The difference between China and Japan.

An advert, on the radio, made it clear to me, just now, quite what the difference is, internationally, between China and Japan.

The advert was for a new type of toothbrush that claimed to be able to leave your mouth cleaner than a traditional toothbrush. That, in itself, was not what interested me. It was the way they finished the ad that really caught my attention. It went a bit like this, “The Product X toothbrush…from Japan.”

They were using the word “Japan”, as a kind of brand to sell their own brand. All the many associations, in my head, and in the heads of us all, between “Japan” and “efficiency”, “attention to detail”, “well made”, and “hi tech”, sprang to mind. The implication was clear: this would be a quality product.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never heard an ad that said: “Made in China”, as the final, selling, punchline. Just consider the effect, on your perceptions, if they had. Would you buy it? Or would you think: “shoddy”, “cheaply made”, “dangerous”, “potentially poisonous”, “fragile”, “poor quality”; “fake” and so on?

Over the past few decades, Japan has built a reputation for quality and being at the leading edge of all that is to do with engineering, at least, in the ways that impact the consumer. China, on the other hand, has come to be seen, by most, as a bit of a scam artist of a nation. Few people trust their products to be reliable, of high quality or even safe (just recall all the scandals about lead paint in children’s toys, melamine in baby milk, fake rabies vaccines (that led to children dying from rabies) etc.).

China may be growing fast. It may even become an “economic superpower” in the next few decades – but it is a long, long way from achieving a good reputation, in the way Japan has. To my mind, this makes any Chinese success very susceptible to sudden collapse. What happens, for instance, when a critical mass of people in other countries decide that they have had enough of disappointments with products “Made in China” and turn away from their products, wholesale? It won’t be long before China’s economy deflates, when no-one is buying “Made in China” anymore.

An intelligent shopper is a cautious shopper. Many an intelligent shopper considers the trustworthiness, safety, durability and reliability of a product before buying it. This is particularly important if you are a parent and have children in the house to keep safe. Long experience has shown that “Made in China” is a ready indicator that these qualities are likely to be absent – and so it is that the intelligent shopper should thank China for making product selection that much easier.

China will only ever become a true economic superpower, secure in its position, if it manages to shed this well deserved reputation for shoddiness in its wares. The day that China is able to finish ads with “Made in China” and ensure a sale, is the day that China will really have made it. That day, however, is many decades away of hard, disciplined work, in changing its manufacturing habits, business practices and ethical outlook. In truth, in some way, the Chinese will have to become Japanese, to win the reputation in manufacturing and business, that the Japanese have. Until that day, I am quite prepared to buy “Made in Japan” but am most wary of buying “Made in China”. I doubt that I am alone in that assessment.

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The Egotist.

I once had the displeasure of teaching a student from China, whose ego outmatched all others I can recall meeting. It was not, note, that he had anything special to feel special about - but that he found it in himself to so highly rate his own thoughts and worth, that no-one else's bore consideration.

He had some contributing factors to his egotism: he was the only child of a rich Chinese family and had lived a spoiled life. Yet, I felt, that did not excuse the irksome behaviour he manifested.

Teaching him was an irritating experience. If, for instance, I had marked his essay and corrected it (which usually meant about three to four corrections per line of text because, like I said, his ego was not matched by any commensurate talent) and had gone on to work with another student, he would shout across the room, soon enough: "HEY, TEACHER!". He would then ask me a question about what I had written on his essay.

I would lift up my head and say: "I am busy right now."

He would look put out that I had dared not come running the moment he demanded it and would look at me stiffly.

He would let me finish with the student I was working with - but then, when I had moved onto another, he would shout again: "Hey, what about this? What does THIS mean?"

This process would go on and would not stop, until I dropped what I was doing, with another student, and came over to attend to his question. It was always something silly - something apparent and obvious if he had just paused to think about it, rather than just demand that his teacher come running.

Then there was another habit of his. If I had corrected something of his, that was wrong, he would quite often argue with me over it. He would try to force me to back down from my view that his understanding of grammar was incorrect and that mine was right. To understand quite how galling this was, you should recognize that he was from the People's Republic of China, and spoke English as a second language and that not well. I, however, am a native speaker of English and it is my first language - and I work with the language professionally. His ego was so inflated that he thought that he understood his second language (one which he was still yet learning) better than I understood my first.

The arguments over language points would go on until I insisted strongly enough that he was wrong and had explained carefully why...then he would fall silent in a resentful sort of way.

Finally, there was another ploy which he would get up to. When he was writing his essays, he would sometimes insert what he thought were mistakes, to see if I picked up on them. I remember one time in particular when he said: "Ah HAH! You didn't see that one! That's wrong!", of his own work.

I looked at it for a moment and then said, quietly, realizing that he had tried to make a deliberate error - and failed: "No, actually, it is right. You can say it that way."

That flummoxed him. He had been accidentally right - having intended to be wrong as a test of my competence. It was bizarre.

I can say, without any doubt at all, that this particular mainland Chinese student was the most annoying student I have ever taught.

(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.)

Salesmanship, the Singaporean way.

Last week, I had one of the strangest encounters with a salesperson I can recall. I was passing by a shop that purported to sell educational materials for young children, when a saleswoman approached me, perhaps upon noting my three year old son, Tiarnan, beside me. "********", she began in Chinese words I didn't understand.

"English please.", I replied.

"NO ENGLISH.", she countered, emphatically and then proceeded to try to sell me this educational tool entirely in Mandarin. It was bizarre both to watch and to listen to.

The only thing I understood was what her finger was pointing at, as it toured the device pointing things out and spouting Chinese. She was most passionate - or at least driven - by what she was saying. Her words were clearly well practised and she went through them as if giving the performance of her life. The oddest thing about it was that she was oblivious to my evident incomprehension.

