Taking advantage

I had never been to a dentist before, in Kuala Lumpur, so I went to the first one whose address leaped from the pages of the internet, recommended, in a forum. It wasn't the best way to pick a dentist.

The dentist's office, itself, was well presented and clean. The equipment was up-to-date. Everything seemed efficient. What got me was the prices. I had just finished telling her how I had discontinued some work, at a dentist in Singapore, because I had thought his charges rather steep. She nodded sympathetically. I then inquired as to her price for the same procedure. She quoted me a price of two and a half thousand ringgits - just for the procedure itself and none of the support costs: consultation fees, X-rays and preparatory visits. I nearly coughed all over her. Her fee was even higher than the Singaporean fee...and yet she was based in KL where things are meant to be half the price.

The funny thing was, she didn't stop there. She argued dismissively about the merits of the procedure I had inquired about, saying it wouldn't last long "only a few years"...and argued for another procedure, which was "durable". I asked the cost, she said: "Not much: 8,000 RM."

Not much, indeed. "That sounds quite a lot to me."

She angled her mouth downwards and shook her head. "No. Not really. Not when you think of the quality and how long it lasts. You've got to think of the long term."

I took the conversation back to the procedure, but she shook her head slowly as if I had been slow to understand her point.

"You have got to think of the long term: do you know what I mean?"

I knew alright. She wanted me to opt for the most expensive procedure possible.

I left her office with a bill for several hundred ringgits "consultation fees".

The next day I called another dentist, on recommendation from a friend. I asked about the same procedure. "That would be 550 to 600 Ringgits". They were over four times cheaper. "Would that be an all in price?"

"Yes."

So, make that maybe six times cheaper, when her other costs are factored in.

I felt lucky to have checked around, before commiting myself to the first dentist. I have since called several more dentists and have found that ALL of them are much cheaper than she was. It seems that she prospers on the naivety of foreigners, since her practise was so positioned as to attract quite a few of them.

She taught me a good lesson here. She was dismissive of her own prices. She poo-pooed the idea that she was expensive - yet she turned out to be several times more expensive than the other dentists I called. Not only that, but she had argued for an alternative, much more expensive procedure than the one that was necessary. Perhaps the prices she gave me, were special ones, reserved for foreigners. I cannot know - but I know this: she seemed to be just taking advantage of my unfamiliarity with prices in KL.

So, if you are new in town, like me: be careful with the prices "professionals" charge. There are some out there, who will gouge you, given a chance.

By the way, do you know what is really funny about the online recommendation for the dentist I first went to? It said: "Moderate charges". I suppose she must have written the forum comment herself!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

What did Patrick Swayze do for a living?

Bizarrely, someone arrived on my blog having asked that very question. Now, where do you think this person came from? Togo, perhaps? Outer Mongolia? Pitcairn Island? Have a good think. Please come up with your own idea of where someone who didn't know what Patrick Swayze did with his life, might have come from.

Well, the answer is the United States of America. That is right, the person who asked that question was surfing from Indiana, in particular the Indiana Department of Education.

Now, personally, I was surprised that a US citizen would not know what Patrick Swayze was known for. Yet, it made me think. I don't think that this is Patrick Swayze's particular problem. I think he exemplified a simple phenomena that we might wish to forget about: most people, no matter how prominent at one time, are going to be forgotten.

Patrick Swayze was most famous for "Ghost" in 1990 and "Dirty Dancing" in 1987. He was, at that time, a "big name"...everyone knew who he was. Now, of course, that is not so. Many people - perhaps the one who searched - have been born since his heyday. These young people may never have seen his work. They may have heard the name, but not known any work to which the name was attached. Then again, others who did see his work, may have since forgotten him, or have reached the state of "not being able to quite place him". In time, this will happen to almost all film stars and similar people. They are able to attain intense fame, over a period of years, or decades, but that fame simply may not endure. The people who know them, grow old, they forget, and the young never know. In time, all who knew that person's work, directly, pass on - and those that are left probably never encounter the work of an "antique" actor.

