Basket.

Whilst idylly flipping through Today this morning, I received further unwanted verification of the fact that Singaporeans have a great lack of knowledge in historical events.

All was fine until I came to this article on the rise of China, which I read with some interest until I came to the lines " ... after the surprise naval battle in 1905 that resulted in the Japanese crushing the Russian fleet at Shimonoseki..."

I read it again, to make sure the problem did not lie with me. And again. By the third time I was convinced the problem was not with my eyes. I glanced up and looked at the author's name. It had the prefix "Dr". A Phd holder, no less. And he manages to make two elementary mistakes on a historical event in one sentence.

First off, the battle was not Shimionoseki, but Tsushima Strait, often considered one of the most significant, if not decisive, battles in the history of the world. After all, the defeat of the antiquated and poorly motivated Russian Baltic Fleet, that had sailed halfway around the world to meet the modern, better-armed and better-led Japanese fleet was a mere formality, something to be expected. Yet its psychological value was the immense; it shattered the myth of the white man's invincibility forever. And that is actually the point the author of the article was making.

Yet that is a digression. The fact is, someone of such high education standard made such an elemntary mistake is astounding, to say the least. What is more, he compunded it by saying ti was a surprise. No, it wasn't. The Russians knew the Japanese were in that area; the Japanese did not ambush them, nor did the Russians launch any surprise attack on the Japanese.

I immediately turned the page in disgust. Any article that cannot even get its facts right is not worth my time to read.