Happy Lunar new year everyone ! =D

It is a common to see lion dance around in your neighborhood dancing in your neighbor house.
A lion dance troupe came to my house today.

The usual crowding of people at my house when the lion dance appear seems to disappear over the years.
To me, I sense the Rise and fall of an empire.

Why rise and fall of an empire/country?
When a country is doing well, people crowd to go there and economy is good.
When a country is not doing that well, people avoid there and economy is not as good.
( Not that my family is doing badly, Just that my house do not have that usual amount of crowd! )

Today I would like to talk about Republic of Venice and Republic of “Lion City”.

Everyone know that Venice is by the water, good trading port, government is good, good system implemented by the government.
Venice grew with the extensive trading with eurpore and Venetians also gained extensive trading privileges in the Byzantine Empire and their ships often provided the Empire with a navy.
Many in the Empire had become jealous of Venetian power, wealth and influence, rebellion took place in venetian land.

Venice suppressed the rebellion but soon faced external threat from nearby nations.
There is a navy general who was very good in naval warfare. During the war with one nation he won and managed to make the attacking forces to retreat. But due to the “democratic” society and making things fair for people, he was removed from his position and someone else took over and Venice lost its land.

( every 3 years they have to change their position in order to prevent corruption. )

Looking back at history, Is such a way of preventing corruption more important than putting the right people at the right position?

Now look at the present Republic of “Lion City”
Are we walking to a bright future? Or are we walking to where Venice went?

Communication is the key, Don’t you agree?