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

The David Beckham of Singapore

Why doesn't Singapore have a David Beckham? Why are there no internationally illustrious sports stars? Well, recently I heard a story that provides a perfect explanation.

If you are a regular of my blog, you will recall a story I told you about a lecturer, who was an "expert in raising children", who spoke of toughening up the children of Singapore. He also spoke of something else.

He told a tale of a young Singaporean who loved to play football. Every day he would be out with his friends practising, or honing his skills, by himself. It was, for him, non-stop football. It was his consuming passion. Yet, his parents were not happy. He was not doing well at school. He neglected his books. They wanted him to study. So, they began to badger him. They involved professionals, too, to coax him back to the books. Their nagging and persuasions began to tell on him. Finally, one day, he stopped playing football and started to study. The football remained unused at home. No longer did he kick it daily. Instead, he began to apply himself to his books.

His parents were elated. They had won. No longer was their son "wasting his time" on football, now, he was deploying himself usefully at his studies. The lecturer seemed most pleased to be able to recount this tale of victory of the education system, over the frivolity of football. Yet, I saw something else entirely in that tale. They had persuaded an indifferent student, with no great interest in academia, to try harder at his studies - but at the expense of his lifelong passion. I doubt, very much, that he was happy studying, instead of playing football. I doubt he got that much out of it, too. Yet, because he had conformed, his teachers and his parents were happy. He was now doing what they wanted.

As anyone of imagination can see, however, there is a price to all this. Let us look at his future. Is it a better future to be an indifferent academic, with so-so grades, reluctantly acquired, than to be a passionate, experienced footballer, who lives for his sport? Which is the better life for him? Could he not have become a professional footballer? After all, even Singapore has professional football teams. Would he not have been happier as a footballer, than as anything else? Would he not, perhaps, have been more successful as a footballer than as anything else?

No-one should deny their passion, in life - nor allow others to persuade them not to pursue it. You see, I believe there is a reason for that passion. If you have such high motivation for something and love doing it - it is usually because you have a gift for it. You are expressing yourself more truly through doing what you love, than through doing what others wish you to. That boy is a born footballer. He should be a professional sportsman. If he had been a born academic, that would have been his passion - but it is not.

I think a great mistake has been made and a boy will not now, grow up to live his dream. Once again, in Singapore, we see the narrowness of its values, the limited range of what is permissible. A boy cannot be a footballer, here. He must be an academic. Well, tell that to David Beckham - and his parents. Beckham was a child whose early life was very similar to this Singaporean boy's: he lived for football, practised all the time, was forever out on a field with his "mates". What was the result? He became one of the most famous sportsmen in the world and is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars (considering that his latest pay package is in the region of a quarter of a billion dollars for the contract period of a few years). Which is better then: to be a multi-millionaire sportsman - or to be a reluctant academic, with an average career thereafter?

Most Singaporean parents would never see the possibility of the former and will always push for the latter. Everyone plays safe. That is why Singapore doesn't have a David Beckham - and it never will, for as long as local values remain so narrow in their focus.

I only hope the boy starts to play football again - and auditions for a professional team. He would be a lot happier and fulfilled, that's for sure.

(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.)

Quality of memory: incidental knowledge

Ainan is very focussed on his scientific interests yet, surprisingly, he takes note of other things, too, in passing.

William James, the great 19th century American pioneer in the nascent science of Psychology made an interesting observation, on the types of memory people tend to have. He conceived of an understanding of great men: "When both memory and philosophy combine together in one person, then indeed we have the highest sort of intellectual efficiency. Your Walter Scotts, your Leibnitzes, your Gladstones, and your Goethes, all your folio copies of mankind, belong to this type."

Let me explain the background to this remark. This was given in his "Talk to Teachers" on memory. He observed that some people had the ability to recall random information that they were presented with. Their minds were "wax to receive, marble to retain". He further noted that, sometimes, such a great memory was found in a person otherwise ungifted in the "philosophic" department. By this he meant, yes, they have great memories - but they do not also possess high levels of intelligence. Today, we might call such individuals savants or the like - for he seems to be referring to such cases, as we would understand them, today.

