RKS British Literature: Revenge of the White Man Colonialist (George Orwell)

“The rage was stewing in his body like bitter juice. He had brooded all night over what had happened. They had killed a white man, killed a white man, the bloody sods, the sneaking cowardly hounds. Oh, the swine, the swine, how they ought to be made to suffer for it. Why did we make those cursed kid-glove laws? Why did we take everything lying down? Just suppose this had happened in a German colony before the War! The good old Germans. They knew how to treat the niggers. Reprisals! Rhinoceros hide whips! Raid their villages, kill their cattle, burn their crops, decimate them, blow them from the guns.”

George Orwell, “Burmese Days”, 1935.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: MY PERSONAL BUSINESS MAY HAVE LED TO SOLVING THE CASE

The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: MY PERSONAL BUSINESS MAY HAVE LED TO SOLVING THE CASE

Well, you know as a dog there is no WC for me on the Eastern & Oriental Express. As I was not a suspect I was free to leave the train but where could I have gone so I remained with Bobby Fong Jr. onboard. As for peeing and pooping, or as sophisticated people say “business”, volunteers from the SG Westies Club of Singapore took me out to a park proximate to Woodlands Train Station 5 times a day to do my business.

If it is “urgent business” I let our butler Keith know and he takes me to the end of the train to the observation car and, under the watchful eye of a member the Singapore Police Force, Keith carries me to a small field where I can do my business.

On the second day after arriving at Woodlands Station, I stumbled upon a pistol and nearby a small aluminum case. I barked up a storm and gave a few of my best howls causing the SPF guard we just walked by to come running. He walky talkied for “back up” and a team of SPF constables arrived in a state of great excitement and in such a manner as to preserve the integrity of what might be evidence removed my find to the nearby SPF Command Centre for analysis.

The pistol was a North Korean Supreme Leader ETR407 model.

The aluminum case had slots for 4 blow darts with feathers that could be propelled by blow guns. VK nerve Agent was detected on the blow darts. One blow dart was missing. The Mani people, an indigenous tribe in Malaysia, are known for their expertise with blow guns. Nicomshire most likely died while in Malaysia.

The final investigative team’s conclusion was I had discovered the murder weapon.

RKS British Literature: Fast, Modern but Cheap English Girls (George Orwell)

“Mrs Lackersteen began with some general remarks, apropos of a photograph in the Tatler, about these fast modern girls who went about in beach pajamas and all that and made themselves so dreadfully cheap with men. A girl, Mrs Lackersteen said, should never make herself too cheap with a man; she should make herself-but the opposite of ‘cheap’ seemed to be ‘expensive’, and that did not sound at all right, so Mrs Lackersteen changed her tack. She went to tell Elizabeth about a letter she had from Home with further news of that poor dear girl who was out in Burma for awhile and had so foolishly neglected to get married. Her sufferings had been quite heart-rending, and it just showed how glad a girl ought to be to marry anyone, literally anyone.”

George Orwell, “Burmese Days”, 1935.

RKS British Literature: The Youngest Son of a Peer: What a Cad! (George Orwell)

“Horsemanship and physical fitness were the only gods he knew. The stamp of hooves on the maidan, the strong poised feeling of his body, wedded centaur-like to the saddle, the polo-stick springy in his hand-these were his religion, the breath of his life. The Europeans in Burma-boozing, womanizing, yellow-faced loafers-made him physically sick when he thought of their habits. As for social duties of all descriptions, he called them poodle faking and ignored them. Women he abhorred. In his view they were a kind of siren whose one aim was to lure men away from polo and enmesh them in tea-fights and tennis parties.

Of course, like all sons of rich families, he thought poverty disgusting and that poor people are poor because they prefer disgusting habits.”

George Orwell, “Burmese Days”, 1935.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: THE NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMAT AWFULLY SUSPICIOUS

The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: THE NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMAT AWFULLY SUSPICIOUS

VX Nerve Agent, a classic North Korean assassination weapon from a country building up a frightening array of chemical weapons was Nicomshire’s cause of death.

Strong suspicion in my canine brain this North Korean diplomat is a prime suspect. Even more nefarious where did he obtain the VK. If from North Korea what role does the Supreme Leader have in this murder. If he directed the murder his own half brother Kim Jong-nam in 2017 at the Kuala Lumpur airport he’d murder anyone!

The investigative team unearthed the following about this North Korean Diplomat;

  • His real name was Mortimer Platt
  • A Canadian passport, his passport, was found in his Pullman Cabin
  • He was born in 1962 in Hangzhou, China
  • He resided in Toronto on Spadina Avenue owing a convenience store “ Zhu 24 Hour Mart” which tellingly was two blocks north of Madame Fong’s Family Noodle Restaurant
  • He briefly worked as head Chef for the North Bergen Volunteer Fire Department and was terminated from that position after a salmonella outbreak in the department as the result of improperly refrigerated Tilapia
  • He had no criminal record
  • He was a “confirmed bachelor”
  • Immediately prior to boarding the Eastern & Oriental Express in Singapore he stayed at the Young Man’s Buddhist Association hostel in Singapore
  • He had a picture of me in his wallet
  • He had been invited by Madame Fong on the Eastern & Oriental Express
  • Banking records revealed $123,000 USD had been transferred to his Canadian bank account by “Suzy’s Discount Fashion Ltd” a discount clothing store on Spadina Avenue which was owned by Madame Fong.

Hmmm, more fingers pointing to Madame Fong! Why did she invite him onboard?

