No freedom to play

Everyone likes to unwind - especially those whose jobs might be called, at best, unenviable.

Bangladeshi workers, in Singapore, are imported in their thousands to do the jobs that Singaporeans would never lower themselves to do. In return, these foreign workers get paid wages that would not be able to support them, in Singapore, were they not otherwise fed and housed. Indeed, their wages would not be able to support them in almost every country of the world.

Yet, people, everywhere, find resourceful ways to relax, in whatever free time they have - and make life more enjoyable. My wife tells me of a group of Bangladeshi workers that she heard about, who used to gather at the weekend, and play football in an open field, of no seeming use. Every weekend, they would enjoy this respite from their hard working lives: it was the highlight of their week. Until, one day, someone from officialdom came to them. They were told that they were not allowed to play football simply anywhere. They would have to pay. Football could not proceed until the proper fees had been paid. Indeed, they would have to secure a proper referee for their games - and he would have to receive a fee.

Now, these are Bangladeshi foreign workers on slave wages. They do not earn enough to be unconcerned about the cost of a referee. Suddenly, their weekly highlight was no more. They could no longer play football together - for they could not, in all reasonableness, pay what was demanded of them.

I was shocked by this. The lives of these workers are bad enough without taking away their primary means of leisure. Is it not enough that they are being exploited, by being paid far less than what a person doing a job like theirs is typically paid, worldwide? Construction work, and the like is WELL-PAID in most developed countries. In Singapore, it is most certainly not so, despite the rigours and dangers. At the very least, allow them to enjoy a game of football, to unwind: it is not much to ask.

I am puzzled that some Singaporeans think it is their place to interfere so much in the simple course of other peoples' lives. There is no harm in a game of football played between friends. It is most certainly not something to be regulated and controlled - and forced to pay fees (for which read "football tax"). A game of football is a natural pastime between young sporting men. No-one should attempt to interfere in that: to do so, is to delimit the lives of others for no other reason than that one wishes to delimit the lives of others.

I do not know on what basis the obvious attempt to stop the Bangladeshis playing football was made. If it is just an instance of a rule being made up specifically to thwart the Bangladeshis, then one has concerns of racist intent. If, on the other hand, it is, in fact, a general rule, applying to ALL games of football for which permission has not been applied, and fees not paid, then I am even more concerned. The playing of football is not a matter for official interference. Any rule which prevents the natural sporting play between informal groups of friends, is a rule that will stifle the development of a sporting culture. It should be stopped, at once.

A Bangladeshi worker has as much right to enjoy life, as a Singaporean banker, lawyer, or Minister. They should be left in peace to do so.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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

Construction of the Grand Snail Hotel

Childhood doesn't seem so far away, when one has children to observe, at play.

At the weekend, Fintan, 4, and Ainan, 7, decided to make their snails more at home. (See the post Children and Pet Animals, for background). They decided to build the Grand Snail Hotel.

The Hotel was quite large, if you were a snail. It was built on the landing of the stairwell outside our flat, between our flat and the neighbour. The construction materials were of the lasting kind: polystyrene and a range of plastics (selected, I believe, by Ainan, because the snails would be unable to eat their residence, it being made of inedible plastic. This is always a good consideration, when one's hotel guests are hungry and unable to distinguish between food and furniture.)

The Grand Snail Hotel had all the attributes of a great and thoughtful hotel. Some polystyrene with a dip in it about a foot and a half long, provided what was, to scale, an Olympic sized swimming pool. Another section with a ramp leading up to it (for snails, like disabled people, are not good with stairs, and need ramps to reach elevated areas), provided a kind of dormitory where snails could sleep en masse. There was a snail restaurant providing the best of leaves - the staple being lettuce from my fridge - and even a supermarket, where there was a large store of unused vegetable leaves, for later purchase by any self-catering snail. The entire complex was self-enclosed in its own wall, protecting the nibbling snails from the difficult environment they might find in the world outside. All in all, it was a masterpiece of Snail Architecture. Credit for the Architecture goes to the creative team of Fintan Nadym Cawley and Ainan Celeste Cawley, who were the sole designers of this innovative construction initiative in the nascent hotel field known as Gastropod Tourism.

Anyway, all this actually happened and was carefully explained to me by the earnest architects: Ainan and Fintan. My wife and I were most impressed at the miniature compound they had created for their adopted snail pets.

As we left to go shopping, my wife called back at Ainan and Fintan: "We will take a photograph of it when we get back!"

We were both happy to see the two aspects of character embodied in that work: creativity in designing it in the first place - and the care for animals that they should think to do so in the first place. Besides, it was hilarious to see what they had done to the stairwell: it had become a Gastropod Hotel. There are not many stairwells in the world like that one.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, including Fintan, aged four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen 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, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)