<p lang="en-US">In a new survey of the surface of Mars carried out by scientists, it was found that the volcanoes which littered the red planet are likely to resemble the rumblings which were on Earth before the formation of tectonic plates around 3 billion years ago.<br />
<br />
Scientists believe that the surprisingly violent history of Mars is likely to reveal some clues regarding the past of the Earth.<br />
<br />
The scars of volcanic activity, which were found in the Eridania region of the planet's southern hemisphere, were catalogued by planetary scientist Joseph Michalski of the University of Hong Kong and his colleagues with the use of remote sensing data from different orbiters.</p>

<p lang="en-US"><strong>Also Read:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/alien-life-existed-near-ancient-mile-deep-lake-active-volcanoes-on-mars-scientists-suggest-so-689875">Alien life existed near ancient mile-deep lake, active volcanoes on Mars? Scientists suggest so</a></p>

<p lang="en-US">At present, the Earth has a crust of interlocking continental plates which float above its viscous mantle and Mars is usually considered as a one-plate planet which once had active volcanoes. These volcanoes were massive in size and explosive in nature and Olympus was the largest among them – its volume being 100 times greater than Earth's biggest Mauna Loa in Hawaii.</p>

<h2 lang="en-US"><strong>Why were volcanoes on Mars so large in size?</strong></h2>

<p lang="en-US">The volcanoes on planet Mars were so large because the planet had less number of tectonic plates which help in venting the pressures of a churning mantle. Mars' geological history has not been recycled like that of our planet and can contain inklings of how Earth's crust may have been formed.<br />
<br />
"The planet Mars represents a particularly valuable puzzle piece in this regard," wrote Michalski and his colleagues in their published paper.<br />
<br />
"Though the crust is heavily impact cratered, the ancient geologic record remains largely intact and therefore provides an invaluable window into early Solar System geological conditions and clues to early crustal evolution,” the researchers explained.<br />
<br />
According to the researchers, they may be able to find hundreds more volcanoes in the Eridania region, many of which may have probably erupted beneath an ancient sea. This is likely to provide a good parallel to what happened on Earth during the Archean period when the planet was mostly constituted of water and the earliest forms of life came into existence.</p>

<p lang="en-US"><strong>Watch:&nbsp;Elon Musk reveals 'Game Plan' to relocate millions people on Mars</strong></p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/elon-musk-reveals-game-plan-to-relocate-millions-people-on-mars-689583/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p lang="en-US">"It's just astonishing to think about the scale of activity in this region," said study author and planetary geologist at the Planetary Science Institute Aster Cowart, while speaking to Space.com.<br />
<br />
"Seeing a Martian landscape shaped by these processes and preserved in stasis provides us with a great opportunity to investigate planetary landscape evolution in more detail,” he added.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>


In a new survey of the surface of Mars carried out by scientists, it was found that the volcanoes which littered the red planet are likely to resemble the rumblings which were on Earth before the formation of tectonic plates around 3 billion years ago.

In a new survey of the surface of Mars carried out by scientists, it was found that the volcanoes which littered the red planet are likely to resemble the rumblings which were on Earth before the formation of tectonic plates around 3 billion years ago. Scientists believe that the surprisingly violent history of Mars is likely to reveal some clues regarding the past of the Earth. The scars of volcanic activity, which were found in the Eridania region of the planet's southern hemisphere, were catalogued by planetary scientist Joseph Michalski of the University of Hong Kong and his colleagues with the use of remote sensing data from different orbiters. Also Read: Alien life existed near ancient mile-deep lake, active volcanoes on Mars? Scientists suggest so At present, the Earth has a crust of interlocking continental plates which float above its viscous mantle and Mars is usually considered as a one-plate planet which once had active volcanoes. These volcanoes were massive in size and explosive in nature and Olympus was the largest among them – its volume being 100 times greater than Earth's biggest Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Why were volcanoes on Mars so large in size? The volcanoes on planet Mars were so large because the planet had less number of tectonic plates which help in venting the pressures of a churning mantle. Mars' geological history has not been recycled like that of our planet and can contain inklings of how Earth's crust may have been formed. "The planet Mars represents a particularly valuable puzzle piece in this regard," wrote Michalski and his colleagues in their published paper. "Though the crust is heavily impact cratered, the ancient geologic record remains largely intact and therefore provides an invaluable window into early Solar System geological conditions and clues to early crustal evolution,” the researchers explained. According to the researchers, they may be able to find hundreds more volcanoes in the Eridania region, many of which may have probably erupted beneath an ancient sea. This is likely to provide a good parallel to what happened on Earth during the Archean period when the planet was mostly constituted of water and the earliest forms of life came into existence. Watch: Elon Musk reveals 'Game Plan' to relocate millions people on Mars "It's just astonishing to think about the scale of activity in this region," said study author and planetary geologist at the Planetary Science Institute Aster Cowart, while speaking to Space.com. "Seeing a Martian landscape shaped by these processes and preserved in stasis provides us with a great opportunity to investigate planetary landscape evolution in more detail,” he added. (With inputs from agencies)

Secrets of Earth’s lost past hidden in ancient volcanoes on Mars? Scientists suggest so...

