The absurdity of Singaporean taxi drivers.

Singapore is, in some ways, one of the most absurd places on Earth. Taxi drivers provide a case in point. In Singapore, you don't choose where the taxi goes, the driver does.

Today, as usual, we encountered the common problem of drivers refusing to take us where we wanted to go: they wanted to go somewhere else. Typically, a driver will just shake his head and indicate that he doesn't want to go there. Once, however, a driver actually took us (on New Year's Eve) to near where we wanted to go, but wouldn't stop at our destination - because, to do so, would have made it more difficult for him to get another fare: so he refused to actually stop at our target destination, but insisted on stopping somewhere we didn't want to be. It was ridiculous - but that is Singapore for you, here the customer always comes last.

In Singapore, unlike anywhere else I know of, on Earth, drivers decide whether or not to take a fare to the destination requested. They frequently refuse to go to particular places - despite the fact that Singapore is the most homogeneous place on Earth and there are no "bad" areas: everywhere is essentially identical to everywhere else. Only an arbitrary place name distinguishes locations. So, if you ever visit Singapore and you only have time to see one shopping mall and one "town" believe me you have already seen the whole of Singapore - because it is all the same, everywhere. Singapore is a place without any places.

Think about what it means that Singaporean drivers can refuse to take you where you want to go. A taxi driver is doing a job and providing a service. Imagine they were, instead, office workers. What kind of office worker would be allowed to refuse requests from their boss to work? "No, I don't feel like doing that." "No, I don't want to go to that room." "No, I won't write my report." "No, I won't pick up the phone." "No, I won't relay the message." Yet, taxi drivers, in Singapore, do the equivalent of refusing to do their jobs, every single day of their lives. They pick and choose customers like some mad connoisseur of passengers, deciding which ones and where based on secret measures known only to them.

The powers-that-be in Singapore are multi-millionaires. They are the richest political class in the world. (Singapore is No.1 in the wages of the political class, at least, if not in anything else). So, they don't have to take taxis: they have cars, perhaps even chauffeur driven cars. They don't understand, therefore, the inconvenience to the population of allowing taxi drivers to pick and choose passengers. It should be an offence for a driver to refuse a fare. It should be an offence punishable by revocation of his driving license - and a heavy fine. It should be an offence that is levied without any option for leniency by the judge. If this were so, Singaporeans might actually have a taxi service worth having. As it is, the taxi "service" has an element of dark comedy in it. It is a bit of black joke on the Singaporean public. It is expensive. It is dishonest (they always take a long route if they think you won't notice). It is also unreliable (they tend to refuse passengers when they feel like it). It is not something to be proud of - and it is certainly not "No. 1" in anything except, perhaps, disregard for the passenger and the ideals of customer service.

Many things in Singapore don't work as well as they should - although most things work OK compared to their more undeveloped neighbours (which is always the first cry of Singapore in their own defence). However, Singapore shouldn't be comparing itself to undeveloped neighbours. It should be comparing itself to the best of the developed world. In such a comparison, it rarely comes out as well as it seems to think it does.

There is one good reason why things don't work as well as they should: the ruling class is detached from the concerns of the everyday man in the street because they are too rich to be affected by those concerns - so they just don't see them. At least, that is how I analyze it. When those who rule are wealthy, how can they ever hope to understand the problems of those they rule? In most developed nations, the ruling class is not actually very well off. This is because the salaries of public servants and politicians are usually quite moderate. Hence, in such situations, those in power are in touch with the concerns of all - for they feel the same concerns. In Singapore, however, to rule is also to be rich. It creates a different dynamic - and a different set of priorities from those who rule towards those they rule.

It is sociologically interesting - but it still doesn't help me deal with whimsical taxi drivers. In any other country, any driver will take me anywhere. In Singapore, I have to ask the driver whether he wants to go there. It is hilarious.

It is very unlikely that the powers-that-be will legislate for better behaviour from taxi drivers. A better option for the population of Singapore, therefore would be to behave like taxi drivers for a while: say, the whole month of October. This is simple to do: just refuse to do your job, for no discernible reason whatsoever. Ignore the orders of your bosses and customers alike and opt, instead, to wander around aimlessly in search of something better to do. For that, of course, is precisely what Singaporean taxi drivers do all the time. Were the whole nation of Singapore to adopt the One Month of Arbitrary Wholesale Disregard for The Customer, Boss and Universe Itself, the situation with regards to taxi drivers would become understood by everyone, in power and out.

Of course, no-one is going to do as I have proposed - but it would be funny. It would make clear how absurd the situation with Singaporean taxi drivers is.

