Tuesday, 9 June 2009

George Town's heritage status: It's coming to one year already!


An extract from a Bernama news report today:
Lim (Guan Eng) also said that the state government was considering a proposal to declare July 7, 2010 a public holiday to mark the recognition of Georgetown as a world heritage site by Unesco. "We will celebrate the first anniversary of the recognition on July 7 this year, and we are considering declaring a public holiday on that date next year," he said.
Good for George Town. I mean, the public holiday is secondary but the celebration of the UNESCO recognition is primary to George Town and by extension, to Penang. And I hope come this month-end, UNESCO will clear George Town of any wrong-doing in the controversy surrounding the four proposed high-rise hotels in the city.

Anyway, Bernama should also be taken to task for continually mis-spelling the name of the city. Someone should tell the Chief Editor that it's GEORGE TOWN (two words) and not Georgetown (one word).

2 comments:

stephen said...

You're right about George Town being 2 words! After digging thru' some books on Penang, I came across pictures of the electric trams that were operated by G.T.M.T in the early part of the 20th century ,which stands for George Town Municipal Tramways.
Interesting to note that Penang was one the most advanced cities in Asia,being one the first to use trams extensively.A pity public transport in Penang today is grossly lacking.Traffic is horrendous,i reckon the island is in danger of sinking under the weight of cars.

SS Quah said...

Stephen, don't worry about the island sinking - or even floating away. We have the trusty Komtar tower that has nailed the island firmly onto the seabed and the bridge roped in to tie the island to the mainland. So there you have it!