Singapore Books

I'm a huge fan of Naomi Harris so I think this was a wonderful little
book! I loved the pictures and the insight that you aquire from reading
how still another charactor was looking at the situations in the movie.
I'm very happy I purchased this booklet!

As with previous releases, Disney created a number of books featuring photographs from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. These picture books are best for bedtime reading for young children. The books are loosely based on the movie and each tell a part of the story:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Saving Jack Sparrow is a 24-page picture book zeroing in on the attempted rescue of Jack Sparrow. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is hopelessly trapped in Davy Jones' locker after a harrowing encounter with the dreaded Kracken. Jack has gone beyond and to bring him back will require somethinig special.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Force of Will is a 24-page picture book telling the story of Will Turner. He wants to rescue Jack but also to ensure the love of his life, Elizabeth Swann, doesn't come to harm.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - The Mystic's Journey is a 32-page picture book telling the story of Tia Dalma. Tia Dalma, Pintel, and Ragetti must reach exotic Singapore to convince the infamous pirate Sao Feng to provide them with charts and a ship.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Singapore! is a 32-page picture book telling the story of the infamous Chinese pirate Sao Feng and his part in the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Escape from Davy Jones is a 32-page picture book telling the story of the heroic escape from Davy Jones.

These picture books are meant for readers 5 to 7 years old. For older children who are reading on their own, their are much better Jack Sparrow stories to read. There's a fairly good junior novelization of the movie, and there's a growing number of Young Jack Sparrow books

Jack Sparrow #1: The Coming Storm
Jack Sparrow #2: The Siren Song
Jack Sparrow #3: The Pirate Chase
Jack Sparrow #4: The Sword of Cortez
Jack Sparrow #5: Age of Bronze
Jack Sparrow #6: Silver
Jack Sparrow #7: City of Gold
Jack Sparrow #8: The Timekeeper
Jack Sparrow #9: Dance of the Hours
Jack Sparrow #10: Sins of the Fathers

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a great adventure story and recommended for anyone who loves pirates. For adventure lovers, I also recommend "The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches" and "In the Service of Dragons."

This book was on my 8 year old grandson's birthday list. He loves it. Paper is high quality and full of very colorful pictures.

As with previous releases, Disney created a number of books featuring photographs from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. These picture books are best for bedtime reading for young children. The books are loosely based on the movie and each tell a part of the story:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Saving Jack Sparrow is a 24-page picture book zeroing in on the attempted rescue of Jack Sparrow. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is hopelessly trapped in Davy Jones' locker after a harrowing encounter with the dreaded Kracken. Jack has gone beyond and to bring him back will require somethinig special.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Force of Will is a 24-page picture book telling the story of Will Turner. He wants to rescue Jack but also to ensure the love of his life, Elizabeth Swann, doesn't come to harm.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - The Mystic's Journey is a 32-page picture book telling the story of Tia Dalma. Tia Dalma, Pintel, and Ragetti must reach exotic Singapore to convince the infamous pirate Sao Feng to provide them with charts and a ship.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Singapore! is a 32-page picture book telling the story of the infamous Chinese pirate Sao Feng and his part in the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Escape from Davy Jones is a 32-page picture book telling the story of the heroic escape from Davy Jones.

These picture books are meant for readers 5 to [...]. For older children who are reading on their own, their are much better Jack Sparrow stories to read. There's a fairly good junior novelization of the movie, and there's a growing number of Young Jack Sparrow books

Jack Sparrow #1: The Coming Storm
Jack Sparrow #2: The Siren Song
Jack Sparrow #3: The Pirate Chase
Jack Sparrow #4: The Sword of Cortez
Jack Sparrow #5: Age of Bronze
Jack Sparrow #6: Silver
Jack Sparrow #7: City of Gold
Jack Sparrow #8: The Timekeeper
Jack Sparrow #9: Dance of the Hours
Jack Sparrow #10: Sins of the Fathers

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a great adventure story and recommended for anyone who loves pirates. For adventure lovers, I also recommend "The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches" and "In the Service of Dragons."

I found this book to be full of lovely photos but brief on text.
Basically the same format as the "Dead Man's Chest" Storybook. Once
you see the movie it all makes sense and it is 98% complete but all
is in how you look at it, and it's difficult to "read" it correctly without
first seening the movie, as with the last book. The childs novel is
a great deal more informative. All in all I'm happy I bought it.

Author is a great man. I know because I have read many of his books. I have also met him once. But alas, he recently passed away at age 77. He has led a fufilling life though.

I enjoy stories about his family, especially those several generations earlier. They came to Singapore in the early days from China, and not only survive through good & tough times. But left behind several generations and legacies as well. They formed the foundations of what make Singapore what it is today: a global metropolis, thriving city, ranked highly globally in economics. The stories he wrote is about the daily lives of these ordinary Singaporeans.

Mr Goh has a wealth of experiences which he has ably captured
In this new book . From personal accounts of national events to family
events , the short stories told in simple prose will touch all readers with their
depth of understanding and feeling.
The book will appeal to readers everywhere , regardless of their cultural
background.

Usually reading sends me to sleep but when I read " Walk Like A Dragon ", it kept me awake and curious to know what the next story was about. Every Story is different and interesting in its own way.

Goh Sin Tub's short stories are really unique, easy to read and understand. The approach to each story is not only humane but encouraging and realistic.

Another great read from Goh Sin Tub, whose Singaporean stories are always interesting, because they are based on real people. They also reflect the wisdom that this author has accrued over the years. I see there are only 4 copies left in the bookstore, so be in quick!

This book was written by a journalist which is the reason it has the rather sensational sub title "the greatest catastrophe of world war 2". The loss of Singapore led to the British losing an army of 150,000 and about 150 aircraft. The battle of France resulted in something like 300,000 casualties and an army of over a million men going into captivity. In addition the factories mines and people of France were lost to the allied cause. That was a catastrophe. The suggestion that the loss of Singapore was even in the top ten of Second World War catastrophes is doubtful. (The main problem was the loss of strategic materials tin and rubber. The Singapore Naval base could not be used by Britain as it had to keep its navies at home to counter the Germans and Italians)

The book shows a journalistic approach. It looks at the bar bones of various battles but instead of trying to explain what happened by examining the comparative strategies of both sides it relies on anecdote. The writer has combed primary material of the period and comes up with the stories of individual caught up in the various battles and their aftermath. The difficulty of quoting the diaries of individual soldiers is of course they have very little idea of the big picture and why events run out as they do. It is mildly interesting to hear that the Japanese attacked at such a point and then hear the memoirs of an anti tank gunner but it does not give you the total picture.

The interesting thing about the campaign was how 70,000 poorly supplied Japanese troops were able to defeat 150,000 well supplied British troops. The Japanese did have the advantage of some 200 light tanks and air superiority. However they had very little artillery and they even had run out of ammunition by the time of the allied surrender. The British had plentiful supplies of ammunition and artillery. They had a numerical superiority of 2:1. With moderately competent leadership they should have won. This of course was the problem. The British leadership was not only not competent it was laughably incompetent.

The way that the campaign progressed was that the British for irrational reasons distributed their army through the Malayan Peninsular. The Japanese were able to concentrate their forces and to defeat the allied divisions one by one. As the Japanese moved down the peninsular panic began to spread in the British Armies. In fact the casualties inflicted on the Japanese were minimal as the British were so ineffective. Later in the war the British learned that if they stood and fought for a while in these situations the Japanese would run out of ammunition. Once this happened the inability of the Japanese to supply their troops led to high death rates through starvation and disease. (Burma and Kokoda)

The British commander Percival was delusional. He deluded himself that he was defeated. In reality even when he had lost the mainland he still had a advantage of numbers over the Japanese who were running desperately short of ammunition. He failed to coordinate any meaningful counter attacks when the Japanese came ashore in Singapore and ended up simply giving in.

The book fails to illustrate the reality of the campaign simply describing the events as if it were a chronicle. The book is moderately readable but does not give you a real insight of why the events that occurred did occur.

Just completed this book. Motivation was a trip to visit Singapore and to learn a little about the history.

Book is an excellent read, with human interest stories all the way through. An extra touch is that the author follows through these human interest stories through to the current day.

The Japanese have landed in Malaya and have started their 400 mile trek south to Singapore. When various officers suggested building defense works on the north side of Singapore Island General Percival vetoed the idea saying that defense works would be bad for morale. Later when the Japanese army initiated its crossing of the narrow straits separating Singapore Island for the Malayan peninsula it was determined that General Yamashita was coordinating the attack from the top of a five story tower attached to the Palace of the Maharajah of Johore. When asked permission to fire on the tower in order to destroy this unique observation post permission was denied. The reason? If the Maharajah's palace was damaged the British government would have to reimburse the Maharajah for the damage after the war.

This book provides a detailed account of that desperate attempt to keep the Japanese from reaching Singapore. Lacking air and naval cover, and led by general officers of questionable ability the British, Indian, and Australian troops fought valiantly, but ultimately lost. It is interesting that Churchill insisted that the army fight to the last man. That directive resulted in about 10,000 casualties for the Allied Forces.

Then follows the account of the brutal occupation of Singapore. Another interesting point is that Korean soldiers in the Japanese army were even more brutal than the Japanese soldiers. While it is inspiring to read of the many heroes who fought hard and endured deprivation and torture at the hand of their conqueror, it is also sad that these men were so poorly led by their generals.


The author has written this historical drama in a fine narrative style. My interest in books like these may differ from the interests of others. I am interested in the psychological and social impact of war, how soldiers and civilians cope with the stresses of war. Why do people make the decisions that they do, and why are some people heroic while others lose their humanity. This book provides this sort of information in some detail. At times I became a bit weary of the detailed account of each battle and skirmish, but then again that is what some readers are looking for. All in all a well rounded account of a great disaster of World War II.

To truly understand a nation you need to understand how it reacts in defeat as well as victory. This is an excellent study of the former by Peter Thomson. Details of the adversaries on all sides of the conflict help to crystalise the thoughts and pervading attitude and atmosphere that both led to and propagated the greatest catastrophe and capitulation in British military history. The author's description of events, of the fighting retreat, tactics (especially of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, Australian regiments and the Anti-tank and Artillery regiments) ,of the mistakes , mis-handling, bungling and lack of foresight, as well as some of the all too short successes is exilarating reading. The many atrocities covered make the ordinary mortal question the inhumanity of the Japanese Army. More balance might have been achieved by expressing more of the enemy military strategy and better maps would have help in the understanding, but this is nevertheless an outstanding historical read. I chose to read the book in parallel with Colin Smiths book Singapore Burning which developed my understanding . The culpability for the debacle was easily discernible through the narrative and politicians in Britain, Australia and Singapore play their part in this. The desertion, at the end , by the Australian commander General Bennett, all bull and bluster, was only counterbalanced by the extreme bravery of Australian and many other nationalities. It's also fair to say that others deserted Singapore by dereliction and were not brought to book. I strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in WW2 history and the fall of an Empire.

Excellent, promt service. I was very pleased with how quickly the book was delivered and would definitely order from this seller again.

This is another in a series of books written by Brian Culls, Christopher Shores, or another of the latest generation of WWII aviation historians from Grub Street who are begetting comprehensive histories of often little explored WWII aerial arenas. The aerial defense of Singapore has been largely neglected by historians. Often, when one of these writers publishes, there is little left to explore on the topic. Cull's research isn't quite up to that standard in this volume. This is due in part to the fact that his subjects lost the battle and, thus, many of their records. (Ever wonder what the battle history of Japan's 68th Sentai at New Guinea was?) Japanese records don't exactly abound either. Nonetheless, he does an excelent job and I recommend this work mightily to anyone interested in the Pacific air war.

Written after delving directly into the Squadrons' archives, this book is made up of the reports and recollections of the RAF, RAAF, RNZAF and ML-KNIL pilots who flew the Buffalo against the Japanese in the early stages of the Second World War. Air operations by other units are only mentioned in relation to them. There is not much in the way of analysis or comments (in fact, there is little actually written by the authors), but you get first-hand, day-by-day accounts of the flying operations undertaken by the men within the 243, 453, 488 RNZAF and 21 RAAF, and some from the Dutch pilots from 1-, 2- and 3-V1G-V. Written in the almost casual, careless style so typical of fighting soldiers and airmen, they convey a sensation of approaching disaster which is hard to match. There is a very interesting photo section made up of the very few period pictures existing. Appendices show the complete Buffalo victory claims, the casualties, the fate of every single airframe, some useful maps as well as some individual recollections. Probably the most detailed look on the operations undertaken by Allied Buffalo operators, and an indispensable component of any book collection dedicated to the Pacific war.

