Thursday, September 2, 2010

History Lessons



Ye would've thought that starting a World War & committing genocide to the tune of six million would have guaranteed ye notoriety and infamy ad infinitum. But in this digital age, Mein Fuhrer doesn't even register as a recognisable blip on yer typical teenager's radar (or should that read modem?).

Me kids ye not. Me recently found out that the new student helper in me office had nay fooking clue who this moustached villain was or that he even had a fooking moustache! Not only did he profess COMPLETE & UTTER IGNORANCE, he was unable to identify the despot from a group pix (with some SS officers). His justification, "Not relevant to me."

The mind fooking boggles.

Shocked & appalled, me quickly set out to belittle him by asking the next student who came in 'do ye know the name Adolf Hitler?'. That's when the real shock came as me was met with another blank fooking look. Ye know the look people gives ye when yer speaking fooking gibberish. Like yer some loony on bad acid.

To cut a long story short, nine out of 10 local students asked, did not know Adolf Hitler (international students did not seem to suffer from this brain freeze - scoring a 10/10).

Me is truly at a fooking loss.

Remember how we used to laugh long & hard at documentaries showing stupid American kids who knew fook all about the world outside of Cheeseburger Central? Malaysia Boleh indeed . . .

ps: "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." - Edmund Burke (1729-1997), British Statesman.

19 comments:

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

Not quite sure if its just a myth but one really mind-boggling article i read recently reveals that Hitler was never a drinker. And he's fooking German/Austrian!

Life's Like That said...

Kerpie,

U r right! I have read abt it too. Let's put it this way, if he was a drinker, then he probabbly would not do what he did cos he'd be too drunk!

Bala, current generation doesn't know a lot more names than just Hitler! Try Abe Lincoln etc! You'll b shocked!

anfield devotee said...

bernard: Got video?

Tinesh: Incredible but true.

kerp: Dude was an anilmal lover & vegetarian too! Beat that!

LLT: Am already shocked. Their wilful ignirance is somewot akin to not wanting to check out an album that was named by Time Magazine as album of the 20th century . . . just a click of button but . . . too much effort!

mozHASturnedINTOaMartian said...

chief...the wandering mind wonders...tithering freakily on a host of what-if questions..

shocking, yes. will wave a white flag tied to my limp tip. surrender giler babi. i mean, we are after all talking about a man which history, and the world won't let us forget - both in a negative and positive neo-nazifetishist sorta way. from what i understand, every kind in germany, by the time the hit 15 years of age - are required to do a field trip i.e. lawatan sambil belajar to remnants of the c camps, replete with video clip viewings, to serve as a timely reminder etched in their heads.

but no. who are we to bother about them, heck we've even got a old man who actually questions whether it ACTUALLY happened - i.e. slyly insinuating a "wag the dog" panaromic turn of events maybe?

we've got a teacher who shoots of her mouth with approx 20 reports lodged against her, and investigations are actually being conducted to determine if there are vengeful people effecting their vendettas herein. it was after all just a misunderstanding - bad time of the month, oh moz you're such a male-chauvinist rhino. oh well, rhino's have a "sharp" horn.

we've got a neighbouring country who burnt our flags akin to the frenzy of apaches around a warcry fire. oh don't worry, its just the few who sparkin it up. the common people, not their govt. We are friends, not enemies. we won't let the few get between our govts. Not to worry. Let them burn our flags, but please tell our students and malaysian citizens not to wear traditional dresses like the b/kurung..kebayas..sarees..c-sams..do give on any indication of being remotely malaysia...please don't. you're asking for trouble. we won't be responsible if you do wear traditional dresses. remember, you are after all studying/working in a land that wanted to "ganyang" malaysia. dun play-play. take care of yourselves.

coming back to my point - the wandering mind wonders...

just imagining if you had asked them about:

"auschwitz...treblinka..yu know?"

response:

"whoa..new band? cool what they play early sodom mix with kreator thrash ka?".

or

"coupe - yu know?"

reponse:

"koo-pay ah..yes, yes, i manage to try some last week..tastes good with dried cocunut gratings..but not to much santan..".

sigh.

blardy hell. even tuan kerp knows who the hell bloody tamana is, and she is not even near-slutty as i would have liked her to be :)
this is comparatively bad.

good bang on the head for me chief. also, appreciated the sublime neutrality displayed in yer write-up, but choicefully choosing not to disclose the race or background of perp in question. discards baseless judgements. "racist" sickos like me would almost immediately associate his / her tendencies to his / her racial profile..and utter the goddam.."oh these flers alll like that one..".

mwhahahahhaha

sorry bos. gua kapla palat today.

thanks for the soapbox. (someone else better start activating his soapbox as well...before cobwebs start crystallizing..cough!cough!) hope i didnt crash right through it.

yours appreciatively,
moz.

mozHASturnedINTOaMartian said...

