by two men and a stick as he walked. In February 2006, Toh was featured again in The Straits Times paying his last respects to the late former Deputy Prime Minister S Rajaratnam at his home in Chancery Lane. Toh was briefly back in the spotlight in 1991 when he was mistaken for the culprit in a hit and run motor accident by The New Paper, the culprit was in fact another individual who was also named Toh Chin Chye. Toh was subsequently awarded damages in a suit against the paper
29.
Union Jack
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The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. Further, it is used as a flag in some of the smaller British overseas territories. The Union Jack also appears in the canton of the flags of several nations, the claim that the term Union Jack properly refers only to naval usage has been disputed, following historical investigations by the Flag Institute in 2013. The origins of the flag of Great Britain date back to 1606. King James also began to refer to a Kingdom of Great Britaine, the present design of the Union Flag dates from a Royal proclamation following the union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Notably, the country of Wales is not represented separately in the Union Jack, being only indirectly represented through the cross of St George. The terms Union Jack and Union Flag are both historically correct for describing the de facto flag of the United Kingdom. Whether the term Union Jack applies only when used as a flag on a ship is a modern matter of debate. According to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Until the early 17th century England and Scotland were two independent kingdoms. This changed dramatically in 1603 on the death of Elizabeth I of England, because the Queen died unmarried and childless, the English crown passed to the next available heir, her cousin James VI, King of Scotland. England and Scotland now shared the same monarch under what was known as a union of the crowns, in 1606, James VI gave orders for a British flag to be created which bore the combined crosses of St. George and of St. Andrew. The result was the Union Jack, Jack being a shortening of Jacobus, the institute also notes, it is often stated that the Union Flag should only be described as the Union Jack when flown in the bows of a warship, but this is a relatively recent idea. In 1908, a government minister stated, in response to a parliamentary question, notwithstanding Their Lordships circular of 1902, by 1913 the Admiralty described the Union Flag and added in a foot note that A Jack is a Flag to be flown only on the Jack Staff. However, the authoritative A Complete Guide to Heraldry published in 1909 by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies uses the term Union Jack, the term Union Flag is used in King Charles Is 1634 proclamation. Andrew and St. Patrick Quarterly per Saltire, counterchanged Argent and Gules, when the first flag representing Britain was introduced on the proclamation of King James I in 1606, it became known simply as the British flag or the flag of Britain. The royal proclamation gave no name to the new flag. The word jack was in use before 1600 to describe the maritime bow flag, by 1627 a small Union Jack was commonly flown in this position. Reinforcing the distinction the Kings proclamation of the day concerning the arms
30.
Cabinet of Singapore
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The Cabinet of Singapore forms the Government of Singapore together with the President of Singapore. It is led by the Prime Minister of Singapore who is the head of government. The Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament appointed by the President who selects a person that in his or her view is likely to command the confidence of a majority of the Parliament of Singapore. The other members of the Cabinet are Ministers who are Members of Parliament appointed by the President on the Prime Ministers advice, Cabinet members are prohibited from holding any office of profit and from actively engaging in any commercial enterprise. The Cabinet generally directs and controls the Government and is responsible to Parliament. It also has significant influence over lawmaking, Ministers may be designated by the Prime Minister to be in charge of particular ministries, or as Ministers in the Prime Ministers Office. Singapores ministers are among the best paid in the world, prior to a salary review in 2011, the Prime Ministers annual salary was S$3.07 million, while the pay of ministerial-grade officers ranged between S$1.58 million and S$2.37 million. On 21 May 2011, a committee was appointed by the Prime Minister to review the salaries of the Prime Minister as well as the President, political appointment holders, and Members of Parliament. Following the recommended wage reductions by the committee which were debated and subsequently accepted in Parliament. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister remains the political leader in the world. The earliest predecessor of the Cabinet was the Executive Council of the Straits Settlements, following the general elections that year, David Saul Marshall became the first Chief Minister of Singapore. Constitutional talks between Legislative Assembly representatives and the Colonial Office were held from 1956 to 1958, and Singapore gained full internal self-government in 1959. In the 1959 general elections, the Peoples Action Party swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly, the executive branch of the Singapore Government remained unchanged following Singapores merger with Malaysia in 1963, and subsequent independence in 1965. Following the 2011 general election, a Cabinet reshuffle took place effective 21 May 2011, Lim Hng Kiang and Lim Swee Say respectively retained their Trade and Industry and Prime Ministers Office portfolios, while other ministers were given new appointments to the remaining 11 ministries. Up to the outbreak of World War II, Singapore was part of the Crown colony known as the Straits Settlements together with Malacca and Penang. The Governor was required to consult the Executive Council on all affairs of importance unless they were too urgent to be laid before it, in such urgent cases, the Governor had to inform the Council of the measures he had taken. Following the Second World War, the Straits Settlements were disbanded, the reconstituted Executive Council consisted of six officials and four nominated unofficials. The recommendation was implemented in 1955, in the general election held that year, the Labour Front took a majority of the seats in the Assembly, and David Saul Marshall became the first Chief Minister of Singapore
31.
