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

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Robert Gates on USA's love for its allies.

Wikileaks is leaking again. Apparently, they are expected to upload 500,000 documents on the Iraq War. Why 500,000? That was the same number of pager messages uploaded for the 9/11 attack. It must be a good number in the world of leaks.

Anyway, whatever you might think of what Wikileaks is doing, whether you consider it good or bad, well-intentioned, or otherwise, I would like to draw your attention to something which, to my mind, is more informative than all of the Wikileaks put together. It is the words of Robert Gates, U.S. Defense Secretary.

Robert Gates, in a letter of August 16th, is quoted as saying, regarding the identification of Afghan collaborators, who might then be hunted down by the Taliban:

"Gates said disclosing the names of cooperating Afghans, who could become targets for the Taliban, could cause "significant harm or damage to national security interests of the United States." "

Hmm. I, personally, found those words rather shocking, for how the USA apparently views those who choose to ally themselves to them. It seems that the deaths of untold Afghans, who just happpened to have helped the USA, is harmful to the USA. Well, excuse me for speaking up at this point: but what about the tortured, dead Afghans and their bereaved families? Do they not count?

Primarily, the hunting down by the Taliban, of Afghan collaborators is NOT an issue of harm to US interests...it is a tragedy for those families who thought that they could do some good by helping the US. The fact that the US loses "useful" people in the tribes of Afghanistan should be the last thing on Gates' seemingly rather limited mind - or is that "rather limited heart".

A nation that thinks purely in terms of its own interests- as Robert Gates is doing on behalf of his nation - is not a nation that is doing good in the world. It is a nation that is serving itself and itself alone. If I were an Afghan tribesman and I had come to understand that my death would mean nothing more than "harm to US national security interests", I would not, in any way, cooperate with anyone who represented the US, in any endeavour whatsoever. For I would understand this: the US would be doing nothing more than using me and my people to serve its own ends, without any real care for us at all.

Now, I wonder how widely that comment of Robert Gates has been reported? Has it reached the Afghan tribesmen - or the Iraqi equivalent? If so, I would expect a rapid withdrawal of cooperation in those territories, with the US. That unwitting comment, in the true sense of lacking wits, of Robert Gates is, in my view, far more damaging to the US, than all of the Wikileaks put together. The most damaging aspect about it is that it is the truth. The US, as Robert Gates makes clear, sees its allies solely in terms of how useful they are to the US. It does not see them as real human beings, living real lives, with hopes, fears and aspirations, with families and loved ones. It sees them as "assets", to be deployed for its own ends, to aid its "national security interests".

There is a coldness in Robert Gates' world that makes me wonder what he really understands about life. In the values he expresses, there is no mark of humanity, no mark of concern for his fellow man - just an interest in an abstract idea: "national security interests". He has taken a tragic possibility - the hunting down and inevitable torture to death of those who helped the US in Afghanistan - and turned it into the emotional equivalent of a number. He has emptied it of life, of feeling, of tragedy and made it into something mechanical: the harm to national security interests.

It makes me shudder, a little, that a man with so little apparent, displayed humanity, is in charge of America's military, in a bureaucratic sense. If he cares so little for the lives and wellbeing of his allies, does he care as little for the men under his charge?

I don't know about you, but in a role in which life and death decisions are made, I would want a very human, human being in charge - not a robot. Robots make decisions that do not count the costs in terms of human lives and human suffering - so robots make decisions that lead directly to the loss of human lives and the infliction of human suffering.

It seems ironic to me that Robert Gates, should have a name that reminds me of Bill Gates, whose lifework is entirely robotic, in character. It seems as if the US Defense Secretary was given a name to imply his character.

It doesn't really matter what the Wikileaks contain - for nothing could be more harmful to the image of the US, than the truth that Robert Gates has spoken. Those who help the US are, in his view, and implicitly in the view of his nation, or its leaders, anyway, nothing more than instruments of national security. Now, do you want to be considered an instrument of national security...or a human being filled with life, love and hope? Would you work with someone who thought of you as an instrument of national security, and who would, not only not mourn your death, in the line of helping him, but who think purely in terms of the harm HE had suffered by your death?

I wouldn't. Nor, I imagine, would anyone else who learns just what Robert Gates thinks of them.

(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.htmlI 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.Y

ou 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.)

"Swine Flu" madness.

There is a new madness sweeping the world, "swine flu" madness, or H1N1 lunacy. Its symptoms are clear and focus around strange fears of infection. I shall explain.

Iraqi officials at Baghdad zoo have just killed three wild boars, in the strange belief that these boars, through being "swine" could somehow endanger people. So, too, and rather more drastically, Egypt has indicated that it intends to slaughter all 300,000 pigs in the nation, for fear of them harbouring swine flu. I wonder, at times, on hearing such news, whether I have suddenly slipped back to a pre-scientific middle ages and find myself surrounded by a superstitious world.