So, the most famous of the famous, now, are almost all destined to be forgotten, before even this century is out. Very few will be remembered in centuries to come. Perhaps, not even the greatest film stars, will be remembered. Their fame is bright, but brief. It is not the kind that endures. That latter type subsists on work that future generations have reason to revisit, again, and again across the centuries and millenia. Modern film is unlikely to "fit the bill". Few people trouble themselves to watch films even twenty or thirty years old - so how many would bother to watch work that was a hundred or five hundred years old? Only historians would do so. Thus, in a remarkably short time, the people we now see as most famous, will be forgotten, known only to experts in the field.

The people who are remembered longest are not, paradoxically, I think, the ones whose work is most intensely regarded, necessarily, in their lifetimes. It is the work that offers most complexity, most difficulty. Thus, the less popular contributors, may, in the end, be the most famous, to posterity.

To those who doubt this, I invite them to name one actor from the time of Aristotle. It is not possible for anyone who is not a specialist dramatic historian, to do so. Yet, the average man can name at least three philosophers of the time: Socrates and Plato being the other two. Anyone even slightly knowledgeable about the era, can name a dozen more. Yet, none of these people would be able to name an actor, or a singer, or any other of those kinds, most given to attracting attention DURING their lifetime.

Thus, it is, that those whose work is more complex, and deeper, proves more enduring. This is so, because later man has REASON to revisit the earlier work: it still has something to offer.

To understand this, is to realize that attention is given to the wrong people, in our time. The ones least likely to be of interest to future generations, receive most attention. The ones most likely to be researched by future generations, live relatively quiet lives, perhaps in academe, or on the shelves of bookshops. They are not, necessarily, the "stars" of our time. The stars, on the other hand, are convinced of their own immortality based on their fulgurant public presences. Yet, that dazzling brightness will fade remarkably fast and this is something of which they are delusively unaware.

Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are now, known to all - but once they pass on, their memories will fade catastrophically fast. A century from now, only film specialists will ever have heard of any of them. There may even come a time, when they are too obscure even for film specialists to have heard of. Their "fame" is, in some ways, an illusion of our own, foreshortened view of time. We live brief lives, so it is difficult for us to conceive of what happens beyond the scale of a lifetime. To understand this phenomenon, however, we can just look up some old films, online...something from the 1930s perhaps. Doing this is a sobering experience, since the "stars" of the day, largely consist of forgotten names. So many of them, who might, in their day, have been "names" are now nothing more than arbitrary collections of letters, alongside each other. They have already become lost to the awareness of the common man. So, too, will it be for modern "stars". They won't shine brightly, for long.

If you want to know who will be remembered, by future generations, you need to look to thinkers and creators, whose work does something new. These people have a habit of being discovered, considered and respected by times to come. I can't tell you who they are, however, because their work can take some while to come to be appreciated. Yet, they are out there, perhaps sitting in a cinema, watching the "stars" unaware that future generations might think of them, more highly, than the people they spend their money to watch.

Yet, Patrick Swayze is not without a kind of victory, despite the fact that it is possible for an American not to know he was an actor. At least, they still know his name. One day, of course, not too long in the future, they won't even know that. Yet, he shouldn't despair - because alongside him will be almost all the other "stars" too.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The politeness of Michael Jackson fans.

I was struck, some while back, by the politeness of Michael Jackson fans and by their adherence to a reasonable posture. This realization came to me, by reading their responses to my post on Michael Jackson. I had written a mixed post. I had pointed out that, at the time of his death, he was the most famous man on Earth...but I also noted that this did not seem to be appropriate, since he was a man who simply made songs, and danced. I compared him to the - surprisingly less famous - Jesus Christ, Buddha, Prophet Muhammad and the like. I did not expect the response of Michael Jackson's fans to be one of thanks, to me, for having written of him. In a way, this surprised me more to learn, than to come to know that he was the most famous man in history.

I did not expect the response of his fans to be so warm, so friendly and so thankful. My post wasn't one of praise to Mr. Jackson, it was one of puzzlement that he should be so famous - yet, they saw something in my message to be thankful for. Perhaps it was that I, who was not a fan, was actually calling attention to the impact of his life. I cannot know what they saw in my remarks - but I do know this: a man is measured not so much by what he does in his life, but the effect that he has after he has gone. By this measure Michael Jackson had a successful life indeed. He has left behind legions of fans who have nothing but kind words to say of him, and kind thoughts to spread of him. They carry on his message, with a kind of fervour that would impress anyone - even someone, like me, who was never a fan.

