100 years after its first publication, the twelfth edition of this world-famous bestseller gives the most up-to-date picture of the English language today. The original 1911 edition, revolutionary at the time for its focus on current English and its use of illustrative examples, combined a succinct yet approachable style with coverage of everyday as well as specialist terms. This centenary edition continues this ground-breaking tradition, giving you rich authoritative coverage of Englishas it is used today. The CD-ROM version of the dictionary offers full-text search functionality, instant look-up from WindowsRG documents, including email and the internet, and high-quality spoken pronunciations for thousands of words, making it ideal for family use, as well as for home, work, and school use. The CD-ROM is both WindowsRG and Mac compatible.

Introducing the life and times of a legend in international aviation — Lim Chin Beng — the man they called Mr SIA.Absorbing the life and work of Lim Chin Beng is like watching a fly past of airlines and aircraft old and new. In this book, his past comes to meet you in many forms — designs, shapes, figures, photographs, episodes, places, people and you discover the connections with business, society and international aviation today and into the future. Here's a man who was instrumental in taking the very basic components of a business — like a potter taking the clay — and creating what has become one of the world's leading brands, Singapore Airlines. But this airline 'specialist', trained as an economist, had more jobs to do. His broad range of interests — arts and sports, property and tourism — led to him being called on to do his 'national service' for Singapore. He was Ambassador to Japan for two terms and trade negotiator, chairman of the Singapore Tourism Board, Changi Airport International, Singapore Airshow, Singapore Press Holdings, Ascott Group, and ST Aerospace. Described as a quiet achiever and a visionary, this modest gentleman was not afraid to make bold decisions and take risks, even to the extent of setting up a budget airline, Valuair. Here was one man, who in his time, played many parts, on the world's stage and at home.

Through an examination of Methodist mission to Southeast Asia at the turn of the twentieth century, this broad-ranging book unites the history of globalization with the history of Christian mission and the history of Southeast Asia. The book explores the international connections forged by the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Malaysia Mission between 1885 and 1915, putting them in the context of a wave of globalization that was sweeping the world at that time, including significant developments in Southeast Asia. To establish intellectual connections between the study of globalization and this historical setting, the book suggests six metaphors for understanding the mission. Each metaphor is based on some aspect of secular globalization: the Methodist connection as a migratory network, mission agencies as multinational corporations, the Malaysia Mission as a franchise system, the Methodist Episcopal Church as a media conglomerate, mission institutions as civil society organizations, and Methodist mission as a global vision. In chapters exploring each metaphor separately, the book reviews how each form of secular globalization functions to create transnational connections before examining the details of how the Malaysia Mission functioned in a similar fashion. Along the way, the book investigates the lives of all involved in the mission: missionaries, church members of the mission, and mission supporters. Although Southeast Asia (including the Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, Sarawak, and Netherlands Indies) and the United States are important geographic foci for the book, India, China, Britain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Canada all have parts to play. In exploring these metaphors, the book draws on several scholarly fields including migration studies, business history, media studies, political theory, and cultural history, blending them together into a social history of the mission. By so doing, it identifies both ways in which the effects of Christian mission paralleled other globalizing forces and unique contributions Christian mission made to turn-of-the-twentieth-century globalization.

“Perhaps I will write about my own life as a blind person,” Choon Guan said. “I’ll entitle it My Love is Blind. The word blind will embrace your name, Lin.” His big eyes widened and lit up, sparkling and full of tenderness. His lips moved in a soundless whisper: “My Love is Lin.” Tan Guan Heng lost his sight at the age of 28. In his first novel, he paints a nostalgic picture of Singapore on the brink of independence. With biting honesty and ironic humour, this novel brings to life the world of the blind and their sighted helpers. More than twenty years after its first publication in 1995, My Love is Blind has retained its enduring appeal as one of Singapore’s most extraordinary and memorable novels. Asiapac Books is pleased to launch a special edition of this groundbreaking novel, updated with an epilogue and a new foreword by Dr. Tommy Koh, and an afterword by literary critic, Gwee Li Sui. An excerpt from the afterword: “…My Love is Blind is a deeply rational book because the writing involves distinct technical questions about constructing reality. It explains a quality of composure where, even at his lowest, Choon Guan entertains neither despair nor death. Ultimately, we must see the heart of this work as a great belief in life, what can hold together and transform all the fragments of self.”

"The book, using a small group of left-wing student activists as a prism, explores the complex politics that underpinned the making of nation-states in Singapore and Malaysia after World War Two. While most works have viewed the period in terms of political contestation groups, the book demonstrates how it is better understood as involving a shared modernist project framed by British-planned decolonization. This pursuit of nationalist modernity was characterized by an optimism to replace the colonial system with a new state and mobilize the people into a new relationship with the state, according them new responsibilities as well as new rights. This book, based on student writings, official documents and oral history interviews, brings to life various modernist strands - liberal-democratic, ethnic-communal, and Fabian and Marxist socialist - seeking to determine the form of post-colonial Malaya. It uncovers a hitherto little-seen world where the meanings of loud slogans were fluid, vague and deeply contested. This world also comprised as much convergence between the groups as conflict, including collaboration between the Socialist Club and other political and student groups which were once its rivals, while its main ally eventually became its nemesis"--Publisher's description.

When Singapore declared independence in 1965, it faced the monumental task of building a military from scratch. Aristocracy of Armed Talent tells the story of the development of the Singapore Armed Forces through a collective portrait of its leaders. This book is based on interviews with twenty-eight flag officers, offering a firsthand look at Singapore's military from the very leaders who helped shape it. It addresses the challenges Singapore faced in building its officer corps and encouraging individuals to stay and make a career out of military service. In a society where the majority Chinese population traditionally devalued military careers, and where military service was associated with foreign occupiers and colonizers, Singapore had to learn to build a culture of leadership for its armed forces. It also dispels some of the myths that have shrouded military culture in the country. As former flag officers are often recruited into senior civil service and political roles, understating the military elite culture is central to understanding Singapore's politics. This book provides a rare window on an exceptional and globally influential institution.

Book Review Index provides quick access to reviews of books, periodicals, books on tape and electronic media representing a wide range of popular, academic and professional interests. The up-to-date coverage, wide scope and inclusion of citations for both newly published and older materials make Book Review Index an exceptionally useful reference tool. More than 600 publications are indexed, including journals and national general interest publications and newspapers. Book Review Index is available in a three-issue subscription covering the current year or as an annual cumulation covering the past year.

A project by Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) on the competitiveness analysis for Indonesian provinces.