The Voice of the People: Singapore

What do Singaporeans think about the recent huge increases in taxi fares? Well, today, I observed their reply.

We are approaching Xmas. It is prime shopping time for Singaporeans making those urgent gift purchases in the last few days. Many people will be laden with bags and, in need of a cab. But will they take one?

I haven't conducted a scientific survey, through numerical monitoring of taxis, but I have conducted an informal one. This afternoon I noted whether a cab was full or empty as it passed me - and the company from which it came. Chance being what it is, my sample is likely to be a typical one for a non-central area, for there is no reason why my sample should be in anyway special. I noticed something strange. About 80 % of Comfort Delgro taxis were empty. That's right, about 4 out of 5 passed me by empty of passengers.

What is even stranger is that the smaller taxi companies which are implementing their own fare changes in the near future, but have yet to do so, were mainly full. So, what do we have here: Comfort cabs empty, other cabs full. I think the people of Singapore, have spoken. By their choice have they made their view clear. Comfort cabs are being actively avoided by enough Singaporeans to create a noticeable difference in usage, in the afternoon, between Comfort, and their competitors.

There is only one problem with this: soon all firms will implement their own taxi fare rises.

The fact that so many Comfort taxis are empty, on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, is very telling. It also calls into question the taxi firm's strategy in the first place. You see, have you ever wondered why they chose to raise taxi fares by such a huge margin in the run-up to Christmas? Well, it is because they thought you would be busy shopping and visiting relatives and that you would have no choice but to pay up. Rather coldly, they calculated that, at this particular time of the year, Singaporeans had no choice but to cough up for the new charges. They probably reasoned that, by the time the festive season was over, everyone would be used to the new raft of charges and their level of custom would be back to normal. But that does not seem to be what is happening out on the street, if my observed sample is typical. What is happening is that Singaporeans are actively avoiding taxis. I don't think this comes from any concerted action. It arises from individual decisions based on affordabilty. Many Singaporeans cannot, now, afford taxis. They simply cannot pay that ten dollars extra (or whatever it is) for their particular journey - so they don't take them anymore. They are either reducing their travel to essentials only - or using alternatives such as the MRT (train network) or the buses - neither of which is particularly convenient for large areas of Singapore.

It is Christmas. It is the time of "good cheer". Yet, it is also the first time that many Singaporeans can no longer afford the convenience of a taxi. This conclusion is easily reached. You just have to observe the traffic flow and note how many more empty taxis there are, than usual - at this busiest of all times of year.

If this situation persists and Singaporeans continue to refuse to take taxis it may come to pass that taxi fares are quietly lowered again. Then all can go back to normal - and people can start travelling conveniently again. However, if Singaporeans put up with the new fares, and go back to the cabs, then the high prices will be here to stay - until the next round of taxi fare hikes, of course.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The history of child prodigies in South-East Asia

The history of child prodigies in South-East Asia can be summed up in one word: neglect.

My attention has been brought to this matter by an article I encountered on the net (which I didn't bookmark, sadly), that spoke of five South-East Asian child prodigies who have occurred over the last thirty years. The writer remarked that all of them have one thing in common: the educational authorities did nothing to help them.

Now, commentators from other parts of the world, such as America, seem to think that a prodigious child would automatically receive educational assistance and they doubt that a child is prodigious if such assistance has not been given. This is a really wrong-headed view of things. The fact is that in many parts of the world, prodigious and other gifted children are ignored. Their needs are simply not met. So it is, here in South-East Asia.

In each of the examples given the only people attempting to support the educational needs of the children were the parents. The educational authorities, in all cases, stood idly by and did nothing, time and time again, for over thirty years.

Now, it is difficult for most parents to juggle work and the need to homeschool their children, because no-one else is willing to school them - and so it proved in all of these five cases. The parents found it very difficult to meet their child's needs, unsupported and alone.

Why is this? Why do so many countries ignore the special needs of their most gifted children? Imagine it another way. Imagine if the educational needs of ordinary children were not met. Imagine if the educational authorities said to the parents of ordinary children everywhere: "You will have to school your children yourself, we will make no provision for ordinary children."

You would be stunned if an educational system took that stance - yet that is precisely the stance taken by many educational systems, in many countries, with regards to gifted and prodigious children. No provision is made. No attempt to make provision is made. The gifted and prodigious children are ignored and neglected. The educational authorities simply wait for the "problem" to go away.

Sadly, they don't see that this "problem" is in fact an opportunity. It is a chance to groom someone who might truly shine and do something special. Many of them, however, are not given the chance to grow as they should. They do not blossom as they might. They are stunted due to lack of provision, lack of opportunity and lack of an appropriate education.

