Living in a TV drama.

Life, in Malaysia, is turning out to be a bit like living in a TV drama. By this, I mean that far too many unusual events seem to occur in a short space of time, to be at all possible in the real world. However, this is the real world and they are happening.

I shall explain. We are staying in a house in KL, right now. We have just begun our stay. Yet, already we are receiving odd phone calls from people claiming to be persons in authority of some kind. Today, for instance, we had three people call pretending to be from the phone company, asking us questions, whose answers the real telephone people would already know. It was all just a lead up to arranging a visit from someone who really, really shouldn't be given admission to our home. Then again, we had a visitor from the "gas company", asking our kids to open the gates to let him in the house. However, most oddly, we hadn't called the gas company and weren't in need of their services, in the least.

So, what we have here, is four attempted scams in one day. That, I must say is quite something for the real world. It is just like a TV show in which a cascade of unlikely things happen to the protagonists that everyone, who pauses to think, would not believe for a minute, could happen in the real world. Only, in Malaysia, they do.

The worrying thing about all of this is what would happen were we less aware of the possibilities of duplicitous crime, here. You see, we had been forewarned that there are a lot of "chancers" around here, who will try their best to gain admission to a home to do there what they can to rip you off - or worse. No doubt, there are newcomers here who are not so prepared. God knows what their introduction to the country might be like.

The other worrying thing is just how these people have managed to get my details. All the callers knew my name. Some of them used my full name. Some inquired whether I was my wife's husband. All of them, obviously, had our phone number - though it had only been registered three days before. I am left to assume that someone at the phone company - or at the phone store - is selling information of new subscribers to the criminals for personal gain, so that the con men might have the base material they need to work with: knowledge of identities, contacts and location.

Funnily, for the "gas man", all we did was wait. After a couple of minutes parked outside our house, he got the message and left. If he had been a real gas man, who had been really called to do some work at our house, he would rather have persisted, I think.

I am reminded of the Nigerian con men who continuously send out email scams, all over the world. Here, much the same thing goes on, but it is not based around emails: it is based around telephone calls and personal visits from people who are not who they say they are.

I am thankful that we had been forewarned about all of this. Without such warning, perhaps we would have let our guard down...and who knows what might have happened then. For now, the gates shall remain closed and unexpected callers shall receive a cool response.

I must say, watching TV dramas is a lot less unsettling than living in one!

(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.)

Electricians in Singapore: beware.

A few days ago, we had an experience that calls into question the idea that Singapore is a "squeaky clean" state. We called "Mr. Tay", an electrician. It seemed an innocent enough thing to do...but it was the beginning of nightmare.

We agreed a price with Mr. Tay to have his workers grout a bath and get a couple of lighting fixtures to work (which didn't work even with new bulbs in them). After much negotiation, a price was agreed.

The worker came very late, at 10.30 pm that night. He was a scrawny, mentally very slow, almost dead looking man. Clearly, he was being overworked by his employer. He did the grouting (not well), then said that he would be back the following day to complete the electrics. He asked for payment in cash, for the full amount. He wouldn't give a receipt but said that his boss would issue one. After some hesitation, we paid him, largely because he seemed too stupid to be a trickster.

The following day, three men including the one we had already met, turned up. They "worked"
for an hour on the wiring, ostensibly checking it for problems. They then demanded almost twice the fee already paid, in cash, in addition to the money already paid, before they would continue the work. Now, my wife was alone with them, for I was working. A great argument ensued, with my wife telling them, time and time again, that the full fee had already been paid. She even spoke to Mr. Tay...but he spent all his time lying down the phone, saying that the agreed fee of the day before had only been for the grouting. He wouldn't budge from his demands. When it became clear that my wife was not about to pay them an additional sum of twice the agreed fee of the day before, all three "electricians" left the house. The trouble was that they had left wiring exposed everywhere, in a real mess.

When I came home I argued with Mr. Tay for some half an hour, on the phone. This was no fun, since he spent most of the time shouting. His cries were of: "Your money so big, huh?" on the fact that we had already paid enough. "I have to pay for petrol and my men." and the real classic:"Be a gentleman". I thought this was hilarious since he was the one trying to extort extra money from us, beyond that which had been agreed.

The wiring was in a terrible mess, so we got another electrician down to look at it. He observed the wiring carefully and was clearly very puzzled. He said: "It looks like someone has deliberately messed up the wiring...it will take some time to work out what they have done."

So, during their hour of studying our wiring, what they had actually been doing, was messing it up, so that they could create problems which they then would offer to solve for a large fee. To my mind, that makes Mr. Tay and crowd, criminals.

The new electrician spent a couple of hours fixing it all - and, you know what, after all the trouble we had been through, he didn't even want to be paid. He was doing it out of kindness. We did, however, give him something...though much less than the extortionate fee demanded by Mr. Tay's crooks.