Residents of Lalibela struggle to recover from the horrors of the past. Over 20 Lalibela hotels were looted by the Tigray rebels.

Ethiopia: Remembering the horrors of the past

<p>Growing up in Minnesota, Tyler Graf knew almost nothing about his birth mother. And what little he knew, he said, stung.</p>

<p>His adoption papers listed her name, Hilda del Carmen Quezada; her age, 26; the date, March 2, 1983; and the hospital where she gave birth to him in central Chile. The documents also included a judge’s note saying Quezada gave him up because she had little money and “other children to support.”</p>

<p>“I never thought that any excuse would be good enough,” said Graf, who is now a firefighter in Houston. “I carried that animosity, that chip on my shoulder, my whole life.”</p>

<p>The claim that his mother willingly gave him up hurt, Graf said, until he learned this year that he is one of hundreds — possibly thousands — of Chilean adoptees taken from their parents without their consent during the country’s military dictatorship.</p>

<p>Quezada, it turned out, had not surrendered her son; she was told the baby, born three months premature, had died.</p>

<p>“Two weeks after the birth, they told me he had died,” Quezada said. “I asked for the body and they refused, saying it was too small.”</p>

<p>Investigators looking into coercive adoptions in Chile since the first cases came to light in 2014 have come to a stunning conclusion: The practice was widespread during the rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who actively encouraged overseas adoptions to reduce poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. The process was abetted by a vast network of officials — including judges, social workers, health professionals and adoption brokers — who forged documents and are widely assumed to have taken bribes.</p>

<p>More than 550 adoptees have reconnected with their birth families in recent years. But investigators say the scheme, which is still being uncovered, most likely involved many more children.</p>

<p>Judicial officials in Chile are investigating roughly 650 cases of irregular adoptions, a phenomenon the Ministry of Justice called in a statement “extremely serious.”</p>

<p>Mario Carroza, a Chilean judge who opened a criminal inquiry into the adoptions in 2018, said investigators were looking into the circumstances of about 8,000 overseas adoptions that took place from 1970 to 1999. Carroza said the number of cases under scrutiny could reach 20,000.</p>

<p>In October, Sweden began an investigation into the irregular adoptions, responding to pressure from Chilean adoptees raised in the country who have used DNA testing to establish their connections to birth parents in Chile who have been missing a child.</p>

<p>Pinochet seized power in 1973, in a bloody coup that toppled Chile’s left-wing president. He then led a brutal regime in which the country’s economy grew as thousands of opponents were executed, disappeared, detained, tortured and exiled.</p>

<p>Years after the general’s death in 2006, Chileans have been horrified to learn how pervasive coercive adoptions became on his watch.</p>

<p>“The history of human rights violations during the dictatorship is known: the torture, political prisoners, repression, but this one has been largely invisible,” said Boris Barrera, a member of Congress who led a legislative investigation into the matter in 2018.</p>

<p>Reports of coercive adoptions in Chile predate the dictatorship. But the practice became chillingly common starting in the late 1970s, as the Pinochet government explicitly began promoting adoptions during a period of economic crisis, said Karen Alfaro Monsalve, a professor at Chile’s Austral University who has researched the history of the coercive adoptions.</p>

<p>“What we ultimately had was an outflow of poor children who were seen as a stumbling block to achieve the country’s economic development,” Alfaro Monsalve said. “Pinochet had a type of forced migration that helped control population growth and enable the country’s neoliberal shift.”</p>

<p>The abusive practice came under scrutiny in 2014 after the Chilean investigative news agency CIPER published an article on a handful of coercive adoptions, documenting the roles played by a priest and a doctor. In the years that followed, as scores of adoptees raised in Chile and abroad set out to trace their roots, many using DNA ancestry tests, a disturbing pattern came into sharper focus.</p>

<p>Hundreds of women came forward with similar accounts of unexpectedly losing their babies soon after giving birth. Some were told they were stillborn, while others said government officials took custody of them.</p>

<p>The congressional committee led by Barrera culminated in a call for the Chilean government to establish a truth and reparations commission and to build a DNA database to enable adoptees and biological families to connect. But so far no one has been charged in connection with the abductions.</p>

<p>Judicial officials have tempered expectations by noting that statutes of limitations will make it hard to bring individuals to justice.</p>

<p>Constanza del Río, one of the founders of Nos Buscamos, an organization that helps adoptees who were trafficked, said the government’s failure to investigate the crimes more diligently was inexcusable.</p>

<p>“We don’t have the next 25 years for them to investigate at turtle pace because we have mothers who are dying,” she said. “Justice may come, but it will be too late.”</p>

