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A Toast to
In Singapore, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third
Sunday of June, a day to commend, appreciate and
occasionally poke fun at the unyielding efforts of the usually
unassuming and stoic figurehead of the house. On this day, the
sales figures of ties, electrical products and stodgy shirts
experience a dramatic increase because a father can never have too
many ties, can he? Could he? Does he even wear ties?
The Condensed History of
FATHER’S DAY
27-year-old Sonora Smart Dodd was inspired to create a day to honour
fathers and their sacrifices after hearing a sermon in church about
Mother’s Day. She held her father, civil war veteran William Jackson
Smart, in high esteem; he had raised her and five other children alone
after his wife and Sonora’s mother passed away in childbirth.
The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA on 19
June 1910. However, the day didn’t take off across the country and slowly faded into
obscurity when Sonora went to study at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s.
When Sonora returned home in the 1930s, she started promoting the celebration
again. This time, she had the help of companies who made ties, tobacco pipes and
other assorted items that made traditional presents suitable for fathers.
IT RUNS IN
THE FAMILY
Father’s Day finally became part of the fabric of society in 1966
when then American President Lyndon Johnson issued a
presidential proclamation honouring fathers and designating the
third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.
Besides the famous father-and-son politician combos of Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, and Lee Kuan Yew and
Lee Hsien Loong, there are actually a multitude of political pairings in the world that are linked together by
name and blood. Here are a few of the more interesting ones we’ve found.
THE KABILA
FAMILY Laurent-Désiré
Kabila was a revolutionary who
led a full-scale rebellion against
the leader of DR Congo at that
time, Mobutu Sese Seko, in an
attempt to overthrow the regime.
Kabila marched triumphantly
into the capital Kinshasa in May
1997 and assumed the office
in the same month. Four years
later, on 18 January 2001, he was
assassinated in cold blood by one
of his bodyguards. His son, Joseph
Kabila, succeeded his deceased
father ten days later and is still
holding the reins today.
THE ALIYEV FAMILY
Heydar Aliyev dominated the political
landscape of Azerbaijan for more than four
decades, when it was part of the Soviet
Union and when it formally became an
independent state in 1991. He was formally
elected as the President in 1993 and held
power for a decade. His reign was, to
say the least, bloody; there was even an
insurrection in 1995 led by the commander
of a special unit of the Azerbaijan army
that was brutally put down. During the final
moments of his presidency and his life,
Heydar controversially appointed his son, Ilham Aliyev, as his party’s
sole presidential candidate. Ilham was elected into the country’s highest
office in 2003 and has held the position until now.
THE PARK FAMILY
It’s
not just the sons in the limelight. The
current head of state of South Korea,
Park Geun-Hye, is the first woman to
become the country’s President. She
came into the highest office in the
country last year after winning the
approval of slightly more than half of
the Korean voters. She has a storied
political background; her father Park
Chung-Hee was the third President
of South Korea, ruling from 1962 to
1979. Just like Laurent-Désiré Kabila,
Park was murdered by the chief of his
own security services.
THE CHIANG
FAMILY A name familiar
to many Asians, Chiang Kaishek was a military leader who
served as the President of the
Republic of China, or Taiwan,
multiple times between 1928
and 1975. Chiang was a socially
conservative politician who
favoured traditional Chinese
culture over the Western-style
democracy that his mentor,
Sun Yat-sen favoured. His son,
Chiang Ching-kuo, who came
into office in 1978, was more
open, allowing and tolerating
political dissent. Towards the
end of his life and presidency,
he also lifted the government
restrictions on the media.
Chiang Ching-kuo passed away
in 1988 while still in power.
May 2014 • Family & Life
7