The national archives of Malaysia and Singapore.

Today, I have come to understand that the national archives of Singapore and Malaysia, have rather different outlooks on the world. Each has a different view of what is worth preserving for posterity. The sadness of this, is that their priorities are not what might be expected.

Long-term readers may recall that the National Library Board of Singapore (NLB), started to archive blogs originating in Singapore, a couple of years back, to preserve them for posterity. I remarked at the time that their priorities seemed strange, choosing to archive airheaded, but popular commentators (who talked of little but shopping, sex and plastic surgery, for instance), whilst ignoring more substantial writers. I wasn't archived, for instance, even though my blog constitutes a record of a prominent young Singaporean (my son). My blog is one of the more serious ones that originated in Singapore - and certainly one of the most reflective and, though I observe it myself, substantial. However, it was shunned in favour of politically correct and insubstantial candy floss. As a result, Singapore's history will thereby be distorted, since, in the distant future, the only blogs to survive may be the ones that the PAP decided, in the present, should survive, thus altering the future view of what the blogosphere was like in these times. My voice will not be among the record, for instance, even though I raised many issues that others did not - and so those perspectives should be preserved, in a nation that values plurality. Clearly, Singapore doesn't.

Today, I found myself much surprised to see a new search listing, at the top of the search on Google for my name, under Malaysian search items. It is a listing in the Malaysian national news archive, News Image Bank found at www.nib.my

This national archive gathers together news items, be they cover pages, interior news pieces or photos, from three leading dailies: The New Straits Times, Harian Metro and Berita Harian. I found myself rather surprised to note stories listed from these newspapers that I had never heard of, living, as I had been at the time, in Singapore. Ainan, too, had his own set of listings, including quite a few front pages.

I found this revelation rather sobering. You see, Ainan was born a Singaporean Malay, in a Singaporean hospital. Yet, Singapore has not, to my knowledge, chosen to archive anything relating to him, or his family. Indeed, we were explicitly not included in a national blog archive. However, Malaysia has chosen to archive material relating to our family. Indeed, they have listings for Syahidah Osman Cawley, too. Now, it is true that Ainan has Malay blood running through his veins...half-Malay, anyway - but is it not telling that the nation in which he was BORN and has citizenship, does not accord him the same status?

What a nation chooses to archive of the present, shows what a nation would like the future to know of its world. Malaysia wants its future descendants to know of Ainan and his achievements. Singapore doesn't. Singapore wants Ainan to vanish into the pages of unrecorded history. Malaysia, on the other hand, would seem to want him to remain in cultural memory as, perhaps, an example to others, an inspiration even, to the achievement and aspirations of others.

Malaysia wishes to learn from its present and its past. Singapore wishes to rewrite it. By not archiving matters relating to Ainan, in publicly available archives (as Singapore appears not to be doing, since there is no such presence online), Singapore is editing its past, such that certain matters, will, in time, be forgotten and lost.

Thankfully, however, other nations, like Malaysia, will hold onto the memories, so, ultimately, Singapore will fail in its objectives, no matter how hard it tries. Ainan's memory may fade in Singapore, as the decades and centuries pass, with no publicly archived records to remind people...but other nations will not be so forgetful.

How sad it is, however, that the nation of his birth, should be so set on repressing his memory, when it should be upheld, along with all other exemplars, of all races. Perhaps, of course, that is the reason for this seeming neglect. Perhaps Ainan, not being a member of the dominant race in Singapore (the Chinese, for those unfamiliar with the city state) is not thought worthy of long-term record. Perhaps, to be thought worthy of archiving, one would have to be a Chinese Singaporean...being a Singaporean Malay is just not good enough, not important enough from the perspective of those-who-decide.

Singapore will always be part of Ainan's personal history and the story that his life tells...but the question is: will Ainan always be part of Singapore's national history...or will his memory be edited out and eventually silenced and forgotten, as already seems to have begun?

