MGCCon: Malaysian Games and Comics Convention: a strange reaction.

Today, I brought my two elder sons to see the Malaysian Games and Comics Convention, at KDU University College, Damansara Jaya. The reason for doing so was simple: Ainan was participating at the Astromedia stall, as an animator. In his one hour in the booth, he created a comedic animation – a short tale about the life and times of two rabbits. It was very funny. Yet, that is not why I write...something else is.

Whilst I was doing a tour of the booths at the convention, I came across one that was clearly marketing an online game. It was by Garena. I looked curiously at the game paraphernalia on display. At that point, a young man in attendance approached me.

“Have you ever played computer games?”, he asked, in a curiously condescending manner. He seemed to look at me as if no-one as old as me could possibly have ever experienced such pursuits.

“Yes.” I replied very mildly and softly, though well aware of what he thought about me.

He seemed hesitant, as if he still didn’t believe me.

“What have you played?”, he asked, seemingly convinced that the answer wouldn’t be much.

“Oblivion.”

“Oh, Oblivion!”, he dismissed. “This is very different from that.”

He then went on to explain why this game was different from the one I was familiar with.

“Would you like to open an account?”, he asked, at the end of his pitch. “If you do, we will give you the free goodies.”

I looked at the bag of goodies, back at the screen where an account opening procedure awaited me and then back up at him.

“What is the subscription?”

“Oh it is free.”

“Is it an online game?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back.”, I said and walked away.

Little did he know, but he had lost me the moment he spoke condescendingly to me. The young are sometimes so very stupid. They believe themselves to be superior to the old – and yet, in almost every way, they are the inferior of their elders. This young man looked down on me because I was more than twice his age. He thought that I could not conceivably have any experience of modern gaming culture. So he treated me, from the very beginning, as some kind of lesser life form. It came through in his every word, tone of voice, attitude and demeanour. He just thought I wasn’t likely to have any experience of the kind of game he was marketing. Yet, of course, I have a very good idea of what kind of game he was selling. I have played similar games in my life – as most people have.

There was another reason I didn’t sign up for his game. I really didn’t like the idea of bringing another addictive gaming experience into the house, to waste everyone’s time on. There was no beneficial or productive reason to do so. The kind of product he shifted, is corrosive to family life, in excess...so I would just rather not get involved. So, I actually turned down a FREE game!

The truth, of course, is that I knew rather more about his type of game than he realized – which is just why I didn’t “buy” it. That, and his attitude, of course.

I never did go back to his stall, though I passed it by many times in the course of the afternoon.

For me, the highlight of the event was seeing Ainan’s animation. It was by far the most creative thing I saw there. 

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Reaction to an "intellectual".

Many years ago, when I was barely out of my teens, I was on a train to a place unremembered, reading a book, never forgotten. It was one of Samuel Beckett’s novels, from his trilogy, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable. As I read, quietly, in an end seat in the subdivided train compartment, I annotated the book, writing my thoughts in response to Beckett’s, my understandings of his understandings and ideas of my own that emerged as I read. I wrote in very small writing with a biro. I was very intent.

A voice interrupted me.

“You think you are so intelligent.”, sneered a middle aged woman across from me.

I looked up at her, somewhat surprised, but more puzzled at what she had said.

“I am just reading a book.”, I said, matter of factly, trying not to rise to her provocation.

“You think you are SO intelligent.”, she said again, with even more of a sneer.

Now, I thought this most odd, since I wasn’t thinking of myself at all, but of the book I was reading and the place it had taken me to.

“You know nothing about me.”, I began softly, but with an intensity that made it seem hard, “I have said nothing about my intelligence, to you. So, why are you attacking me for it? I am just reading a book on a train – what is wrong with that?”

Her mouth, if anything, looked even more sour than before.

“You are writing in your book.”, she said, as if that was proof of her view of my self-image.

“I am writing, because I am recording my thoughts in response to the book. That is all.”

Her sourness condensed further.

