Kissing the Blarney Stone

There is a legend, in Ireland, that whosoever kisses the Blarney Stone, at the top of Blarney Castle, near Cork, Ireland, shall be bestowed the gift of eloquence. Indeed, the Blarney Stone is otherwise known as the Stone of Eloquence.

Apparently, over the centuries, the legend of the Blarney Stone has led Presidents, leaders, noted eminences, such as Sir Walter Scott and entertainers of renown, to wend their way to Blarney to kiss the Stone.

A couple of days ago, Syahidah, my wife, was telling Fintan, six and Tiarnan, three, the legend of the Blarney Stone. Funnily enough, though I am the Irish one in the family (well, pure Irish...our sons are half-Irish), my wife took it upon herself to tell some old tales of Ireland to the kids. They listened, as usual, most intently, to the tales of this strange world called Ireland, where Daddy comes from - but they have never been. Strange indeed, it is - a land of legends, of leprechauns, mythic Kings and otherworldly beings. It must, to them, seem rather an odd enchanting place, besides the prosaic, predictable Singapore they know so well.

Syahidah explained the Blarney Stone, to Fintan and Tiarnan, with her round amazed eyes: "Anyone who kisses the Blarney Stone is given a special gift: they can talk and talk and talk and never stop talking. They always have something to say."

Fintan looked very serious then and turned to his mummy: "Did Tiarnan kiss the Blarney Stone?"

She would have laughed, but she is too kind to do so. So she just allowed herself a little smile.

"No, he hasn't". Yet, she understood why it might seem so for, of all the little Cawleys in the world, Tiarnan has more talk in him than all the rest put together. His tongue is supercharged with an ever flowing river of words that needs only one thing to set it flowing: that he be awake. Tiarnan talks about everything and anything, often making interesting observations or asking apt questions - or sometimes saying something quite bizarre. That he talks so much is one of the first things strangers remark about him. Yet, he does not talk in an annoying, intrusive way - he talks in a charming, enchanting way. There is something about him, that makes even the most jaded of listeners, want to pause to listen, and find out just what is going through his little head.

Perhaps, I wonder, Tiarnan might, one day, do something that requires ever flowing words. He might be a writer, or an actor, or a politician. I would be most unsurprised if he ends up doing something that requires verbal fluency of a high degree - for that is what he is already showing.

Of course, there is a deeper meaning to Tiarnan's talk. He talks because he thinks. He only speaks so much, because he has so much to say. So, in that sense, it could presage anything. He might not end up as a writer, an actor or a politician - but I am sure he will end up in something that requires fluency of thought for, after all, it is fluency of thought that leads to fluency of speech.

It is too early to tell, of course, what Tiarnan might be. Yet, it is good that my sons present such contrasts. I would say that Tiarnan speaks the most and Ainan the least. However, that is only conditionally true. Ainan can speak superabundantly, when someone engages him in conversation, though he often speaks so as to refute what is being said, to point out its logical flaws - yet, speak he does. Most of the time, though, he is quieter than the others, more involved in his own thought, than in the need to convey it to others. Fintan is somewhere in between. Together, they present quite a spectrum of talkativeness, yet all are brothers. As long-term readers will know, they are different in other ways, too. That variety, of course, provides an ever stimulating environment to their parents. In our household, there seems to be one of just about every kind of person.

One day, I shall bring my family to Ireland. Perhaps, then, we could visit the Blarney Stone - the one Tiarnan does not need to kiss. In fact, of all my sons, I would prevent him from doing so! Carry on talking, Tiarnan!

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

250,000 blog visitors and counting...

Today begins a new year...it also marks the crossing of a threshold, for me. This morning, my blog visitor count crossed the quarter of a million mark and, at 6.30 pm Malaysian time, on 1/1/10, New Year's Day, I have had 250,080 visitors to my blog, in total, since it began on September 19th 2006.

Now, to some a quarter of a million visitors may not sound like much. However, I would like you to think about it, for a bit. How many people do you think you will meet, personally, in your lifetime? No matter how gregarious you are, there is just no way it is going to reach a quarter of a million. How many people, in your lifetime, will you actually speak to? Again, no matter how gregarious you are, it is not going to reach a quarter of a million - unless you are a performer of some kind and take to the stage on a regular basis - and talk about yourself. However, on a personal basis, there is no way you are going to speak to a quarter of a million people. Thus, that quarter of a million people that I have communicated with, is a very significant number: it is many times more than the number of people I could possibly have communicated, personally, to, in a lifetime of random chatter.

So, even though I have not left my computer to do so, I have managed to "chat" to many lifetimes worth of people, in the three years since my blog began. I think that is an unexpected and worthy accomplishment since, when I began my blog, I had no idea how popular it would prove, or whether anyone would find it and read it at all. I was writing, expressing my thoughts at the time. I had no idea of the size of the audience I would reach.