<p>Quezada, 65, who has three daughters, never made peace with the loss of her son. She mourned him every year on his birthday, she said. Decades later, she could still picture the prominent black eyes that stared back at her from an incubator the last time she saw him.</p>

<p>When news articles about illegal adoptions began circulating, Quezada was horrified, she said, but she never allowed herself a glimmer of hope — until her phone rang one day last May.</p>

<p>The caller was Marisol Rodríguez, the founder of Hijos y Madres del Silencio — Children and Mothers of Silence — a volunteer organization that has facilitated the reconnection of more than 250 families severed by coerced adoptions.</p>

<p>Rodríguez explained to Quezada the unlikely chain of events that led to the call. Years ago, Rodríguez said, her son, who was a firefighter, had gone to Houston for a training exercise. There he struck a friendship with an American firefighter who said he had been adopted from Chile.</p>

<p>The son offered to try to track down his new friend’s birth parents, and returned to Chile with copies of his adoption file. Once he was home, he turned the documents over to Rodríguez’s group, which saw in the file telltale signs of a coerced adoption.</p>

<p>Quezada was dumbfounded.</p>

<p>“I couldn’t digest the information,” she said. “I couldn’t grasp what was happening.”</p>

<p>But shock gave way to a burning desire to make up for lost time. Days after learning the news, Quezada made a video call, and laid eyes on her son as an adult for the first time.</p>

<p>“Every muscle in my body tightened up and squeezed the tears in my eyes,” Graf recalled. “I felt like I had been hit by a bat and was seeing stars.”</p>

<p>Within weeks, Quezada boarded an airplane for the first time in her life and flew to Houston. In a reunion arranged by a local journalist, Quezada surprised her son, who crumpled into his mother’s arms.</p>

<p>“It was the closest hug,” Graf recalled. “They just left us alone in each other’s arms and we hugged and she kissed me and we just stood there crying.”</p>

<p>Some Chilean adoptees have found a very different response after tracking down a birth parent. Maria Diemar, who was raised in Sweden after being flown from Chile as a baby in 1975, spent years hunting down clues that eventually led her to track down her birth family in southern Chile.</p>

<p>She learned that her mother, who had worked as a live-in maid when she was born, had been forced to give up the baby by her employer at the time. News that her missing daughter was trying to make contact was unwelcome because, Diemar was told, her mother was in an abusive relationship with a man who did not know about the birth.</p>

<p>That did not deter Diemar from digging into the case of her younger brother, Daniel, who was also adopted from Chile. The boy’s mother, too, had been told he died during birth. The two have grown close in recent years, which Diemar counts as a victory.</p>

<p>“It has meant so much to travel to Chile with Daniel, to share the story of our upbringing, our childhood, and just to be in the country where we were supposed to be,” she said. “It’s very healing to do this together.”</p>

<p>Diemar said she had little faith that the investigations underway in Chile and Sweden would lead to prosecutions.</p>

<p>“But I think it’s important that the history books say that this happened,” she said. “These were crimes.”</p>

<p>Since reconnecting with his mother, Graf has experienced emotional whiplash. There have been flashes of anger, moments of gratitude and feelings of indignation.</p>

<p>But ultimately, reconnecting with his birth mother was so healing and clarifying that he created an organization to supply free kits from the company MyHeritage DNA to adoptees and families who believe they may have had a stolen baby.</p>

<p>“We’re making up for 38 years of lost time,” he said. “Time we can’t get back.”</p>


Growing up in Minnesota, Tyler Graf knew almost nothing about his birth mother. And what little he knew, he said, stung. His adoption papers listed her name, Hilda del Carmen Quezada; her age, 26; the date, March 2, 1983; and the hospital where she gave birth to him in central Chile.

Growing up in Minnesota, Tyler Graf knew almost nothing about his birth mother. And what little he knew, he said, stung. His adoption papers listed her name, Hilda del Carmen Quezada; her age, 26; the date, March 2, 1983; and the hospital where she gave birth to him in central Chile. The documents also included a judge’s note saying Quezada gave him up because she had little money and “other children to support.” “I never thought that any excuse would be good enough,” said Graf, who is now a firefighter in Houston. “I carried that animosity, that chip on my shoulder, my whole life.” The claim that his mother willingly gave him up hurt, Graf said, until he learned this year that he is one of hundreds — possibly thousands — of Chilean adoptees taken from their parents without their consent during the country’s military dictatorship. Quezada, it turned out, had not surrendered her son; she was told the baby, born three months premature, had died. “Two weeks after the birth, they told me he had died,” Quezada said. “I asked for the body and they refused, saying it was too small.” Investigators looking into coercive adoptions in Chile since the first cases came to light in 2014 have come to a stunning conclusion: The practice was widespread during the rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who actively encouraged overseas adoptions to reduce poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. The process was abetted by a vast network of officials — including judges, social workers, health professionals and adoption brokers — who forged documents and are widely assumed to have taken bribes. More than 550 adoptees have reconnected with their birth families in recent years. But investigators say the scheme, which is still being uncovered, most likely involved many more children. Judicial officials in Chile are investigating roughly 650 cases of irregular adoptions, a phenomenon the Ministry of Justice called in a statement “extremely serious.” Mario Carroza, a Chilean judge who opened a criminal inquiry into the adoptions in 2018, said investigators were looking into the circumstances of about 8,000 overseas adoptions that took place from 1970 to 1999. Carroza said the number of cases under scrutiny could reach 20,000. In October, Sweden began an investigation into the irregular adoptions, responding to pressure from Chilean adoptees raised in the country who have used DNA testing to establish their connections to birth parents in Chile who have been missing a child. Pinochet seized power in 1973, in a bloody coup that toppled Chile’s left-wing president. He then led a brutal regime in which the country’s economy grew as thousands of opponents were executed, disappeared, detained, tortured and exiled. Years after the general’s death in 2006, Chileans have been horrified to learn how pervasive coercive adoptions became on his watch. “The history of human rights violations during the dictatorship is known: the torture, political prisoners, repression, but this one has been largely invisible,” said Boris Barrera, a member of Congress who led a legislative investigation into the matter in 2018. Reports of coercive adoptions in Chile predate the dictatorship. But the practice became chillingly common starting in the late 1970s, as the Pinochet government explicitly began promoting adoptions during a period of economic crisis, said Karen Alfaro Monsalve, a professor at Chile’s Austral University who has researched the history of the coercive adoptions. “What we ultimately had was an outflow of poor children who were seen as a stumbling block to achieve the country’s economic development,” Alfaro Monsalve said. “Pinochet had a type of forced migration that helped control population growth and enable the country’s neoliberal shift.” The abusive practice came under scrutiny in 2014 after the Chilean investigative news agency CIPER published an article on a handful of coercive adoptions, documenting the roles played by a priest and a doctor. In the years that followed, as scores of adoptees raised in Chile and abroad set out to trace their roots, many using DNA ancestry tests, a disturbing pattern came into sharper focus. Hundreds of women came forward with similar accounts of unexpectedly losing their babies soon after giving birth. Some were told they were stillborn, while others said government officials took custody of them. The congressional committee led by Barrera culminated in a call for the Chilean government to establish a truth and reparations commission and to build a DNA database to enable adoptees and biological families to connect. But so far no one has been charged in connection with the abductions. Judicial officials have tempered expectations by noting that statutes of limitations will make it hard to bring individuals to justice. Constanza del Río, one of the founders of Nos Buscamos, an organization that helps adoptees who were trafficked, said the government’s failure to investigate the crimes more diligently was inexcusable. “We don’t have the next 25 years for them to investigate at turtle pace because we have mothers who are dying,” she said. “Justice may come, but it will be too late.” Quezada, 65, who has three daughters, never made peace with the loss of her son. She mourned him every year on his birthday, she said. Decades later, she could still picture the prominent black eyes that stared back at her from an incubator the last time she saw him. When news articles about illegal adoptions began circulating, Quezada was horrified, she said, but she never allowed herself a glimmer of hope — until her phone rang one day last May. The caller was Marisol Rodríguez, the founder of Hijos y Madres del Silencio — Children and Mothers of Silence — a volunteer organization that has facilitated the reconnection of more than 250 families severed by coerced adoptions. Rodríguez explained to Quezada the unlikely chain of events that led to the call. Years ago, Rodríguez said, her son, who was a firefighter, had gone to Houston for a training exercise. There he struck a friendship with an American firefighter who said he had been adopted from Chile. The son offered to try to track down his new friend’s birth parents, and returned to Chile with copies of his adoption file. Once he was home, he turned the documents over to Rodríguez’s group, which saw in the file telltale signs of a coerced adoption. Quezada was dumbfounded. “I couldn’t digest the information,” she said. “I couldn’t grasp what was happening.” But shock gave way to a burning desire to make up for lost time. Days after learning the news, Quezada made a video call, and laid eyes on her son as an adult for the first time. “Every muscle in my body tightened up and squeezed the tears in my eyes,” Graf recalled. “I felt like I had been hit by a bat and was seeing stars.” Within weeks, Quezada boarded an airplane for the first time in her life and flew to Houston. In a reunion arranged by a local journalist, Quezada surprised her son, who crumpled into his mother’s arms. “It was the closest hug,” Graf recalled. “They just left us alone in each other’s arms and we hugged and she kissed me and we just stood there crying.” Some Chilean adoptees have found a very different response after tracking down a birth parent. Maria Diemar, who was raised in Sweden after being flown from Chile as a baby in 1975, spent years hunting down clues that eventually led her to track down her birth family in southern Chile. She learned that her mother, who had worked as a live-in maid when she was born, had been forced to give up the baby by her employer at the time. News that her missing daughter was trying to make contact was unwelcome because, Diemar was told, her mother was in an abusive relationship with a man who did not know about the birth. That did not deter Diemar from digging into the case of her younger brother, Daniel, who was also adopted from Chile. The boy’s mother, too, had been told he died during birth. The two have grown close in recent years, which Diemar counts as a victory. “It has meant so much to travel to Chile with Daniel, to share the story of our upbringing, our childhood, and just to be in the country where we were supposed to be,” she said. “It’s very healing to do this together.” Diemar said she had little faith that the investigations underway in Chile and Sweden would lead to prosecutions. “But I think it’s important that the history books say that this happened,” she said. “These were crimes.” Since reconnecting with his mother, Graf has experienced emotional whiplash. There have been flashes of anger, moments of gratitude and feelings of indignation. But ultimately, reconnecting with his birth mother was so healing and clarifying that he created an organization to supply free kits from the company MyHeritage DNA to adoptees and families who believe they may have had a stolen baby. “We’re making up for 38 years of lost time,” he said. “Time we can’t get back.”

‘Time we can’t get back’: Stolen at birth, Chilean adoptees uncover their past

<p>A reformed gang member points out what were once opium dens and brothels on a tour of&nbsp;Singapore's financial district that explores the squeaky-clean Asian business hub's seedy criminal past.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Now known for its clockwork orderliness and having one of the world's lowest crime rates, the city-state was once a gritty port plagued by rival mobsters.</p>

<p>"This was the headquarters of the biggest gang in&nbsp;Singapore," says tour guide Bruce Mathieu, gesturing at a quiet street now housing restaurants, a hair salon and brightly coloured murals.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He recalled wandering the area as a child during the 1970s, among street food vendors pushing carts, gambling halls, and the distinctive smell of opium wafting down to the street from illicit upper-floor dens.</p>

<p>Singapore's gangland history traces its roots to so-called "secret societies" formed by Chinese immigrants when they flocked to work in&nbsp;Singapore&nbsp;after it became a key British trading post in the 1800s.</p>

<p>The massive influx from China swelled the city's population, and their descendants now form the bulk of its citizens.</p>

<p>The groups played an important role by providing the army of newcomers with a social network, help finding jobs -- and protection.&nbsp;</p>

<p>"When secret societies, or triads, first started locally in the 1800s, it was more for survival than anything else," said Mathieu, a Singaporean whose mother is from the city-state but whose father is of French descent.</p>

<p>Chinese immigrants had to join secret societies to avoid "getting bullied, getting robbed, getting killed", he added.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/unstoppable-182-unmarked-graves-found-at-third-canadian-school-395019"><strong>Also Read |&nbsp;'Unstoppable': 182 unmarked graves found at third Canadian school&nbsp;</strong></a></p>

<p>The societies were a "prominent feature of life" for the Chinese immigrants, but they also became associated with human trafficking, prostitution, kidnappings, the opium trade, and waves of violent riots, said Jean Abshire, author of "The History of&nbsp;Singapore".&nbsp;</p>

<p>Despite their description, they were far from secret and drew huge followings -- at the end of 1889, they had around 68,000 members, according to a history published by the National Heritage Board.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Life of crime</strong></p>

<p>In the following decades, crackdowns and new laws -- including one that in 1958 gave authorities the power to detain suspected criminals without trial -- cleaned up the city and diminished the gangs' influence.</p>

<p>Since&nbsp;Singapore's independence in 1965, it has undergone a dramatic transformation into a wealthy society and leading financial hub.</p>

<p>Remnants of the gangs live on and criminal cases are still regularly linked to them -- but nowhere near the scale of the past.</p>

<p>Besides sharing historical tidbits, Mathieu candidly recounts his life of crime and drug addiction in the hope it will keep others from making the same mistakes.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The ex-gang member has spent about 20 years in prison for drug possession, robbery, assault, stabbing, theft and forgery.</p>

<p>Corporal punishment is still used to punish some offences in&nbsp;Singapore, and Mathieu also endured 21 strokes of the cane for his crimes.</p>

<p><strong>'Machete on my neck'</strong></p>

<p>Members of the tour gasped as the 51-year-old recalled his first gang fight at the age of 12 -- after his friend was stabbed, he ran over to try to stop the bleeding with his t-shirt.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He shied away from specifics about his former gang's activities but vividly described his initiation ritual to the group.&nbsp;</p>

<p>"I'm kneeling down, there's a guy with a machete on my neck. At any point in time, if I get nervous and recite (a loyalty oath) wrongly... I kid you not, the machete would be brought down."</p>

<p>During his last stint in prison, which ended five years ago, the pain of being separated from his young daughter motivated him to quit drugs and leave his gang.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He now works as a motivational speaker and helps lead the popular "Triad Trails" tour to fight stereotypes about ex-offenders, an initiative partly organised by a non-profit group supporting former inmates.</p>

<p>"My favourite thing is actually the conversation with Bruce," said Gabriel Neo, a 31-year-old banker on the tour.&nbsp;</p>

<p>"How he managed to pick himself up from the lowest point of his life... is a very valuable lesson that I can learn from."</p>


A reformed gang member points out what were once opium dens and brothels on a tour of Singapore's financial district that explores the squeaky-clean Asian business hub's seedy criminal past.

A reformed gang member points out what were once opium dens and brothels on a tour of Singapore's financial district that explores the squeaky-clean Asian business hub's seedy criminal past. Now known for its clockwork orderliness and having one of the world's lowest crime rates, the city-state was once a gritty port plagued by rival mobsters. "This was the headquarters of the biggest gang in Singapore," says tour guide Bruce Mathieu, gesturing at a quiet street now housing restaurants, a hair salon and brightly coloured murals. He recalled wandering the area as a child during the 1970s, among street food vendors pushing carts, gambling halls, and the distinctive smell of opium wafting down to the street from illicit upper-floor dens. Singapore's gangland history traces its roots to so-called "secret societies" formed by Chinese immigrants when they flocked to work in Singapore after it became a key British trading post in the 1800s. The massive influx from China swelled the city's population, and their descendants now form the bulk of its citizens. The groups played an important role by providing the army of newcomers with a social network, help finding jobs -- and protection. "When secret societies, or triads, first started locally in the 1800s, it was more for survival than anything else," said Mathieu, a Singaporean whose mother is from the city-state but whose father is of French descent. Chinese immigrants had to join secret societies to avoid "getting bullied, getting robbed, getting killed", he added. Also Read | 'Unstoppable': 182 unmarked graves found at third Canadian school The societies were a "prominent feature of life" for the Chinese immigrants, but they also became associated with human trafficking, prostitution, kidnappings, the opium trade, and waves of violent riots, said Jean Abshire, author of "The History of Singapore". Despite their description, they were far from secret and drew huge followings -- at the end of 1889, they had around 68,000 members, according to a history published by the National Heritage Board. Life of crime In the following decades, crackdowns and new laws -- including one that in 1958 gave authorities the power to detain suspected criminals without trial -- cleaned up the city and diminished the gangs' influence. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, it has undergone a dramatic transformation into a wealthy society and leading financial hub. Remnants of the gangs live on and criminal cases are still regularly linked to them -- but nowhere near the scale of the past. Besides sharing historical tidbits, Mathieu candidly recounts his life of crime and drug addiction in the hope it will keep others from making the same mistakes. The ex-gang member has spent about 20 years in prison for drug possession, robbery, assault, stabbing, theft and forgery. Corporal punishment is still used to punish some offences in Singapore, and Mathieu also endured 21 strokes of the cane for his crimes. 'Machete on my neck' Members of the tour gasped as the 51-year-old recalled his first gang fight at the age of 12 -- after his friend was stabbed, he ran over to try to stop the bleeding with his t-shirt. He shied away from specifics about his former gang's activities but vividly described his initiation ritual to the group. "I'm kneeling down, there's a guy with a machete on my neck. At any point in time, if I get nervous and recite (a loyalty oath) wrongly... I kid you not, the machete would be brought down." During his last stint in prison, which ended five years ago, the pain of being separated from his young daughter motivated him to quit drugs and leave his gang. He now works as a motivational speaker and helps lead the popular "Triad Trails" tour to fight stereotypes about ex-offenders, an initiative partly organised by a non-profit group supporting former inmates. "My favourite thing is actually the conversation with Bruce," said Gabriel Neo, a 31-year-old banker on the tour. "How he managed to pick himself up from the lowest point of his life... is a very valuable lesson that I can learn from."

Triad tour shines light on Singapore's gangland past

<p>Some months ago, my friend&rsquo;s young son asked me about Hanuman, the secrets behind his prowess, especially his amazing size-reduction abilities.&nbsp;</p>

<p>His father gave me a nod of approval, &lsquo;Aunty does know something about history for children.&rsquo;</p>

<p>This one short exchange encapsulates the challenges facing history, especially how it is shaped and narrated for younger readers. At first glance, there is everything wrong in the above exchange; the two statements contradict each other. But then understanding may, and indeed does, come from mistaken notions.</p>

<p>First, of course, there is the clear difference between myth and history. Latter is more exact, the rational subject of study, almost like a science with its belief in evidence and argument. And then there&rsquo;s also the play of imagination. Myths, on the other hand, are ancient tales that have travelled. The strange thing is that history can and indeed does tell us about how myths travel or changed shape through the centuries, why some myths and figures became popular, while others perished by the wayside.&nbsp;</p>