Communism
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Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements
32.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH, SPMJ, informally known by his initials LKY, was the first Prime Minister of Singapore, governing for three decades. Lee is recognised as the founding father, with the country described as transitioning from the third world to first world in a single generation under his leadership. After briefly attending the London School of Economics, Lee graduated from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, in 1950, he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and practised law until 1959. Lee co-founded the Peoples Action Party in 1954 and was its first secretary-general until 1992, leading the party to eight consecutive victories. After Lee chose to step down as Prime Minister in 1990, he served as Senior Minister under his successor, Goh Chok Tong until 2004, then as Minister Mentor until 2011, in total, Lee held successive ministerial positions for 56 years. He continued to serve his Tanjong Pagar constituency for nearly 60 years as a Member of Parliament until his death in 2015, from 1991, he helmed the 5-member Tanjong Pagar GRC, and was returned unopposed for a record five elections. Lee campaigned for Britain to relinquish its colonial rule, and eventually attained through a referendum to merge with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963. But racial strife and ideological differences led to its separation to become a sovereign city-state two years later, with overwhelming parliamentary control at every election, Lee oversaw Singapores transformation from a bustling British crown colony with a natural deep harbour to an Asian Tiger economy. In the process, he forged a system of meritocratic, highly effective and incorrupt government, many of his policies are now taught at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Lee eschewed populist policies in favor of pragmatic long-term social and economic measures, Lees rule was criticised, for curtailing civil liberties and bringing libel suits against political opponents. He argued that such measures were necessary for political stability. On 23 March 2015, Lee Kuan Yew died of severe pneumonia, in a week of national mourning,1.7 million residents and guests paid tribute to him at his lying-in-state at Parliament House and at community tribute sites around the island. Lees English-educated parents named him Kuan Yew, which stands for light and brightness and his paternal grandfather gave him the English name Harry. Lee was a fourth-generation Singaporean of Hakka and Chinese Hokkien descent and his Hakka great-grandfather, Lee Bok Boon, born in 1846, emigrated from Dabu County, Guangdong province, China, to Singapore in 1863. He married a daughter, Seow Huan Nio, but returned to China in 1882, leaving behind his wife. He died just two years after his return, Lee Kuan Yews grandfather Lee Hoon Leong, was born in Singapore in 1871. He was educated in English at Raffles Institution to standard V, while working as a purser, Lee Hoon Leong, age 26, married Ko Liem Nio, age 16, in Semarang, Java, Dutch East Indies. It was a marriage, as was then the custom
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Flag of China
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The flag of the Peoples Republic of China is a red field charged in the canton with five golden stars. The design features one large star, with four stars in a semicircle set off towards the fly. The red represents the communist revolution, the five stars and their relationship represent the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, sometimes, the flag is referred to as the Five-star Red Flag. The flag was designed by Zeng Liansong, a citizen from Wenzhou, the design competition received 2,992 entries, and Zengs design was put into a pool of 38 finalists. After several meetings and slight modifications, Zengs design was chosen as the national flag, the first flag was hoisted by the Peoples Liberation Army on a pole overlooking Beijings Tiananmen Square on October 1,1949, at a ceremony announcing the founding of the Peoples Republic. Other flags used in the Peoples Republic of China use a red background to symbolize the revolution in conjunction with other symbols, the flag of the Peoples Liberation Army uses the gold star with the Chinese characters 8-1. The flag of the Communist Party of China replaces all of the stars with the party emblem, due to government regulations, cities and provinces of China cannot have their own flags, the only sub-national flags that exist are those of the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions. Despite this, at least two cities have adopted flags after the law was passed, the cities of Kaifeng and Shangrao adopted their flags in March 2006 and March 2009 respectively. This implies that the law is repealed or not enforced. On July 4,1949, the working group of the Preparatory Committee of the New Political Consultative Conference created a notice to submit