By another scale of reckoning a quarter of a million people is a significant number, too. Imagine, for instance, that that represented the number of book sales, I had made. It is quite something to sell a quarter of a million copies of a book. So, compared to the typical sales of books, my blog has proven to be a "best seller".

I am conscious, however, that there are much more successful blogs in this world. Yet, I am not crestfallen to know this. Those other blogs are not, like my own, niche interests. They are usually focussed on a mass market interest - such as film star gossip, some young woman's love life, or the like. I cannot, therefore, expect to compete with revelations of Tom Cruise's private life, or Brad Pitt's kids.

I am happy to know that my blog is being read by people with an interest in what interests me - and that is enough. That there should have been so many of them, over the past three years, is quietly pleasing.

Thank you, for reading. If you have enjoyed any of my posts, do let others know about my blog, so that they can enjoy it, too.

Happy New Year.

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

How to speak Chinese.

Everyone can speak Chinese. All you need to know is that the only language the Chinese understand is money. So, key to fluency in Chinese, lies in the wallet.

Now, there is a reason I say this. Yesterday, China executed a mentally ill man for a crime he did not knowingly commit. I very much doubt that any other country in the world, at China's level of development, would have done so. Thus, China is an aberration by world standards.

Many developed nations spoke out against what China wished to do...they pointed to the man's SELF-EVIDENT mental illness as a reason for commuting his sentence - yet China refused to listen. The reason they did not listen seems clear. The protesting nations spoke in terms of "human rights" - well, China does not care about human rights. The protesting nations spoke in terms of the value of human life - well, China does not value human life. The protesting nations spoke about the rule of law - well, China does not care about the rule of law. So, China killed him anyway. The reason China did not listen is because the protesting nations and organizations were speaking the wrong language. There is only ONE language the Chinese really understand: money. Thus, the way to make the Chinese listen is very simple - all the British had to do, to save Akmal Shaikh, was to say this: "We will suspend all trade with China until you guarantee Akmal Shaikh's safety. No British company or individual will be allowed to buy any Chinese goods until he is set free and returned to us for suitable treatment."

China would have listened to such language. You see, Britain is China's third largest trading partner, globally. Trade with Britain is worth tens of billions of US dollars annually to China. They would do quite a lot to avoid losing such income. In their eyes, I am fairly sure that setting one man free would be a minor matter compared to losing tens of billions of dollars of income.

So, in future, if the world needs to make China listen, they should just propose suspending trade if they do not. This, apart from war, is probably the only way to make China listen to the wishes of the international community.

This suggestion comes too late for Akmal - but it could be used in any situation in which China is about to commit what is, by international standards, an atrocity, or grave injustice.

There is another aspect of this that has been overlooked. China refused to accept Akmal's mental illness as a reason for clemency (although it has been reported that Akmal's defence was so incoherent, in the court, that the judges openly laughed at him - a very disturbing reaction, in itself. How often have you heard of a judge laughing at a defendant, anywhere in the world?). It is clear, that if China ignored Akmal's mental state that they are likely to ignore the mental state, also, of any Chinese national who comes before them. Thus, their judiciary is, most probably, committing many such acts of terrible and cruel injustice, annually, to THEIR OWN PEOPLE. So, it would be fitting if the international community of nations and organizations lobbied China for a change on their rules concerning the prosecution of the mentally ill. It may even be necessary to apply the kind of pressure mentioned above to get them to listen - because, after all, like most authoritarian regimes, China basically ignores world opinion.

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

A state of madness.

Akmal Shaikh has been executed, or should I say, assassinated, by China. His crime was to be delusional. His punishment was death.

The whole developed world pleaded with China to stay his execution and commute his sentence...but China, in its pig-headed way, ignored them. In China, the opinion of the whole world, has no value at all. Despite every effort of the rest of the world, China killed him, by lethal injection.

Now, as you will probably know, Akmal Shaikh was caught carrying drugs he didn't know he was bearing, whilst under the incredible delusion that he was flying to China to record a hit single, that would "bring world peace". Now, if that isn't reason enough to reconsider his sentence and commute it, perhaps to a stay in a mental hospital, I don't know what is.

For me, the most appalling element of this is the self-serving nonsense spewing from China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu, said, for instance, that Akmal Shaikh's rights had been "fully protected". Yep. I can see how killing a man for something he didn't intentionally do, is "protecting his rights". Perhaps Mr. Jiang Yu would also like to be executed for something he didn't willingly do...and then he, too, can enjoy the full protection of his rights. The same astonishing spokesman went on to say, in classic paranoid delusional fashion: "We hope the British side will face this case squarely and not create new obstacles for China-Britain relations". I say this is paranoid because it is a classic sign of this illness that someone should blame others for their own actions. Here, China is blaming Britain for the consequence of its own actions - killing a most certainly innocent man.