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<h5>There are many sides to a story, and history is never just one story.</h5>
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<p><strong>When it comes to history, and the way it might be told to the younger</strong><strong>&nbsp;reader, I might then begin by saying: Don&rsquo;t disbelieve everything, argue your way out.&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>Doing so especially matters in this age of the Internet, when WhatsApp and other social media has made almost everyone an armchair historian; expert of facts (verifiable or otherwise) available at the mere tap of a button. Images are expertly edited, photoshopped so to be passed off as truth &ndash; irrefutable, definite historical truth. Certain kinds of photos, of course, are ineluctably more popular, for example, those used to discredit any opponent/enemy and/or to demonstrate chest-thumping patriotism.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Some months ago, a photo held up on television by a prominent political party spokesperson showed two Indian soldiers holding up the national flag on a mountain peak, that was passed off as Siachen. This was sad and grotesque in every measure. For one, patriotism hasn&rsquo;t anything ever to do with photoshopping. And then, the original is the well-known 1945 photo taken by Joe Rosenthal of US soldiers on Iwo Jima in the Pacific, during World War II.</p>

<p>One doesn&rsquo;t really need to be an expert to figure out if something&rsquo;s been photoshopped. It is as easy to photoshop something as it is to disbelieve the effort. But the example above might make us think, for example, about the photo&rsquo;s history (even if it a &lsquo;false&rsquo; one), when and why was it taken. Such a thought exercise, coupled with the search for evidence and clues, might lead us down to the present, make us ask why such an exercise relating to photoshopping history was even necessary. &nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>It&rsquo;s as necessary then, almost as a counter to the first rule to: Disbelieve everything, and to trust the evidence you glean for yourself.&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>But this leads us in turn to evidence itself &ndash; which sadly, is indeed easy to concoct. Photoshopping is just a small part of this. A search on the Internet shows up the many pseudo-history sites that spread hatred; stories of the past being nothing but an endless series of conspiracies, conquests and battles; of humiliations heaped and then avenged. &nbsp;</p>

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<h5>There are always new narratives, there is always new evidence that emerges. It&rsquo;s vital to remember how this &lsquo;evidence&rsquo; is used.</h5>
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<p>What then is evidence all about? How does one gather evidence &ndash; and does anything in the past, that which is gone, offer up credible evidence? This is where context comes in, and imagination too. For example, one might imagine a time in the future, with someone looking back to our own era. Evil does exist and people find reasons of all kinds to commit evil. Then there are nuances to it too. What makes such systems of tyranny develop? &nbsp;These may, in turn, give rise to other systems that turn out to be even more so. &nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>It is important than to see what lies beneath. And the context.&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>It is assumed that history is a dry subject; a series of unequivocal statements and dates of the past. But understanding the context also reveals history&rsquo;s vibrancy. There are many sides to a story, and history is never just one story. It is never a story about kings and tyrants, though for a while they did get to write their side of history.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Just as there is a many-sidedness to history, it is an ever-changing subject. There are many perspectives to it, many schools of thought &ndash; which makes it a lively subject, never dull, never really about the dead (pun intended). There are always new narratives, there is always new evidence that emerges. It&rsquo;s vital to remember how this &lsquo;evidence&rsquo; is used.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>And while there is new evidence, it is especially important to distrust it - the newer it looks, the more one might distrust it till proven. (Especially yes, when it comes to photos).&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>For example, it is possible to show stones as evidence across the sea to represent Rama&rsquo;s mythical bridge, but this should only make us ask questions. Not just whether it&rsquo;s possible for a bridge to last for aeons and centuries, but how does something show up in satellite imagery; as students of history, stories like this must make us go into the past in various ways &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s geological history, climatic change, and about the Ramayana itself.&nbsp;The many versions of it, the ones written in the different Indian languages, and the versions of women and other marginalised groups. It might make us ask if symbols are more important than the stories themselves.&nbsp;</p>

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<h5>History must make us ask all the right questions; questions that matter to the present, while they draw on the past. &nbsp;</h5>
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<p>History then isn&rsquo;t just one story, but many stories that exist concomitantly. This makes the past, a fully lived in time-period, a constantly changing place, full of mysteries, of heroes known and unknown. Faced with the immensity of such discoverable riches (of knowledge), violence and hatred seem forces to be countered, for it is, yes about context and what made for this context. History must make us ask all the right questions; questions that matter to the present, while they draw on the past. &nbsp;</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s not a hand me down&nbsp;subject, but the one that makes us not just question things like a science but it seeks empathy and imagination &ndash; as with the humanities. History might yet help us understand ourselves better, and understanding the past is just a step toward a better, more humane future. It&rsquo;d be nice to start early, it makes the work of history writers that much more challenging and at times, inspiring.&nbsp;</p>


History might yet help us understand ourselves better, and understanding the past is just a step toward a better, more humane future.

