Agnes Newton Keith

* i took this article from : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Newton_Keith Hello everybody..seperti mana yang saya janjikan, jom kita berkenalan dengan Agnes Newton Keith..sebenarnya saya pun baru juga baca2 ckit artikel tentang beliau..selama ini saya tidak tahu pun cerita ttg beliau..saya cedok dari wikipedia..let's get started!! Agnes Newton Keith (July 4, 1901 – March 30, 1982) was an American author best known for her three autobiographical accounts of life in North Borneo (now Sabah) before, during, and after the Second World War. The second of these, Three Came Home, tells of her time in Japanese POW and civilian internee camps in North Borneo and Sarawak, and was made into a film of the same name in 1950. She published seven books in all. In 1934, she married Henry G. Keith, known as "Harry Keith", an Englishman. He had been a friend of her brother Al when both boys had been at the same school in San Diego, and Agnes had first met him when she was eight years old. He had gone on to work for the government of North Borneo, and she had not seen him in a decade when he visited California while on leave in 1934. However, as soon as they re-met they decided to get married, and were wed three days later. Three months after their marriage, following an operation to cure Agnes's eyesight, they sailed for Borneo.[5] Their son, Henry George Newton Keith, was born on April 5, 1940. Their daughter Jean is mentioned, though not by name, in Keith's first book, "Land Below the Wind", on page 174 of the first edition, dated 1939: "A picture stood on the table by us of our little girl at home in her party dress." On page 171, while discussing small-boy Usit with Harry, she says, "I'm afraid I'm too lazy to take on the job of being a parent again." Copies of White Man Returns are dedicated "To my children George and Jean". Jean was invited to the celebrations for the reissue of Land Below the Wind in Sabah on July 6, 2007.[6] Harry was Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture for the government of North Borneo under the Chartered Company, and was also Honorary Curator of the Sandakan (State) Museum. He had worked in Borneo since 1925, and was based in Sandakan.[7] Agnes spent an idyllic five years at Sandakan, sometimes accompanying her husband on trips into the interior of the country. Harry persuaded her to write about her experiences and enter it in the 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-Fiction Prize contest. The judges voted unanimously for her entry to win, and it was partly serialized in the magazine before being published in November of that year as Land Below the Wind. The book received favorable reviews: The Scotsman described it as "A delightful book ... It has abundant humour and a pervading charm ... An original and engaging description of a country and people of extraordinary interest."[8] The Keiths were on leave in Canada when war was declared on September 3, 1939. Harry was immediately ordered back to Borneo.[9] The Japanese invading forces landed in Sandakan on January 19, 1942. For the first few months of Japanese occupation of British Borneo, the Keiths were allowed to stay in their own home. On 12 May Agnes and George were imprisoned on Berhala Island (Pulau Berhala) near Sandakan, in a building that had once been the Government Quarantine Station, along with other Western women and children. Harry was imprisoned nearby.[10] They spent eight months there before Agnes and George were sent to Kuching in Sarawak. They left by a small steamer on January 12, 1943 and arrived eight days later.[11] They were imprisoned in Batu Lintang camp near Kuching, unusual in that it accommodated both prisoners of war and civilian internees in between eight and ten separate compounds.[12] Harry later arrived at the camp.[13] The camp was finally liberated on 11 September 1945 by the 9th Australian Army Division under the command of Brigadier T. C. Eastick.[14] All three members of the Keith family had survived their internment. On arriving in Sandakan in 1934, Agnes moved into Harry's bachelor bungalow, but the couple soon relocated to a government building on a hilltop, where they lived until internment in 1942. After the war they returned to Sandakan to find the house destroyed. They built a new house in 1946–47 on the original footprint and in a similar style to the original. They named this house Newlands and lived there until they left Sabah in 1952. After nearly 50 years of gradual deterioration, first under tenants and then as an empty shell, the house was restored by Sabah Museum in collaboration with the Federal Department of Museums and Antiquities in 2001. The house is a rare survival of post-war colonial wooden architecture. It was opened to the public in 2004 and is a popular tourist attraction. It contains displays on Agnes and Harry Keith as well as information about colonial life in Sandakan in the first half of the twentieth century, and is commonly referred to as the Agnes Keith House.[20] In 1953 Harry joined the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, and was posted to the Philippines, based in Manila. Agnes wrote Bare Feet in the Palace about post-war life in the Philippines, culminating in the 1953 election. It was published in 1955. Harry became FAO Representative in Libya, and served six years as forestry adviser in the country. He retired in 1964.[21] True to form, Agnes wrote about her experiences in the country, publishing Children of Allah, between the Sea and the Sahara in 1966. In 1959, she was named an Alpha Gamma Delta Distinguished Citizen.[22] The Keiths retired to British Columbia, where Agnes continued writing. Her first novel, Beloved Exiles, was published in 1972. It was set in North Borneo in the period between 1936 and 1951. Her last book, Before the Blossoms Fall: Life and Death in Japan, was published in 1975. Agnes Newton Keith died at age 80 in Oak Bay, British Columbia in 1982; her husband died the same year. The title of Agnes's first book about the then-North Borneo, Land Below the Wind, has become the unofficial motto of Sabah. The phrase was used by sailors to describe all the lands south of the typhoon belt, but Agnes popularised the special connection of the phrase with Sabah, by applying it exclusively to North Borneo in her book.[25] As well as inspiring the film of the same name, Three Came Home has been cited as one of the sources for cinematic and television depictions of women in Japanese camps during World War II. Paradise Road and Tenko both contain scenes based on episodes in the book. ****** Ok, artikel ini agak panjang kan? tapi tidak apa..yang penting kita sudah mengenali siapa itu Agnes Keith dan tahu kenapa Agnes Keith mempunyai connections dengan sejarah kita...Sabah negeri Dibawah Bayu...Land Below The Wind..tajuk buku beliau yang terkenal..so, ingat Sabah, ingat land below the wind..ingat Agnes Keith..ok..bye for now :)