By choicefully choosing not to display... i meant

anfield devotee said...

mozzer: Me asked quite a few local students - from all rcaes & from different backgrounds.

Even the 'A' students ie the supposedly "brighter" ones professed ignorance.

Only ONE, yes, one kid, gave me a great answer when asked how would he describe Adolf. Answer?

"Painter".

1 in 10 ain't much but its hope . . .

anfield devotee said...

sorry typo - 'races'.

Achilles said...

AD: Where do you meet these people-lah? hahahahaha... What are they teaching there???? how say "Duh... i dunno doc". hahahahaha

Anyway, since these new age fooks only check out new age stuff, get them to watch inglorious basterds. at least they will have a slight understanding of who he is.... hopefully.

anfield devotee said...

achilles: Note - 9 out of 10, not just the one dude. It appears to be across the board & some teachers are tellig me they are NOT suprised as the secondary school "history" lessons have become storytime!

Ask people around ye & let's see if this ignoramus are just isolated to my place?
Me thinks ye will be shocked by the findings of yer survey. When in yer gym, ask la a few of the younger members.

Inglorious Basterds? Fat chance la macha . . . It ain't TWILIGHT . . .

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

muahahahahaa....

Mozz macha, its so easy la nowadays. As Bala puts it, just a click of a button and all the things you need to know are there right before you. And that was exactly happened when i first heard of the name Tamanna.

And Bala, no you didnt miss a joke. Checked with Mozz to find out more of this beauty...first time heard of her la, so forgive my ignorance...hehehe...

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

Being young is not an excuse. I think Tinesh belongs in that age-group and he knows a lot. In fact, he knows more than he should...hehehehe...

anfield devotee said...

kerp: Am not making any sorta excuse. Just thinking if anyone wants to verify this, they should do a similar5 survey with similar respondents ie between ages 17-20.

Anba said...

If you look at the current history silly bus (pun intended) and compare with what the previous generation 20yrs and beyond had learned you will seethat the content is becoming thinner and thinner...to the point that now the knowledge of the current tenagers has become really shallow and muddy... and also kids nowdays are not interested in dead subjects... history,relics and tombs...
they r interested
in anything thats hip and trendy as usual with any pop culture in developed world...

Teng Hock said...

And....I thought I was bad

anfield devotee said...

anba: Me hears ye!

teng hock: Just how bad were ye?

Bernard said...

@ Bala : They were doing it so often last month, its not funny anymore. So doing a video & posting it up is just gonna encourage them to start again..

@ Teng Hock : test for you (& no Googling for answers)

1. Who is Chin Peng & what's his significance to Malaysian history?

2. The roads in Taman Tun Dr Ismail are all named after significant contributors to Malaysian history in one way or another. I bet most Malaysians won't have an inkling as to who Tun Dr Ismail, Burhanuddin Helmi, Zainal Abidin Ahmad (Za'aba) or Leong Yew Koh are.

Tinesh said...

Kerp, thanks for the show of support hehehe. Lay of Tamanna, she's mine :P

But seriously la, fucking kids these days should READ. Not play World of Warcraft 24/7.

Unknown said...

Wow. Im speechless this time. Our education system has reached a new all time low.

Bet if WW2 history was retold as a best selling teen musical starring the Kardashians and the cast of Glee, it might make a hot twitter topic.

Or perhaps if the Holocaust was the latest facebook game where you get to save or sell Jews depending on which side ur on (Allies/Nazis), these numbnuts might get a clue that the Fuhrer is not the latest German beer being served on tap @ Ecoba.

Guess in a twisted way we still have alot of catching up to do with those damn yanks. After all their illiteracy/ignorance levels are many times higher. At this rate we'll probably meet them in less than 5 yrs.

anfield devotee said...

tinesh: Read? Hmmmm, that's asking a little too much la me thinks . . . (*sigh*)

Premo: Its not an isolated incident either. Have been asking quite a few students & the results are not good.