Friday, August 28, 2009

who was wallace?



this morning, while on my morning nature walk, i came across this sign-post. this should give you an idea where i walked this morning. i thought: wow, this is my chance to pose a question where the answer cannot be googled. my googling friend had posted this comment in my blog: "YG, you should come up with quizes which are not "googleable".

this is a brand-new place, surely nobody will have blogged or mentioned it on the internet. however, this was not to be. when i typed in the search-box "wallace education centre", not only was the location mentioned, there was also a picture of the place.

anyway, i have decided to go ahead with the quiz because through it, readers will come to know more about this place which is due to be opened anytime soon. i have blogged about this place more than once.

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

1 where is the wallace education centre located?

2 what's the full name of this place?

2 who was wallace?

3 if you are driving, where are the two designated car parks?

12 comments:

Icemoon said...

I think I can guess who was wallace.

Victor said...

Wah, the tombstone of Wallace in the link given by Icemoon above looks like a phallic symbol! (Apologies if I appear to have a tendency to focus on sexual things only.)

peter said...

Dairy Farm area?

yg said...

victor, we already know you are a fetish for such things...bum, bra to bird.

yg said...

peter, i notice that you get up early to surf the internet. yes, it is the dairy farm area.

yg said...

icemoon, i have heard about charles darwin; this is the first time i am reading about alfred wallace.

pck said...

I first came to know about Alfred Wallace when I visited the Sarawak Museum in Kuching many years ago. Apparently, he was a naturalist and anthropologist, who spent many years in the jungle of Sarawak during the White Raja era,and came to the same conclusion as Darwin that we Homo sapiens, monkeys and apes are cousins.

pck said...

Listed below is an interesting article that, coincidentally, appeared in a Malaysian local newspaper yesterday. After his work in his Sarawak, Wallace travelled to Singapore and Malaya; he brought along with him his Malay assistant and interpreter , Ali, from Kampung Santubong near Damai, Kuching. Ali’s name appeared in Wallace’s book ‘The Malay Archipelago’, and he was believed to have been engaged by Wallace as an interpreter upon the recommendation of Rajah James Brooke.
It will be interesting to visit the Wallace Education Centre to find out what work on natural science and anthropology had Wallace and Ali done in Singapore some 160 years ago!


Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Waris Ali, pembantu naturalis Alfred Wallace dicari

KUCHING: Seorang budak lelaki berusia 15 tahun dari Sarawak bernama Ali dan pernah bekerja sebagai penterjemah dan pengumpul spesimen dengan seorang naturalis, penjelajah, ahli geografi, ahli antropologi dan ahli biologi, kini amat dicari-cari maklumat mengenai dirinya dan warisnya.

Budak lelaki tersebut dan naturalis berkenaan pernah sama-sama menjelajah ke Singapura, Tanah Melayu dan Indonesia. Namun itu berlaku kira-kira 160 tahun yang lepas.
Pada 1854, seorang naturalis (pengkaji tumbuhan dan haiwan), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) tiba di Sarawak.
Ali, dipercayai berasal dari sebuah kampung di Kuching atau Santubong, diminta bekerja dengan Wallace sebagai penterjemah kerana Wallace tidak memahami bahasa Melayu.
Wallace menulis nama Ali dalam bukunya berjudul ‘Gugusan Kepulauan Melayu’ (The Malay Archipelago) tetapi tidak pula menyatakan nama penuh dan asal Ali.
Identiti Ali dan di mana beliau selepas bekerja dengan Wallace menimbulkan minat seorang penulis Amerika bernama Paul Spencer Sochaczweski, yang cuba menjejaki Wallace selama kira-kira 30 tahun di Amazon dan Asia Tenggara.
Dalam satu temu bual baru-baru ini, Sochaczewski berkata Ali bekerja dengan Wallace selama tujuh tahun dan dalam pada itu Ali menyumbang peranan penting dalam tugas Wallace sebagai naturalis.
Beliau percaya ketika Wallace berada di Sarawak, Rajah James Brooke memberitahu agar Wallace membawa seseorang yang boleh berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa Melayu ketika menjelajah Singapura dan Indonesia.
Brooke mungkin meminta pemimpin Melayu pada masa itu untuk mendapatkan seseorang yang boleh dipercayai, iaitu seumpama Ali.

Orang ramai yang mempunyai maklumat berhubung Ali dan warisnya, boleh menghubungi Sochaczewski me-nerusi emel pauls@iprolink. ch, Rambli Ahmad di 013-8024255 atau emel rambliahmad @sarawak forestry.com atau Sanib Said di lawas53@ yahoo.com.

yg said...

pck, thank you for providing all this interesting information. now i look forward to the opening of the wallace environmental education centre at dairy farm nature park.

Roger said...

I read a riveting account of the explorer and naturalist Wallace in National Geographic. Any connection with him?

yg said...

roger, must be the same alfred russel wallace.

yg said...

roger, before i posted this, i had never heard of this man. after the post, i became more aware and i heard his name mentioned in one of the cna's programmes last night.