This book is a real delight. Take and obscure fighter aircraft flown by Commonwealth Air Units in Malaya and Singapore, combine it with an absolutely hopeless battle and you have the makings of a great read.

The Buffalo fighter has won the appelation of "the worst aricraft ever manufactured." Cull proves that although obsolete before it was even delivered to RAAF, RNAF and Netherlands East Indies units in S.E. Asia, it was clearly not a complete washout. Having read numerous works on the fall of Singapore and Malaya I had assumed that the Buffaloes were simply swept from the sky in the one fell swoop. It is amazing to learn that some units actually gave as well as they got from the Japanese.
There are actually some confirmed kills of Japanese Naval Zeros!!!

The fighter leaked oil along the crank seals, was underpowered, slow, and most times the .50 machine guns would not fire most of the time. But on the other side of the equation, the aircaft, because of it weight, was fast in a dive an robust (your chances of coming out of belly landing were good as Cull renumerates in many accounts).

They were largely unloved by their crews, and they could not stand up to even a Japanese dive bomber in aerial combat.

It becomes clear that the fighter may have been capable if it had been better flight tested, uparmed, up-poowered. But even then it would still be outclassed by the Japanese fighters.

Cull recounts numerous aerial combats with great detailed accounts from most of the suviving Australian, British and NZ pilots.

There is a lot here. One is struck by the fact that British were so bamboozled by the Japanese aerial supremacy that they convinced themselves that they were actually fighting Germans and claimed engagements with numerous Me-109s??! The shock that Asians were really much, much better as pilots, had much better equipment was simpley too much for them to believe.

There are also larger issues that Cull does not explore, but these books offer wonderful jumping off points for further study.

Radio can captivate the theater of the mind when selling products and services to prospects and holds value in todays medium rich marketplace.
This book helps direct and focus your radio campaign, saving you thousands of dollars in protential marketing and medium buying errors

As in the Cutting Edge Advertising, Aitchison did it again (i dunno if he's mockin' B. Spears :P). Great book, great examples, great brainpicking from the top creatives and producers in the world of Radio Advertising. Perfect for seasoned advertising Jedis and Padawans who plan to get in the biz, definitely a MUST-HAVE in any advertising and marketing book collection... Marketing has 4 P's, Aitchison's series have 5 C's: Clever, Clear, Concise and Crushingly-Creative.

I recently got into radio sales, and I bought this book prior to taking the position. Unfortunately this book was all about the creative process of developing radio advertisement and not about selling them. So, great for creative side, not so much sales.

The Writing Radio chapter alone is worth every penny spent on this yet another masterpiece penned by Jim Aitchison. When's your next book coming out?

This is a long series of accounts of the severe caning of deserving young women and is essential reading for anyone interested in this topic. All the caning is performed by the female author or by other women so it is exclusively F/F. However, the accounts do suffer from repetition.

This has to be Balfour's greatest, fully focused magnum opus. Every chapter is one girl after another being paddled, all sorts of girls - rich ones, poor ones, fat ones, well dressed ones, white and black ones, and on and on... straddling the 'horse' and being paddled or birched until she pleads for mercy. And over 300 pages of it! I should warn casual observers that this is probably going to be too much for them to enjoy beyond the first 100 pages, but if you have a prediliction for either corporal punishment or obsessive fetishist pornography, go for it! Considering these Blue Moon titles go in and out of print, you never know when you'll see another Balfour when this edition is gone, and buying it now sure beats rifling through used bookstores for a spine-creased copy.

I'll sum it up this way: Six or seven hours of flippant descriptions of wailing women having their bottoms striped. No affection, no lovemaking, no kissing. No filler, and no pretense.

