Singapore's love of lying.

You can tell how much is wrong with a nation, by how often it lies. So, by that measure, Singapore must be one of the worst nations on Earth...because it tells among the most lies.

This week, Singapore has told a lot of lies about Ainan and about us. This is what they do when someone turns around, as we have and walks out, because the nation has got to be one the most negligent on Earth where its homegrown talents are concerned. We left - and, instead of admitting that their approach, their rather careless approach, was mistaken, they decide to LIE about it.

There are so many lies in the Singaporean papers about Ainan that I don't know where to begin - or when to stop. Also I am tired of reading them, tired of listening to them, tired of being harrassed by them.


One of the more common lies is that we refused the offer of help from the MOE. This is not true. At the time major decisions were made to walk out on the MOE/GEP there was NO offer of help on the table...absolutely NOTHING. What happened is that we walked out because the GEP refused to arrange practical classes for Ainan, in Chemistry; they refused to let him take classes in any other subject at a higher level; they refused to give him maths support to aid his sciences; they refused to offer any more than one hour a week of theory classes at NUS High (which we didn't ask for...he was able to do the theory at home and the classes they offered were, contrary to the lies being told, BELOW HIS ABILITY at the time). We walked out because there was nothing on the table. However, Singapore, with its lying national tongue, is saying that we walked out on an offer of science workshops at the Science Centre. What crap. That offer came about 6 months after we had ceased all contact with the GEP. How could we walk out when we had ALREADY done so??! The offer is not what it seems either. It was an offer for us to PAY FOR classes at PUBLIC workshops that ANYONE could attend. There was nothing special about this offer. Also, it came after we had made arrangements with Singapore Polytechnic to have practical classes there. We were therefore unable to attend the workshops, in any case, because our son's time was already committed. So, the Singaporean media have created this lie that we walked out on help offered by the GEP to make us look difficult, when the facts are that they were OFFERING NOTHING at the time we walked out. That is WHY we walked out. Their account makes no logical sense, because it is a lie.


Another lie was told by Singapore Polytechnic. They said that they had kept to their commitment to us. How funny. Now is the time to tell the story of SP. Ainan went to classes at SP twice a week for a year. He enjoyed them very much and learnt a lot of laboratory chemistry. We were very grateful for the support. However, SP suddenly went silent and no-one answered emails anymore. The classes stopped. Months passed. Finally we contacted someone else and were told that Dr. Ng Kok Chin, Ainan's mentor there had had a stroke and fallen into a coma. He did not recover. After he was out of action, not ONE person at SP was willing to step and take his place and help support Ainan. It was very telling. You see, Dr. Ng Kok Chin is NOT Singaporean, he is a Malaysian Chinese man (and a very nice man too). However, the staff that remained in charge after he had gone, ARE Singaporean. How interesting, then, that none of them was interested in supporting Ainan once Dr. Ng's influence had vanished.

By the way, Ainan did NOT apply for admission to either NTU or NUS. Neither is, in our opinion, suitable, since both specialize in being uncreative. We sounded out NUS three years ago, about how Ainan could be admitted, and they said they would never accept Ainan unless he took three A levels in one session. NTU said he was too small for lab classes (all we ever asked about). We never asked NTU about admission. So, the Singaporean papers are lying about this one, too.

There is much I could say, but it would make a long and probably boring post. Let just this be said, however: almost all that has been said about Ainan and our conduct with respect to the MOE and his education is UNTRUE, in the Singaporean media. The truth is very simple: the MOE was unwilling to help Ainan in any concrete way, so we gave up on them. That is all. All their self-justifying lies are just attempts to save face and discredit us. Singapore totally neglected Ainan...but that is OK, because the rest of the world won't.

There are two main reasons why we left Singapore. Firstly, by suddenly dropping support of Ainan, Singapore Polytechnic left us with no educational intervention for Ainan at all. Thus, we had no further reason to stay in Singapore and much cause to leave. Secondly, the Singaporean media, in the shape of the New Paper, had begun to tell many lies about the MOE and us, and Ainan's schools and us. We felt we could no longer stay in a country that was actively trying to discredit us and diminish us in the media. So, we left.

Had Singapore Polytechnic not dropped all support of Ainan, without notice or explanation (they refused to answer emails about why they had done it...they just ignored us) and if the Singaporean media had been honest about us and the MOE, we would still be in Singapore.

So, one can only conclude that Singapore values its right to lie and save face, more than it does the need to retain homegrown talent. So, too, we can conclude that there is no genuine interest in educating Singaporeans to the best of their ability, within the education system (otherwise SP would not have vanished, so unexpectedly).

We are, however, happy to have left. So far, Malaysia looks a much better place to be, in every way but one. The only blemish is that the public transport system is rudimentary. Apart from that, as far as I can see, Malaysia is a much superior place to live, than Singapore.

So, Singapore, please keep on lying - and your citizens will keep on leaving. Well done on persuading us to leave. We are happier for it. Our lives have improved so much, I don't even know how to tell you. Thank you.

(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.)

HELP University College, KL, Malaysia.

It is time to announce it. Ainan has joined HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We spent the last three years trying to secure the right educational opportunities for Ainan, in Singapore. However, it wasn't easy. The "system" was very difficult to work with. It took us, for instance, about 22 months to secure consistent practical Chemistry classes for him, in Singapore, at a Polytechnic there, (which we much appreciate and which helped, at the time. Sadly, though, it wasn't really enough.). That is almost two years completely wasted...two years of frustration, of being stalled, of being thwarted. It is not as if we didn't try to get what he needed in Singapore. We did. However, the system was most modest in its response. The GEP (Gifted Education Programme) arranged for a handful of practical Chemistry classes for him - which we were very grateful for, at the time - but it never led anywhere. There was no ongoing practical Chemistry provision made available for him. We were, at the time, given two excuses for this: "There are no resources available" and "If we do it for him, they will all want it."

The funny thing is, it was never clear who the "they" were, since, in Singapore's history, to date, there has only been one child like Ainan. Presumably, providing Ainan with lab access would suddenly have turned the whole nation into science prodigies by a kind of infective osmosis. How ridiculous.

Anyway, we tried everything we could in Singapore. We even asked to homeschool him, on many occasions, but permission was never granted. (We were always fobbed off with "We will revert to you shortly"...and then we would never hear from them - the Compulsory Education Unit - again.). After three years of it, we quietly gave up and started looking elsewhere for an education for Ainan.

Remarkably, Malaysia proved very responsive - and, through the wise advice of Zuhairah Ali, President of the National Association of Gifted Children of Malaysia - Ainan secured places at University Colleges in Malaysia, in a very short time...not much more than a week.

Of all the places on offer, we chose HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur. It offered the best overall support of Ainan.

At HELP, Ainan will be taking an American Degree Programme - starting immediately. He will take Computer Science options, but also keep up his Chemistry. He will, in addition, be broadening his science foundation by adding A levels in Physics and Maths to his tally, simultaneously. He already has AS Level Chemistry, O level Chemistry and O level Physics, as well as having taught himself some degree of programming skills.

Our thanks to HELP for offering him a place and being so supportive - and to Zuhairah Ali for her speed, efficiency and immense resourcefulness. Thank you.

(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.)

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.)