However, he further noted that all combinations of types of mind were possible. Sometimes a person was both gifted in memory and in philosophical power of thinking. It is this type that he thinks of as great men - and used the geniuses above as examples of it. He further believed that such a combination was necessary for the highest accomplishment - the greatest of men (women not being afforded much opportunity in his day) tending to exhibit both faculties, to allow the necessary mental efficiency to accomplish their goals.

He clarified his understanding of memory by conceiving of the idea of "desultory memory" - this was the capacity to remember anything and everything without effort (his "wax to receive, marble to retain".) It is difficult for most of us to remember random information - but he noted that some people were adept at this, along with whatever other faculties they possessed.

Incidentally, "desultory" has a fascinating history as a word. It ultimately comes from the Latin, desultorius, the adjectival form of desultur, meaning "hasty, casual, superficial" but applied to mean "a rider in the circus who jumped from one horse to another while they are in gallop,". It therefore captures the ability of some people to be fluid in memory, too - to jump from one thing, to another, effortlessly.

So, in William James thinking, the most helpful memory, would be a desultory memory - one that allowed anything and everything to be learnt, incidentally, without really trying. Such a person would end up with a broad knowledge of just about everything, they encountered in life.

Now, back to Ainan.

This morning, Ainan was watching the Guiness Book of World Records on television, as I passed by. On the screen was a quiz about footballers and the question was: "Who is the highest paid footballer in the world?" There were three choices: David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and a third that eludes me because, frankly, I wasn't paying much attention.

I noted something odd, however. As Ainan sat in front of the television, he pointed at the Zinedine Zidane and said: "Zidane". That, for me, was strange, because I knew, for certain, that Ainan had no interest whatsoever in football. We had taken him to try it once and he couldn't have been less enthused. I have never seen him watch a football match, either - so it was more than a little surprising that he should feel that he knew who was "the highest paid footballer in the world." I thought, to myself, that it must be David Beckham, so I paused in my journey about the house and waited for the television to answer the question.

At last the answer came: "Zinedine Zidane is the highest paid footballer in the world!" It then went onto to say that he had the not inconsiderable salary of $66 million US Dollars a year.

That really surprised me: Ainan had been right. This then called to mind, for me, the remark about desultory memory made by William James that I had first read of while reading irrelevantly at Cambridge University, two decades before, a text that would do me no good whatsoever in the exams ahead (they are the best texts to read, for then you might learn something new!)

It seems, if this example is any guide, that Ainan possesses that element of desultory memory that William James so prized. His sole true interests are scientific - and he has no interest in football - yet still he knew who the highest paid footballer in the world was.

The real surprise here is that, after 7 years of being his father, and observing him first hand, daily, that he is still able to surprise me. That points to something else: he is constantly evolving and growing. He is what he is - but he is also becoming. To be able to see that growth is one of the great pleasures of fatherhood (or indeed, parenthood).

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

David Beckham, footballer and legend.

David Beckham. You didn't expect me to write those words, did you? Well, neither did I. It is just that I couldn't resist after hearing something about David Beckham, yesterday.

David Beckham is one of the most famous young men on Earth - but would you think of him as one of the brightest, too? Anyone who knew anything of him, from his interviews, is unlikely to think so. He comes across as a sweet but tongue-tied man, who finds it diffficult to express himself coherently in words. Yet, if there is one thing he is good at, it is PR. Either it is public relations, at work, or the global effect of Chinese Whispers has led to an interesting view of David Beckham, here in Singapore. Yesterday, a girl from Indonesia, who was twenty years old, told me this about David's life: "He went to Oxford University, but left without finishing his degree, because he wanted to focus on his football."

I greeted this with a long, almost reverent silence, that anyone could believe such a thing. Then I asked her: "Who told you that David Beckham went to Oxford?"