I stood and watched her sales performance not out of any understanding, but out of amazement that she would try to sell me in a language I had already indicated that I did not understand. She proceeded as if, of course, I must understand Chinese because EVERYBODY understood Chinese. She proceeded as if my request for English, was some kind of trick to deprive her of a sale.

The entire explanation of the product took about three to four minutes. In that time, I recognized not a single word. The only understandings I grasped were those that were obvious from watching the machine in action. Her commentary provided no meaning for me, nor any improvement in her chances of making a sale.

I gathered from her fluency in Chinese, but complete lack of English, that she must be a PRC - a person from the People's Republic of China.

At the end of her presentation, she did not make a sale. How could she, when I had not understood a word? Yet, that had not dissuaded her from doing so, in an unknown (to me) language.

However, I will say this: it was a worthwhile experience simply to be able to watch her earnest determination to make a sale, despite not sharing a common language.

At the same time, it does show how ridiculously pervasive the presence of PRCs is becoming in Singapore. Not only are they not adjusting, properly, to Singapore - but as this woman made clear, they expect local people to speak to them in Chinese. It doesn't take much insight to see that a deluge of Chinese immigrants, like this saleswoman, armed with little English, but great determination to speak Chinese, could undermine Singapore's status as an English speaking country. After all, many English speaking Singaporeans are leaving - and who is replacing them but NON-English speaking PRCs.

I thought the whole incident worthy of record because it is the first time in my life that someone has tried to sell me something, in an English speaking country, in a language not my own - despite every indication that English was required. I am left to wonder: how common will such moments become with the ever increasing influx of PRCs into Singapore?

(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.)

Copyright infringement in Asia.

Copyright infringement in Asia is so common as to be the norm. It is, in some countries, in South East Asia, easier to find a fake item, than a real one. In Malaysia and Thailand, every item of kudos in the West, is found in cheap replica, there. Even in ever so clean Singapore, copied CDs and DVDs are not hard to find. It seems, in fact, that copyright theft is almost regarded as a right, by many businessmen.

Now, none of this surprises me, any longer. However, I was surprised, once, at what I saw in a Singaporean classroom. In a class of fourteen students, from China, and Korea, only three of them had official, legal, published copies of the course books. The other eleven had photocopied and bound, privately made editions. I found this most irritating when I noticed it. It irritated me because a lot of people had put a lot of work into making those course books - and they weren't going to see a single cent for their efforts.

What got me, in particular, about this act of theft on the part of the students was that it wouldn't save them much money. It would, perhaps, cost them half as much to steal the books, in this way, as to pay for them. Was it really necessary to go to all the effort to steal the books, at half the price? Why not pay the full price and get a real copy? The presentation and quality were much better for the real book - and no crime would have been committed.

Of course, stealing is a way of life for many of the students. Quite a few of them, for instance, try to "steal" marks, in exams, by cheating. (I have seen this frequently, myself.) I suppose stealing the books is just another aspect of their characters at work.

I wonder how much publishers lose through this particular student practice. Is it just restricted to Asia...or do students in other parts of the world do this, too? In this one class, only three sales were made and eleven copies were stolen. That seems to indicate that actual sales are but one fifth of potential sales, if this class is a typical one.

If anyone has observed this tendency to photocopy books wholesale, in other countries, please comment below.

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.

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

Cheating in examinations: how common is it?

Today, I asked a small group of non-Singaporean Asians whether they had ever cheated in an exam. Refreshingly, the gave honest answers. Two out of three confessed that they had, in fact, cheated in an exam. I shall focus on what one of them said.

A Chinese mainlander had not only cheated in an exam, but had done so throughout her academic career at University. Not only had she cheated but she was positively enthusiastic about doing so: "It is SO exciting a feeling!", she gushed several times in the course of her account. She was thrilled to cheat.

She told of how, in her first year exams at University, "everybody cheated". Bizarrely, their cheating was a co-ordinated effort: they had devised a method of doing so that was moderately discreet (which I won't share, lest I provoke cheating by some of my readers!) - and ALL of them used the same method. One would have thought that the invigilators would have noticed that everyone in the room was wearing special clothes...but no, they didn't.

The following year, their cheating methods evolved. It involved an object which all had on their desks and which the rules of the exam did not expressly forbid from being brought in. However, this object was not what it seemed and it had been doctored to contain a lot of written information. Again, the whole year cheated in this way - and again, it was not noticed, despite the fact that everyone in the room had one of these objects on their desk.

Indeed, having listened to her account, the strangest thing of it is that no-one appeared to notice what they were doing. Perhaps, then, this is only an appearance and the academic staff are well aware of what is going on, but simply don't care.

"Why do you cheat?", I asked her with a judgement free tone.

"Because we have no choice."

"Why no choice?"

"Because if we fail, we would have to do the year again and pay the fees again and it is very expensive. Sometimes we won't be able to graduate."

So it was all about ensuring a pass, no matter what the method. Dishearteningly, she claimed that everyone in her year, at University in China was cheating. So, in that sense, every degree won, was falsely obtained. It makes me wonder, therefore, at the true level of skill - or lack thereof of all these students, when all of them felt that they had to cheat. Perhaps China's academic supremacy is a mirage of sorts - perhaps they are not as good as one might suppose.

In my experience, no one of any real talent needs either to cheat, or feels a need to do so. They know that their gift will take them through. These Chinese students didn't feel that - which leads me to question their talent.

It was sobering to watch her describe her experiences of cheating. Firstly, there was such detail in her accounts of the methods used that it was clear that she was telling the truth in having direct personal experience of the situation. Secondly, her enthusiasm for cheating was such that it was clear to me she would cheat in any and all situations in life, in which there was opportunity for gain and risk of being caught. She was a thrill seeker, and risk taker of the rule breaking kind. It gave her a "rush" to flirt with the danger of being caught doing something she shouldn't. It struck me that that kind of mind is not far from being a criminal by choice.