Agnes Keith House

Hello everybody..apa khabar? how are you?..Have you heard of Agnes Keith before?Siapa itu Agnes Keith? Beliau adalah penulis buku 'Land Below The Wind' yang menceritakan pengalaman beliau semasa tinggal di Sandakan, North Borneo. Sebenarnya ini adalah kali ke-2 saya pergi ke Agnes Keith House tapi kali ini saya betul2 mendalami dan menghayati cerita kehidupan Agnes Keith di Sandakan, sebelum Japanese occupation sampailah beliau menjadi tahanan perang di Kem Batu Lintang..Sedih mmg sedih..ok,nnti on next post saya akan ceritakan pula biografi beliau and of course saya cekup dari wikipedia...hehehehe..ok, bercerita pasal Rumah Agnes keith ni, beliau sampai di Sandakan pada tahun 1934..pada mulanya beliau tinggal di banglo bujang suaminya iaitu Henry G. Keith yang juga dikenali sebagai 'Harry Keith'. Suami beliau ada seorang Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture for the government of North Borneo under the Chartered Company, and was also Honorary Curator of the Sandakan (State) Museum. (biarlah saya tetapkan dalam b. inggeris jawatan dia..nanti cakap pegawai pemuliharaan hutan dan kurator muzium, salah pula..hempppp..) beliau bekerja di North Borneo sejak tahun 1925. Dalam masa 5 tahun di Sandakan, selalunya Agnes juga ada menemani suaminya pergi ke kawasan pedalaman dan Harry mencadangkan agar Agnes mencatitkan pengalaman2 yang beliau tempuhi dan meghantar ke 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-Fiction Prize contest. Juri pertandingan telah memilih karya beliau sebagai pemenang dan ceritanya disiarkan secara bersiri di majalah sebelum diterbitkan pada tahun itu sebagai buku 'Land Below The Wind'...emmmm...so sweet..ntah macamana keadaan zaman itu kan? Selepas berpindah dari banglo bujang suaminya, mereka sekeluarga tinggal di rumah yang berada diatas bukit iaitu goverment building dimana mereka tinggal sampai tahun 1942...selepas perang, mereka kembali lagi ke rumah itu dan mendapati rumah tersebut telah musnah ketika peperangan melanda!oh tidak...so, mereka memutuskan untuk membina kembali rumah tersebut di tapak asal pada tahun 1946-1947 dan menamakan kediaman mereka sebagai 'Newland' dan tinggal disana sampailah mereka seeluarga meninggalkan North Borneo pada tahun 1952...selepas 50 tahun, rumah tersebuat di baikpulih oleh Muzium Sabah dan dibuka kepada orang awam pada tahun 2004... Klau anda nak tahu, keadaan rumah itu dibuat betul2 macam keadaan sebelum ini..dari living room, dining hall, bedroom...wahhhh...looks exactly like it used to be..macam kita kembali ke zaman 1950an..sayang tidak boleh ambil gambar dalam rumah tu..so you guys have to check it out for yourself...macam2 ada..and klau mo buat rumah pun, dapat dapatkan inspirasi dari rumah tu..english style gtu..ok..jumpa lagi ya...layan pic dulu