designs for the national flag. Zeng Liansong was working in Shanghai at the time the announcement came out, in the middle of July, he sat down in his attic for multiple nights to come up with designs. His inspiration for the current design comes from the stars shining in the night sky and he thought of a Chinese proverb longing for the stars, longing for the moon, which shows yearning. Later, he realized that the CPC was the savior of the Chinese people. The idea of four small stars came from On the Peoples Democratic Dictatorship a speech by Mao Zedong, yellow also implies that China belongs to the Chinese people, a yellow race. After working out the details of the placement of the stars and their sizes, as of August 20, a total of 2,992 designs were sent to the flag committee, which included input from committee members themselves, such as Guo Moruo and Tan Kah Kee. From August 16 to 20, the designs were viewed at the Beijing Hotel and these designs are collected into a book named A Reference of National Flag Designs. This book was submitted to the newly established Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference for further discussion. However, Zengs design was not included until Tian Han nominated it again, in the morning of September 23, the representatives of the CPPCC discussed the national flags, but came to no conclusion
34.
Legislative Assembly of Singapore
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The Legislative Assembly of Singapore was the legislature of the government of Singapore from 1955 to 1965 and the predecessor of the Parliament of Singapore. The Rendel Constitution, proposed in 1953, sought to give the population more self-governance as the Merdeka independence movement grew. This Constitution took effect upon the conclusion of the election of 1955. In contrast to the Legislative Council, the majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1955 were allotted by election rather than appointment by the colonial administration,25 seats were elected and 7 were appointed. The colonial administration still reserved significant power, such as that of veto, ensuing activism for self-governance by David Marshall and Lim Yew Hock led to a further amendment of the Constitution of Singapore in 1958, which proposed a fully elected body of 51 seats. This proposal took effect upon the conclusion of the 1959 general election, upon the independence of Singapore in 1965, the Legislative Assembly was renamed the Parliament of Singapore
35.
S. Rajaratnam
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Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, DUT, was a Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1980–85, a long-serving Minister and member of the Cabinet from 1959–88 and a short story writer. He was one of the leaders of independent Singapore as it achieved self-government in 1959. He devoted much of his life to public service. The second child of Sabapathy Pillai Sinnathamby and his wife N. Annamah and his father had wanted him to be born there for auspicious reasons after the premature death of his older brother. He was then back to Malaya and raised in Seremban. Rajaratnam studied in, St Pauls boys school, Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, in 1937, he went to Kings College London to pursue a law degree. However, due to World War II, he was unable to receive funding from his family to continue his studies, instead and he met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher while in London. In London, Rajaratnam also wrote a series of stories which The Spectators J. B. Rajaratnams short stories and radio plays were published by Epigram Books in The Short Stories & Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam. He returned to Singapore in 1948 when he joined the Malayan Tribune, in 1954, he joined The Straits Times as a journalist. He was bold in writing about the way Singapore was governed by the British and this incurred the displeasure of the colonial government. His column, I write as I please, attracted so much attention that he was called for questioning by the government, in 1954, Rajaratnam cofounded the Peoples Action Party together with Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye, Goh Keng Swee and others. He became popular among his supporters for being able to follow the mood of the people. He thought of a multiracial Singapore and envisioned her to be a global city and he was also actively involved in organising major political campaigns against Singaporean groups on the far left. Rajaratnam is remembered for writing the Singapore National Pledge in 1966, Rajaratnam was Singapores first foreign minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965. During his tenure as minister, Rajaratnam helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations. He built up the Foreign Service and helped to establish links with other countries. Rajaratnam was one of the five founding fathers of ASEAN in 1967, in this diplomatic arena together with UN he helped to draw international attention to Vietnams invasion of Cambodia in 1978
36.