Let us get some things right: if an animal does not have a disease, it cannot give it to you. A virus does not magically appear out of nowhere - they don't spontaneously generate themselves inside a pig, simply because the virus was formerly called "swine" flu. The wild boars at Baghdad Zoo lived isolated lives with very little opportunity to pick up an infection. Only if one of their handlers became sick with the swine flu could they ever have caught it - yet they have been killed, simply for being "swine". The same goes for the Egyptian pigs. There hasn't been a hint of the new flu in any Egyptian pig - only if a human handler passed it to a pig, could one ever become infected (or an infected pig from outside Egypt was brought in). There is also no evidence, at all, of pigs transmitting this disease to humans, at this time. It is in fact not just a swine flu - but one that mixes swine, avian and human versions of influenza. The logic of the slaughterers seems to be based on the belief that the pigs harbour the virus, (when they don't)and so should be slaughtered to prevent them passing it on, yet, in fact, it is HUMANS who are harbouring the virus. So, applying this same logic to the true situation, would lead to the slaughter of all Egyptian people as a means to ensure that no Egyptian person succumbed to the disease. It is the logic of lunacy.

For me, one of the bigger surprises of this health crisis, is the way that modern countries appear to be acting irrationally. Slaughtering innocent, harmless animals is not the only lunacy. China and Russia, among other countries, have banned the import of pork. Yet, as I have noted, there is no evidence firstly that pigs are harbouring the disease, nor that they are transmitting it to humans. Anyway, humans don't eat raw pork - and if it is cooked, as it always would be, even if infected with scores of pathogens, it should be safe to eat.

It is customarily believed that Homo Sapiens is sapient, yet, at times like this, I seriously doubt it. Sapience, if a property of Mankind, is only a property of a minority of the species. The vast majority are, as nations all over the world are demonstrating, still quite capable of acting on irrational thought, even at the highest governmental level. Perhaps a greater threat to Mankind than pandemic flu, is the limited rationality possessed by so many of its leaders. It is their foolishness that should concern us, more than the H1N1 influenza A virus - for the virus will pass, but their foolishness will remain, at the helm of their nations. Now, that really is something to be scared of.

(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.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

The Wisdom of the Spartans.

The Spartans are a fabled people; a people whose entire culture was built around war. So, one would think they would have known something about war, then? They did. They knew something which modern man has forgotten.

King Leonidas of Sparta led what amounted to a suicide mission to defend a pass at Thermopylae from invasion by an army of Persians, under Xerxes, so large that it was clearly incalculable. Herodotus spoke of 2.5 million Persians and as many support staff. Modern sources argue about this, with some guessing 250,000. The numbers are, however, immaterial, for King Leonidas led a force of just 300 men to defend Thermopylae, though he was accompanied by various allies gathered on the way, numbering in the hundreds, each. In all, it was a small force to meet and defend against what could have been millions and may as well have been an infinite horde so unequal were the forces, numerically. The Spartans had a secret weapon, though: they were Spartans.

King Leonidas and his minute force delayed the Persians for a full seven days including three days of battle, before the Persians, informed by a betrayer, Ephialtes, how to outflank the Spartans, killed every last Spartan and ally remaining.

King Leonidas had died, and all his men, but a legend had been born: that of a tiny force holding off a vast horde and winning a moral victory, of a kind, even if it was a terrible loss. King Leonidas' last stand gave the Greek world a chance to prepare for the invasion - a chance that allowed them to be victorious ultimately, over the Persians thus saving their entire culture from being overrun. No doubt this changed the course of the history of the Western world, which owes so much to Greek culture.

Now, what struck me about this tale of great bravery was not the bravery, itself, which would impress anyone who paused to imagine what those Spartans faced. No. What struck me was the wisdom of King Leonidas in how he chose his warriors. King Leonidas specifically ordered that NO MAN WHO DID NOT HAVE A LIVING SON COULD BE IN HIS FORCE. The idea was simple. All who were to join him on the battlefield faced certain death and King Leonidas wanted to make sure that all who fought that day, had male heirs to look after their families and carry on the family name. None of them would die without issue, since they had already raised children.

King Leonidas' view touched me. You see, I have spoken to modern military men (US) and, generally speaking, the men fighting and dying in American wars are young, single men. When they die, they die without issue. They have no sons. They have no family to carry on their "name" and lineage. When they die, all dies with them.

Why have we forgotten this? How is it that the Spartans - a race that founded its entire culture on war - should have known this: no man should die, without having fathered descendants. King Leonidas ensured that, whatever happened at the Battle of Thermopylae, that no family line of a Spartan would die out because of it. There is great wisdom in that - a wisdom modern men have forgotten.