I am left to wonder, by all of this, why educational systems don't learn from the few prodigious children that appear in their midst. They never seem to acquire any experience from one case, to better prepare for any other that might appear. No accommodation is made for the first case - and no accommodation is made for any other that appears either. It is puzzling. The real costs of making a few exceptions and catering to a few unusual children is really quite small. Any but the most impoverished of countries could cope with it. Yet, they don't. They just ignore it. The parents are left to find a way for themselves and their gifted children.

The funny thing is, that the neglectful societies in which these gifted or prodigious children grow up expect to benefit from these children when they become gifted adults. It never seems to occur to them that the gifted adults that they become might choose to turn their back on the societies that neglected them in youth, and take their gifts elsewhere. Any gifted child who is neglected by the society of their birth should most definitely not stay around to benefit that society in the future. For if the societies see that they get the benefit of such gifted people, without having to do anything to nurture them, then they will continue not to nurture them. Why would they do otherwise, if they can benefit from their neglect? Only societies which nurture their gifted youth, should benefit from that giftedness. Perhaps, then, societies would learn to make the connection between the support they give the gifted in childhood, with the benefits they receive later from their adult gifted performance.

Once that connection is made and understood, perhaps we can expect to see more support for gifted children, when they are children and need such support. Until then, we can expect to see more cases of neglect - like the thirty year history of unsupportiveness unearthed by the writer I stumbled upon.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Chimps' maths skills rival humans'

Research conducted by Duke University, just published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology, establishes that chimpanzees are as accomplished at mental addition as are human subjects.

Again, like the previous research on memory conducted by the Japanese research team, written of in a prior post, I would like to point out that the human subjects were NOT average humans. They were Duke University college students - and so, presumably, are superior to a typical human. So, again, this is a comparison between two randomly selected laboratory chimps and a group of superior humans. The fact that the chimps performed similarly to the human subjects is, therefore, extremely telling in these circumstances.

Prior chimp research had already established that chimps had some number skill. Non-human primates are known to be able to match numbers of objects, compare numbers of objects, and choose the larger of two numbers. This piece of research, however, took a look at mental addition as a skill.

The chimps and human subjects were briefly shown two sets of dots and were asked to add them up. They were then shown two possible results and were asked to choose between them. The human subjects were not allowed to use their verbal skills to assist them. They were not allowed to count verbally (the chimps couldn't do this so a comparison would then not be fair), nor were they allowed to verbalize in any other way. They had to proceed as fast as possible to come to an assessment of the situation. Typically, both chimps and humans answered in less than 1 second.

Contrary to what you might expect, young adult students, with many years of exposure to maths, in school, were no better than the chimps at this task.

Both chimps and humans were rewarded for their participation - the chimps with their favourite drink, the humans with $10 a session.

Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke University observed that "It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance." She further noted that: "I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one."

Two chimps participated in the experiment: Boxer and Feinstein. Fourteen Duke University students pitted their wits against the chimps - and didn't win.

So, in the past few weeks we have seen two sets of chimp vs human students experiments. The chimps won in one case and drew in the other. This should really give ammunition to those who are striving hard to preserve the populations of non-human primates all over the world. Many people do not realize that non-human primates are, in many places, endangered species. It is a pity to lose any of the diverse species of this world - but how much more of a pity is it, when we understand that such fellow beings share so many of what we once thought of as our unique gifts?

Humans are not the only primates skilled in memory. We are not even the best at it. Humans are not the only primates adept in maths - and we are no better than our chimp cousins (without the aid of language). We would do well to remember that and make a little bit more effort to preserve the diversity of life on our planet, for so much of it is being lost, before we even get a chance to understand what it is, what it can do, and how precious it is.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Life purpose for a genius.

Someone arrived on my blog today with the search terms: "What should a genius do with their life?"

This is an interesting question - not only for the question itself, but for why it might have been asked.

The notion of genius connotes creativity and originality. Bound up in the idea of genius is the understanding that such a person is capable of doing something unique, something which no other could do, at that time, and place, in History. Therefore, the obvious answer to the question is that the genius must do what only the genius can do.

Yet, it might not be entirely clear. It is possible to be a person of many gifts and not know which one to adhere to, which one to express. There are, here, no clear answers. We each have lives presently circumscribed by a finite number of years. I would say that the task of a polymathic genius must be to choose worthy things to do, at each stage of life, that appeal to the person enough to actually carry them out, at those times. Thus, the matters to which the genius gives attention may change over time - as they did with Leonardo da Vinci, the archtype of all polymathic geniuses. Yet, though his interests and focus evolved over time, there was always Art present in his life, in some way. So, although he did change activities, he also maintained interests for the long term.

A genius must look at themselves and ask: what is it that I can best do? What can I contribute which no other (or perhaps few others) can? It is in answering these questions, that a purpose may be found.