Singaporean integration referendum, 1962
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Voters were offered three options, but did not have the choice of opposing integration. Option A, which provided for the highest level of autonomy was chosen by 96% of voters, in Singapore, the PAP sought formation of Malaysia on the basis of the strong mandate it obtained during the general elections of 1959 when PAP won 43 of the 51 seats. However, this mandate became questionable when dissension within the party led to a split, the ruling PAP was not legally obliged to call for a referendum, but did so to secure the mandate of the people. The referendum did not have an option of objecting to the idea of merger because no one had legitimately raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly before then, however, the methods had been debatable. The referendum was called to resolve the issue as an effort to decide objectively which option the people backed. The legitimacy of the referendum was challenged by Singaporean left-wingers. The Council of Joint Action founded by 19 members of the Assembly to block the merger, the CJA also criticized the terms, and the lack of choice in the referendum. Being strongly against the referendum, the Barisan Sosialis called for a boycott of the referendum, over 144,000 blank votes were cast, over a quarter of all votes. The media campaign fielded by both sides was extremely heated, many of the leaders on both sides broadcast radio shows in several languages, Singapore entered into merger with Malaya on 16 September 1963, marking the birth of Malaysia. Singapore ceased to be a state of Malaysia on 9 August 1965 when it became an independent state, proclamation of Malaysia Singapore in Malaysia Independence of Singapore Agreement 1965 Singapore-elections - a site documenting the various election results in Singapores history. Referendum alternatives - documents the referendum options
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Flag of Malaysia
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In blazon, the Malaysian flag is described as, A banner Gules, seven bars Argent, the canton Azure charged with decrescent and mullet of fourteen points Or. This means a red flag with seven white stripes, the upper-left quarter is blue with a yellow waning crescent. The flag of Malaysia, which was first raised on 16 September 1963, prior to the creation of the national flag, each state in Malaya had its own flag, many of which are unchanged in design to this day. When the Federation of Malaya replaced the short lived Malayan Union, three flags were forwarded to the public. The first flag had 11 white stars with two Malay kris in the middle against a blue backdrop, the second flag concentric circle of 11 stars around crossed keris on a blue field. The third had 11 alternate red and white stripes and a yellow crescent, the third design, by Mohamad Hamzah of the Public Works Department, was chosen as the winner through a public poll held by The Malay Mail. Since Malaya was fighting the communists during the Malayan Emergency, the star had an ironic resemblance to the communists symbols. Therefore, the star was modified to six more points. The Malayan flag was approved by King George VI on 19 May 1950 and was first raised in front of Istana Selangor on 26 May 1950, on 31 August 1957, it was raised upon independence at Merdeka Square in place of the British Union Flag. The Malayan flag was designed by Mohamed Hamzah, a 29-year-old architect working for the Public Works Department in Johor Baharu and he entered the Malayan flag design competition in 1947 with two designs that he completed within two weeks. The first design was a flag with blue kris in the middle. The second design, which was among the three finalists, was similar to the current flag but with a five-pointed star and it borrows major design elements from the East India Company flag, notably the red and white stripes. The competition attracted 373 entries and voting was made by the public via post. Malayan senior statesman Dato Onn Jaafar met with Mohamed Hamzah after he won the competition, Mohamed Hamzah died just short of his 75th birthday on 13 February 1993 in Jalan Stulang Baru, Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor. Following the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, the design of the Malayan flag was modified to reflect and honour the new states in the federation. When Kuala Lumpur was designated a Federal Territory on 1 February 1974, the additional stripe, during the National Day celebrations, everyone is encouraged to fly the Jalur Gemilang at their homes, office buildings, shops and corporate premises. If the flag is fixed at home, it is to be raised pointing towards the road. If the flag is put in a group of flags with state and private company flags, the flag anthem is written as dedication and pride of the Malaysian national flag
38.