China is growing economically. However, in many ways, it remains a backward, even barbaric country. It does not heed international norms for human rights. It does not listen to international opinion. It has a history of appalling crimes against its own people (take one look at Tianamen Square...). Yet, the world is expected, by China, to show it respect in proportion to its economic success. However, what China fails to understand is that economic might, alone, does not command any respect at all. Just as one would not respect a rich man whose path to richness involved crimes against others, disrepect for basic human rights, and general disregard for the rest of the world. So, too, does China not command respect at this time - for it's behaviour is too coarse, too callous, too cold by international standards.

I hope that China matures as a nation - that it develops a sophisticated, humane, concerned and involved personality that takes heed of global standards for national conduct. For, at this time, China is far from being such a welcome global citizen. Its standards of conduct are well below what it expected from even the most backward of countries.

China has done well economically, it is now time for them to take a good look at themselves and focus on becoming a humane nation.

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

A need for moral insight.

Does the People's Republic of China have moral insight, at a State level? I ask this because recent events suggest otherwise. I shall explain.

A British man, Akmal Shaikh, 53, is under penalty of death and due to be executed tomorrow morning for carrying 4 kg of heroin into the country. Now, that might seem like a simple matter of executing (under Chinese law) a drug smuggler who happened to get caught. However, it is not so simple: you see Akmal Shaikh has bipolar disorder and, at the time of his supposed offense, was acting under the delusion that he was flying to China to make a hit record. Apparently, he had been duped into carrying a suitcase filled with heroin, of which he was utterly unaware - at least, that is what his supporters say. The Chinese State, on the other hand, seems to see things in a rather more black and white fashion that goes a bit like this: "Man caught with drugs. Drugs bad. Kill man." They are not considering whether it was even possible for this particular man, to understand what he was doing, or what, in fact, is going on.

It is curious to note that China is unable to immediately see the problem with their proposed execution. The rest of the world seems to have no trouble identifying the trickiness of this scenario. Yet a spokeperson for the Chinese embassy would only say that the amount of heroin he was carrying "could kill 26,800 people". Yes, it could, if they all decided to overdose on it. However, almost all would not. It is interesting, however, that the Chinese refuse to understand the situation and keep harping on the drug he was carrying. It has never occurred to them that you can't convict a man of doing something he didn't know he was doing. There is something called "intention" - and he had no intention of carrying these drugs and, we are told, no knowledge that he was carrying them. So, it is clear that, although a crime has taken place, he is not a criminal. The crime lays with whomever GAVE him the drugs. That is the person or people who should be tracked down, caught and tried - not the innocent mule who was unaware of his burdened status.

Then again, there is the matter of his bipolar disorder. If he was "high" and knowingly carried drugs (which it is said he was not), then he could not have been responsible for this, either - since, in that condition, he may be unable to understand the implications, consequences and nature of his actions.

All of this is very straightforward and most reasonable people have no trouble understanding it. However, as it is now, the Chinese have given no indication that they understand these issues - or appreciate their relevance to the impending execution. Yet, I note something most, most odd: the Chinese have kept Akmal Shaikh prisoner in A HOSPITAL. Thus, they know, for sure, that he is mentally ill: that is their OWN assessment - yet still they persist in arranging his execution. That indicates a fundamental lack of morality in the justice system - and a fundamental failure to appreciate human rights. The need to make an example of this hapless man is greater than the desire to see that the RIGHT thing is done and the JUST thing is done. Spectacle is to take precedence over humanity.

I hope, for the sake of this unfortunate man, that China wakes up to some degree of moral understanding before the morning and cancels this man's execution. Akmal Shaikh doesn't need a lethal injection - he needs a quiet place free of stress where he might calm down and achieve some equanimity.

Looking at this matter from a broader perspective, it strikes me as peculiar that certain countries are very quick to execute drug mules (Singapore and China for instance), but less in a hurry to track down the networks that supplied the drugs. It would have more impact, in the long run, were they to keep the mules alive and pump them for clues as to their "bosses", in the hope of working out the supply chain. Maybe they do try...but I don't see much result. All we see are fairly regular executions, in this part of the world, for people carrying sometimes surprisingly modest amounts of drugs.

So, it is not just China that needs to look to its conscience in this matter - but other countries, too. Should the mules be sentenced to death, since they are often unwitting pawns in a much larger enterprise? Or should such sentences be reserved for the organizers?

We will find out, tomorrow, how much China has understood of these issues. So will Akmal Shaikh.

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)