A note for overseas readers: car ownership in Singapore is subject to a number of punitive taxes that make it far more expensive than in other nations. As a result many middle class people who would have been car owners in other countries, do not own cars in Singapore. The threshold for income level for car ownership has, therefore, been effectively raised by the legislation. However recent rises in the cost of taxis has persuaded many non car-owners to change their minds: more people now wish to own a car, so as to be in a position to avoid the over-priced taxi "service".

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Brother and the Great Printer Con.

Did you know that printers can be dishonest? Or should I say, that printer manufacturers design printers that lie to you?

How often has your printer refused to print by telling you that such and such a cartridge is "out of ink" "Low on ink" etc. etc.? Have you ever thought to check the offending cartridges? I have. In the case of my Brother MFC-240C printer the cartridges are usually fairly full of ink when it decides to reject them: ink sloshes in them and is visible in a little window. These are not empty cartridges, they have the heft and slosh of fairly full ones - yet my printer says they are empty and need changing. Now, who on Earth could have a motive for making a printer that lies? Well, Brother, of course, since they make the replacement cartridges and design those cartridges to make them non-interchangeable with others, so that you are forced to buy from Brother. I wouldn't mind this were it not for two obvious facts: prices of cartridges are inflated by this monopoly situation - and the cartridges are not even remotely empty when I am forced to change them.

What Brother (and I hear, other printer companies, too) are doing is illegal. There are even class law suits relating to this practice working their way through the US courts.

I, personally, will never buy another machine with the label "Brother" on it, after my experiences with this particular printer. Not only does it lie about when it needs new ink (it once asked for a new black ink cartridge the same day that I had just given it a new one - and I had printed nothing!); but it mangles paper as if that is its specific design purpose. On one particularly memorable day, it mangled paper on six consecutive attempts to get it to print one sheet of paper. This necessitated a lot of time pulling fragments of shredded paper out of its innards. As machines go, this printer is a piece of rubbish.

Of the two offences - printing incompetence and ink deception - ink deception is the harder to take, for it implies that the machine has been specifically designed to cheat each and every customer who buys it. That says a lot about the corporation that manufactures it.

So, the next time you are shopping for a printer, I would think of my story about the Brother brand. However, it might be difficult to find a brand that doesn't cheat you in this way for both Epson and Hewlett Packard are being sued, in class action suits, for just the same offence of which I have written. So, that is at least three brands to avoid in the matter of printers, then.

Good luck on your electronic shopping.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Children at play in the modern world.

When I was a child, we played "Cowboys and Indians". This was because of the cultural background of the time, in which Western films were regularly on TV. The Cowboys were, of course, always the good guys (though I don't think many Indians would have thought so, then or now). We would chase each other around the house, toting cap guns (which I have never seen in Singapore, by the way...are they banned these days?) We would take pot shots at each other, though it did seem awfully hard to convince our opponents (brother "Indians" or brother "Cowboys"), to "die". The bullets seemed to miss a lot - but boy did it create a sulphurous smell around the house.

The other day I had pause to consider how much the world had changed and how much the culture children saw was now so different. No longer are Western films on TV regularly - indeed they are rarely seen, these days, particularly in Singapore (I don't think I have even seen one in the last nine years). However, other things are on TV - like talk of terrorism, Iraq and the Middle East situation. It seems my children have noted this.

A few days ago, I saw Ainan, eight, Fintan, five and Tiarnan, two, at play. My attention was drawn by Ainan's words concerning an "IED" he was setting. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Device and is a term that has become familiar since the war in Iraq. I didn't expect to hear talk of it on Ainan's lips. The game seemed very complex and had impenetrable rules that only children could ever understand. I did see, however, that there were good guys and bad guys. No-one wanted to be a bad guy - so Tiarnan ended up being elected the bad guy. He set up camp upstairs and would mount raids from there. The other two plotted down below.

It seemed, after a while, that Tiarnan had been labelled a terrorist and the other two were special forces - though the term wasn't used. Tiarnan made some good moves and had great fun throwing "explosive" devices downstairs - actually anything he could find to hand, some of them unsuitable objects for such a task. To my eyes, he was giving the other two something to worry about, though he was alone in the task. His big mistake came when he took the raid downstairs. Half-way down the stairs, hiding behind some lego, Ainan had set up a surprise for Tiarnan, an "IED" - actually the voicebox from a talking teddy bear. It duly "exploded" taking Tiarnan down. The two "special forces" were duly declared the winners. Tiarnan didn't seem to mind. He had had fun.

