A literary mystery.

A recent break in Thailand set me a bit of a mystery. Why is the Bangkok Post such a good newspaper?

I picked up a copy of the Bangkok Post while sitting in a hotel lobby in Chiangmai. I didn't expect much of it. After all, Thailand is a country of patchy literacy at best. In North-Eastern Thailand, for instance, only 58% of people are able to read. (This according to an article in the Bangkok Post). Therefore, it was something of a surprise to find myself reading literate, well-written, thoughtful articles with a...and this was the biggest surprise...global perspective. The Bangkok Post, despite having a local style title, was not a local newspaper, in the restricted sense of the word, but an international newspaper.

The Bangkok Post contained feature articles on international figures, in-depth articles on Thai issues - but also articles on world issues. The articles had been written with insight and thoughtfulness and actually seemed "meaty", in the reading.

As I read, I found myself comparing it to the newspapers of Singapore. By contrast, the Singaporean newspapers seem parochial, narrow in focus and local in flavour. They do not really look deeply into international matters, the articles are superficial and contain little real thinking (except those articles which they appropriate from international sources). The Singaporean newspapers seem to be poorly written by comparison to what I read in the Bangkok Post, in general and seem to contain less of actual substance.

Now, this is a mystery to me. The level of literacy in Singapore is 95.7%. Yet, the newspapers are a shallower read than what the Bangkok Post offers. Something is wrong here. Surely, the newspapers of Singapore should be more literate, better written, thoughtful and insightful than those of a much less developed nation, Thailand? Yet, it is not so. The Bangkok Post is a better read than any Singaporean paper (at least on the samples I read, which are probably average ones). This suggests something interesting. Though literacy is not universal in Thailand, there is a minority whose literacy exceeds that of the typical Singaporean newspaper writer. There is also a minority whose thinking is more insightful than that of a typical Singaporean newspaper writer. The result is that, although less developed and less literate on average, the Thais manage to produce a newspaper of greater excellence than is managed in Singapore.

There is a lesson in this. Singapore's media can do better. If Thailand can do such a good job, with less resources and a lower literacy base, surely Singapore can up its game. We have to wonder, however, why Singapore's newspapers are so indifferent in quality. Perhaps it is policy. Perhaps it is a choice that has been made to produce papers of modest literacy, limited insight and a local perspective. However, having seen what a third world neighbour can do, I am left unsatisfied with Singapore's efforts.

It is time for Singapore to have a media that matches its stature as a developed nation that is officially the tenth most expensive place to live on Earth. Singapore can start by trying to write a paper as good as the Bangkok Post. However, it might take them some time to catch up...

(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.

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How to get to the Olympics, Singaporean-style.

I heard a National Library Board representative speaking to two young men, today.

The NLB staff member remarked of one of the men that he was carrying a lot of sports-related books.

"Do you like sports?" he asked him.

"Yes.", the young man answered, in a way that indicated he wasn't much of a talker.

Then the NLB staff member turned to the man's friend: "How about you? Do you like sports books?"

He didn't give a direct answer. He just pointed to his friend and said: "He is in the Olympics.", as if to say, 'I am not in the Olympics and so don't have a right to read sports books.'

The NLB staff member laughed. "Well, if you read lots of books about sportsmanship, you can be in the Olympics, next year."

I thought this very funny. Only in Singapore could it be opined that you could read your way to the Olympics. It is a bookish nation, in some ways, indeed, in a very particular way, in which it is believed that the answer to everything is to be found in books. (That is, you don't have to think for yourself, just find the right book.)

I didn't fail to notice that the NLB staff member doesn't know the frequency of the Olympics and believes it to be an annual event.

So, now you know what to do. If you want a Gold Medal at the London Olympics in 2012...just go to the library. The right book is bound to be there somewhere.

(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.)