Lunar phase
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The lunar phase or phase of the moon is the shape of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the positions of the Moon. The Moons rotation is locked by the Earths gravity, therefore the same lunar surface always faces Earth. This face is variously sunlit depending on the position of the Moon in its orbit, therefore, the portion of this hemisphere that is visible to an observer on Earth can vary from about 100% to 0%. The lunar terminator is the boundary between the illuminated and darkened hemispheres, each of the four intermediate lunar phases is roughly seven days but this varies slightly due to the elliptical shape of the Moons orbit. Aside from some craters near the lunar poles such as Shoemaker, all parts of the Moon see around 14.77 days of sunlight, in Western culture, the four principal lunar phases are new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter. These are the instants when the Moons apparent geocentric celestial longitude minus the Suns apparent geocentric longitude is 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°. Each of these phases is instantaneous, lasting theoretically zero time, during the intervals between principal phases, the Moon appears either crescent-shaped or gibbous. These shapes, and the periods of time when the Moon shows them, are called the intermediate phases. They last, on average, one-quarter of a month, roughly 7.38 days, but their durations vary slightly because the Moons orbit is slightly elliptical. The descriptor waxing is used for a phase when the Moons apparent size is increasing, from new moon toward full moon. As the moon waxes, the lunar phases progress through new moon, crescent moon, first-quarter moon, gibbous moon, the moon is then said to wane as it passes through the gibbous moon, third-quarter moon, crescent moon and back to new moon. The terms old moon and new moon are not interchangeable, the old moon is a waning sliver until the moment it aligns with the sun and begins to wax, at which point it becomes new again. Half moon is used to mean the first- and third-quarter moons, while the term quarter refers to the extent of the moons cycle around the Earth. When a crescent Moon occurs, the phenomenon of earthshine may be apparent, in the Northern Hemisphere, if the left side of the Moon is dark then the light part is growing, and the Moon is referred to as waxing. If the right side of the Moon is dark then the part is shrinking. Assuming that the viewer is in the hemisphere, the right portion of the Moon is the part that is always growing. Nearer the Equator the Moon with its terminator will appear apparently horizontal during the morning and evening, the crescent Moon can open upward or downward, with the horns of the crescent pointing up or down, respectively
39.
Star and crescent
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The star and crescent develops in the iconography of the Hellenistic period in Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom, and notably Byzantium by the 2nd century BC. Coins with crescent and star symbols represented separately have a longer history, the star or Sun is often shown within the arc of the crescent, In numismatics in particular, the term crescent and pellet is used in cases where the star is simplified to a single dot. In Byzantium, the symbol became associated its patron goddess Artemis-Hecate, Ancient depictions of the symbol always show the crescent with horns pointing upward, and with the star placed inside the crescent. This arrangement is found on Sassanid coins beginning in the 5th or 6th century. The combination is found rarely in late medieval and early modern heraldry. It rose to prominence with its adoption as the flag and emblem of the Ottoman Empire and of some of its administrative divisions, and later in the 19th-century Westernizing tanzimat. The Ottoman flag of 1844 with a white ay-yıldız on a red background continues to be in use as the flag of the Republic of Turkey with minor modifications, other states formerly part of the Ottoman Empire also used the symbol, including Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. The same symbol was used in national flags introduced during the 20th century, including the flags of Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore. Unicode introduced a star and crescent character in its Miscellaneous Symbols block, in Late Bronze Age Canaan, star and crescent moon motifs are also found on Moabite name seals. The depiction of the crescent-and-star or star inside crescent as it would develop in Bosporan Kingdom is difficult to trace to Mesopotamian art. An example of such an arrangement is found in the reconstruction of a fragmentary stele of Ur-Nammu discovered in the 1920s. Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus used an eight rayed star with a crescent moon as his emblem, several possible interpretations of the emblem have been proposed. In most of these, the star is taken to represent the Sun, if any goddess had a connection with the walls in Constantinople, it was Hecate. Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its founding, like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. Hecate was considered the goddess of Byzantium because she was said to have saved the city from an attack by Philip of Macedon in 340 BC by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of the known as the Lampadephoros. Some Byzantine coins of the 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, the star and crescent symbol appears on some coins of the Parthan vassal kingdom of Elymais in the late 1st century AD. The same symbol is present in coins that are associated with Orodes I of Parthia
40.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
41.