Sounds good, no?

I find it hilarious how other reviewers use the term "deserving" to make some lame excuse as to why this book rises above other purient S&M books. It's anything but real; it's fiction - the prologue language says as much. Oh, I'm sure the subject acts take place at various S&M gatherings and certain churches, but the title is nothing other than an attention getter for a book about canning and whipping women to the erotic excitement of the purveyors. It also helps to bring in readers who can indulge their self righteous religionist side by checking their baser instincts after they read the title.

For the connoisseur of female corporal punishment, degradation, and humiliation it is a good collection. It will appeal to males and females alike. Women like to see other women beat up and permanently disfigured in a socially accepted ways (just try to wear a swimsuit, any kind, in later life after the inevitable permanent marks left by even a mild canning - which is the purpose of canning - or cover it up from a future partner) just as much as some men do. It's simply the spice of life - power (and permanent branding) over others. "Sister" Balfour is simply nothing other than a person in a long line of Nazis that stretch back to ancient times. Well written with great erotic excitement, hardly "judicial".

The author is telling the reader of the opportunities she has had of giving the cane to many deserving bottoms. The psychology behind the punishments are explained as well. I'm more of a fan of the paddle, but these girls are left sobbing more times than not. If you like to read about well deserved punishment of girls, then this is a good book for you!!

Ponga Jim Mayo is a great discovery. Here we have the global realism and wartime intrigue of Doc Savage wrapped in the gritty, dark thrill of Robert E. Howard. These are delightful tales and it is nice that they build a cohesive universe and follow each other chronologically around the world, though all are separate adventures. I found myself tracing the journey of his ship the Semiramis in my atlas.

These stories are tight, fast, and well done, with great attention to detail. L'Amour also proves he knows how to deliver a punch, with knockout endings. I did find myself wishing there were many more Ponga Jim stories or perhaps some novel-length adventures. But that's a compliment to L'Amour, not a complaint.

I'd been looking for some more sea stories after reading a Hammond Innes book which got me interested in that genre, and I'd also been re-visiting some L'Amour westerns which I enjoy when I stumbled onto L'Amour's "West From Singapore" - I had no idea that L'Amour had written any sea stories! I found this book interesting, and good enough reading, if you don't mind all the long drawn-out detailed-descriptions of fist-fight scenes (maybe it's a "girl-thing", but I sometimes just skipped the blow-by-blow fistfight descriptions, especially the fights that go on for numerous paragraphs/pages, and jump ahead to who won - although I did find it interesting that the hero uses some martial arts stuff, kicks etc, rather than just relying on brute force or whatever). This book probably also more characters (bad-guys) that get done in (the star seems to prefer shooting them in the stomach, but as bad-guys they probably deserve it), than in most L'Amour books - and people used to complain that TV shows had too many killings! Probably realistic though...? Anyway, this book continues with one of the really NICE things that I like about L'Amour's writing, which is his smoothly-written descriptions of stuff - makes you feel like you're actually there. I also appreciate the fact the L'Amour doesn't rely solely on dialogue to tell his stories.

Written in the period of time BEFORE the US entered WWII. A most refreshing change of pace. I originally checked this book out at the library and once I read it I had to buy it.

The writing is everything you expect from Louis L'Amour except that it takes place on the seas and islands of singapore circa 1935 - 1941, instead of the American west of 1865 - 1895.

You can tell (if you did not already know) that Mr. L'Amour had spent time as a Merchant Marine in this area at that time, from the references he makes to the ships and general area in which the action takes place. Both of which changed dramatically after WWII.

This book, like almost all of his books, will hold your interest and be hard to put down.

It is hard to find in the system but well worth the looking.

Fantastic, simply fantastic. This modern day adventure is so great that once you start, you'd never be able to put down. Ponga Jim Mayo is one of L'amour's greatest creation and inspiration. An earlier version of Indiana Jones but deeper and more likable.

I am in the process of learning chinese and this is a fantastic book and tool to learn how to read it and write it. You can learn the basic radicals or roots of the most important or common words.
Congratulations to the author for writing this gem and my thanks to the other 2 reviewers for helping me to find it!