Now, what struck me by all of this was that it was a game that could never have occurred in my own era. Children didn't play at terrorists and special forces when I was growing up. The idea of terrorists and special forces had not been implanted in their minds. They were not the stereotypical good guys and bad guys of the era. It is a game, therefore, that could only have occurred in the post 9-11 era. It is a game exclusively of the modern world.

It is sad, in a way, to see two year olds, five year olds and eight year olds, drawn into a game that basically imagines and enacts terrible events that simply should not be. Childhood should be more innocent than to be consumed with enacting the wars of adulthood. However, it isn't. Children have eyes and ears and imbibe the concerns of the adult world. The child's world becomes a little echo of the adult one that is going on, in the "real world" beyond their reach. To see what is really a concern in the world, one need only watch children play - for they will show you the true issues of the modern world. In their play, will the concerns of the time, echo on.

I hope to see a time when children don't play in this way, for then we would be in a time of greater peace, one hopes.

Another strange thought: two of my children were not even born when 9-11 occurred - yet still their games echo the effects of that day. Odd isn't it? Their world has become a reflection of a change they never directly observed. But then, it is not a world I would have liked them to have observed directly.

It is for children to play. It is for us to give them a world in which their play is innocent, because the world is (otherwise it won't be).

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Where all good deeds are punished.

Everyone has heard the phrase: "No good deed goes unpunished." - but have you ever seen such a force in operation? In Singapore, it is a daily occurrence.

Today, on the bus, I saw two instances of poor behaviour that would not even be recognized as poor behaviour by the perpetrators - yet poor behaviour it is.

The first occurred as a young woman got on the bus. She paid for her ticket - but then didn't collect it. She walked to the middle of the bus. The bus driver noted this and tried to attract her attention: "Lady! Hello!" he said, in English more polite than one was accustomed to, here, in Singapore. She ignored him, or didn't hear him. Seeing this, a man in his 30s walked down the bus to the "lady" and told her that the bus driver wanted to speak to her. She didn't reply to him. She met his helpful words with a sullen silence and not a word of thanks. She walked past him as if he did not exist and approached the driver. The bus driver handed her, her ticket saying: "You forgot this." She met his helpful words with a sullen silence and not a word of thanks. She walked back to the middle of the bus, as if the driver did not exist.

The second incident was more personal and happened later in the day. I was sitting on the outside of a dual seat. When I had sat down, the bus had been fairly empty, but quite a few people had just boarded. Seeing a young woman standing next to my seat, I rose from my chair and offered her the inside seat: "Would you like to sit down?" I asked.

She met my helpful words with a sullen silence and not a word of thanks. She sat down on the offered seat and looked away out of the window, as if, either I did not exist, or she did not wish to acknowledge that I did.

Now, in my country, both of these young women would be considered rude, ignorant, unpleasant and generally unworthy. When I lived in England, it was common to hear "please" and "thank you" rather a lot. Every courtesy was met with another courtesy in kind. To do a good turn for another was to receive immediate and genuine thanks. Not in Singapore, however. Here one can go all day opening doors for people, offering people seats, helping others in random distress - and NOT ONE OF THEM WILL THANK YOU IN RETURN. Politicians here talk about cultivating a graceful society - but Singapore is actually the most graceless place I have ever lived in. Here, the words "please" and "thank you" are not even in the local dictionary - or, if they are, no-one has read it.

It bothers me that I am not thanked when I show kindness or consideration to others here. They behave, in return, as if my kindness or consideration were their automatic right and I was beneath consideration for having shown it. It is quite unpleasant. I feel that Singapore is truly a place where every good deed is punished. For it is a kind of punishment not to be thanked and to be met with a surly silence every time one shows kindness to one's fellow humans, here. No wonder so many people want to leave Singapore. When one's fellow citizens are so uncivilized it is no surprise at all that they are all clamouring for somewhere else to live. What they don't realize is that they are each individually and collectively to blame for the poor social graces on show here - for each of them, typically, is guilty of them.

So, I have two messages today, for Singapore: they are the word: "Please" to be used before any request of another person, and the phrase "thank you" whenever anyone else does you a kindness or a service. Please use them, they make life so much better in a way you will only come to understand when their use is universal - for what they do is make people feel APPRECIATED.

Do you know what effect being snubbed by people every time I am kind to them has on me? It makes me think twice about considering others in future. The next time I have an empty seat to share with another, I may just decide to keep it to myself. After all, why should I think of others when to do so is only to receive rudeness in reply? The same applies to other situations in which I might assist others. Why should I pause to hold a door open, when to do so will receive no thanks and the other person will look on me as if I am some kind of slave, for doing so? So, I won't hold doors open, anymore. What if I can do something to help another, which means taking a minute of my time? I wouldn't do it, if I knew I would receive a sullen silence in return.