Flag of Nepal
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The national flag of Nepal is the worlds only non-quadrilateral national flag. The flag is a combination of two single pennons, the vexillological word for a pennant. Its crimson red is the colour of the rhododendron, the national flower. The blue border is the colour of peace, until 1962, the flags emblems, the sun and the crescent moon, had human faces. They were removed to modernize the flag, the flag was adopted, with the formation of a new constitutional government, on December 16,1962. The individual pennants had been used for the two centuries and the double pennant since the 19th century. The flag borrows the basic design from the design, which has been in use for more than 2,000 years. The flag was adopted after Prithvi Narayan Shah unified all small principalities of Nepal, in modern times the concept of the flag has changed to have a different meaning. The blue border symbolizes peace and harmony, the crimson red is Nepals national color, and it indicates the brave spirits of the Nepalese people. The two triangles symbolize the Himalaya Mountains, the depiction of celestial bodies represents permanence, the hope that Nepal will last as long as the sun and the moon. The moon symbolizes that the Nepalese are soothing and calm, while the sun symbolizes fierce resolve, the moon also symbolizes the shades and the cool weather of the Himalayas, whereas the sun symbolizes the heat and the high temperature at the lower part of Nepal. Another interpretation, The flags shape could also symbolize a Nepalese pagoda – as noted by local Nepalese, there is a precise description of the Nepalese national flag in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Article 5, Schedule 1, adopted 9 November 1990. Method of Making the Shape inside the Border On the lower portion of a crimson cloth draw a line AB of the length from left to right. From A draw a line AC perpendicular to AB making AC equal to AB plus one third AB, from AC mark off D making line AD equal to line AB. From BD mark off E making BE equal to AB, touching E draw a line FG, starting from the point F on line AC, parallel to AB to the right hand-side. Method of Making the Moon From AB mark off H making AH equal to one-fourth of line AB, Bisect CF at J and draw a line JK parallel to AB touching CG at point K. Let L be the point where lines JK and HI cut one another, let M be the point where line JG and HI cut one another. With centre M and with a distance shortest from M to BD mark off N on the portion of line HI
42.
Pantone
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Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. X-Rite Inc. a supplier of color measurement instruments and software, Pantone began in New York City in the 1950s as the commercial printing company of M & J Levine Advertising. In 1956, its founders, advertising executives brothers Mervin and Jesse Levine, for instance, a particular page might contain a number of yellows of varying tints. The idea behind the PMS is to allow designers to color match specific colors when a design enters production stage and this system has been widely adopted by graphic designers and reproduction and printing houses. Pantone recommends that PMS Color Guides be purchased annually, as their inks become yellowish over time, Color variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used, while interedition color variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used. The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system, by standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. One such use is standardizing colors in the CMYK process, the CMYK process is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A majority of the printed material is produced using the CMYK process. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the companys guides, however, most of the Pantone systems 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments mixed in specified amounts. The Pantone system also allows for many special colors to be produced, such as metallics, while most of the Pantone system colors are beyond the printed CMYK gamut, it was only in 2001 that Pantone began providing translations of their existing system with screen-based colors. Screen-based colors use the RGB color model—red, green, blue—system to create various colors, the Goe system has RGB and LAB values with each color. Pantone colors are described by their allocated number, PMS colors are almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legislation and military standards. In January 2003, the Scottish Parliament debated a petition to refer to the blue in the Scottish flag as Pantone 300, countries such as Canada and South Korea and organizations such as the FIA have also chosen to refer to specific Pantone colors to use when producing flags. US states including Texas have set legislated PMS colors of their flags and it has also been used in an art project by the Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass which applies Pantone to the human skin color spectrum. On September 5,2007, Pantone introduced the Goe System, Goe consisted of over 2,000 new colors in a new matching and numbering system. The Goe system was streamlined to use base colors and accommodate many technical challenges in reproducing colors on a press. The Pantone Goe system was discontinued in November 2013, in mid-2006 Pantone, partnering with Vermont-based Fine Paints of Europe, introduced a new line of interior and exterior paints. The color palette uses Pantones color research and trending and has more than 3,000 colors, in November 2015, Pantone partnered with Redland London to create a collection of bags inspired from Pantones authority on color
43.
