Second in a series on great websites

Last month, I kicked off the first in a series on great websites. The second one is posted here today -- a wonderful online anthology of poems, many of which are familiar schoolday favourites. Here is the link: 

http://www.potw.org/byline.html

I decided to search the site for a poem I knew, by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) called "The Second Coming".

Given the remarkable overnight change in the political landscape here arising from the "bombshell" news on Saturday night, I felt that the first stanza, reproduced here, is evocative:

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre

    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

    The best lack all conviction, while the worst

    Are full of passionate intensity.

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I'll wrap up this posting with one speculation, and one prediction.

Speculation -- I wonder if Mr  Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong's stepping down from the Cabinet has more to do with the internal party pressure for "reform" than with the external challenge of coping with an Internet-savvy Gen Y cohort of voters? Admittedly, it's pure speculation.

Prediction -- Ahead of PM Lee's announcement of his new Cabinet line-up, I am predicting that Mr Teo Chee Hean will become the new Foreign Minister, as he is well-known in ASEAN and regional circles, and is certainly urbane enough to network well internationally. Dr Ng Eng Hen, his deputy now, then moves to head MINDEF. I am sure it's easier to find a new Education Minister than to find candidates for the other two key posts above. Just my two cents worth.