“You are just showing off.” Her sneer was well on the way to becoming a scar, by now.

“I am not showing anything. I am not writing for your consumption and entertainment, I am writing so that I am able to look at my thoughts again, later. It is not for you that I write.”

She didn’t know what to say, but there was a strange kind of hate cum envy in her eyes. She looked out of the train window. The conversation was at an end.

I returned to my reading and my writing. Aware that she was observing me from across the carriage, but not paying her any more attention. I had become accustomed to hostility from people less bright than myself, but I hadn’t expected to be attacked for reading on a train. I thought it odd that a middle aged lady should be so hateful of intellectual interest. It was odder still that she should assume to know what I thought about myself, from me quietly reading and saying nothing to anyone. Looking back, I do wonder if she were a little mad – and whether she projected her own evaluation of me – that I was “so intelligent” – onto me and ascribed it to me. This would be paranoid thinking and it seems quite possible now that that explains her behaviour.

Yet, there is another explanation that requires far less supposition: that she was hateful of any intellectual activity – that she was “giftist” as I call it. If so, then that attitude was alive and strong about a quarter of a century ago. Even now it is a toxic memory. At the time it was rather like being awoken to the sensation of sandpaper on one’s skin – a rasping reality that could not be ignored.

I have never forgotten her strange action – but was only reminded of it, today, after long years, on sighting the word “annotate”. Suddenly the event flooded into memory again.

It is a wonder that giftism is not more widely spoken of. I even had to create the word myself, some years ago, since at the time, there was not a single hit for it, on the Internet. Attitudes such as this unknown lady’s are truly corrosive, in society and make life difficult for more intellectually minded individuals. It seems likely that she behaved toxically towards any seeming intellectual she met. How many people would she bully in a lifetime? Hundreds, certainly...Imagine if she were a teacher, then there would be thousands of victims. These people are very harmful to society and to the health of a culture – yet she is not alone, there are many people who hate the “gifted”, the “smart”, the “intellectuals”...and even pride themselves on their hate. They think it “trendy” to attack the bookish, the thoughtful, the preoccupied. That woman wouldn’t even leave a young man to read in peace on a train, without trying to poison the experience.

I used to read a lot. I don’t read much these days. Life seems to take up too much time to leave enough time to read as much as I would like. Yet, I am now middle aged and I still see her words to me as foreign. I couldn’t possibly imagine saying them to a youngster reading on a train. I am more likely to feel glad they were reading and just to sneak a peek at the book title, to see how weighty it might be. I would be happiest if it were a complex and rich work. That is what I would like to see in the young today...intellectual preoccupations, thoughtfulness and a desire to learn. I certainly can’t imagine attacking anyone for it.

The UK has gone into a cultural and intellectual decline in recent decades. No doubt that lady, who would now be a pensioner, would be quite happy with the way things are going. I, however, are not. Here’s to a future world in which every youngster reads on trains and thinks in public. How much better a world that would be.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

How to be unfashionable: be heterosexual.

I had the strangest experience a couple of weeks ago. It occurred on Facebook. Someone had posted a comment on their page, which provoked a conversation that struck me as most bizarre. There were, perhaps, a dozen people contributing to the talk. Its subject was human attraction. Now, this might not strike you as a bizarre subject – but the way everyone responded to it, was most strange. You see, out of the dozen or so people commenting on the post, I was the ONLY one who wrote in defence of heterosexuality. Everyone else wrote comments in support of the “rightness” of people finding the same sex attractive. A few commenters even said that it was natural for “heterosexual” people to find the same sex attractive – and jumped on me when I pointed out that that would be the viewpoint of a bisexual.

The conversation was quite a long one, but eventually I withdrew from commenting any further, because the comments against my viewpoint (that heterosexuality was the natural, biologically determined position, otherwise none of us would be here) and against me, personally, were becoming too aggressive. Not only was I surrounded by a dozen proponents of homosexuality and bisexuality – but they were becoming increasingly aggressive in their comments and attacks. I, on the other hand, remained polite and civil throughout, even when faced with a particular commenter who was being strongly abusive.