It seems to me, that despite having had a life of much controversy, that he succeeded in touching the hearts of many and leaving a positive legacy in their minds. It is that legacy that leads them to respond with warmth to a post that was not warm (though not cold either). In the end, I have come to a kind of respect for the man himself, that his fans should be so civilized. As the saying goes: "Birds of a feather flock together". If Michael Jackson, or MJ, as they like to call him, is measured by his fans, then he was a significant man indeed.

Thank you, to his fans, for teaching me something about people - and for showing me a better way to respond to all the mixed voices of comment in this world.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The impossibility of winning approval.

The first lesson that everyone should learn, about Singaporeans, is that it is impossible to satisfy them: whatever one does, will be seen to be wrong, by some. I shall explain.

On my blog, I have written of the ways in which Singapore's education system did not help Ainan, when it could have done. I have written of its obstructiveness, of its sloth, of its lack of imagination, of its essential unwillingness to do the obvious. I have also written of the times and people for whom we feel gratitude for their support. However, the response to my blog, in certain quarters, is very revealing: they criticize me for being "ungrateful" and for "attacking those who helped you". Well, that is just not true: I have thanked those who actually helped us - and I have criticized only those who did not help us. At no time, have I attacked anyone who helped us, in any way. It seems that these critics have a very selective way of processing information: they only see the criticisms, and do not recognize who the targets are. They also ignore the times I have thanked people.

So, the situation is simple: if I point out the failings of anyone with respect to Ainan, they call me "ungrateful"...but if I express gratitude, as I did in my last post - they are either completely silent, OR THEY ARE NEGATIVE and CRITICAL. Basically, whatever I write, I attract criticism and rebuke from a certain portion of readers who are almost always Singaporean (I don't know why, but they seem to love to bring down their countrymen).

You will note that my last post, which has now been seen by hundreds of people, attracted only two comments: a negative one from "Keith" - from Singapore, saying Ainan had no right to an education, anyway - and from a girl inspired to thank me for what my blog has given her. Note that the Singaporean is critical and hostile - and the foreigner is thankful. I am truly puzzled that this should be so, because the post is one of thanks to an employee of a Singaporean educational institution. Apparently, thanking people is regarded as bad form, by some Singaporeans.

This is not the first time I have seen this tendency from Ainan's countrymen. It can mean only one thing: some people simply resent what we are and what we are doing. So, if we say something negative, they will attack us - and if we say something positive, about the same thing, they will ALSO attack us. They will attack us whatever we do.

Given this, I think it was wise of us to move overseas. All the people we have met in our first two months in Malaysia, have been very pleasant towards us - and I can see, too, that the online chatter, from strangers, is much warmer about us, too. To me, this is mysterious. Ainan was born a Singaporean - but there were too many people there who were cool towards him, or even downright hostile. Yet, we have found the opposite, so far, here in Malaysia. The general tone towards us is warm, some very warm indeed. How strange.

Anyway, it is good to recognize this situation now, rather than have spent more years, being subject to criticism in Singapore. Life looks likely to be happier here, in KL.

I should point out that not all Singaporeans were critical or hostile towards us. Some were nice. It is just that their niceness was drowned out, particularly online, by those who were unpleasant. That is a pity.

Despite this tendency of online critics to criticize us whatever we do, we shall continue to do as we are. There is no point in trying to adjust our behaviour or online presence, to cater to the critics, because, as is abundantly clear, they will criticize us no matter what we do.

So we shall just be ourselves. It is all anyone should be, or should do, whatever others say.

Have a good day.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

A word of gratitude.

We have reason to be grateful to a special man, who may never be able to read these words.

It seems long ago, now, when we first met Dr. Ng Kok Chin, of Singapore Polytechnic. He was Head of his own Chemistry department there. He was a man of medium height, but more than medium pleasantness. He had about him, the sense that he actually cared. We were introduced to him by one of his colleagues Priya Naidu, a lecturer that Ainan had met on a Nanotechnology workshop, at Singapore Polytechnic when he was 7. Our meeting was to discuss whether Ainan could join Singapore Polytechnic for regular Chemistry courses based in the laboratory. Dr. Ng Kok Chin's attitude was positive and welcoming, throughout. He seemed to be looking for ways to make it work, rather than seeking (as some people in such a situation would tend to), ways in which it wouldn't.

