The mystery of money

Fintan was singing a song, to himself, a month or two ago: "One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns...".

He stopped, mid-note and looked up at me.

"Daddy, why are hot cross buns, one a penny and two a penny?"

His puzzled face said it all. These lyrics did not agree with what he knew of reality. He had seen me buy hot cross buns in a local bakery - and they were several ringgits each (not a cheap shop).

"Well, Fintan, that song is from a long time ago. How long I don't know...hundreds of years, perhaps. In that time, perhaps hot cross buns really were one a penny and two a penny."

He seemed to peer back into time, to consider that ancient period with the mysteriously cheap goods. Then he nodded and resumed singing: "One a penny, two a penny...", satisfied that the words were not so absurd after all.

For me, there is something poetic in seeing my seven year old son, singing an ancient song. So, though young, he was connected to a distant past. It is interesting, but perhaps this song had been passed down from child to child, in schools, for centuries. What a funny thought that is. The first person to sing that song, in the particular chain that leads to Fintan may have died hundreds of years ago...yet here Fintan was, singing this age old song. What a beautiful observation.

It is awe inspiring to reflect on the power of human culture to transcend time and reach off into distant ages. A song, once sung, may never be unsung, if it is powerful enough to capture the minds of children. It will be passed on, from child to child, across the generations and the centuries, as Fintan's little song had been.

I wonder what future generations will sing of today? What will those unborn children recreate of their past, our present? Will anything survive, or do we leave in uninspiring times, that shall not survive in the human cultural inheritance of the children of tomorrow?

Perhaps you would like to suggest what children might be singing, or saying of today, a few hundred years from now. I would like to hope that something will survive. Any suggestions?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

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.)

Time Magazine, Zuckerberg and Assange.

Time Magazine has just engaged in a strange snub of its readers. It had invited readers from all over the world, to vote on whom they thought should be Time Magazine's Person of the Year, 2010. The world duly voted. They chose Julian Assange, with 382,026 votes, far outpacing the runner up, Recep Erdogan, at 233,639 votes. One would, therefore have thought, were Time Magazine a democracy, that Julian Assange would have won. He didn't. Mark Zuckerberg, with 18,353 votes, won. To be fair, Time Magazine did note, in its pages, that the final decision rests with its editors - however it does make clear that Time Magazine's competition is not a democratic one. The voice of the world's people is not one that Time Magazine listens to, on this issue, at least.

Now, Time Magazine is, of course in a difficult position. If it had gone with the world's voters and put Julian Assange on its cover, as Time's Person of the Year, it would have offended the US government, with whom Assange is presently battling. So, Time may have felt it had no option but to bury Assange's result, by putting him in third position, as they did. Yet, that opens them up for another problem: offending those very same voters. About one quarter of all the votes cast, were for Assange. That suggests that, most probably, one quarter of its readers support Assange as the top choice. Those people have been snubbed. Their views have been dismissed. That could have repercussions for the sales of Time Magazine since there is one thing that is very obvious about Assange's supporters: they are very passionate. So, Time Magazine, could now be in the position of having irked many passionate people, who are likely to do word of mouth damage to Time Magazine.

There is a lesson here for Time, I think. If Time does not wish to be held to the views of its readers, then it should not even have a poll, on the matter of whom should be Time's Person of the Year. It is a kind of faux engagement and fake democracy, to do so.

Time should also reflect on this: Mark Zuckerberg does not appear to be that popular a figure. When you consider that Facebook has 600 million users, 18,353 votes for him, on Time's poll seems mighty few. Whatever Facebook users think of Facebook, they don't go out of their way to be supportive of Zuckerberg, as a public figure.

Compare this to Julian Assange. He received nearly 21 times the number of votes as Mark Zuckerberg. Yet, he does not have a social network with 600,000,000 followers to his name. That suggests that, proportionately speaking, a lot more people have been impressed this year, by Assange's contributions (whatever anyone in particular may think of them, good or bad), than they have by Mark Zuckerberg's. It also suggests that Assange has been more influential in making an impact on people's minds, this year, than Zuckerberg has.

Time Magazine has played it safe: it has avoided causing tensions with the US authorities and has chosen the "local boy made good", as its hero of the year. It does also suggest that, as a US based media, it does not feel free to express a truth that would be unpalatable to the US government. However, I do wonder what impression this will leave on its many readers who voted for Assange. All will note that Time Magazine doesn't listen to them. Some may choose, as a result, to become ex-readers - they may call time on Time, as it were.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

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 time before Time.

Tiarnan, my youngest son, is four years old. Unlike some children, though, he is acutely aware of how limited this time span is. He has no illusions about his temporal place in the world.

Yesterday, he was looking through some computer game discs, which I have little enough time to play. He picked one up: a scene filled with futuristic soldiers, starfarers, spaceships, aliens and strange planets, on its cover.

“Daddy,” he asked, his eyes filled with wonder at a thought that consumed him, “Did you play Mass Effect, before I was born?”

“No, Tiarnan. I have never played it.”

“Where were you, before you were born, Tiarnan?”

He reflected for a moment, on the absence before the beginning.