I have heard many accounts that cheating is common in China - but I hadn't known, until this conversation, that, in the view of these students, at least, that "everyone does it". How common is cheating in examinations in your culture or society, wherever you are? Is it an isolated problem or does it occur en masse? Comments please.

(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.)

Career ambition of a young man.

The young, today, have strange career ambitions, in some cases. A significant proportion of youngsters in the UK, for instance, believe that they will be pop stars. So significant is the proportion that believes this that, if it came true, there would be little audience to listen to their works: too many would be producing works, not enough would be of a mind to buy.

A few days ago, I asked a group of young Chinese mainlanders, living in Singapore, whether they would ever consider being a criminal. Of the seven of them, six said they would not consider it. The seventh, however, said: "Yes. I would like to be a criminal."

That gave me a pause. "What kind of criminal would you like to be?"

"All kinds."

"Why would you like to be a criminal?"

"Because I would like to try all jobs."

My silence urged him on.

"...and I think girls like a bad man. I want to be a bad man."

Ah...just so he could get the girls.

"Would you consider being a farmer, then?", I asked him.

"No."

So much for "trying all jobs."!

"Why not?"

"It is too boring."

I left the matter at that. Incidentally, most of the others who would not consider being a criminal, would consider being a farmer. One might conclude that criminal farmers would be in short supply in China!

What I found interesting about this young man's views on career choices, was that he revealed no contemplation of moral or legal matters. He was only concerned whether his "image" would be attractive to girls, or not. Perhaps he had been influenced by Hollywood and the Chinese equivalent (or Hong Kong equivalent) into believing that criminals were somehow alluring to women.

I rather hope that he doesn't act on his fantasy career choice, particularly given that he would like to try "all" types of crime. (I did note, however, that one girl said regarding his criminal career choice: "He is one." - and many of the others could be heard murmuring words to the effect that it was an appropriate choice, for him.)

There is another consideration. This is a small sample - just seven Chinese mainlanders...but I can't help but wonder whether, in importing so many of them, as Singapore is, that they might not be importing many people who are less law abiding than the very carefully controlled and groomed Singaporeans they are used to here. Of course, the young man's attitudes might be a rarity, but if not, Singapore might be in for a few surprises with its immigration policies favouring Chinese mainlanders over every other race and nation on Earth.

(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.)

Academic culture shock.

If you have ever taken the time to discuss academic systems with different people from all over the world, perhaps, you too, have encountered the academic culture shock, I met with recently.

When I was a pupil, at school, in England, I thought that school was long enough. It began at about 9 am and finished around 4 pm. Then we would have homework, which people did with various degrees of some attention: some putting in hours, others ignoring it and coming up with perennial excuses to explain its absence. This was what I came to think of as a normal, acceptable level of school demand.

Recently, however, I had the chance to talk with a group of Chinese mainlanders about their school experiences. Not expecting a very different answer to the one I had experienced in my childhood, I asked them when they started school in the morning. Various answers were given. "7.25 am"; "7.20 am" and "7 am".

"When did school finish?", I then asked.

"9.40 pm", "9.50 pm" and "10.30 pm", they gave, in the same order.

Therefore, the shortest school day, in this group of nine Chinese mainlanders turned out to be fourteen and a quarter hours. The longest school day was fifteen and a half hours long.

I was rather stunned to hear this as it sank in just what their school lives must have been like, to endure such hours, year in and year out, from childhood to adulthood.

"Our school day was shorter - but then we had homework to do after that." I pointed out, trying to bring these disparate school lives together in some way.

"We had homework, too." One said, in an emotionless voice, that spoke more of what it must have been like, than any histrionics could have done. "We would go home and do our homework and get to bed at 1 or 2 am. Then we would have to wake up at 6 am for school."

Silence was my only reply. I found myself slowly shaking my head, quite unable to take in what such a schooling must have been like.

They found my reaction amusing, and laughed a little, perhaps recognizing in my stunned silence the truth of their own experiences.

"That is why we came to Singapore to study.", one confessed.

Yes. Here, in Singapore, a nation of famously hardworking students, they would find comparative ease, for although Singapore's students worked hard compared to those in the West, schools here were much more relaxed than in China. Singaporean schools actually had relatively brief hours.

Upon further enquiry, it turned out that their breaks during the day amounted to one and a half hours. Half an hour was for lunch. One hour was for sleeping. At least, that is how one student apportioned the time.

I think it is true to say that no nation on Earth has harder working students, than China. Were it so that hard work alone could conquer the world, then the future is undoubtedly Chinese. Yet, I think it is not so. These students told me how unhappy many of them were at this regime. They also told me how boring lessons were. I rather felt that many of them didn't get much out of the experience. One of them even said: "It was torture."

Hard work has value. Yet, I feel that when it is pushed to a pathological extreme - as it is in China - it becomes a kind of national illness. China's students lead the most circumscribed, controlled lives imaginable. They do not have what most people would regard as a childhood. They have what could be called a "bookhood". Their entire childhoods are consumed by a mountain of books; boring books, books they don't want to read - but have to.

For them, it is such a relief to be in Singapore. Here the demands, though significant by world standards, are at least not inhumane. Here the workload is manageable and not insane: at least, from their exhausted perspectives.

Tellingly, each of the nine PRCs I spoke to in that group felt that China's education system was wrong. They all felt that it should be changed, that what it was doing to students was terrible. They felt free to speak out, because they were not in China and I was not Chinese. Indeed, each of them had the same tale to tell of leaving their country, to escape the education system. Their motivation, therefore, was a negative one: it was not a positive decision to seek out Singapore, but a need to avoid the negative experience that was Chinese education. All of them were happier here, despite missing their families.