Some months ago, my friend’s young son asked me about Hanuman, the secrets behind his prowess, especially his amazing size-reduction abilities. His father gave me a nod of approval, ‘Aunty does know something about history for children.’ This one short exchange encapsulates the challenges facing history, especially how it is shaped and narrated for younger readers. At first glance, there is everything wrong in the above exchange; the two statements contradict each other. But then understanding may, and indeed does, come from mistaken notions. First, of course, there is the clear difference between myth and history. Latter is more exact, the rational subject of study, almost like a science with its belief in evidence and argument. And then there’s also the play of imagination. Myths, on the other hand, are ancient tales that have travelled. The strange thing is that history can and indeed does tell us about how myths travel or changed shape through the centuries, why some myths and figures became popular, while others perished by the wayside. There are many sides to a story, and history is never just one story. × When it comes to history, and the way it might be told to the younger reader, I might then begin by saying: Don’t disbelieve everything, argue your way out. Doing so especially matters in this age of the Internet, when WhatsApp and other social media has made almost everyone an armchair historian; expert of facts (verifiable or otherwise) available at the mere tap of a button. Images are expertly edited, photoshopped so to be passed off as truth – irrefutable, definite historical truth. Certain kinds of photos, of course, are ineluctably more popular, for example, those used to discredit any opponent/enemy and/or to demonstrate chest-thumping patriotism. Some months ago, a photo held up on television by a prominent political party spokesperson showed two Indian soldiers holding up the national flag on a mountain peak, that was passed off as Siachen. This was sad and grotesque in every measure. For one, patriotism hasn’t anything ever to do with photoshopping. And then, the original is the well-known 1945 photo taken by Joe Rosenthal of US soldiers on Iwo Jima in the Pacific, during World War II. One doesn’t really need to be an expert to figure out if something’s been photoshopped. It is as easy to photoshop something as it is to disbelieve the effort. But the example above might make us think, for example, about the photo’s history (even if it a ‘false’ one), when and why was it taken. Such a thought exercise, coupled with the search for evidence and clues, might lead us down to the present, make us ask why such an exercise relating to photoshopping history was even necessary. It’s as necessary then, almost as a counter to the first rule to: Disbelieve everything, and to trust the evidence you glean for yourself. But this leads us in turn to evidence itself – which sadly, is indeed easy to concoct. Photoshopping is just a small part of this. A search on the Internet shows up the many pseudo-history sites that spread hatred; stories of the past being nothing but an endless series of conspiracies, conquests and battles; of humiliations heaped and then avenged. There are always new narratives, there is always new evidence that emerges. It’s vital to remember how this ‘evidence’ is used. × What then is evidence all about? How does one gather evidence – and does anything in the past, that which is gone, offer up credible evidence? This is where context comes in, and imagination too. For example, one might imagine a time in the future, with someone looking back to our own era. Evil does exist and people find reasons of all kinds to commit evil. Then there are nuances to it too. What makes such systems of tyranny develop? These may, in turn, give rise to other systems that turn out to be even more so. It is important than to see what lies beneath. And the context. It is assumed that history is a dry subject; a series of unequivocal statements and dates of the past. But understanding the context also reveals history’s vibrancy. There are many sides to a story, and history is never just one story. It is never a story about kings and tyrants, though for a while they did get to write their side of history. Just as there is a many-sidedness to history, it is an ever-changing subject. There are many perspectives to it, many schools of thought – which makes it a lively subject, never dull, never really about the dead (pun intended). There are always new narratives, there is always new evidence that emerges. It’s vital to remember how this ‘evidence’ is used. And while there is new evidence, it is especially important to distrust it - the newer it looks, the more one might distrust it till proven. (Especially yes, when it comes to photos). For example, it is possible to show stones as evidence across the sea to represent Rama’s mythical bridge, but this should only make us ask questions. Not just whether it’s possible for a bridge to last for aeons and centuries, but how does something show up in satellite imagery; as students of history, stories like this must make us go into the past in various ways – whether it’s geological history, climatic change, and about the Ramayana itself. The many versions of it, the ones written in the different Indian languages, and the versions of women and other marginalised groups. It might make us ask if symbols are more important than the stories themselves. History must make us ask all the right questions; questions that matter to the present, while they draw on the past. × History then isn’t just one story, but many stories that exist concomitantly. This makes the past, a fully lived in time-period, a constantly changing place, full of mysteries, of heroes known and unknown. Faced with the immensity of such discoverable riches (of knowledge), violence and hatred seem forces to be countered, for it is, yes about context and what made for this context. History must make us ask all the right questions; questions that matter to the present, while they draw on the past. It’s not a hand me down subject, but the one that makes us not just question things like a science but it seeks empathy and imagination – as with the humanities. History might yet help us understand ourselves better, and understanding the past is just a step toward a better, more humane future. It’d be nice to start early, it makes the work of history writers that much more challenging and at times, inspiring.

Lord Hanuman, History, and why children should be encouraged to ask questions

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