The experience was a real lesson for us. Singapore is not a haven from criminality. Criminals can easily be found in the classified section of newspapers (where we found Mr. Tay). Our conclusion is that one should only engage people, of any kind, in Singapore, by RECOMMENDATION ONLY.

There needs to be more regulation and certification of electricians, plumbers and the like, in Singapore. There needs to be a body that guarantees the skills, quality and integrity of these people. Until then, do this: NEVER book an electrician, a plumber or anyone similar, via an ad in a newspaper or anywhere else. ONLY go by recommendation. That is the only safeguard there is, right now.

(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.)

Listen to the sound of the flames.

Actions speak louder than words. On Sunday, a man's actions, Ong Kah Chua, spoke very loudly indeed: he set fire to a Member of Parliament, Seng Han Thong.

70 year old Ong Kah Chua poured thinner over the back of the MP at a session at which the MP was handing out Hongbao (small packets of money) to the people. He then used a kitchen lighter to set fire to him. Seng Han Thong suffered burns to his right face, back and scalp. The burns amounted to up to 15% of his body.

Now, I realize that my international readers will be shocked to hear of such a thing in Singapore. Surely Singapore is the "safest place in the world", where crime exists only in pulp fiction and on TV? Surely, such a thing is an American phenomenon? Well, no. You see I think that the setting of an Member of Parliament on fire is much more likely to occur in Singapore, than in the USA. In the USA, there is freedom of speech and a strong democracy, the people have a voice and the voice is heard. In Singapore, there is a strange "democracy" in which only one party is allowed to exist (well, I always found it strange, myself). When I say "exist", I mean, live in peace. The non-People's Action Party (PAP) politicians spend their lives hounded by the powers-that-be. They don't truly have the necessary freedom to conduct political activities that is usual in democracies.

The people of Singapore, too, are used to the idea that what they want and believe and think is not heard by those at the top. They are used to the idea that power comes down from above and feel that they do not have the power to influence events. In such a climate, people can feel suffocated, they can feel that their voice will never be heard. Well, when someone thinks they are being ignored, they will tend to be driven to do something extreme to win attention. I think that is what has happened here: Ong Kah Chua must have felt that he was not being heard, that he had no power and no voice -so he did something that all the nation would hear: he set fire to an MP.

The MP in question Seng Han Thong, has got a talent for attracting trouble. In 2006, he was punched by a taxi driver who had a grievance. This indicates to me that this "random" attack is not so random. Seng Han Thong is good at causing people to be upset. It would seem, from this analysis that he might be especially good at not giving the people what they want (he was responsible for proposing taxi surcharges, for instance). Other MPs seem to manage to go about their work in peace, but Seng Han Thong has a gift for being attacked. There is always a reason for such a gift.

It is clear, from reading Singaporean blogs, that Ong Kah Chua has much sympathy for his attack. There is the sense, the rather surprising sense, given Singapore's law abiding reputation that Ong Kah Chua was doing what many Singaporeans fantasize about doing: setting a member of the PAP on fire. I found this a quietly shocking revelation. It made me realize that, perhaps, just perhaps, the Singaporean people have become a little tired of a style of government that external observers would not accuse of being overly accessible. Singapore's government is one that makes decisions irrespective of the will of the people then passes them down, as fait accompli. A lot of people are unhappy with this and have been unhappy for many years, even decades. Ong Kah Chua's little bonfire recalls, for me, Guy Fawkes - the annual burning of an effigy of a man who tried to blow up British Parliament hundreds of years ago.

Ong Kah Chua is Singapore's Guy Fawkes. The difference is that Ong Kah Chua was more successful than Guy Fawkes: Fawkes was caught before his plan could be enacted. Ong Kah Chua was only caught after Seng Han Thong was busily burning away.

Perhaps the government of Singapore would do well to listen to Ong Kah Chua's message. His message is not the action of one man, but the deed of a frustrated nation. For every one Ong Kah Chua who has the courage, or insanity, to act on such a wish, as to burn an MP, there may be a thousand, or a hundred thousand who would do so, if they could get away with it. Ong Kah Chua is not an isolated madman, I think, but a symptom of a system that has been too disregarding of the will of its people. Singaporeans want a more open style of government, a more sympathetic style of government, one that listens more, and cares more. They want a government they feel is there to do a public service and not one that seems, at times, to do a service to itself (one need only look at the multi-million dollar salaries of ministers to see where they got that impression).

Seng Han Thong is fortunate that Singapore is not an armed society, as America is. Were Singapore to have guns available it is fairly certain that Seng Han Thong would have been shot, not burnt.

I think it likely that the government will learn something from this, but perhaps not the right thing. They will learn to pay more attention to the security of their MPs...but they will probably not do anything to reduce the palpable anger and resentment that many Singaporeans evidently feel at the way their nation is ruled. (One need only look to the internet to find abundant evidence of such dissatisfaction).

So, yes, Singapore is a safe country - but perhaps not, anymore, if you are a member of government. There is a price to pay for a closed style of government - and Seng Han Thong is, today, paying that price.

(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.)