It is a long time since I have been shocked by something someone said. Yet, I found myself genuinely shocked to learn of the academic demands of the Chinese education system. I had known that they worked hard...but I had no idea just how hard. It is quite cruel.

For the rest of the world, there is a lesson here, about China. It is a nation whose students are pushed to the human limit. Every waking hour is consumed by schooling. I doubt there has ever been another nation so driven in this way. That is what the rest of the world is competing with. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Does this excessive hard work in school give the Chinese an edge? Or does it create exhausted resentful children, who will rebel at the first opportunity? Is China building greatness or destroying itself, with this manic educational regime? The next few decades will be revealing.

(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.)

Dreams of world domination.

I asked a Chinese English language student what he most wanted, the other day. His answer was discomfiting to stay the least.


"I would like the power to give China many advanced weapons. Then China would grow more powerful and all the world would respect China. Then everyone would have to learn to speak Chinese. That would make me very happy."


I almost shuddered at his words. If this is the dearest wish and profoundest dream of a random Chinese student, I wonder if the world is really safe from an ascendant China. Dreams like his don't come from nowhere - they are born in a social milieu which fosters such thinking. Perhaps America is right to be worried about the rise of China.

Recently, America issued its annual report on China's militarization. China reacted angrily saying that it portrays China in a false light and that China's weapons are for defensive purposes only. It also stated that it "interfered in our internal affairs". This is a reference to Taiwan which China believes is an internal matter but which Taiwan and the rest of the world believe to be an external matter.

Most telling, perhaps, about the student's dream is that the dream of power was not for him, personally, but for his nation. He wanted China to be ascendant, but not himself. This is a very Chinese answer, I think, in which the individual is subsumed into the mass of the people of the republic.

I didn't share my thoughts on his comment with the young man concerned: I just observed his ardent expression of the desire for military power for his motherland and wondered whether the world is sleeping, as a new Dragon awakes.

(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.)

China's confession of guilt.

China has implicitly confessed its guilt in the matter of human rights and the suppression of dissent. It did this in the most public and clear manner possible: censoring President Obama's Inaugural Speech.

When President Obama referred to communism and later to dissent, Chinese TV stations cut away from his speech. The matters they censored included these words: "Recall that earlier generations faced down communism and fascism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions," and "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Later, China did a clean up job on websites, taking down all references to the offending words.

No clearer confession of guilt could there be, than to react in this manner to those words. Why would a government seek to prevent its people from hearing those words? It would only do so if: a) the words applied to China and b) if the people of China would realize that those words applied to China. The action, in itself is a plain confession of guilt.

Look at what is being confessed to: "...those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent..." These words are harmless in the ears of those who have done no harm: they only wound those to whom they apply.

There is hope, though, in the Chinese action - for it shows that they are aware of their own nature. It is harder to reform someone who persists in believing that there is nothing wrong with themselves. In China's case, they are all too aware of what is wrong with them - they just don't want their people to know, too (if they haven't already twigged).

I am left to wonder what China's people think of a state coverage of the Inauguration of a superpower President, being censored. What would they conclude? What would they think they are missing? Would such censorship backfire and spread mistrust of their own government?

It seems to me that a state that does what China is doing is a state that has a short future. There is only so long that a people can stand being manipulated in this way. The censorship, in itself, tells the people what is being done - and that should be message enough to let them know what is happening, even if they never get to hear President Obama's words to them of hope.

(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.)

"No resources" for Singaporeans; abundance for PRCs

I find the recent fuss over a Chinese PRC (People's Republic of China) student who took up a bond-free scholarship (that is one with no obligation to work for a set number of years in Singapore), but then fled, without notice, to a destination unknown (though suspected to be a US university), of great interest. You see, I find the contrast of the Singaporean educational authorities' response to PRC students marked indeed to what we experienced when we were working with the Gifted Education Programme.

I have written before of the differential treatment given to foreigners (particularly PRC students) and locals, but it bears writing of again, given the topicality of the issue - and the fact that I have personal experience to bring to the matter.

When we were seeking help, for Ainan, from the Gifted Education Programme, we were repeatedly told, in regards to our need for a Chemistry lab for him, that there were "No resources". The Gifted Branch Officer, Yogini, even said: "Why don't you find a private school and pay for it yourself?" Well, we checked out private schools. One, for instance, quoted a price of 600 dollars a lesson. That is a huge amount of money. Clearly, given the mercenary attitude of private schools in Singapore, it simply wasn't an option to hire a lab for ourselves. We found the GEP's response puzzling. Ainan had shown himself to be unusually gifted (he is, after all, the youngest child ever to pass an O level) - yet the GEP couldn't find the resources to help him. This seems strange given the hundreds of school laboratories across the face of Singapore: surely one had a teacher with the time and inclination to help? We were told that this was "too resource intensive" and that the GEP refused to arrange it.

Thus, we wasted a year and a half looking for a school or college for Ainan that would help. We found one, ourselves, in the Singapore Polytechnic (to whom we are most grateful). The GEP did not help, however, in any real way.

Now, contrast this experience of a gifted Singaporean child, with the experience of an imported PRC student on a government scholarship. Their education is free. They are given accommodation and a monthly stipend to meet their expenses. They have access to the best schools and facilities - and, in the case above, they are under no obligation to Singapore. There is no talk, for PRC students of "no resources".

Apparently, a gifted, even prodigious, Singaporean child is of less value to Singapore, than an imported PRC. A gifted, even prodigious, Singaporean child is of less concern to the system - it is OK not to support them, to let them be unstimulated, to deny them access to the resources they need to grow - because, heh, after all, they are not the all important PRCs of China.

