Vikingdom: the reviews which aren't.

Vikingdom is a film by KRU studios of Malaysia, starring Dominic Purcell in the lead role of Eirick, a Viking warrior on a quest to, basically, save the world from the tyranny of Thor (who appears to have gone somewhat mad).

Vikingdom should, by all accounts, be an enjoyable film. Indeed, I played a role in it, as Warick, a Viking Warrior who volunteers to join Eirick’s quest. Warick is a man who has not made his name, in life and sees the quest as a means to do so. How that turns out, I will let you find out, by watching it. My character accompanies Eirick throughout the entire quest, to the end of the film, so it is quite a good supporting role, in terms of “screen time”.

What I witnessed on the filming of Vikingdom leads me to believe that it should turn out to be a pretty good film, by Malaysian standards. I cannot say how polished the final product will be, by international standards, however, because I have not seen the final cut – in fact, I have not even seen a rough cut. The thing is: no-one has seen these things, to date. Not even the director, Yusry Abdul Halim (a.k.a. Yusry Kru), will have seen it, because the film is not yet finished – there is much post-production work still to do, including music, and CGI and, perhaps, some editing work.

Given that Vikingdom has not been seen by anyone, I found it very curious indeed, to stumble on a site on the Internet, a bit like IMDB, but not IMDB, that had a listing for Vikingdom, there. Guess what? There were 25 votes/reviews of Vikingdom on this site. That is right, 25 people, who could not have seen the film, have voted on its merits. I was a bit stunned by that. What was even more telling is that all these reviews/votes were bad ones. Yet, what I had seen in the making of it, did not justify such low votes at all. It was immediately very clear what was happening: enemies of KRU Studios were voting down the film even before it had been released, or any footage had been shown. People who had issues with KRU Studios were taking it out on Vikingdom by attempting to spoil its filmic reputation even before it had been completed, never mind released.

A lot of people put a lot of work into Vikingdom. It does seem unfair that some people who have fallen out with KRU Studios (and there are certainly such people around, for I know of several) should attempt to smear the efforts of those who have worked hard to make Vikingdom the best film they can make.

Then again, the film review site should not allow reviews or votes on a film, before that film has been released. Such votes are meaningless since they cannot be genuine responses to a film that no-one, not even the director, has seen in its final state.

I hope you go to see Vikingdom when it comes out. The film is expected to be released internationally. It is a Viking saga based on an ancient poem, the Necklace of the Brisings, I believe. It stars Dominic Purcell (Prison Break), Natassia Malthe (Bloodrayne), Craig Fairbrass (Eastenders), Conan Stevens (The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Spartacus), Jon Foo (Tekken) and many others, including someone called Valentine Cawley, in a decent supporting role.

From what I have seen of the film, during its making, this 3D film promises to be entertaining...so go along and take your kids! As for reviews...it was fun to make, so it should be fun to watch. When you do get a chance to see it, let me know your thoughts on it, below. Thanks. It should be out sometime in 2013...when it has actually been finished!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Mysteries of the Universe: Gifted Branch Officers.

Why are Singapore's Gifted Branch officers so dumb?

This struck me as being one of the deeper mysteries of the Universe. All of the Gifted Branch Officers we encountered, in Singapore, were clearly not gifted themselves. They struck me as being a bit dumb. So, how on Earth were these intellectually shallow people expected to understand, guide and nurture people who surpassed themselves? It was dumb. I would not have hired any of them. The fact that they were does suggest that the entire system is managed by people too dumb to understand the issues surrounding giftedness, with any real, personal insight.

Singapore clearly has a talent shortage in its educational hierarchy. One just has to look at the calibre of Gifted Branch officers to realize that. They have no real understanding of giftedness at all.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Singapore’s mentally destructive education system.

A few weeks ago, my son Ainan was clearly in reverie. He looked up at me, then, a question in his eyes.

“Can doing nothing for a long period hurt your brain?”

“ Yes.”

