No Place Like Home - a CyberBook by Kenneth Y T Lim
(As seen on TV!)
Speech-enabled Framed version, please!
Text-only version, please!
Access the WAP site at http://wappy.to/kenlim/
In October 2006, 'No Place Like Home' was selected for inclusion in the National Library Board's 'Web Archive Singapore' - an archive of sites deemed to be of national and historical significance to Singapore's heritage!
Welcome to the first cyberbook on the geography of Singapore! Before reading further, please note that wherever in the site you see this symbol [?], it means that clicking on it will call up a GeoTip, which is a brief explanation of the word immediately preceding it. This book is part of Kampung Java, the world's first Java-savvy kampung [?] (now hosted by the Singapore Java User Group)! Experience 'Virtually There' - QuickTime VR objects (of the main rock types) and panoramas (of selected locations) of Singapore!
If you are not a Singaporean, this cyberbook will give you an introduction
to my homeland.
If you are a Singaporean, then read on! You will discover what a
fascinating island we live in. For example:
Have you spent sleepless nights questioning which the best locality in Singapore
is to book your new HDB flat? Have
you had ulcers pondering when that much promised MRT line is ever going
to be built?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then 'No Place Like
Home' is the book for you. In it you will find the answers to these and
other fascinating questions, as I take you on an armchair tour, not only
from place to place in Singapore, but also from time to time: from the time of a worldwide cataclysmic flood about 4300 years ago,
all the way into the next millenium!
I have attempted to make optimum use of hypertext links wherever possible
(something I would never be able to have done if this book were published
more conventionally). At the end of each chapter, there is a 'Navigation
Menu' from where you can browse the other chapters, as well as visit
my homepage.
'No Place Like Home' will help to educate our students on how to recognise
and appreciate the uniquely urban Singaporean landscape [?].
A comprehensive glossary is included, and it is
hoped that both teachers and students alike will also find the advance organisers at the beginning
of each chapter, together with the open-ended questions provided at the
end, of use in generating discussion.
Part One defines the parameters of geography within
which the book operates. Part Two gives a background to many of the geographical
phenomena directly influencing Singapore. Within this part, Chapter One
discusses Singapore's geologic history, Chapter
Two deals with her climate, and Chapter Three examines
her coastline.
Part Three gives a background to Singapore's policies regarding population,
land transport, and public
housing. It comprises Chapters Four to Seven, which focus in turn on
Singapore's Central Business District, industrialization
and heavy industry, agriculture and hi-tech
industry, and aquaculture respectively. Finally,
Part Four attempts to draw some conclusions.
When you are ready to leave the site, be sure to do so via Terra Incognita.
Dedication
For my parents - who started it all.
Acknowledgments
Contents
The Site Tour
Introduction
Part One - A Walk On The Wild Side
Part Two - Wind, Water, Earth and Sky
Part Three - Going Regional
Part Four - Excuse Me, Are You From Mandai?
Appendix One - The Wentworth Scale
Appendix Two - The Beaufort Scale
Appendix Three - Populations of HDB New Towns
Further Reading
Glossary
Milestones
GeoGreetings
Terra Incognita
Other sites which I have authored are those of the Thinking Programme and
the Geography Teachers' Association of Singapore. Would you like to read the paper I presented during the 7th International Conference on Thinking?
What's New!
3 Sep 98 - 'No Place Like Home' will no longer be updated, as I will be away for further studies. Thank you very much for your loyal support over the past two-and-a-half years!
25 Aug 98 - Commuters can now form taxi pools if they regularly commute to the same destination!
21 Aug 98 - Singapore may have her first desalination plant as early as 2003!
14 Aug 98 - Check out 'Street Wise' - a Shockwave banner designed by my good friend Wei Choong! Designed on the Macintosh, it will enable you to test your knowledge of our local expressways!
9 Aug 98 - How will the Deep-Tunnel Sewerage System help Singapore's land use?
10 Jul 98 - Read about Singapore's very own commercial goat farm!
- Learn more about how Punggol will be a model for contemporary public housing in the new millenium!
5 Jul 98 - Punggol will have an LRT line by 2004!
2 Jul 98 - Singapore now has its very own herb farm!
13 Jun 98 - How will the construction of the Marina Line free up more land for development?
- How will the reclaimed land at Marina South be developed into the new Downtown?
Introduction
It is a well known joke among cartographers
that a map is outdated as soon as it is published. What is true for maps is also true for books on geography, and all the more so when the book is on the geography of Singapore. Such is the pace of change in Singapore that a tourist who might have visited us just two years ago, might not recognise much of the urban landscape when he returns, and might even get lost trying to use our ever-changing public
bus system.
I have also chosen to write from a creationist 'young earth' perspective. I came to this decision after many hours of weighing the evidence on both sides of the 'creation-evolution' debate, and from my limited experience as a geographer. Even among creationists, there are some issues which cannot entirely be agreed upon. After careful consideration, I have chosen to interpret events from the perspective of Dr W Brown's 'hydroplate' theory. Please note that the decision to do so is purely a personal one.
Just as it would entertain and inform our hypothetical tourist, this book should help to entertain and inform you. And being informed, while being
entertained, is actually the secret to being educated. In this case, it is about being educated on the geography of Singapore.
It is about looking out the bus window (assuming it has finally arrived, and assuming further that a seat is available) and being able to understand
what you see. It is about planning a date with your loved one and knowing that you are not going to get rained out. It is even about choosing your HDB flat in the locality which suits you best, not only for now, but for when you and your spouse are in your sixties. Yes, it is about all of these things and much, much more. For ultimately, it is about geography.
This page was last updated on 25 Aug 98.
'No Place Like Home' was featured on Singapore television on 22 Jul 96; its WAP site was featured on Channel NewsAsia from 4 to 8 Dec 00.
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