Friday, April 17, 2009

Interesting old Newspaper Clippings

In many interviews that I had given which have appeared in the press, in articles and on radio... I mentioned that I had been keeping "tons"of old newspaper clippings from the 1960's onwards. Most of these clippings and pages of news articles, photos, cartoons etc..are still kept in thick file folders in my cabinet and in the storeroom.
While I was working, I never could find the time to pour over them let alone scrutinise what I had collected and accumulated over nearly half a century!
Most of the stuff, though yellowed by age, are still in mint condition.
Unk Dicko has clippings on almost every topic and subject of the day.
They include politics, wars, natural disasters, governments, countries, history, geography, science, philosophy, art, music, sports, education, industry, travel, tourism, crime, discoveries, obituaries,entertainment, people, personalities etc...etc...etc... .
Most of my clippings came from the Straits Times, Sunday Times, the Asia Magazine and other newspapers... some of which are no longer existing.

Here are 3 samples of my clippings...picked at random from the thousands in my archives.

1.Straits Times - Sat March 4 1989
This was a brief news story of a friend of mine Mr Leong Chee Kong who was blind. He was an avid "fan" of parliament sittings. He used to visit me in the 70's and we would chat about politics, the economy, religion and jokes. We would converse in English and Cantonese as well. Though Chee Kong was blind, he never ever depended on charity for his survival and upkeep. He was one of the happiest and most independent people I have known. Over the years, we have lost touch with one another. I have no idea what has become of him or his whereabouts today. Between he and I, we both had another very close friend Jeffery Lee Yew Choon. Unfortunately and most sadly, Jeffery died an untimely death in the Silk Air crash in Palembang, Indonesia in 1997.

2. Sunday Times - October 5 1986
A news report on the linking up of our historic bridges through underpasses and walkways.
Most of us would have heard of some of the names of these bridges. But honestly have you heard of " Ord bridge " and " Read bridge" ? Know where they are located?

3. Straits Times - Friday October 26 1962
The year 1962..Unk Dicko was still a schoolboy at Victoria School, next to Jalan Besar Football stadium. I looked at my 1962 diary and my writings were startling and frightening. Many of us, including poor me, thought that the 3rd World War would break out that year! Why?
China and India was at war.
The Russians had placed missiles aimed at the USA at Cuba.
President John F Kennedy had given Khrushchev...the Soviet leader an ultimatum.
Remove the missiles within 24 hours or we will launch an all out attack.
It was really scary. We thought the world was coming to an abrupt end.







5 comments:

stanley said...

Just for the fun of guessing, I think the ord and read bridges are located somewhere in Clarke Quey. I may be wrong.

Unk Dicko said...

Yes..you guessed right!
Both are there and both are pedestrains only bridge, meaning no vehicles allowed.

js said...

wow, the clippings are a great insight into the past. would be wonderful to scan each and every one and pore over them to gain a peek back into a time I never got to witness.

Unk Dicko said...

Hi js!
Fully agree with you..it's really unbelievable when we look back for insight to see how far we've come in many areas and also how far we've sunk in some.
Not everything we see around today is good!
I have lots more of original news clippings which will be posted soon.

js said...

Well by all means if you need someone to help catalogue and scan each and every one of those articles, I would be more than willing to help out. Keep the old times rolling.