“ Then Singapore hurt my brain...for years I would get up early, go to a building, do nothing all day and come home late with no time to do anything else.”

I had to agree. Singapore had forced Ainan to go to Primary school, even though he had mastered O level standard work, already. It was a stupid act, of a stupid education system, guided by stupid people. They just wouldn’t let us home school him, despite us asking repeatedly. They seemed to feel a need to control his growing mind, to not let it be free to grow as we would guide it. Finally, of course, we escaped Singapore altogether. Our answer to their not giving us permission to home school him, was to emigrate from the country altogether.

What Singapore has never learnt, and probably never shall learn, is that you cannot constrict the people. You cannot force them into boxes in which they don’t belong. Any attempt to do so, will result in those people leaving the country. Singapore’s education system seems to have a wish to limit its children in certain ways, and constrain them into certain conventional, preordained categories of function. Anything which exceeds those norms, is not handled well – despite the existence of the “Gifted Branch”, of the Ministry of Education.

For several years, Singapore prevented Ainan’s mental growth, by placing him in a situation in which there was nothing to learn, quite literally nothing to learn. Primary school had nothing to offer Ainan – for he had already mastered its content, before he had even joined it. It was a complete waste of time. Ainan found it completely mind numbing. He was beyond bored in his Primary school. The only respite was the chance to play with his friends. Other than that, the school had nothing to offer him at all. It was completely switching his mind off. Yet, the system would not let us free him of it. They forced him to be there against his will and against his best interests. They were interested, it seemed, primarily in two things: control and observation. The Gifted Branch had a huge file on Ainan containing reports which had come from everyone in the education system who had contact with him. Thus, his school was not a school at all. It was an observation chamber, a surveillance system – a means to monitor this unusual young child – for what reasons, was never declared. They were not there however, and were never there, to actually help him grow intellectually. They were there, it seemed at times, to hamper him, in every way they could. They could not have behaved more obstructively had they been specifically instructed to obstruct him – which perhaps they had, given some of the things they did, which did not make any sense, unless their purposes were obstructive.

Singapore is a place for the average person. If a child is born, on that tiny island, who surpasses intellectual norms, in any significant way, they are likely to find the system less than completely understanding of the situation. Singapore did its best to frustrate Ainan’s development, in any way it could. The only significant provisions we secured for him, were arranged by ourselves and not by the “Gifted Branch”. Had we done nothing and let the system take care of Ainan, they would have completely destroyed his developing mind – for as Ainan suspected, doing nothing harms the mind.

We saved Ainan from Singapore’s mandated destruction, by resisting the system and making our own arrangements. Life has turned out well for him, as a result. He is enjoying his courses at Taylor’s University and is learning many different things. We managed to secure him what he needed – but we did so only by escaping a system that was determined to do as little as possible for him.

Singapore doesn’t make great people. Singapore breaks great people. Great people threaten the essential mediocrity of the “system”. So the system does it best to thwart them. That, at least, is the impression of its purpose, operation and intent that we garnered, from our exposure to the “Gifted Branch”.

As I once asked a Gifted Branch officer, who was denying our requests for practical chemistry classes for Ainan. “What is the Gifted Branch for?”

She had no answer, but just sat in silence.

I asked the question again: “What is the Gifted Branch for?”

She didn’t answer me.

From our experience with them, I very much doubt that the true intent of the Gifted Branch is to nurture its gifted children to its best ability. However, the thick file they had on Ainan does indicate that another purpose seems more likely. The Gifted Branch appears to wish to monitor the gifted children, in Singapore...to keep tabs on them. So, if you want your child monitored, on a daily basis, by every educator they encounter, please contact the Gifted Branch, and become involved with them. If, however, you want your child to grow up free of total surveillance...have nothing to do with them, at all. You are not losing anything, because the Gifted Branch interventions are worthless, in our experience. All they will do is frustrate you in every way they can.

If you have a truly gifted child, Singapore will not provide for them. You will have to go elsewhere. Like we did...so, do so.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)