One thing is sure, however: this young boy, of Malay descent, will never be forgotten, by our present home: Malaysia.

(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 new Hollywood villains.

Once it was Russia, that was the staple villain, in Hollywood films; then it became the Latin American drug lord - and, more recently, the Islamic terrorist, from an ill-defined country somewhere in the Middle East. No doubt you are all familiar with these stock villains...but there is, now, a new Hollywood villain. I would like you to consider, for a moment or two: whom do you think has now been labelled as villainous by that moronic town, Hollywood?

Well, it might surprise you, as it did me, but the new Hollywood villain - is...the child prodigy father.

Yes. Hollywood actually believes and wants you to believe that the father of a child prodigy is good villain material.

In an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, entitled: "Bright boy" (season 2, episode 2), detectives find a "slain social worker killed trying to protect a child prodigy from his ruthless father."

Now, that is an absolutely MAD plot - and one extremely damaging to all prodigies and their parents everywhere. It creates, in people's minds, the idea that the prodigy is somehow created through ill-doing - that the father (or other parent) of such a one, is a kind of villain...even a monstrous villain who would kill a social worker.

Then again, why is there a social worker involved at all? The clear implication is that the prodigy is a put upon person, who needs social protection from their family dynamics. Again, this is not reflected by reality. It is, in my view, impossible, absolutely impossible, to create a prodigy through any form of coercion or enforcement of a regime: if the child doesn't want to learn, the child will not learn. It is that simple. There is no possibility of a "villainous" father creating such a high performance child.

In a way, this episode of Law and Order, is profoundly sad. It is sad because of what it says some sections of society believe about gifted children and their performance. This idiotic episode, with its crass misunderstanding of human nature, is perpetuating the idea that prodigious children are "forced" to be the way they are. The promulgation of this toxic view is very harmful to the families of gifted children everywhere. Indeed, so harmful is the plotline to this film, that I wonder if the families of prodigious children could take a class action lawsuit, for the damage this film will do to their reputations as a minority, in society.

That an American company would actually make a film with a plot as absurd as this, just gives me one more reason (among many others) why I wouldn't want my family to live in the US. What morons.

(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 you see is what you get.

A couple of months ago, Tiarnan, four, collared his mum, Syahidah with a thought.

"Sometimes," he began, ruminatively, "you cannot tell the good or the bad...but you can DEFINITELY see the ugly."

When I heard this, I thought it eminently wise, for one so small. He had come to observe that moral quality, was not immediately visible, or was, perhaps, at times, ambiguous but that beauty, or its absence was immediately evident.

It is interesting, for me, that he thinks on these matters. He is weighing what is good and what is evil - and how to determine these. He has realized that it is not always easy to say, without further information, whether something or someone is good or evil. He has also come to understand the immediacy of visual beauty and its opposite.

I do not know whether matters of good and evil; beauty and ugliness, are the common thought of four year olds, everywhere...I suspect not. However, it is revealing to me, that they are the material of Tiarnan's thoughts. He is, though he knows it not, having philosophical thoughts. He is thinking about moral values and aesthetics - and, indeed, many other philosophical concerns. His thoughts are concerned with the human sphere and the human experience and what he understands of them. It is not so important what, exactly, he thinks of these matters, but the very fact that he IS thinking of these matters. It says something deep about the nature of his nascent personality and mind, that he should dwell on such matters over other things. I am led to see a certain commonality between Tiarnan and my younger self. For, you see, I have written a book that considers many similar matters, though it is yet unpublished. I find it telling, therefore, that little Tiarnan, who knows nothing of my work, my writings or my deeper thoughts on life (for I have yet to discuss them with him, of course), should, of his own accord, give thought to allied matters.