We have heard of other gifted children in Singapore not getting the resources they need, or finding the response of the GEP frustrating. I doubt that PRC students have to experience the same thing.

So, my point is that if resources are available, in plenty, to lure foreign students - particularly PRCs - to Singapore, the resources should be available, in plenty, to ensure that no gifted Singaporean child (or indeed any Singaporean child of any level of intellect), goes without the resources they need to best optimize their talents.

A system which does not recognize the importance of native born Singaporeans (as my son is) and preferentially supports PRC imports, is one that has lost sight of who is more likely to make a contribution to Singapore. You see, as the flight of the PRC in question shows, the loyalty of an imported "talent" is always going to be less than that of a homegrown Singaporean (assuming, of course, that Singaporeans are well looked after and not treated poorly by the system, since that will lead to a decline of loyalty and national affection).

I understand why resources are made available for PRCs and the like: it is to seduce them into staying in Singapore, it is to increase our pool of talent. That is all very well and probably has a certain wisdom to it - but - and this is a big but - it should not be a discriminatory practice: Singaporeans, particularly ones of gift, should have just as much access to special resources as the imports. Otherwise, something strange will happen: just as the PRCs arrive, the Singaporeans will leave. Is that a desirable outcome?

(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.)

The value of self-esteem.

My time as a teacher taught me much. That seems a funny thing to say, but I think that a teacher learns much about people if they are observant and reflective.

I have noticed something about Chinese mainland students. Quite a few of them don't think much of themselves. This strikes me as different to the Western students I grew up with, most of whom thought rather too much of themselves.

I once asked a class of mixed Asian students what they thought was most interesting about themselves. The answers were very revealing. A significant percentage of the Chinese PRC students said: "There is nothing interesting about me." None of the other Asians in the class (Vietnamese, Mongolian, Korean, and Uzbek) said this about themselves.

I thought it sad that they thought so little of themselves. If a Western student thought in that way, we would be concerned about their self-image and esteem issues. Yet, it seems fairly normal in the population of Chinese students I have taught.

I went further and asked them what they most liked. One of the ones who had said that he was not interesting, said that he liked Gundam Seed (a manga type cartoon). I asked him why he liked it: "No reason." He was unable to articulate what it was that he liked about it.

I put the two responses together. He seemed to have no insight into himself. He could not look at himself and see what was interesting: he lacked the ability to reflect. Thus, when asked why he liked something, he was unable to examine his reasons. To me, this indicates a paucity in the ability to think, in general. Students brought up in the Chinese tradition often seem to emphasise the recall of information learnt by rote - but when asked to engage in analytical or creative thinking, they fall silent. So lacking is this ability that they are not even able to think about themselves with any real coherence.

China is growing apace. Yet, if China is ever to fulfil its potential, I think its people need to be educated in a different way. They need to be taught not only to remember, but to think. They also need to come to value themselves as people. Perhaps the two are linked. They don't see themselves as significant individuals - therefore their thoughts have no value - and so they don't think. They just await input to be recalled later and suspend the faculty of reflection upon it: after all, they think, "I am nothing", "I am not significant...so any thought would have no value." At least, this is how quite a few of these students seem to me. There is a very real sense in which their cognitive development is incomplete: they have got to the stage of recall of knowledge, but not gone beyond it, to use of that knowledge, in new ways, or understanding of that knowledge. They are stuck, in a very real sense, halfway through what we would regard as an educative process. China has a long way to go, I think, before it can hope to challenge the developed world, at the highest intellectual levels: to do so, they have to change the very nature of the people they are producing - and that takes time, effort and resolve. That's assuming, of course, that it is possible at all, in the first place.

The first step is, I feel, that Chinese students start to believe in themselves and their value, that they start to see themselves as interesting and worthy. Only then will China truly mature, as a nation.

(Please note: the above analysis assumes that the Chinese language students I met in Singapore are typical of China as a whole - it is possible that they may not be, for various reasons.)

(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.)

The lie of Chinese ethnic unity.

During the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games, 56 children were presented to us as members of the 56 ethnicities of China. I thought this rather a good touch. It showed, perhaps, that China was thinking of all of its contributing ethnicities at this time. However, something rankled about it, as a gesture. It rankled because I know, for a fact, that China makes it almost a national sport, to persecute its minorities. It was, therefore, a strange thing to do, to promote itself as being inclusive of all of its 56 ethnicities, when there were many incidents, of international renown, that showed that this was not so, in practice.

Now, we have learnt that the "56 ethnicities" were, in fact, all Han Chinese children. Ethnic children were not allowed to take part. This is most ironic, for in debarring the children of truly ethnic minority origin, China was showing its true face with regards to its ethnic minorities: racism and oppression, sometimes even to genocidal practices (look at the history of Tibet, for instance). Not allowing ethnic minorities to participate is symptomatic of its true attitude towards its own ethnic minorities: they are to be repressed, marginalized and excluded, at the least, perhaps even killed, in some cases.

China is lying to the world again. I rather hope that this will teach the world one basic assumption about China: that it lies at all opportunities - for it has done so, in this Olympics and, no doubt, does so in all its dealings with the world. A liar doesn't just lie on special occasions, a liar lies all the time. Thus, China, in lying so much at the Olympics is showing us that they always lie, that, if they were a person, they would be classified as a pathological liar. When given every opportunity to be truthful, they prefer to lie. They could have told the world: "These are 56 Han Chinese children dressed in the costumes of the 56 ethnicities of China." Instead of which they told the world's media, and thus the world, that they were, actually, children of 56 different ethnicities. So, rather than a simply told truth, they would rather a cleverly told lie.

So, what we have seen, so far, is not a Chinese Olympics, put on by a united China, represented by all Chinese people. No. What we have seen is a Han Chinese Olympics, put on to the exclusion of the diverse minorities that are part of the Chinese land (in spatial co-ordinates, if not in social inclusion).

In a very real sense, the Chinese are insulting the international community by lying to them, in various ways. By telling the world that they had thoughtfully included representatives of all 56 races, they were presenting an image to the world of ethnic inclusivity and absence of racism. This, if true, would have made China seem more progressive, developed and mature. That was the impression they wished to give. The truth, however, was that so racist, internally divided, xenophobic, exclusive and riven are they that they did not include ANY other race of child, apart from Han Chinese. They understood enough to know, however, that the world would like it to be as they said it was. Rather than make it so, however, they preferred to lie about it.

The funny thing about all of this is that China is doing more damage to its international standing than a whole world of critics has managed to do in recent decades. China is coming to look like a shameless liar through and through. Well done, China. What more lies, deceptions and instances of cheating are yet to be uncovered?

(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.)

The importance of telling the truth.

The Beijing Olympics 2008 will long be remembered. However, I rather feel it is going to be remembered for the wrong things. The Beijing Olympics will be remembered for what it was not: truthful.

Firstly, we learnt that the "fireworks" on the opening night, were little more than a computer operator's imagination. Now, we have learnt that the girl who "sang" the opening ceremony was just a pretty replacement for the girl who actually sang. The Beijing Olympics 2008 is becoming known not for its spectacle, but for its lies and deceptions.

It seems clear that the Communist party Politburo wishes to present an image of a perfect China to the world. China is to be a country where fireworks obey their every command and explode in perfect dashes of colour. China is to be a country where the best singers in the land also happen to be the prettiest. China is a country which wins more medals than anyone else (it remains to be seen whether and how that one will be achieved.)

Sadly, China is not what China wishes to appear to be. China is a large, repressed, overly-controlled state in which the individual suffers a curtailment of basic freedoms. It is not a state to be admired or envied. It is something else, something darker. China is a model which the rest of the world should learn from - in a negative sense - that is, it is a lesson in how not to be.

We all know what China is (unless we are believers in propaganda, without thinking about it). However, it is instructive to take a look at what China has prevented itself from being seen to be.

What if China had allowed the actual 7 year old girl singer to sing at the Olympics? What effect would it have had on world opinion and the view of China if they had allowed the "buck-toothed" young girl to sing? Think about it for a moment.

I don't know your understanding - but I know this: the view of China would have been ENHANCED had they allowed the actual singer to sing in the stadium. Now, why do I say that China's reputation would have been better with a buck-toothed singer than with a pretty little model-like girl? Well, it is simple. Had China shown the buck-toothed girl with the wonderful voice, they would have been sending a global message that China values talent above superficial issues such as appearance. They would have been telling the world that China is a deep nation, with deep values, not swayed by trivialities. They would have sent a message that China had matured as a nation and was not moved by inconsequentialities. However, what they did instead was hide the girl whose voice was singing because she just wasn't pretty enough - and replace her with a pretty girl who PRETENDED to sing. China preferred a superficial lie to a deeper truth. China has thus revealed itself as many things: trivial, dishonest, short-sighted, stupid (for not knowing how damaging such deception would be) and deceitful. China has shown itself, once again, to be a nation that should not and cannot be admired or respected.

Yang Peiyi, 7, the buck-toothed girl with the beautiful voice was an opportunity for China to show itself to be a great nation, supportive of its people, proud of their gifts. It would have been far better for China to show such a girl to the world - an honest face of China, if you like - than to have set-up a calculated lie to deceive the world. The lie was a simple one: that China, statistically, has so many great singers that they can afford to choose a pretty one, too. Clearly, that is not so. Out of thousands of auditionees, they could not find one who was both a good enough singer and pretty enough (in their view) to go on TV. Thus we can conclude that China is not overflowing with talent in such areas - if it were, it would not have been difficult to find a girl both talented and cute in 1.4 billion people. So, China has shown us, by their effortful lie, that China is not as burdened with talents as one might suppose. Many things are revealed by their action.

China has lost a great opportunity to show itself as a great nation. It is, instead, revealing itself, step by step, as a place that just cannot stop lying - even when the spotlight of the world is on its every move.

I cannot help but feel sorry for the little girl who almost became a star. Her voice has been heard by billions - but I do not even know her face. Instead, the stand-in, without enough talent to be allowed to sing, made it to the front page of the New York Times. So, a girl whose only talent we are aware of is that she is quite pretty (but not very), and with an ability to lip synch becomes world famous - but the best girl singer China could find remains unknown. That is a tragedy of a kind that may destroy the little girl's life. Imagine if she never succeeds as a singer (if that is what she wants to be). Imagine how much regret she will feel at being side-lined at the Olympics, despite being the voice of it? She has been set-up for a regretful life - and all because China is too shallow to allow a less than pretty girl be seen by the world.

The other girl's life, too, promises to be a tragedy of a different kind. She has become famous for something she is not and cannot do. Her fame is a lie that will follow her for the rest of her life. That, too, is not much fun.

So, two girl's lives have been sacrificed for the greater glory of the People's Republic of China. In doing so, however, China has sacrificed something else, too: the best opportunity they have had in decades for cultivating a positive world opinion of one of the world's least free places.

Here is something for you to dwell on. It takes great courage for anyone who knows the truth of what China is doing regarding the Olympics to come out and tell that truth. One such courageous person is Chen Qigang, general music designer for the Olympics - for it was he who revealed that Yang Peiyi, 7, had been sidelined for Lia Miaoke, 9, on account of her "buck-teeth". The question is how many lies and deceptions will we never find out about because no-one is courageous enough to come out about them?

There is an irony in that the Olympics are always talking about uncovering the doping and cheating of athletes - well, how about the different kind of cheating that the organizers themselves are engaged in? So far, two deceptions have been revealed...how many more are there unknown to us?

As for buck-toothed Yang Peiyi, did no-one think that all she needed was a good dentist, not a stand-in? It seems that even with a rumoured 40 billion dollar Olympic budget they couldn't spare the change needed to correct Yang Peiyi's teeth and spare China from the shame of another world renowned lie. Or maybe they don't have any good dentists in China, either (along with no pretty and talented singers!)

(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.)

Double standards in Singaporean Education.

Singapore has many surprises for an attentive observer: one area that is rich in such surprises is Singaporean education.

Singapore is a country that prides itself on its uniformity and conformity. Thus one would expect that all within its borders would be treated in the same way, with regards to educational opportunity. In an ideal world, everyone would have access to the opportunities they need. Yet, this is not so.

There is an educational scholarship scheme which many people may not be aware of. Its express purpose is to recruit scientifically and mathematically competent students from other Asian countries and bring them to Singapore. The ones that I have taught are about 95% PRC (People's Republic of China) mainland Chinese students and the rest have happened to be Vietnamese. I haven't met one from anywhere else.

These almost entirely mainland Chinese students are given free education in Singapore. They are given free accommodation. They are even given a monthly stipend on which to live. One particular group even had a paid holiday in Malaysia (probably to show them what a wonderful place Singapore was by giving them the contrast of poverty - since it was a poor area they went to), recently. They basically have a free ride of it, for their time in Singapore. They are even given a choice of where they might like to get a degree out of a selection of overseas countries. Singapore pays for it all.

I can see why they do this. It is so as to recruit scientific talent for Singapore's tech and science industries. The idea is that many of these students will come to settle in Singapore and work here. So, in that sense it is a smart move for Singapore. Yet, I am not particularly happy at this particular programme. Why? Well, because Singaporeans are not treated so well.

We have sought special provision for Ainan's scientific educational needs for over a year and a half, now. Long term readers will know that we have encountered a less than generous attitude in this area. At various times, we have been told: "It is resource intensive to give him practical chemistry classes" and "There is no funding available" and "Why don't you go to a private school and pay for it yourself?" (This last was said by a member of the Gifted Education Programme...a very unhelpful organization, in truth.)

In that entire time, we have managed to secure six practical sessions for Ainan out of the education system (at Raffles Insitution and Raffles College). We were also offered one hour a week at NUS High School of Maths and Science, last year, which we ultimately rejected, because it was of material (at early A level) which he had already covered - and they refused to let him take practical classes. It simply wasn't worth going there, since nothing new would be learnt. All in all, it is not much of a response to Ainan's particular needs.

Now, Ainan was born in Singapore. His mother is a Malay Singaporean - so Ainan has Singaporean nationality. Yet, the contrast between the way PRC science students are welcomed to Singapore and enticed by large bundles of money and educational freebies, and the way we have met obstacles and refusals of support, in Ainan's scientific education, could not be more marked.

I find myself puzzled. Ainan is Singaporean. These PRC imports are not. Ainan gets little support. The PRCs get everything. Surely, this is strong evidence of double standards in Singaporean education? To get what you need, here, you have to be a foreign student on a scholarship. If you are a locally born Singaporean, you need not apply, seems to be the message.

Perhaps they take Ainan for granted. They think that, because he is local, that he is theirs already. The PRCs, however, have to be won over to Singapore's side. The funny thing about this is that Ainan is much brighter than any of the PRC imports I have met and taught over the years. He has much MORE to offer Singapore in terms of scientific talent, than any of these PRCs (or Vietnamese) students. Yet, except for a few token exceptions, Ainan's needs have not yet been met by the Singaporean education system.

Double standards are never fair - nor are they wise. In pursuing this course of action, Singapore will recruit some scientifically talented PRC students - yes. However, they will also alienate LOCALLY DERIVED scientific talent - unless they SUPPORT THEM EQUALLY WELL. The fact is, however, they don't. If you are locally born talent, you can expect no special support of your gifts - or very little indeed, certainly not enough to optimize your intellectual growth. If, however, you were born in Beijing - expect every cheque book to be open. That is the clear message of this programme.

Ainan's education proceeds at home, with us. Were it not for our support, he would be receiving NO scientific education, at this time, from the Singaporean education system. Is that the way to nurture future scientists?

I am sure the story would be very different if Ainan was a PRC child showing the same gift. He would be flown in, with his mother (probably), given a house, a scholarship at a good school, and money every month to pay his way. Unfortunately, for Ainan he is locally born. What he gets instead, is a lot of bureaucratic delays and time-wasting from the educational establishment. Far from receiving a scholarship, we are repeatedly told that "there are no funds available" and no resources, either.

So, the lesson is this. If you have a special child and they were born in Singapore, you should emigrate to China, at once. There you should revoke your Singaporean citizenship and become Chinese - and then apply for the Singaporean scholarship programme. You will be welcomed with open arms and suddenly everything you need for your special education would be made available. For true authenticity, you should speak English exceptionally badly for the first couple of years back in Singapore, just to make sure that you don't look out of place (just like all the other PRC recruits).

We have had to make our own arrangements for Ainan, since the educational system has proven unwilling to do so. Every other special child we have heard of, has run into difficulties too. They share one thing in common: they were born in Singapore.

It would be good to see a Singaporean education system that allowed all children to flourish - and aided all along the way, to reach their potential. It is not enough to focus on grooming PRC children to become Singaporean: they need to give equally good opportunities and support to locally born talent too.

