Thursday 9 July 2009
Today my family and I went to the more popular tourist attractions in London - Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden. More so to familiarise my 2 1/2 year-old grandson , Iman Hezrin, with these landmarks of British greatness. Yes, the British race, for whatever other people may say and think, had done great things for our country Malaysia, before we gained our national independence in 1957. They brought development to then Malaya by starting ( some people say they exploited) the tin industry, then the rubber and palm oil industry of the country. We must not forget they brought the first few seeds of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) from Africa to headstart the econonomic development of Malaysia. Even though the oil palm was brought in and planted initially as avenue trees in 1870s, it turned out to be a great investment opportunity and the oil palm industry has always remained as one of the greatest income revenue earner for the country, next to petroleum.
For me, revisiting these places is just a trip down memory lane. I was here in 1975-1977 to do my masters at Loughborough University. Then in 1982, I went for a short course on Agricultural Information organised by Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International (CABI). Ten years later in 1992, I went again on a familiarization visit to the great museums in the UK to harvest ideas for the Palm Information Centre that I built for MPOB. It was at the Natural History Museum that I managed to piece together my thoughts on the look and feel of the Centre - an integrated approach of providing palm oil information to the world. I also took a trip to the Palm House in Kew Gardens to view the early oil palm trees planted there, one of which was brought to Malaysia that started the industry in our country.
Today my family and I went to the more popular tourist attractions in London - Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden. More so to familiarise my 2 1/2 year-old grandson , Iman Hezrin, with these landmarks of British greatness. Yes, the British race, for whatever other people may say and think, had done great things for our country Malaysia, before we gained our national independence in 1957. They brought development to then Malaya by starting ( some people say they exploited) the tin industry, then the rubber and palm oil industry of the country. We must not forget they brought the first few seeds of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) from Africa to headstart the econonomic development of Malaysia. Even though the oil palm was brought in and planted initially as avenue trees in 1870s, it turned out to be a great investment opportunity and the oil palm industry has always remained as one of the greatest income revenue earner for the country, next to petroleum.
For me, revisiting these places is just a trip down memory lane. I was here in 1975-1977 to do my masters at Loughborough University. Then in 1982, I went for a short course on Agricultural Information organised by Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International (CABI). Ten years later in 1992, I went again on a familiarization visit to the great museums in the UK to harvest ideas for the Palm Information Centre that I built for MPOB. It was at the Natural History Museum that I managed to piece together my thoughts on the look and feel of the Centre - an integrated approach of providing palm oil information to the world. I also took a trip to the Palm House in Kew Gardens to view the early oil palm trees planted there, one of which was brought to Malaysia that started the industry in our country.
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