One in four American soldiers serving in Iraq ends up on disability benefit. One in four has permanent health consequences as a result of a short stint on the battle field. Many are disfigured. Many have brain injuries. Some lose organs in explosions that a man would least want to lose. Many of these men will never father children. Their family line dies with them. All because modern men have forgotten what the Spartans so clearly knew: a single man should not go to war, but only those who have descendants to look after those they leave behind.

I find it strange that we see it as the other way around, now. There is the idea that the family man should not go to war because if killed he will leave his family without him. That is tragic, true...but is it not more tragic when a single man dies and leaves no-one behind?

Generous insurance packages would ensure that the families of departed soldiers were looked after, if they were family men. At least, they would have descendants.

I wonder what the Spartans would have thought of modern armies and their strange practice of sending single men to the slaughter, without thought of the consequences? I doubt that they would be impressed by our "advanced" ways.

King Leonidas knew he was going to die on that battlefield, but he faced the prospect with a certain equanimity. His last words to his wife, Gorgo, Queen of Sparta were: "Marry a good man who will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life." His concern, as ever, was with the continuity of life, even as he went to his death.

Children at play in the modern world.

When I was a child, we played "Cowboys and Indians". This was because of the cultural background of the time, in which Western films were regularly on TV. The Cowboys were, of course, always the good guys (though I don't think many Indians would have thought so, then or now). We would chase each other around the house, toting cap guns (which I have never seen in Singapore, by the way...are they banned these days?) We would take pot shots at each other, though it did seem awfully hard to convince our opponents (brother "Indians" or brother "Cowboys"), to "die". The bullets seemed to miss a lot - but boy did it create a sulphurous smell around the house.

The other day I had pause to consider how much the world had changed and how much the culture children saw was now so different. No longer are Western films on TV regularly - indeed they are rarely seen, these days, particularly in Singapore (I don't think I have even seen one in the last nine years). However, other things are on TV - like talk of terrorism, Iraq and the Middle East situation. It seems my children have noted this.

A few days ago, I saw Ainan, eight, Fintan, five and Tiarnan, two, at play. My attention was drawn by Ainan's words concerning an "IED" he was setting. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Device and is a term that has become familiar since the war in Iraq. I didn't expect to hear talk of it on Ainan's lips. The game seemed very complex and had impenetrable rules that only children could ever understand. I did see, however, that there were good guys and bad guys. No-one wanted to be a bad guy - so Tiarnan ended up being elected the bad guy. He set up camp upstairs and would mount raids from there. The other two plotted down below.

It seemed, after a while, that Tiarnan had been labelled a terrorist and the other two were special forces - though the term wasn't used. Tiarnan made some good moves and had great fun throwing "explosive" devices downstairs - actually anything he could find to hand, some of them unsuitable objects for such a task. To my eyes, he was giving the other two something to worry about, though he was alone in the task. His big mistake came when he took the raid downstairs. Half-way down the stairs, hiding behind some lego, Ainan had set up a surprise for Tiarnan, an "IED" - actually the voicebox from a talking teddy bear. It duly "exploded" taking Tiarnan down. The two "special forces" were duly declared the winners. Tiarnan didn't seem to mind. He had had fun.

Now, what struck me by all of this was that it was a game that could never have occurred in my own era. Children didn't play at terrorists and special forces when I was growing up. The idea of terrorists and special forces had not been implanted in their minds. They were not the stereotypical good guys and bad guys of the era. It is a game, therefore, that could only have occurred in the post 9-11 era. It is a game exclusively of the modern world.

It is sad, in a way, to see two year olds, five year olds and eight year olds, drawn into a game that basically imagines and enacts terrible events that simply should not be. Childhood should be more innocent than to be consumed with enacting the wars of adulthood. However, it isn't. Children have eyes and ears and imbibe the concerns of the adult world. The child's world becomes a little echo of the adult one that is going on, in the "real world" beyond their reach. To see what is really a concern in the world, one need only watch children play - for they will show you the true issues of the modern world. In their play, will the concerns of the time, echo on.

I hope to see a time when children don't play in this way, for then we would be in a time of greater peace, one hopes.

Another strange thought: two of my children were not even born when 9-11 occurred - yet still their games echo the effects of that day. Odd isn't it? Their world has become a reflection of a change they never directly observed. But then, it is not a world I would have liked them to have observed directly.

It is for children to play. It is for us to give them a world in which their play is innocent, because the world is (otherwise it won't be).

(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.)

Happy Easter, 2008.

Happy Easter everyone, celebrating wherever you are.

It was good to note the Pope urging a solution to Tibet and Iraq, among other of the world's troubles. It would be better still to see people actually uniting in efforts to achieve these goals.

It is a quiet day, here, in Singapore. Easter is celebrated, but it is not a dominant festival as it might be in a more predominantly Christian country in Europe.

Have a good day, all. Especially those in troubled areas.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)