I have been studying Mandarin Chinese for just over a year. I found this book to be a fascinating one. I read a borrowed copy and now just ordered my own. It might less interesting for someone who is not studying Chinese characters, but for those who want to learn to read, it is excellent.

This book is amazing! The publisher should really let Amazon show you a couple sample pages - that would tell the story much better than my description. But since they have not - here is my attempt:

The author attempts to trace the lineage and reasons for each of the characters in this book (there are about 100,000 chinese characters - he only shows 2 per page in this 185 page book). In chinese each character is a word. It seems most characters are composits of 2 characters. He looks at the shapes to see if he can make pictographic sense of the characters and radicals. And he draws cartoons of what he sees, and adds explanations and even lists some similar words.

Sometimes his explanations are more of a strech than others. Sometimes it is very clear and very insightful. By understanding what goes into a language or, in this case - that is when every character is its own word - the written language is its OWN language, you gain insights into the world and how the people understand it. In this respect it is heavy duty philoosphy.

Like another reviewer I borrowed this book. Within minutes I was convinced I have to own it - it is worth spending LOTS of time studying. And it is worth spending lots of time also because it is enjoyable - simply fascinating.

Given that this is a book explaining the origin of characters and their eventual evolution, it is absolutely unforgivable that such a well conceived book would completely use Simplified Chinese, without any Traditional Chinese. The book sets out to explain the evolution of characters through pictures and stories. I very much like the concept and give the author credit for that, but use of Simplified Chinese for the entire book warrants at least a 3 star deduction. I understand that some will not have any qualms about this, but the truth is, Traditional Chinese is much closer in form to the original pictographs. Simplified is just that..."Simplified", like an abbreviation. You don't catch any other language being taught using abbreviations so why Chinese. Some will argue it's because the words are hard to write and memorize, but I would disagree in the sense that many of the simplified characters have lost so much in the way of strokes and form that they no longer even look like their full form or the original pictographic forms. If you are looking for an alternative to this product, I would suggest Sukming Lo's book Picture Chinese: Art as Language as a better alternative. You can find it at your local bookstore and it presents BOTH the Traditional and the Simplified. The pictures are also very colorful and often drawn in a way where they mimic the original character.

Book covers aspects of travel for women in business that are neglected elsewhere. I found it right on in most instances and extremely helpful. Even, as a male. My wives and colleagues agree wholeheartedly.

I studied this book for 2 weeks before my first trip to Korea and Hong Kong. Wow! Very informative with lots of basic but important details about meeting rituals, business card etiquette and tons more! My Boss who has been traveling to Asia for 16 years wants a copy of this fabulous book!

Our consulting staff recommends this book to all business women travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. For each country, it covers rules of business and social etiquette, gift-giving, how to handle what westerners consider to be sexual harassment, a list of recommended hotels, restaurants and "in" nightspots, and helpful suggestions on how to conduct business successfully in the local culture. Truly a bargain at this price. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute.

This book echoes the voice of the new breed of Asians. Aptly entitled 'The Asian Renaissance', Anwar Ibrahim robustly asserts his optimism for Asians. He writes about the "East Asian Economic Miracle", argues for the Asians to stand up for their values and not be held in cultural servitude by the West. This typifies the new Asian, or modern Asian: bold, assertive and liberal. Perhaps this book should come as no surprise, given that he was, when the book was published, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia. Along with his one-time mentor, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, they can be regarded as the architect of modern Malaysia - politically, economically and culturally.

The Asian Renaissance speaks out just what Asia is moving towards: independence and autonomy from the West. Anwar's vision for Asia thus lies in this book. Nonetheless, read critically and one will find that Anwar presents nothing original here. The abundance of quotations and excerpts is a catastrophic mistake. It leaves the central theme of the book, namely Anwar's thesis of an Asian renaissance, paling into insignificance and lurking beneath the thoughts of other writers.