I must say, this experience really puzzled me. You see, of the many, many people on my FB and on the FB of those others who commented, there would have been many heterosexuals – in fact, most people on them would, I assume, have been heterosexual. Yet, not ONE of these heterosexuals was brave enough to stand up for the heterosexual viewpoint – I, alone, spoke out in favour of heterosexuality. It should be noted that I did not speak against homosexuality or bisexuality in any way – I only spoke up for heterosexuality as the default position of biology. I only spoke in terms of what biologically made sense. I did not address sociological or sub-cultural issues at all. My antagonists, however, were very abusive, at times, against the heterosexual position and me, in particular. So, not only was I being ambushed by a dozen homosexuals/bisexuals, some of whom claimed to be “straight”, implicitly by claiming that it was normal for heterosexuals to be attracted to the same sex – but I was being attacked, sometimes, quite rudely by these people. My question is: why? Why did these pink proponents feel the need to ambush me – and why did they feel the need to do so, so aggressively, when everything I said was true, uncontroversial, and just basic biology?

It seems to me that two things have happened. Firstly, heterosexuals now feel unable to defend themselves in public, they feel they should be silent collectively, on the issue of their viewpoint on life. Secondly homosexuals and bisexuals, feel so emboldened to speak out, that they forcibly push their viewpoints and way of life, onto everyone else, whenever they get the opportunity. Not only that, but some of them do so in an offensive, rude, aggressive manner. They seem to feel anger at the existence of heterosexuals (without which they would not be), and seem to want to extinguish that way of life. The madness of all of this is that the majority position – heterosexuality – now feels unable to speak up in public. The reason for this is clear. If a heterosexual speaks up for their position, many homosexuals and bisexuals will attack them, accusing them of being “homophobic”. The funny thing is, heterosexuals are usually not homophobic at all, when they speak for themselves, however, homosexuals are very frequently HETEROphobic (my spell checker says such a word does not exist, but it should, because heterophobia is a LOT more common among homosexuals, in my experience, than homophobia is among heterosexuals).

So, what I experienced was a “heterophobic” ambush. I spoke out for the biological reasons behind heterosexuality – and was shouted down by a lot of people whose views were clearly homosexual and bisexual in content, some of them in an offensive manner. It seems that no other heterosexual reading the exchange was brave enough to contribute. This strikes me as dangerous. We are now in a world in which heterosexuality may not be spoken of, in some circles – without being attacked. We are in a world in which homosexuality is fashionable, to the degree that those who are not practising it, or openly evangelizing for it, are to be attacked or rejected. Heterosexuality on the other hand, is unfashionable in some circles. It is almost as if homosexuals and bisexuals think the world would be better off without heterosexuals, at all. They seem to forget how the human race is brought into being with each generation.

Sadly, my experience of being ambushed for speaking out in support of heterosexuality – against those who were criticizing it – was so unpleasant that I might hesitate to do so, again, in future. The hassle is not really worth it. Life is too short to spend it being abused by strangers, for one’s views. So it is, that the homosexual community entrains the heterosexual community to shut up. Everyone they abuse is another person who is likely to keep silent again, in future.

The oddest part about this experience was that the conversation was started by a Malay woman who spoke in favour of homosexuality. This is odd, because homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia. However, it does appear to have a very vocal minority who support it – at least, online. Many of the other commenters appeared to be American.

Now, it should be noted, here, that I have no issues with people choosing their own way of life. They are free to do as they please. However, what I do have an issue with, is when they feel it necessary to abuse those who hold a different view, perhaps even the majority view – as they abused me, for holding a heterosexual viewpoint. To my mind, by being abusive to those who hold a different viewpoint, they invalidate their own right to hold their viewpoint. If they are going to hold a different viewpoint and way of life, they MUST NOT abuse others who hold a different viewpoint. Yet, that is what they were doing. This lost them any sympathy for their viewpoint that I had had before the conversation began. Being abusive to strangers – as they were to me, since none of the commenters, apart from one , was actually a Facebook friend of mine – is never going to do any good for their cause.