Ministry of Communications and Information
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The Ministry of Communications and Information is a ministry of the Government of Singapore. It is in charge of information and communications technology, the media and design sectors, public libraries, as well as the Governments information, on 5 June 1959, the Ministry of Culture came into being with the swearing-in and appointments of ministers of the new Government of Singapore. On 1 February 1980, the Broadcasting Division of the Ministry of Culture became a statutory board,1985 saw the dissolution of the Ministry of Culture. Its Information Division came under the new Ministry of Communications and Information and its arts promotion component was assimilated into the Ministry of Community Development as the Cultural Affairs Division. On 1 September 1991, the Festival of Arts Secretariat, Singapore Cultural Foundation, the Arts Division of MITA, on 1 October 1994, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority was formed as a statutory board under MITA to oversee and promote the broadcasting industry in Singapore. On 23 November 2001, the information and communications technology functions under the Ministry of Communications, the expanded Ministry was renamed the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, but retained the acronym MITA. In that year, Infocomm Development Authority became one of MITAs statutory boards, on 1 January 2003, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, Singapore Films Commission and Films and Publications Department merged to form the Media Development Authority. On 13 August 2004, the Ministrys acronym was changed from MITA to MICA, on 1 November 2012, MICA was renamed the Ministry of Communications and Information. REACH was assimilated into MCI while the resilience, arts and heritage portfolios became part of MCCY, MCI now oversees the development of the information and communications technology, media and design sectors, public libraries, and the Government’s information and public communication policies. MCI has three statutory boards, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, MCI also manages the DesignSingapore Council, a department in the ministry and the national agency for design. Official website of the Ministry of Communications and Information
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Bunting (textile)
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Bunting is a term for any festive decorations made of fabric, or of plastic, paper or even cardboard in imitation of fabric. Typical forms of bunting are strings of colorful triangular flags and lengths of fabric in the colors of national flags gathered and draped into swags or pleated into fan shapes. Amongst other properties that made the fabric suitable for ribbons and flags was its high glaze, the origin of the word is uncertain. The term bunting is also used to refer to a collection of flags, the officer responsible for raising signals using flags is known as bunts, a term still used for a ships communications officer. Textile manufactures in early modern England, wakefield, A Study of Arrested Urban Development. Media related to Bunting at Wikimedia Commons
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Singapore National Day Parade
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Singapore celebrated its first National Day as an independent nation in 1966, one year after Singapores separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965. The first National Day Parade started in the morning at 9,00 a. m. that day, People came as early as 7,00 a. m. in order to get good vantage points. Singapores first President, Mr Yusof bin Ishak and Singapores first Prime Minister, when the parade began,6 military contingents, a mobile column from the SIR, and various schools and civil contingents marched past City Hall and then into the city streets. Three military bands accompanied the parade inspection and later the march past with military music, the Singapore Fire Brigade also took part in this first parade with its firetrucks included in the mobile column. Rounding it all was a lion and dragon dance performance from drum. The following year, the contingents increased to 76, including those of the then established Singapore Armed Forces, street performances by various groups also debuted in that years parade. 1969s parade, the one where the Mobile Column made its first drivepast, on the August 9,1970 NDP edition, the Flypast of the State Flag and the Republic of Singapore Air Force Flypast debuted. A combat simulation performance by Singapore Army personnel was one of the new highlights for that year, the 1971 NDP was the first to include the iconic mobile parade floats from various organizations. Choirs also debuted on that years edition, the 1973 parade was held from the afternoon to early evening for the first time to attract more attendance from the public. The next year, colour broadcasts of the parade on television began, the 1975 parades, held to celebrate Singapores 10th year, were for the first time decentralized into 13 parade venues for more public participation. Almost all of them lasted for an hour and all of them even had route marches on the streets to the participating venues, 1977s parade was a decentralized event like two years before while 1978 would see the parade back at the Padang grounds. 