“I don’t know Daddy.”

He stared at the cover for awhile, absorbing the message as to its contents. “This is for Daddies only, isn’t it?”, he further asked, tapping at the 18+, symbol on it, “18 plus”, he read.

“Yes, that is right.”, I agree.

He accepted that, in the way he accepts all other issues pertaining to his situation and age. He didn’t, thereafter ask to play it.

What I found interesting about his question to me, is that he conceived that many things could have happened before he was born. He had never seen me play Mass Effect (a pc game), yet he saw that I had it. His solution was to imagine that I must have played it, before his birth, and before, therefore, he would have had a chance to see me play it. This is a perfectly reasonable explanation, since it would explain why, though I have a copy, I seem (to him) to have no interest in playing it (perhaps because, he supposes, I have already played it).

His question shows that he has an understanding of his place in time and the social world. He knows that there was a world before his time, a world which might have effects on his time. He knows that Daddy and Mummy were alive in that time before his time – and that we may have done things, then, that he does not know about. Not only that, but he is also able to imagine what those unseen prior events might have been – and is using them to explain the present. He is, it seems, developing an intuitive sense of the idea of history – of the idea that the past underlies the present, and has, in fact, given rise to the present: it is the cause of today. Tiarnan is inferring the past hidden causes of present events. To my mind, that is a surprising way for a four year old to be thinking. It also shows that he knows that present circumstances are not the way they are, arbitrarily, but that some past event has led to their present disposition.

As he gets older, I will tell him more about my life and Syahidah’s life, too…so that he might come to know the true causes of the life that he experiences. In the meantime, it will be interesting to hear him imagine the prequel to the present.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

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 children of war.

Yesterday, I saw something which is rather sobering. I was at a conference, on Montessori education, having been invited as a variety of committee member at the NAGCM (National Assocation for Gifted Children Malaysia). The conference consisted, as most conferences do, of a series of talks, in this case given by academics and educators with an interest in early childhood education. One of the speakers had, in the course of her research, travelled to kindergartens in various parts of the world. What struck me, with such force, was something she showed us: some children's drawings.

Now, children draw all the time. One should not expect to be surprised, therefore, when they do. However, these drawings were rather different. They were from Iraqi children. They had been drawn by preschool children of various ages. They showed a good measure of observational skill, too. Now, I am going to describe them to you and I want you to imagine them.

One drawing showed a street scene. In that street were a lot of people - but there was something unusual about them. All of them were lying down on the ground. Their bodies were not stick figures, as is usual with children's drawings, but full figures, with the proper volume for limbs and body. From out of each figure, there poured a rivulet of blood. Each figure, was dressed in black - and quite, quite dead. That was the least disturbing picture that was shown to us.

Another showed a bright sunlit scene. In the middle of the picture was someone dressed in black, with what clearly was meant to be a padded bomb vest around its abdomen. The figure had been labelled "suicide bomber" - though whether by the teacher or the pupil, I couldn't tell. There was something radiating from the suicide bomber - a sense of fire. Clearly, the bomber was depicted in the act of exploding. Around them, however, the rest of scene seemed to come from somewhat later. There were many people in the street - however, every single one came in bits and pieces. There were no complete people in the scene. There were heads, arms and legs strewn about in random jumbles, with blood around them, or coming out of them. The suicide bomber was the only person in this image who was whole.

From a technical point of view, this drawing was interesting in that the limbs had been drawn, in an attempt to be lifelike. They were not stick figure style drawings.

There was another scene, too. This was a street scene in which there were several cars. All of them were on fire - violently burning away. Again, the street was filled with dead people, bleeding away - in this case, complete people who had, perhaps, been shot.

I need describe these scenes no more for you to understand what these drawings mean. For these Iraqi children, this is life. This is what they see and hear around them: people being shot, blown up and burnt, streets filled with dead and dismembered people.

It seems to me, that foreign wars are easily supported from afar, by the populations of the countries that launch them. Many a US citizen may have, initially, approved of the invasion of Iraq, for instance. However, those very same citizens, might have a different view of such wars, if only they could see the drawings of preschool children from those countries. They would then see what life seems to be, from the point of view of these innocent observers. Perhaps the drawings, themselves, would be enlightening enough for there to be no need for those same citizens to see the reality of war, on the ground.

I am left to wonder, rather sadly, on the effect growing up in such a violent, brutal world, as those Iraqi children are, will have on them, as future adults. Will they be brutal and desensitized, or will they be acutely aware that war is something to be avoided, at all costs? Will they value life more or less, having seen what they have seen?

The effects of the violence in Iraq will, I rather think, endure long after it has ended and peace has returned. The children growing up, with blood and bombs filling their imagination, are unlikely to be unaffected by it: they shall live out their days, transformed by war into people they never otherwise would have been. It seems to me that there is something dreadfully wrong about this. I don't want a world in which preschool children draw suicide bombings and dismembered limbs...but that is our world, today.

I suggest you think on those kindergarten children of Iraq and reflect on what kind of effect such thoughts might be having on their development. Is it right to do that to little children? Is it right to make such a world? Should we allow it to persist?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

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.)