This taught me a lesson though. The promotion of homosexual “rights” has gone too far, in some parts of the world. It has gone so far, that heterosexuals are frightened to speak up for themselves. That is completely mad. Homosexuals say they seek “equality” but what they really seem to seek, going by the conversation I had, is total dominance. Already, the situation has become highly unequal. Homosexuals feel free to speak out at any time – whereas heterosexuals are now frightened to speak up for themselves, for they are inevitably accused of “homophobia” when they do – even when they say nothing against homosexuals at all. Well it is time for heterosexuals to start using the word “heterophobia” and “heterophobic” to describe the attacks quite a few homosexuals make on them. It is time for heterosexuals to speak out for their viewpoint and position on life – before it becomes the minority position. Where would the human race be then?

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

On racial purity.

Several years ago, a (then) friend of mine, who is no longer one, remarked, with a strangely gleeful face, that: “Your children are not racially pure…my daughter is.”

I thought this a most bizarre and inexplicable remark coming from a man whose first marriage had been to a fellow Caucasian – but whose second marriage (and two children by it) was to a Malay woman!

He seemed to have forgotten that two out of three of his own children were as mixed as mine were.

Anyway, his remark got me thinking. Does it matter that my children are racially mixed? Does it make any difference to me, in any negative sense – as my former friend implied it should? Clearly, the answer is no, it does not matter. The reason for this should be clear to anyone with the least understanding of genetics: my children by my Malay wife, contain exactly the same number of my genes as any theoretical child I could have had by a fellow Irish woman. My children are just as much my children, in a mixed race marriage, as they would be in a “pure blood” marriage. The situations, from the genetic point of view of what fatherhood means, are exactly equivalent.

I realize that my former friend was expressing a view, held by some, that there is something wrong with “impure” crosses. They see something wrong in mixed race children. I cannot agree with this view. Mixed race children are, by simple observation, frequently more attractive than either parent – so, they certainly do not lose out there. They are likely to be healthier than a “pure blood” child, since they are unlikely to have genetic diseases which require two defective genes, one from either parent. This is obviously so, since different races will have different preponderances of various defective genes: a mixed race cross is unlikely, therefore, to bestow a genetic disorder on a child. Thus, mixed race children can be expected to be healthy and good looking. They are also, don’t forget, just as much their parents’ children, as they would have been in a “pure blood” cross. So, I don’t see any disadvantage here, indeed there are certain advantages.

I have one qualification to this, though. I do think it would be a bad idea if ALL relationships were mixed race crosses. You see this would extinguish the individual races and their individual mix of abilities and disabilities, advantages and disadvantages and create blends between them that might not be as suited to particular environments as the uncrossed pure bloods would have been. So, some mixing is fine and, in fact, to be desired in some ways – but it is important, I think, that the full panoply and variety of human races (and mixes) is maintained – for in that variety, Humanity has a certain strength against changed circumstance and a range of challenging environments.

The Caucasian is in decline in the world. Caucasians are having fewer and fewer children. I, for one, would regret the passing of the Caucasian, should they decline to extinction (though I am not likely to live long enough to see it). Yet, that does not mean that mixed race marriages and biracial children should not be. Such children and such marriages contribute to the world’s diversity, and this can only be a good thing. It is my hope that all races and all racial combinations, persist for the long term – for in each such combination, I think there is something of lasting human interest to be found.

As for my former friend’s remark about my children not being “pure blooded”, I admit, I was surprised that he should not only say such a thing, but think it. He seemed to take pleasure in the fact that my children were “mixed” and “not pure bloods” – as if they were somehow inferior to his daughter, thereby. In the end, I understood that he needed to think such things to defend himself against an unavoidable fact: my children are a lot brighter than his. He was looking for a way to reason that his child was superior to mine. He chose “racial purity”. It was jarring to hear such thoughts, in a post-Nazi world. I would have thought that the ideals of racial purity would have been muted, by the events of the nineteen-forties. However, he did not seem to have this historical awareness, despite his father’s wartime service against the Nazis.

