Tag: ancient

Alexander The Great – His Farewell Words

On By Paul4 Comments
An example of a map created with GMT, illustra...
Image via Wikipedia- The Empire of Alexander the Great

Google Image – The Johnson Gallery

” Ice melts when heated ”

“Eyes melt when hated”

Alexander, after conquering many kingdoms, was returning home. On the way, he fell ill and it took him to his death bed. With death staring him in his face, Alexander realized how his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no consequence.

He now longed to reach home to see his mother’s face and bid her his last adieu. But, he had to accept the fact that his sinking health would not permit Him to reach his distant homeland. So, the mighty conqueror lay prostrate and pale, helplessly waiting to breathe his last.

He called his generals and said, “I will depart from this world soon, I have three wishes, please carry out them out without fail.”

With tears flowing down their cheeks, the generals agreed to abide by their king’s last wishes.

“My first desire is that”, said Alexander, “My physicians alone must carry my coffin.”

After a pause, he continued, “Secondly, I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury”.

The king felt exhausted after saying this. He took a minute’s rest and continued. “My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin”.

The people who had gathered there wondered at the king’s strange wishes. But no one dared bring the question to their lips.. Alexander’s favorite general kissed his hand and pressed them to his heart. “O king, we assure you that your wishes will all be fulfilled. But tell us why do you make such strange wishes?”

At this Alexander took a deep breath and said: “I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learnt.

Lessons to learn from last 3 wishes of King Alexander…

I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor can really cure any body. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.

The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the way to the graveyard is to tell People that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I spent all my life earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth.

And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I wish people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world”.

With these words, the king closed his eyes.

As with all mighty kings & conquerors of the past, death ultimately subdued them all.

Will mankind never learn?

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

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Superlative Facts About China

On By Paul1 Comment

Superlative Facts About China

By Paul Chong

great-wall-china-2.jpgThe Ancient Great Wall of China

The Sleeping Dragon which Napoleon feared to rouse has finally emerged on the world stage & these facts will astound you:

The People’s Republic of China (comprises China, Hong Kong & Macau) with a teeming population of 1.3 billion is made up of 55 ethnic groups. Tibet is included as represented by one of the stars in the National Flag. It’s an ancient civilization & now

an ultra modern economy.

  • If the Chinese were to march past you 8-abreast, the line of parade will never end (because of reproduction).

  • For every living person on earth, one lives in China.

  • Never in the recorded history of mankind has the world seen such phenomenal industrial growth – an average of 8% over the last 30 years.

  • Coupled with this, growing simultaneously is the rate of urbanization never before happened in Europe or America or anywhere else. China is building a city of equivalent size to Sydney or Birmingham every 60- days.

    01 New Pudong panorama view with Huangpu river_thumb.jpg Pudong-Shanghai Skyline

  • A China with virtually no phone now possesses the single largest mobile network in the world. By the end of 2007, China had 370 million fixed-line subscribers and 530 million mobile subscribers.

  • Mandarin is by far the single largest spoken language & will supercede English globally. It is the official & unifying language.

  • The number of Chinese millionaires & the expanding middle class is swelling each day & fleeing the countryside for the big cities pushing up demand for everything . . . from American food . . . to modern housing . . . to Rolls-Royce Phantoms through the roof!

  • China is building at a frenzy speed . . . unstoppable despite the global economic downturn – perhaps now at a slower pace. Now China has the biggest, tallest, speediest of whatever nameable.

  • China is a unified, multi-national country, comprising 55 other minorities. The Han people make up 91.02 percent of the total population, leaving 8.98 percent for the other 55 ethnic minorities.

  • The yearly average net increase of population: 12.79 million.

  • Total Number of Military Service Personnel: 2.5 million.

  • The most populated administrative region: Henan Province (92.56 million).

  • The least populated administrative region: Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region (2.62 million).

  • It’s claimed that the only man-made structure visible from outer space is The Great Wall of China.

  • China said the number of Internet users in the country reached about 253 million (February 2009), helping China overtake the United States as the world’s biggest Internet market.

  • China is not communist – except for the political system.

  • China is BIG & there are 6,536 islands larger than 500 square meters, the largest is Taiwan, with a total area of about 36,000 square kilometers, and the second, Hainan. The South China Sea Islands are the southernmost island group of China.

  • The Chinese are known to be most assiduous in their economic pursuits, innovative & inventive – just that many went by unpublicised.

For example: a flush toilet was found in a tomb of a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 24) king — and they invented toilet paper in the 6th century.

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent