A first step towards civilization.

I have been silent for a week, as I said I would be. I write now, not out of any particular motive to write, but because I promised to have a decision in a week - so a decision I must post.

I have decided to take an interim step towards improving the experience of writing this blog. From this moment forth, there shall be no anonymous comments on my blog. It is my hope that this step, alone, will be enough to restore sufficient civility to the comments I have been receiving. Should it not do so, I will strengthen the limitations on who can post, on my blog, and even who can read it.

From now on, anyone with a blogger account or an OpenID can post on this blog. I am sorry if you have neither and you wish to post - you will just have to get an ID. For four years, I allowed all readers the privilege - and it is a privilege - of posting anonymously, out of a misguided belief that some people might have sensitive things to say, that required them to protect themselves with anonymity. However, the opposite thing happened. People with INSENSITIVE things to say, abused the privilege to hurl invective, spite and sheer nastiness whenever I wrote something they disagreed with. So, it has to stop. If you have something to say...you must now do so, in the open, with a name and an ID.

Now, should the unpleasant remarks not stop with Open ID and blogger, I will restrict the permissions further, to just blogger members. If that doesn't work, then I will restrict the READERSHIP, to invited people only. If that doesn't work, I will have a private blog, readable only by the author.

I am tired of reading abusive comments from often less than perfectly sane readers - or less than perfectly pleasant, anyway. I hope that this first step towards achieving a civil blogging experience will be enough to attain it. If not, I have already outlined the successive steps I will take to gradually restrict access to commenting on this blog and eventually to even reading the blog. I would prefer not to have to restrict the blog further, but I shall do so, if the net nastiness continues.

I hope to have a better blogging experience, from now on. We shall see.

Thank you to all those who wrote letters expressing appreciation of my writing (under the previous post) and asking me to continue. I have weighed those words and decided that I should take this minimal first step towards restoring "civilization" to my blog, before taking any more drastic steps. Let's hope it works. Thanks.

(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.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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.)

An unexpected word.

Yesterday I did as I have done, many thousands of times in my life: I held a door open for someone. It was at a petrol station, where I had been buying a newspaper.

Now, I have done this many, many times, in Singapore. This time, however, I was in Malaysia. I was surprised to note that there was a distinct difference in the two experiences. Can you guess what it was? Please have a think about it, before reading on.

Well, have you come to a conclusion? What difference could there be in simply opening a door in Malaysia or Singapore? Well, I was surprised. You see, the Malaysian man - who was Malay, in appearance, and in his fifties, I would say, said: "Thanks".

That is all. He said, "Thanks." Oddly, I found myself startled to hear that word. Now, why, you may ask, would I be startled? Well, because in Singapore I never heard the word at all. I had become accustomed to holding doors open for people - be they men, women or children - who would never, ever say "thanks" for doing so. They would walk through in silence, as if I were some kind of lower life form or personal servant (the same thing, in Singapore). So, here, in Malaysia, when I heard that word, I found myself rather surprised. How sad it is, that I should be surprised to be thanked.

I must say, that I am not always thanked when I hold the door open in Malaysia - however, it does seem more common, here, to hear the expression of thanks, than it was in Singapore. The polished city state to my south, may believe itself to be a higher civilization than Malaysia, but, in terms of the manners of its citizens, it is most certainly not.

Perhaps, in Singapore, manners are not regarded as important. In that CITY state, CIVIL behaviour is not thought of as important. Yet, it makes a difference. I felt suitably appreciated for having had the forethought to hold the door open for that middle aged man, yesterday. In Singapore, however, I would usually be made to feel like an idiot for caring enough to do so. One word makes all the difference between appreciation and a snub - and, personally, I would rather be appreciated. So, Singapore could learn something from that middle aged Malay man: a single word, "thanks" and when to use it.

(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.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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.)