Though Ainan was 7 when we first met Dr. Ng Kok Chin, it was not until Ainan was 8 years and 4 months that he joined Singapore Polytechnic to do Chemistry courses, there. Ainan's mentor at SP was Dr. Ng Kok Chin - it was he who arranged the courses which Ainan was to attend and he who negotiated with all other parties at SP to make it all happen.

Ainan enjoyed his sessions at SP. He gained much from them, too - and became quite adept in the lab. These sessions were the highlights of his week. Typically he attended SP two days a week from April 2008. He fit into the classes well. His labmates treated him very kindly and he was very popular. We were very happy with how things were. Notably, Dr. Ng Kok Chin was always around to make sure things were going smoothly. He always took an interest in how Ainan was doing.

Then, things in early 2009, got very strange. Our emails to Dr. Ng Kok Chin, went unreplied to. Our calls to his answerphone met with no response. Suddenly, SP which had been so supportive, vanished from sight. Ainan's classes stopped. No-one contacted us about what was happening.

Months passed. Intermittently, I tried to contact Dr. Ng Kok Chin, to no avail. Finally, I wrote to his boss. A reply came slowly, after I had written twice. The mail was not a welcome one: Dr. Ng Kok Chin had fallen ill. We were later to find out that he had had a stroke and was now in a coma, from which we have no news of any recovery. It was very sad - and still is, for Dr. Ng was instrumental in opening doors for Ainan's scientific and intellectual growth.

Things never really recovered at SP, after Dr. Ng's tragic illness. After a long time, someone else was appointed to look after Ainan's courses there - but he didn't seem to have the interest in Ainan, that Dr. Ng had had. Things happened very slowly with Dr. Ng's replacement. He also didn't seem to have the same ability to get lecturers on side. Instead of four whole modules a term - as Dr. Ng had arranged for Ainan, his replacement eventually came up with a single class, on one occasion, at the end of the term. (It had taken him the whole term to arrange it).

In the holidays, after that class, we made enquiries about the arrangments for the following term, asking for the usual four classes to be arranged. Dr. Ng's replacement dragged his feet, and didn't make the necessary arrangements. Finally, we mailed the Director of SP with news of Ainan's latest success in Chemistry AS level. He didn't reply. His subordinate - the one assigned to replace Dr. Ng - replied after a week to do something most strange: he wrote to say that SP was withdrawing all support of Ainan and that there would be no more classes for him at SP.

We were stunned. It didn't make any sense. I had written to thank them for the support they had given Ainan and to tell them of his latest success - and they had replied by withdrawing all support of him, and removing his access to courses. It was the oddest thing they could have done. In my understanding of the world, a College when shown evidence of the progress of a child, in such a situation, would usually be more interested in, at the very least, maintaining support or expanding it - not withdrawing it.

I wrote to the Director of SP several times seeking an explanation. He never replied to me or acknowledged my mails, even once.

So, the essence of this story is that we have much reason to be grateful to Dr. Ng Kok Chin for masterminding Ainan's presence at Singapore Polytechnic - but we also have much reason to be doubtful about his colleagues and their intentions towards Ainan.

The story is more complex than it seems - in a sad sense. You see Dr. Ng Kok Chin, who was so supportive of Ainan is MALAYSIAN Chinese. He is not a Singaporean. Yet, he was very supportive and helpful towards Ainan. The senior staff who remained after Dr. Ng Kok Chin was gone are SINGAPOREAN. Yet, they were not supportive of Ainan, once Dr. Ng Kok Chin's influence was gone. To us, this seems very telling. In fact, recognition of this situation was our first clue that, perhaps, we should look to Malaysia for help for Ainan - for it had been a Malaysian, in Singapore, who had rendered most help to him.

Thus, we have two things to thank Dr. Ng Kok Chin for: the great support he gave Ainan at Singapore Polytechnic - and for inspiring us to look to his homeland for further support, once it dried up, at SP, upon his illness. So, it can be seen, that Dr. Ng Kok Chin played a key role in Ainan's development: he afforded Ainan the chance to learn practical skills - and guided us to seek further opportunities in Malaysia, even after he became ill.

Thank you, Dr. Ng Kok Chin, for your kindness towards Ainan. I hope you recover enough to read these words, one day. Best wishes from all of us.

We miss you, Dr. Ng.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)