Throughout the book, Anwar Ibrahim persistently argues for a "middle path" which he purports to apply to virtually every aspect of life, be it in politics or economics. Thus he discredits communism and recognises the impossibility of an absolute democracy. Democracy should be controlled - by religion or something else - so that the people are duly regulated by the law. Well and good. But this straitjacket application for everything necessarily amounts to childish idealism utterly divorced from reality. First, sometimes it is necessary to be radical to progress. Anwar's mentor, Dr. Mahathir even attributes his success story to his ability "to be nasty when others are not". Those who follow the story of Anwar Ibrahim after his crude dismissal from the Malaysian political landscape in 1998 will recall how ardently he advocates for the abolition of the Internal Security Act which provides for detention without trial. Reading the book in this context one is inclined to concede that he believes the ISA is hostile to democracy. Yet with the upsurge of terrorism, many have come to be aware of such preventive measures. To this extent, democracy at times becomes a fascist convert - what "middle path" can one take? Second, history is always brought about by the clash of two extremes, absolute capitalism vs. communism, religious dogmatism vs. downright secularism and so forth. It is thus not easy to arrive at a "middle path", which Anwar makes it sound so easy to accomplish.

Apparently, Anwar too doesn't subscribe to the 'paternalistic' view of the state where the government is to the people what parents are to the children. Thus he believes that Asians should be given equal freedom as the people in the West does, conveniently ignoring the fact that the people may be incapable of such a vast plethora of rights and liberty, given their "developing" or even "underdeveloped" country status hence many may still have not attained the level of education and maturity of the people in developed countries. But for this Anwar has an answer in the book: he quotes Dr. Sun Yat Sen, "Alas, that is like telling a child that he cannot go to school because he is illiterate!".

Although the book is called "Asian" renaissance, it has a strong Islamic inclination and Anwar writes of Islam as if it has such a profound influence in the Asian continent. Implicitly he is stating his optimism that Islam will dominate Asia and given his rigorous stand to bring Malaysia to the fore of Islamic leadership, that could also mean that he might think of resurrecting Andalusia (which he rightfully glorifies) in Malaysia!

Given these considerations, perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that The Asian Renaissance is a manifesto of a political idealism, at times even realism and pragmatism is threatened. Nevertheless given the spirit and vision deeply ingrained and embodied in the book, that dream might become reality, though not in the near future.

Having read The Asian Renaissance, I could not help but be consumed with excitement and optimism about the future of Malaysian society, and that of Southeast Asia and Asia. At last, someone has so clearly and eloquently shown us the best way forward.

Guided by his own religious convictions, drawing upon universal values of other faiths, and from the wisdom of great thinkers, leaders and philosophers of the past, coupled with his wealth of experience in public life, Anwar exhibits a profound understanding of the confusion and weaknesses that has held Asian societies back.

Incarcerated though he may be, the spirit of reform which he advocates remains very much alive. Anwar's thoughts, ideals and courage has inspired millions in Malaysia, and millions more throughout the region and continent.

Malaysia, and indeed Southeast Asia and Asia, has in its midst, a man so uniquely gifted, as a thinker and reformer. That Anwar is already a prominent and dynamic politician, and a leader of international repute, lends even greater hope that his thoughts, ideas and convictions, will not, God willing, remain a dream.

Anwar shines a bright light on the future of Asian societies. Truly inspirational!

This book highlights and details to you Anwar Ibrahim's visions for his country. Anwar also mentions the problems he had with his government and country. There are many issues that he has brought up in this book, but some of them may not be so obvious. You have to read between the lines. Afterall, when he wrote the book, Anwar was still the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I suppose he may not have wanted to jeopardise his position. But, I guess now that Anwar is a prisoner of conscience and no longer in power, you would definitely better understand his thoughts if you have been following the political developments in Malaysia ever since Anwar's sacking and arrest in September 1998.

Anwar explains his aspirations for his beloved country Malaysia and the immediate Asian region in implementing a sound government with strong principles of social justice, good governance, zero-corruption, zero-cronism, zero-nepotism, and cultural and religious tolerance.

Anwar is currently incarcerated beyond his will in the prison of Malaysia. This is caused by a deep political conspiracy initiated by Mahathir (Prime Minister of Malaysia) and some of his [associates]. He has been behind bars since 20 September 1998. But, the struggle for reform and justice continues in his beloved country. But, I strongly believe that the Truth shall prevail and Anwar shall be a free man in not too distant a future. Mark my word!

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