I think a genius must never be tempted to succumb to the easy option. By this I mean do not be led into a conventional life of highly rewarding jobs that do not allow the application of genius. There are many such jobs. The professions abound with them. Yet, in most instances, such roles do not allow the genius to truly express their gifts. There is something of the traditional about these roles.

The genius must first answer the question: who am I? For therein will lie the answer to the question of "What must I do?" Then the genius must find a place in society that allows that activity to occur. It may in fact be, as with many geniuses, that there is NO place in society that will allow that activity to occur. By this I mean that only isolation and a solitary life will allow the intended activity to unfold and become. If that is the case, the genius must make the choice between the intended activity and a more social, "normal" life. That is often not an easy choice and perhaps many who could have contributed in some way, choose not to, when faced with the sacrifices that would be entailed.

Another matter to ponder is this: is the person, in question, actually a genius in the first place? By this I mean by what measure has this description been arrived at? If the measurement is one of IQ alone, I would suggest that that, in itself, is not enough to ensure that the description is accurate. The reason for this, as I have detailed in prior posts, is that genius invokes many more qualities than are encompassed by IQ. There are many people of high IQ who do not seem to manifest genius in the course of their lives. Correspondingly, there are people of more modest IQ (such as the fabled physicist Richard P. Feynman, whose IQ was measured in youth at just 126), who DO demonstrate genius. Therefore there is more at work, than just IQ.

If however, the label of genius is appropriate, and not based on a misunderstanding of what a genius is, I would say that the most important thing of all, is not to waste the ability. Do something: any expression of the gift, is better than no expression. The chosen expression of genius may not be ideal, it may not be the best that the person could do - but it is better to begin expressing the quality of genius, than to leave it forever postponed.

Genius is so rare, that no person of genius should go unfulfilled. So, if you are a genius - get creating!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The duties of a domestic maid.

In Singapore, strange things happen. At least, they do from my point of view.

London, where I grew up, is a very different world from the Singapore in which I now live. Sometimes, just how different can be rather surprising.

Last week, I was walking along a quiet, residential road, on a weekend afternoon, when I saw something truly unbelievable, occurring before me, on the front lawn of a detached house.

On the lawn, there knelt a young Indonesian woman. She was clearly a maid. She was bent over, parallel to the grass, her face intent on the green expanse before her. Her odd position would be enough, in itself, to draw notice, but that is not what I thought most unusual. It was what she was doing there that stunned me.

The grass was long and richly green. It was the kind of well-watered grass found in equatorial areas - the kind of grass that grows when both sunlight and water are in abundance.

This young maid had something unexpected in her right hand. It was a pair of scissors. She was cutting the grass with it, a few blades at a time.

Never in my life have I seen anyone cut a lawn with a pair of scissors. Was it her idea? Or was it the instruction of an abusive employer?

I have pondered this moment, somewhat, since, and find it difficult to accept what it most probably says about her employer and their attitude to their fellow human beings.

Had her employer provided her with a lawnmower, it would be but a matter of minutes and relatively little effort, to mow the lawn. Yet, with a pair of scissors, this otherwise simple task, becomes a marathon of back-breaking labour. She would have to spend a day or more bent double over the lawn to have any hope of trimming it. Perhaps much longer: it is difficult to estimate such a task, without timing her over an area (which I didn't hang around to do).

However long it would actually take with a pair of scissors is besides the point. The issue is whether it is reasonable to require a fellow human being to mow a lawn in such an impractical way. It rather reminded me of people being asked to clean a bathroom with a toothbrush, in punishment. It is a similar indignity - though the lawn would take longer.

The saddest thing about this, was what the girl did when she noticed that I had observed her, at work on the lawn. She looked up and smiled, as if utterly unaware that her task was an unreasonable one. She was clearly quite a simple soul and was unable to perceive the essential indignity of her situation.

I didn't say anything. I just felt my own astonishment at the scene.

After the smile had passed, she looked down at the grass, again, chose a blade and gently cut it with the scissors.

Shocking.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Leonardo Da Vinci on Medicine and Doctors

What did Leonardo Da Vinci think of medicine? Recently, I found out. His words make interesting reading.

In his Notebooks, the following remark is to be found: "Strive to preserve your health, and in this you will better succeed in proportion as you keep clear of the physicians, for their drugs are a kind of alchemy concerning which there are no fewer books than there are medicines."

Now, medicine in his time was a different affair to what it is now. It was only just beginning to turn away from the Ancient writings and start to learn from the world, for itself. Yet, I feel his view is still relevant. His advice that health is to be found far from the reach of Doctors and that the implication that contact with them is harmful, holds more truth, even today, than perhaps we are willing to admit.

Leonardo Da Vinci seems to have kept to his own advice and lived a long life, for his time, dying at the age of 67. Average life expectancy at birth in the 16th century was only 35 years, so Leonardo did rather well.

I just thought you might find this particular wise man's thoughts on medicine, of interest. I did.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)