On the value of Beauty

Beauty has great value, which may not be measurable in dollars and cents, but is there all the same. However, not everyone realizes this.

Last week, Wisma Atria, the Orchard Road shopping centre, announced that they were going to dismantle the landmark aquarium in their shopping mall, and send the fish to a better home, elsewhere. Instead, they said they were going to "improve our retail offering". By this, I assume that they mean to put another shop, where the aquarium now stands.

In the nine years since I first came to Singapore I have come to understand that many decisions here are made purely on numbers. No other means of thought is consulted. Indeed, it is clear that most decision makers have no other means to think, than by numerical means. The primary number they are concerned with is this: how much money they can make. The dollar is the true ruler of Singapore.

I have stood by and watched many stupid decisions be made on the basis of this excessive love for the dollar. Removing the aquarium at Wisma is one of them. Clearly, no-one in the Wisma management has given any thought to what the aquarium does for their mall, nor what it represents for their customers. The aquarium is the most memorable thing about Wisma, in fact, it is true to say it is the ONLY memorable thing about Wisma. People have used it as a landmark by which to find their way through the subterranean reaches of its shopping mall, since the day it was first built. Friends would meet there. People would take photographs with it, in the background. The aquarium was very much a little "star". Indeed, I took a photograph of my father standing before it, on his recent visit.

The management of Wisma are clearly thinking in terms of the rental foregone for the space taken up by the aquarium. I think they are not looking at the big picture. Those elegant multi-coloured fish, swimming away all day, implanted Wisma in people's minds. It was ever pleasant to see the aquarium hove into view, as one stepped out into the underground space in which it stands.

I think it likely that the aquarium drew more people to visit Wisma Atria, than the shop that replaces it will. I very much doubt whether the overall take of the mall will increase when the environment is diminished by the absence of the aquarium. I think it more likely that the take will decrease, in fact. With the aquarium gone, there will be no reason to choose Wisma Atria as one's meeting place, when convening in Orchard Road - other locations would be easier to find and therefore meet at.

Wisma Atria is well on the way to becoming a forgettable place, for they have forgotten the value of beauty.

Wisma is likely soon to discover that beauty has a commercial value, too: for where would you rather shop - a beautiful mall, with a pleasant environment, or one in which there is nothing but shops crammed together, all shouting for your money? Taking the aquarium away, is one big step away from the former, for Wisma, towards the latter. I don't see it as an improvement.

For me, now, another shopping mall is now more memorable: Takashimaya. Why? Because they have an underground fountain. That is where I am going to meet people in Orchard in future. I suggest you all do the same. It is very easy to find - and easy to remember, too.

Let us just hope that Takashimaya, don't wish to "improve their retail offering" by pulling out the beautiful fountains and replacing them with a shop. If they do, I am not going to shop on Orchard at all, anymore.

(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.)

The value of Science in Singapore

Singapore is a materialist nation. Just how materialist became clear to me today.

We were attending a biomedical science lecture, with Ainan, 7, and after the lecture we were given a tour of the lab facilities. Outside one particular lab, the scientist in question asked the audience for their questions.

There was a pause while people collected their thoughts - and then the questions began. In the context of a science lecture and a science lab, I expected scientific questions - but that is not what came from the audience.

The first question was: "How much is the budget of this department?"

The scientist deflected the question.

The second question: "How much do these prosthetics cost?"

He answered it: "A piece this size is about 2,000 dollars."

The third question: "What is the value added here?"

Answer: "They sell for about 5,000 dollars."

No-one but us asked any questions that were scientific. We asked ones about the nature of research done - after the crowd had moved on.

Science in Singapore has, for most of the population, no value apart from the money it can make. I am not being critical of the people who asked these questions: I am just observing that their values are purely economic. They don't see value in science for science's sake. True scientists, of course, see value in science itself; value in the pursuit of knowledge, understanding and insight of the world. Yet, in Singapore, nothing, really has any value unless a dollar sign can be attached to it.

The adults in the audience were all parents of children who were interested in science. Yet, the parents' interest was purely and clearly: how much money will my child make if they go into science? The question about departmental budget was an indirect reference to how much money the scientists themselves are likely to make.

There was another question that I omitted to mention - one about turnover. "How many of these do you sell?" I took it to mean per year - and so did he.

He answered. There were no more questions. The audience had managed to assess the financial possibilities of this particular science department.

The exchange was, for me, the most unexpected of things to happen. It never occurred to me that the obsession over money extended so deeply into the local population that science, itself, had no value apart from the economic ones.

I grew up to believe in the value of science for science's sake. It is a value that I assumed all scientists to have. However, perhaps I should revise that opinion. Perhaps in some parts of the world, the only value of science, is in dollar terms.

The question then is, of course: if science is only valued in terms of dollars - would the resulting science - pursued for economic reasons alone - have any true value as science? It may be that pursuit of dollars, alone, might prevent the pursuit of higher, deeper truths. It may be that dollar-driven science might overlook everything that is of lasting importance in science. That danger has clearly not occurred to Singaporeans. The only scientific danger here is that it just might not pay as much as banking.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, 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.)