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: AUTOPSY RESULTS ON SIR REGINALD NICOMSHIRE RELEASED

The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS: AUTOPSY RESULTS ON SIR REGINALD NICOMSHIRE RELEASED

Over breakfast on the Eastern & Oriental Express it was announced the autopsy of Sir Reginald Nicomshire concluded the poor bloke was poisoned with VX Nerve Agent the substance used to kill Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un in 2017 at the Kuala Lumpur Airport. North Korean denied any involvement in this “death” going so far as to state Kim Jong-nam was not related to the Supreme Lader at all.

Small traces of VX Nerve Agent were detected on Nicomshire’s neck at the site of a puncture wound.

A thorough search of the train by Singaporean authorities revealed nothing amiss except for three cases of Burmese chewing gum and a small 5-inch piece of bamboo pipe which investigators had dispatched to police laboratories in Singapore for analysis.

With this vital disclosure investigators on the train focused on the passenger claiming to be a “North Korean Diplomat”. Unfortunately, they missed the opportunity to question him as he was found hanged in his Pulman cabin. Was it time to close the case one might have thought. But the investigators plowed on not wanting to faked out. Why did he hang himself? Was it a matter of not wanting to be apprehended. A recognition of a failed mission? If there indeed was a mission who sent him on it? Another autopsy ordered but this time for any signs of struggle by the “hanging” victim.

RKS British Literature: Failed English Girls to the Indian Meat Market (George Orwell)

“She’s come out to lay her claws into a husband of course. As if it wasn’t well known! When a girl’s failed everywhere else she tries India, where every man’s pining for the sight of a white woman. The Indian marriage-market they call it. Meat market it ought to be. Shiploads of ‘em coming out every year like carcases of frozen mutton, to be pawed over by nasty old bachelors like you. Cold storage. Juicy joints straight from the ice.”

George Orwell, “Burmese Days”, 1935.

RKS British Literature: Mrs Lackersteen’s Inability to Focus on Anything (George Orwell)

“Mrs Lackersteen was one of those people who go utterly to pieces when they are deprived of servants. She lived in a restless nightmare between painting and housekeeping and never worked at either. At irregular intervals she went to “school” where she produced greyish still lifes under the guidance of a master whose technique was founded on dirty brushes; for the rest, she messed about miserably at home with teapots and frying pans. The state of her studio was more than depressing to Elizabeth; it was evil, Satanic. It was a cold dusty pigsty, with piles of books and papers littered all over the floor, generations of saucepans slumbering in their grease on the rusty gas-stove, the bed never made till afternoon, and everywhere-in every possible place where they could be stepped on and knocked over-tins of paint fouled turpentine and pots half full of cold black tea.”

George Orwell, “Burmese Days”, 1935.

RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: BLACK Survival Skills (Audre Lorde)

“One of the most basic Black survival skills is the ability to change, to metabolize experience, good or ill, into something that is useful, lasting, effective. Four hundred years of survival as an endangered species has taught most of us that if we intend to live, we had better become fast learners. Malcom knew this. We do not have to live the same mistakes over a if we can look at them, learn from them, and build upon them.”

Audre Lorde, “Learning From the 1960’s”

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS?: THE INVESTIGATION BEGINS

The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: MURDER ON THE EASTERN & ORIENTAL EXPRESS?: THE INVESTIGATION BEGINS

We arrived back in Singapore Woodlands Train Station. All train staff and passengers were prohibited from leaving the Eastern & Oriental Express until all were questioned by a joint team of investigators from Malaysia and Singapore. I was not included as a “detainee” as the official view was what on earth could a cute little 14-pound dog have to do with the demise of Sir Reginald Nicomshire! Having no place to go I remained on the train with Bobby Fong Jr. my counterfeit owner.

The “fatality” or “murder” occurred in Malaysia but Nicomshire the deceased was a citizen of Singapore hence the joint authority of Singapore and Malaysia in the investigation.

Nicomshire’s body was removed from the train for an autopsy as soon as we arrived at Woodland’s Train Station. Will it confirm the Coroner General of Singapore’s on-board comment Nicomshire was poisoned? Or was it from natural causes perhaps even a heart attack as a result of the Malay Tiger attack earlier in the day?

The entire train including all passenger accommodations were immediately searched upon arrival at Woodland’s Station

I am a West Highland Terrier puppy without any formal police interrogation skills but being a Westie am highly opinionated. In my humble opinion the prime suspect is Madame Fong as the night before Nicomshire’s last breath she slapped him in the face and kicked him in the testicles. Hardly a friendly relationship. Kind of obvious…but too obvious?

Bobby Fong Jr., as much as it pains to me to say, is also a prime suspect as the son of Madame Fong and didn’t I overhear him say he was arranging for the poison!

I ventured to also contemplate a conspiracy between Bobby Fong Jr. and Madame Fong as let’s face it they acted jointly in my abduction and in planning my “mission”.

The two gun toting Budweiser beer swillers loving their ketchup and burgers are awfully suspicious and that North Korean “diplomat” too.

And that question stuck in my brain. Why did the Fong’s want me to get close to Sir Reginald Nicomshire as my “mission”. Answer that question and I feel Nicomshire’s fate can be better explained.

The head investigator from Singapore was Meng Ping from Singapore’s Police Intelligence Department and from Malaysia U Po Kin of the Special Branch.

So here all of us marooned on the luxurious Eastern & Oriental Express.

Keep reading on. You will not believe what you are about to hear.