We are each unique, yet we each share dispositions with our forebears. So it is with my children: though they are unique and unlike any others, in some ways, they are also akin to ourselves, sharing elements, themes, inclinations and instinctive outlooks, with either myself or my wife. It is reassuring to see those dispositions and ways of thought emerging, unprompted, from their growing minds. It informs me that, one day, there will be in this world, three young men who understand their parents better than any others in all the world. They will understand us, because, in some ways, they will be us, be echoes of ourselves, reverberating into a future we may never know, for, of course, our time is likely to be less than theirs. When we are gone, they will remain and, in some way, parts of our human tale, will go on, told by other tongues, and other minds, but informed, nevertheless by some of the very same substance, that made us, what we are and, one day, were.

Carry on thinking Tiarnan...for as your world view forms, I will be here, to understand it - and you.

(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 obscenity of cake.

There is nothing more obscene than cake, in a world of widespread hunger.

I shall explain the remark. A couple of days ago, I was in one of Kuala Lumpur's many splendid malls. This particular one, is a small, but stylish one, near where we live. As I made my way past its shiny shopfronts, one caught my eye. There, to my left, was an array of multi-coloured, delicately crafted, promisingly textured cakes. Each one was well presented, like some culinary gift, all decorated with little bows, and most inviting to the eye. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, a sense of disgust welled up in me. It was an emotion I had not felt before, on seeing a cake, but in that moment it was very clear: the whole idea, the very conception of a "cake" was an obscenity. Here we live in a world in which millions, indeed billions of people, really do not have enough to eat, to keep themselves well nourished. No doubt millions every year succumb to starvation and the diseases associated with malnutrition, including untold numbers of babies. Yet, there I was, standing before a shop that sold nothing but expensive cakes - a food that had been divorced from the notion of nutrition, and existed in a world of pure pleasure.

Consider that for a moment, please. What kind of world have we built, in which a privileged, relative few, have access to fake foods, that have no real nutritional value, and are made purely to induce pleasurable sensations - whilst multitudinous others go without sufficient food and nutrition to maintain their health and even life. It is both absurd and profoundly obscene.

The eternal purpose of food is to nourish life. Yet, modern man has created foods of no nutritional value, but which serve to entertain and delight: food has become a medium of pleasure, divorced from its primal role of sustaining life.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not some kind of puritanical anti-hedonist. I am quite content with the idea that people should enjoy their lives. However, what I am not content with is that a modest few of humankind should eat empty foods just for pleasure, whilst others die for the lack of basic true foods. That, to me, is an indicator that Man, as a whole, particularly the people of the developed world, have lost any moral sense, that they might once have had.

When the world is viewed, widely and all sides are considered, at once, it can be seen that to create foods without nutritional value, simply to evoke pleasure, when many others are dying for the lack of foods WITH nutritional value, is an unrecognized kind of evil. It is, if you like, a taunting of the impoverished. It is saying: "We have such abundant food and resources, that we can create foods that could never sustain life, and would in fact kill us, if we ate nothing but them, just because of the pleasure they give us."

Cakes mock the very idea of food. They also mock those who could never conceive that foods could exist, that only serve to bring pleasure. They mock those who have no food at all. There is something callous about cake: it offers pleasure, but has no substance. Were one to eat nothing but cake, one would as assuredly "starve" as one who ate nothing at all...and what kind of "food" is that? How can "Mankind" apportion limited resources to creating a food totally unable to sustain life, an "unfood" if you like, whilst millions die for the lack of real food?

Seeing those cakes, taught me something. It showed me another way in which modern man has lost any sense of proportion, lost any understanding of what is meaningful, important or worthy of effort. It is not worthy of Mankind to create dead foods, just so people can feel a momentary pleasure at their "eating". There is something very decadent and sad about a race that would actually do that. Whilst millions die, without real food, millions of others, eat empty foods that, ironically, would kill them, if that was all they ate. There is a madness in that, so common, that everyone fails to see it. I hope, however, that my words might awaken in you, an understanding of the innate obscenity of cake.

(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.)