1979s parade was yet another decentralized one, held in high schools. The 1980 parade, held at the National Stadium, almost rained at the start and this was the first parade in which the feu de joie of the Guard-of-Honour contingents made its inaugural appearance. 1981s NDP was the very first parade appearance of the then SPF Civil Defense Command, presently the Singapore Civil Defense Force and they were held in two decentralised venues, Jurong and Queenstown Sports Stadiums for further increase public attendance and participation in the celebrations. 1983 would be the year that the NDP was held in multiple venues. The 1986 edition was the first true evening edition of the parade, 1987s parade, held at the Padang, was the first ever evening event held there and featured the first appearance of the massed military bands of the SAF. The parade returned to the Padang in 1990 to honor the nations silver jubilee year, in 1997, for the first time, there was a National Education Show, where Primary 5 students watch NDP rehearsals. The government set up the electronic voting ticketing system in 2003 in order to tackle the problem of overcrowding, such ticketing system enables citizens to stand a chance at winning the tickets by registering their e-mail addresses or mobile numbers at the NDP website or phonelines
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BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole
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Singapore Airlines
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Singapore Airlines Limited is the flag carrier of Singapore with its hub at Singapore Changi Airport. The airline uses the Singapore Girl as its figure in its corporate branding. The Singapore Airlines group includes many airline-related subsidiaries, SIA Engineering Company handles maintenance, repair and overhaul business across nine countries, with a portfolio of 27 joint ventures, including with Boeing and Rolls-Royce. Singapore Airlines Cargo operates SIAs freighter fleet and manages the cargo-hold capacity in SIAs passenger aircraft and it has three subsidiaries, SilkAir operates regional flights to secondary cities, while Scoot and Tigerair operate as low-cost carriers. Singapore Airlines was the customer for the Airbus A380, the worlds largest passenger aircraft. It ranks amongst the top 15 carriers worldwide in terms of passenger kilometers. On 15 December 2010, Singapore Airlines was named by the International Air Transport Association as the second largest airline in the world by market capitalisation, Singapore Airlines is majority-owned by the Singapore government investment and holding company Temasek Holdings, which holds 56% of voting stock. Singapore Airlines is headquartered at Airline House, by Changi Airport in the Changi area of Singapore, branding and publicity efforts have revolved primarily around flight crew, in contrast to most other airlines, who tend to emphasise aircraft and services in general. In particular, the promotion of its flight attendants known as Singapore Girls has been widely successful and is a common feature in most of the airlines advertisements. Although a successful marketing image for the airline, the Singapore Girl emphasis has been criticised as portraying women as subservient to males. The Singapore Airlines logo is a bird, inspired by a kris, which comes from the keris. The keris is central in Singapore Airlines branding, such as the SilverKris lounge, the logo is featured on the tailfin and in the airlines collaterals, and has remained unchanged since Singapore Airlines inception from the split of Malaysia–Singapore Airlines. The logotype and stripes underwent a minor tweak in 1987, however, the stripes and the bird remain the same. Singapore Airlines flies to 62 destinations in 32 countries on five continents from its hub in Singapore. The airline has a key role on the Kangaroo Route and it flew 11. 0% of all international traffic into and out of Australia in the month ended March 2008. On 14 October 2015, Singapore Airlines announced plans to resume the worlds longest non-stop flight between Singapore and Newark – a 15,300 km, 19-hour route that the airline had dropped in 2013. According to the airline, the route would be accommodated after the acquiring of new Ultra Long Haul Airbus A350 aircraft in 2018, a340-500 aircraft were formerly employed to serve this route until their retirement in 2013. Singapore Airlines offers five classes of service – suites, first class, business class, premium economy class, major upgrades to its cabin and in-flight service were announced on 17 October 2006, constituting the first major overhaul in over eight years and costing the airline approximately S$570 million
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