She couldn't remember where she got the information - but was sure of it. Now, either she had read it in a mistaken journalist's article - or had heard it from another, sometime - or she had imagined it. She was unable to source her knowledge. Yet, "know" it, she did.

Now, if you know anything about Oxford University, you would know how immensely difficult it is to get in. It is challenge as unlikely in its own way as becoming a leading professional footballer - but it is a very different kind of challenge. I cannot imagine, in anyway, that Beckham was ever a serious candidate for Oxford University - nor that he could have gained entrance. The internet confirms my view in that I couldn't find a confirmatory story. Indeed, he was a footballer by the age of 17 and, not being a child prodigy, did not have time to go to Oxford before then. So, clearly, this story about Beckham's aborted academic career is just that - a fiction, an urban legend of Indonesia. The question is, where did it come from? Was it a published source, perhaps the result of cheeky PR...or was it a mistaken journalist, perhaps conflating life stories, accidentally and coming up with this amazing tale - or was it a rumour started by an idolizing fan, for whom Beckham was a God? We shall never know, but it does point up one of the strange things that happens to the famous: people relate with confidence, information about them, which simply isn't true. Strangers adorn the life story of the famous one with embellishments and details, adoring additions that create something other than an image of the real person. Perhaps this only happens with a certain kind of celebrity. Perhaps it only happens with those who have popular mass appeal. I feel doubtful that it would happen to a serious individual famous for very sobre achievements - such as Richard Feynman. It may occur - but I somehow doubt it. However, whether or not it is a universal phenomenon of the famous - it is certain that it happens to some of them - and one of the victims of this is David Beckham, here in Asia.

I don't know how widespread this "information" about David Beckham is - but Indonesia is a very populous country (of almost a quarter of a billion people) and my informant came from a small town in Indonesia. It is a remarkable testament to the power of the media that she knew who Beckham was considering her isolated origins - but it is also an indication that perhaps this tale about Beckham's Oxford University days is widespread. If it is the product of a rumour, the rumour monger is, statistically, more likely to have come from a large city. Therefore, if this is so, the fact that the rumour had spread to a small town, in an isolated area, indicates that the rumour has spread far. This reasoning brings us to the hilarious conclusion that many Indonesians might believe that David Beckham, a man of no academic background or pretensions whatsoever, was an Oxford University drop-out.

I wonder what else is believed of Beckham around the world? What a strange thing fame can be.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, fourteen 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Cowardice in the playground

Two days ago, I saw something remarkable in its power to disturb.

Fintan, three, was in the playground and I was about fifteen to twenty metres away (it was a generously sized play area), near one of my other children. Fintan was standing by an area of low lying plants looking over them for reasons that were not clear to me, from where I was. There was a Singaporean boy behind him who looked to be ten to twelve years old. Were they playing?, I wondered.

Then the boy did something strange. He put his hands under Fintan's arms and tried to lift him. Comically, he failed, for Fintan, though only three, is very heavy: a solid boy indeed. Then he did something else - he tried to push him forward into the patch of plants in front of them. This, too, failed for the same reason of bodily mass and solidity. All this while I had been approaching them and now was close enough to speak:

"What do you think you are doing?" I asked him, not pleased at what I had seen.

He pointed into the patch of plants, where I could now see a football about one and a half metres into their midst.

"They are prickly..." he explained of the plants.

I was flabbergasted. This boy was trying to throw my three year old son into a patch of prickly plants to get his football back! I could barely believe what I had just heard. What a coward! His plan had only failed because of Fintan's unexpected mass.

"Why don't you get it yourself?" I asked rather sharply.

Something in him was shamed by my tone and he gingerly stepped forward into the prickly plants, trying to ensure that his shoes would step down on the offending prickles - and took the ball. He went off without saying a word to Fintan or myself.

I have seen many things in my life - but never have I seen a boy try to effect such a cowardly idea as that.