I am learning how to behave in Singapore. If I really want to fit in, I should just behave as if no-one else matters and no-one else exists. If I did so, I would be just as everyone else appears to be.

However, I don't really want to change in that way. I don't want to become the sort of person I have always despised. I would rather that everyone in Singapore change, instead, and become polite and socially graceful.

So the next time someone does you a kindness, just say: "Thank you." It would really help make Singapore a better place in which to live.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Free healthcare for all: a basic human right.

I believe that free healthcare for all, should be a basic human right. It isn't. In many countries of the world, only those who can pay for healthcare, have access to it - and that just isn't right. Healthcare should be free for all who need it, the actual cost of supporting it distributed amongst all members of society, who are working, through taxation. This is the only way to prevent injustices such as the one I am about to address.

Kiron: does that name seem familiar? For some it will be a brand of lens, but for others it will mean something else entirely - it will mean a tragedy.

Let me explain. Kiron is the name of a very special child born recently in Bangladesh. This child was a hearty 5.5 kg at birth. Part of that seemingly healthy weight came in an unusual form: an extra head. Yes, that is right, Kiron was born with two fully normal heads on one otherwise normal body.

Now, even in the most developed society, a baby like Kiron - a baby whose body seems to be from an ancient legend, another time of mythic beings - would attract great attention. So it was in Bangladesh. A crowd of 150,000 people gathered around the clinic that had tended to Kiron. Though just newly born, Kiron was an instant celebrity in his native country.

Yet, that celebrity was not of much use to him. Though 150,000 people had gathered, in a kind of pilgrimage, to his clinic, not one of them reached out to help Kiron. You see, Kiron's parents were very poor. Their doctor advised that Kiron be sent for care to a hospital in Dhaka, but his parents could not afford a hospital bill. So, this marvellous child, with two functional heads, was taken home. There, he caught a fever - and this is the part that stings - DIED. Not one of those 150,000 worshippers had actually translated their worship into active assistance for the family. This most unusual of all children was allowed to die for want of the money for a hospital bill. Surely, a crowd of so many people, in a nation captivated by this child, could have helped the family at this time? Had they each donated 10 cents that would have been 15,000 dollars worth of hospital bill - surely enough in such a poor country. Yet, their interest did not extend past morbid curiosity, it seems. The child was allowed to die for no other reason than the parents couldn't afford the medical care to keep him alive.

Now, I object strongly to this scenario. Kiron should not have been allowed to die, for want of money. Kiron's nation should have provided healthcare, not only in this special case of this special child - but in all cases of all children and, indeed, adults, in need of medical care. Healthcare should be a right as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. No-one should lack it for want of money - for money shouldn't even be part of the equation - it just isn't right that it should be so.

No doubt many thousands of children - probably millions - die each year because of their parents' poverty. Not one of them should. Fewer of them would if every society made the effort to make healthcare free for all - or, at the very least, free for the most vulnerable ones of all: newborn children who have yet to mount an effective immune defense of their own, against the world.

Should there ever be another child like Kiron, I hope that the astounding birth leads to a more effective reaction than 150,000 gawpers who did nothing to save him. They should be ashamed, really.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

A child's response to Wall-e.

Ainan saw Wall-e with us all, a few days ago. His response to it was most interesting. He didn't just talk about it, he actually did something.

When he got home, Ainan drew all the characters in Wall-e that interested him. He drew them with a biro in a notebook and labelled them all. What particularly struck me was that each character was recognizable - and was given its appropriate name - yet he had only just seen the show once. Ainan had absorbed the physical esssence of each character and was able to reproduce them, in pen, later.

He drew images of the following characters from memory: Mo, Eve, Van-go, Buf-4, Go-4, Brl-A, Auto, Wall-e, Wall-a, Pr-t, D-fib, L-t, Vak-uum, Han-S. To me that seems an awful lot of different characters to register in sufficient detail to be able to actually draw a good likeness of each of them later. Yet, Ainan did just that.

To my mind, Wall-e struck Ainan deeply enough that he had to respond to it in a creative manner in some way. His response was to draw every character, perhaps to capture the experience for himself in his own way.

For me, the most memorable aspect of the film will now be the way Ainan responded to it. Though I must say the film itself is an enjoyable comment on modern life - and a warning about it, too. See it, if you haven't already.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)