The most popular internet searches on my blog.

It is bizarre what having a blog tells you about people. Most bizarre of all is what they are interested in.

I would like you to have a guess at what are the two most popular searches to arrive on my blog? Both searches have been popular for a long time, so this is not just a one off: I have been seeing them, in high prevalence, since the day I posted about their subjects, some long while ago.

What kind of thing most interests people? What concerns them most? To give yourself a better chance of getting the right answer, think of a few top answers, likely to end up on my blog.

Got them? Well, I don't know about you but I am surprised to observe that for several months now, the two top regular searches to my blog are: "What is Macaulay Culkin's net worth?" and "Is August Rush a true story?"

I would like you to further guess at what percentage these searches are, today, on my blog. Out of all the infinite possible searches, how prevalent are these two?

Well, coincidentally, they are both at 5% of my visitors' searches, today. There is fluctuation, however, with both reaching higher, Macaulay Culkin in particular sometimes reaching two or three times that prevalence.

Anyway, I find the situation both incredible, and revealing. Firstly, a lot of people are very curious about the net worth of famous individuals. It is as if they are using their "worth" as a proxy for their, well, worth (in terms of how important they are as an individual). What is very surprising in the case of Macaulay Culkin is that he hasn't done any high profile work since he was a primary school kid...and yet people still remember him and are curious about one thing: is he still rich?

As for August Rush, that tells a different kind of tale. It tells that in the modern world, people have lost sight of what is fiction and what is reality. They are not able to distinguish the two, readily, for themselves and so have to seek out online verification for their misplaced suspicions. Anyone, with a strong understanding of the real world, and a knowledge of literature would see the derivative nature of August Rush's plot and recognize it as a reworking of old fictional stories. Even had they not read those prior works, someone with a strong sense of reality and understanding of the world, would know that this could not have been based on real people. However, people nowadays are not very discerning...hence the untold numbers of searchers who think that August Rush was real, and want to find out who it was "based on".

The other thing that is notable about these searches is that they are trivial. It doesn't matter whether Macaulay Culkin is rich, or how rich. So, too, August Rush is just a minor film, telling an obviously fictional story of an unbelievable boy. It is quite derivative of both films and books and is not, therefore, a great work of art, in itself. Thus, it should not inspire the degree of interest that it does: it is not important enough. Yet, now, people don't know what is important - so they trawl the internet for the trivial.

On another note, a rather surprising note, I still get searches landing on my site, occasionally, for David Hartanto Widjaja, the Indonesian student who allegedly attacked his Singaporean lecturer and then supposedly committed suicide. I also receive searches for Singapore's two other high profile suicides: Dr Allan Ooi, who preferred death to a life of servitude working for the Singaporean armed forces and Nordin bin Mondong, who, in my view, was not paid enough to feel it was worth staying alive and threw himself, literally, to the tigers.

That people still search for these three individuals up to a year after their deaths, prompts me to marvel at the impact their passing made in Singapore. Perhaps people are shocked that so many people would consider Singapore's artificial "utopia", so disagreeable that they would rather be dead. There is a message in their choice, concerning the nature and pressures of Singaporean life...and I think anyone who has lived there, and is not a multi-millionaire Minister, would know what those pressures are.

My condolences to their families. Perhaps they will gain some consolation, should they stumble across my words, that people still care enough about their loved ones, to be searching for them, so long after the events in question. In a sense, there is hope in their interest, that not all searches on the internet are trivial: some people are actually thinking about other people and perhaps, valuing their lives.

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

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

Who killed Nordin bin Mondong?

This might seem like a strange question to ask...after all, we have seen the pictures of the White Bengal Tigers who mauled him to death. However, I feel that matters no longer seem so simple.

Sun City Maintenance - his employer - have been revealed, in a recent video, to harbour abusive managers who have been recorded beating employees, relentlessly. It seems that, in some quarters at least, they have a culture of employee abuse.

In the New Paper, employees have anonymously complained of the way they are treated by Sun City. It seems that they are far from the ideal employers misleadingly portrayed in the press, subsequent to Nordin's horrible death.

Life is precious. No-one throws it away just for nothing. Nordin bin Mondong thought that being eaten alive by tigers was a better prospect than continuing in his present existence. What must his life have been like to make him think that death by teeth and claw was a better way forward? The video circulating around employees of Sun City and the Zoo is a clue. It shows a merciless beating of a foreign worker, in which no-one intervenes to help. A Zoo employee is seen to be nearby and does nothing.

So, it may be that Nordin bin Mondong was being bullied in his workplace. That is one possibility. There is, however, another certainty that we need to look at: his salary. Sun City said, at the time of the incident, that Nordin was earning 1,000 dollars (Singaporean money) per month. This is about 400 pounds sterling a month. I thought this an appallingly low salary and even then suspected it to have been a contributory factor in his death. However, it seems that Sun City lied to the press about Nordin's earnings. Other employees say that they are paid just 25 Singaporean dollars per day - or 775 dollars a month for 31 days non-stop work, a month. That is just 10 pounds sterling per day (in fact less).

Who can live on 25 dollars a day, and save money for his family back home? (Which was his purpose here...he was saving for his wedding next year, as well.) It strikes me as impossible to survive in oh-so-expensive Singapore on so little money. Surely, his economic situation may have driven him to despair.

Thus, we have two charges to lay against his employers, Sun City: Nordin may have been bullied, like others of his colleagues - and he was certainly underpaid. It seems likely that these two factors led to his decision to throw himself to the tigers. Death seemed a better outcome than the life he was leading. If this is so, then Sun City (who had tried to seem to so kind to his family, upon his death, by donating 3000 dollars to them), are guilty of his death, almost as surely if they had pushed him to the tigers themselves.

This matter deserves investigation. Was Nordin bin Mondong being bullied and harassed, perhaps even beaten, like at least one of his colleagues (the one on the video)? Was he unable to survive on his absurdly low salary?

We need answers to these questions - for perhaps other employees of Sun City face the same pressures that he did. The well-being of many others, may depend on understanding exactly why Nordin bin Mondong thought it better to die violently, than live at all.

(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.)

Rare White Bengal Tigers should be left alone.

A couple of days ago, a Zoo cleaner working at the Singapore Zoo, Mr. Nordin bin Mondong, 32, decided he had had enough of life and climbed into the Bengal White Tiger enclosure where he was promptly attacked by them, and killed.

Now, some people have been asking why the tigers weren't shot, to save the man. Well, firstly there is the issue of response time: it really didn't take long for the tigers to kill him; secondly, should the tigers be put down because someone wanted to commit suicide? To the latter question, the answer is I really think not. It was not the tigers' fault that Mr. Nordin bin Mondong climbed into their enclosure armed with a brush and a bucket, shouting at them, trying to attract their attention. It is not easy to get into the enclosure and it would have taken a determined (and suicidal) man to do so. This is not an accident. This is not a case of someone being attacked, unbidden, by three tigers - it was an invited attack by someone determined to be so attacked. The tigers should be left unharmed.

Bengal White Tigers are very rare. One tiger in 10,000 carries the mutation necessary to produce a white coat. Given this, it would be tragic indeed if three of the very few white tigers in the world, were put down, because of the actions of this man.

So, if any one is thinking that the tigers should go, they should think again. These three White Tigers are too rare to have their fates affected by the rash act of a suicidal man.

I hope that my thinking matches that of those in authority over the matter. Please ignore those who think the tigers should go. They are too rare and too beautiful to be put down. Thanks.

(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.)