Otherwise a strange thing will begin to happen: just as the PRC "talent" arrives, the local talent will leave. That is precisely what has happened to some of the Singaporean gifted children that we are aware of. They haven't received what they needed in Singapore - so they left for America etc.

Now, is that a smart education policy?

If Singapore did more to nurture its locally born talent, they wouldn't have to recruit PRC students to make up for the shortfall in talent. They would have created it in their own backyard, instead.

The next step for Ainan has been arranged, and will be announced at an appropriate time - but you know what: we arranged it ourselves. Those in the education system whose responsibility is to attend to these matters did nothing to help us, at all. Were we less persistent, nothing would have happened.

The others that we are aware of did not battle on, to secure what they needed here: they just emigrated.

The priority should be: first look after locally born talent, then look to recruit overseas talent. They should not begin to do the latter until the former has been addressed. Otherwise, the result will be that one's own people leave, never more to return. The foreigners who replace them, have no real ties to Singapore. There seems little wisdom in that.

(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.)

China and Tibet: a conspiracy of silence.

What do mainland Chinese know about the unrest and subsequent brutal crackdown in Tibet?

Not a lot, in many cases.

In Singapore, there are many PRC (Peoples' Republic of China) students here. I will explain more about their situation in another post. I would, however, like to note something which I have become aware of. These students are in the habit of calling home, to their parents in China, on a regular basis. All of them have had a strange experience, recently. In their calls home, they have tried to discuss the Tibetan situation - which they have seen in the Singaporean and international media, here in Singapore - with their parents. Do you know what they discovered?

None of their Chinese mainland parents knew about it.

It seems that the media in China has been far from dedicated to carrying this story, for in a random sampling of mainland Chinese, performed by the PRC students here in Singapore, none of them were aware of the unrest and crackdown, in Tibet.

This reminded me of another time when I had taught PRC students. There was a boy in my class who was of very certain views about the wonders of China. It turned out that his father was an important man in the hierarchy of the Communist Party of China. This was many years ago and somehow the subject of Tiananmen Square came up. This boy barked out: "No-one died at Tiananmen Square".

"Who told you that?" I asked him, rather surprised.

"My father."

I felt sad for him. Even his own father lied to him, to protect the image of the motherland from the Truth.

I pointed out that I had seen the terrible events for myself on CNN and that the whole world had watched what happened at Tiananmen Square - the whole world except China.

He was silent. He didn't know how to defend his father's lying tongue.

The situation with regards to Tibet is very similar. Part of the reason that China is so successful at repression, is because its people simply do not know what is happening. They do not know the darkness at the centre of their own society. The PRC students here, in Singapore, are all somewhat shocked to learn of the events in Tibet. Yet, there is something locked up inside them: they still can't allow themselves to see the truth of their own country. They take a view which would not disturb the Communist Party's line. They take the view that China is "right" to crackdown in Tibet. That Tibet "owes China". That Tibet "cannot survive without China's resources". That Tibet "cannot be allowed to be independent from China". Their view is that of the Communist Party.

Interestingly, a teacher I know who was teaching them, picked up on this line of thought and asked them to write what they thought about the situation in Tibet. What was really scarey about this exercise was what they handed in: the same essay in forty hands. All of the students thought in exactly the same way. All of them could have been writing press releases for the Communist Party of China. None of them were able, or willing, to think independently. It was quite sobering to see the sheer SAMENESS of their output. The thoughts I have excerpted above, in the previous paragraph, appeared in every single essay.

Why then does China fear the Truth so much when, even when exposed to it, their PRC youngsters maintain the Party line and speak with the Party tongue? I would say it points to an excessive desire to control their minds. Not only are they to think the Party way - but they are not to be exposed to thoughts contrary to it. There isn't even to be a chance that anyone might agree with an opposition view, because they never get to hear one and are never able to formulate one themselves. They are to be blind to the truth and to the world - and to know only what they are allowed to know. That appears to be the system, anyway.

Is China ever going to be a free nation? I really have my doubts. Even the internet is censored there. Without exposure to the truth of their nation, there is no way that the Chinese themselves are able to see it as it is. They just aren't allowed access to the information. Even when they receive it, as the PRCs studying here have - they don't internalize it, they maintain the Party line and continue to believe resolutely in the ways of the motherland. All of them have been strongly brainwashed, by any standard. None of them are capable of independent thought. China wants it that way - and will keep it that way - unless external forces are strong enough to change the way things are, inside China.

I don't see it happening. The rest of the world is now in what I would call a cowardly phase. They stand on the sidelines of the Tibetan situation and say: "Ho hum, that's not good". However, none of them DO anything about it. The Tibetans are unique. They are a gentle culture, unable to resist the oppressive might of China. Yet, it is easy to see that the international community will do nothing to intervene on their side, that is remotely effective. Will the international community wait until all ethnic Tibetans are dead, before acting?

The youth of China will not make a different China to the old. They will grow up to be the same as their fathers and forefathers. That is easy to see in the PRC students studying in Singapore. They think as their Party thinks. If China is ever to be a democratic state with respectable human rights, the outside world is going to have to show China the way. China just cannot do it itself. Why? It simply doesn't want to - and so it won't.

The Chinese need to know about China. Oddly, they don't. If the world had a moral conscience (I am not sure it does - or at least not an effective one) it should act to ensure that the Chinese people get access to wider information on their own nation. Perhaps then, things will begin to change, and the kind of action presently taking place in Tibet, would become unacceptable to the Chinese people. Right now, however, they think it is just, right and proper to act so. At least, the PRC students here seem to think so. It is interesting to see how their understanding of morality is so constrained that they can consider murder, repression and occupation, as just and justifiable acts.

They have a lot to learn. It is up to the rest of the world to teach them.

(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.)