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gambar dibawah ni saya ambil dari web muzium sabah..walaupun ada gambar suasana dalam rumah ni kat google, i am such a good citizen, and i must obey the rules..chewahh..no photograph means no photograph la kan..poyo jer i ni..haha

Hujung Minggu

Hai semua...selamat berhujung minggu semua..apa aktiviti anda pada hujung minggu ni?jalan2?shopping?..saya...saya just stay kat rumah dan pegi ke ofis untuk just kill the time..haha..bosan bah di rumah.sudahlah jauh dari keluarga terchenta..mau shopping pun..faham2 lah bulan dah tua..jangan mimpi lah mau shopping..window shopping pun menyakitkan hati ja..oklah..2 minggu lalu my husband datang melawat saya di Sandakan.yalah,sambil melawat isteri boleh juga berjalan2 kan..so kami pun jadi tourist sekejap..tempat2 yang kami pegi tidaklah banyak sangat..mana boleh lawat semua tempat..simpan2 dulu utk dimasa akan datang..so destinasi kami ialah di Agnes Keith House, Batu Sapi Heritage Park,Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre dan Sandakan Memorial Park.So, stay tune for more postings..banyak mau share dengan you all semua..it's been a long time..see u all

A place called Sandakan

Hello everyone..how are you all doing?how's life?.well, for me..i lived in Sandakan now for almost 4 months already..and yes..its Sandakan...macam mana la mau hidup di Sandakan ni..i barely knows no one here..of course lah sy ada kawan orang sandakan kan?tapi semua d KK sudah..Ok, first time dapat tahu saya dapat tranfer balik Sabah,mestilah happy kan tapi kegembiraan saya sampai itu sahaja..bila dapat tahu saya ditempatkan di HDOK, Sandakan...emmm teda feeling sudah saya rasa..macam tawar2 pun ada, pahit2 pun ada..kwn2 congratulates saya sbb dapat balik sabah pun mcm emm okey..yeahh..thank you...emmm..well, don't get me wrong..it's not like i don't like Sandakan...i do..but...saya pigi sandakan untuk jalan2 jak bah..seumur hidup saya,saya cuma pernah pigi sandakan sebanyak 4 kali ja..1st, in year 2007..bawa my friend Sonia n Kiren jalan2, 2nd tahun 2011..bawa pesakit talasemia pi kem motivasi, 3rd, end of tahun 2011..trip wisata kuliner with my bestie, dr. Putri n last sy pigi sandakan back in 2013..sama my parents n sista..time tu baru ja beli c Putih...testing power konon..and that's all...bagi saya, Sandakan adalah satu tempat yang sangattttttt jauhhhhhhhhh sangat..mungkin sebab sandakan ni terletak di pantai timur sabah..sebab tu jauh..kalau drive dari KK, ada lah dalam 6 jam?7 jam?penat ooohhhhh...dan jalan raya agak tidak selamat...dan saya tidak percaya bas ekspress dan even bas double-decker pun lalu jalan itu..laju2 lagi tu..jalannya yang sempit,berbukit bukau, ada jalan rosak..sangat bahaya..lalu jalan tamparuli-ranau pun sebenarnya satu penyeksaan buat saya...sebelum sampai Pekan Ranau, saya mesti singgah tepi jalan dan uuuweeeekkkkk!!!!!mcm mo terkeluar segala isi dan usus saya sekali..inilah nasib org yang mudah mabuk perjalanan...oklah..cerita byk2 pun nanti orang sandakan marah..awwwwww..actually Sandakan has a lot to offer..tmpat pelancongan, pantai2, pulau2..and of course i will blogged my activities in Sandakan..can't wait to explore more..bye for now..