My own view is that all races and mixes between races, have their utility and special place. All should be respected and valued – and all should be preserved. You never know when a particular race, or racial combination, might prove vital to the interests of Humanity – so it seems wisest to preserve them all, against future need.

In case you are curious, it is not my former friend’s remark about my children not being pure blooded that ended our friendship – but something else that he did (a deception). Ultimately, I would rather he was more concerned with purity of heart (his own), than purity of race. Then, probably, we would still be friends.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The new Hollywood villains.

Once it was Russia, that was the staple villain, in Hollywood films; then it became the Latin American drug lord - and, more recently, the Islamic terrorist, from an ill-defined country somewhere in the Middle East. No doubt you are all familiar with these stock villains...but there is, now, a new Hollywood villain. I would like you to consider, for a moment or two: whom do you think has now been labelled as villainous by that moronic town, Hollywood?

Well, it might surprise you, as it did me, but the new Hollywood villain - is...the child prodigy father.

Yes. Hollywood actually believes and wants you to believe that the father of a child prodigy is good villain material.

In an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, entitled: "Bright boy" (season 2, episode 2), detectives find a "slain social worker killed trying to protect a child prodigy from his ruthless father."

Now, that is an absolutely MAD plot - and one extremely damaging to all prodigies and their parents everywhere. It creates, in people's minds, the idea that the prodigy is somehow created through ill-doing - that the father (or other parent) of such a one, is a kind of villain...even a monstrous villain who would kill a social worker.

Then again, why is there a social worker involved at all? The clear implication is that the prodigy is a put upon person, who needs social protection from their family dynamics. Again, this is not reflected by reality. It is, in my view, impossible, absolutely impossible, to create a prodigy through any form of coercion or enforcement of a regime: if the child doesn't want to learn, the child will not learn. It is that simple. There is no possibility of a "villainous" father creating such a high performance child.

In a way, this episode of Law and Order, is profoundly sad. It is sad because of what it says some sections of society believe about gifted children and their performance. This idiotic episode, with its crass misunderstanding of human nature, is perpetuating the idea that prodigious children are "forced" to be the way they are. The promulgation of this toxic view is very harmful to the families of gifted children everywhere. Indeed, so harmful is the plotline to this film, that I wonder if the families of prodigious children could take a class action lawsuit, for the damage this film will do to their reputations as a minority, in society.

That an American company would actually make a film with a plot as absurd as this, just gives me one more reason (among many others) why I wouldn't want my family to live in the US. What morons.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Where creativity is to be found.

Recently, in Malaysia, I have encountered a strange idea. Well, it is strange to me. The idea is almost a religious belief, so strongly is it held, by those in whom I encountered it. It goes like this: "No-one who does not have a PhD can possibly do research."

Wow, I thought, on first hearing this view, expressed. Somewhere along the way, those who think this have come to confuse the ability with the credential: the latter is not the former and the former can exist without the latter.

This belief that no-one is empowered to think creatively, in science, without a PhD, is a dangerous and mistaken one. Were it to be believed and acted on, many good people, with good brains and good ideas, would never be allowed to do any research. This would be a great loss. There is no reason, at all, why someone who has never done a PhD cannot contribute interesting scientific work. I, myself, did a couple of interesting research projects at 17, for the British government (at NPL). I certainly did not have a PhD - but I did invent a scientifically useful device, as one of my projects. Not having a PhD certainly did not stop me from being able to do that.

I understand the anxieties of those who appoint researchers, however. They wish to be sure that someone can do research. In their minds, the PhD is evidence of that ability. However, just because this is so, that does not mean that other forms of evidence do not exist. Someone may have written and published research papers or invented things...these are all evidence of scientific creativity and are enough in and of themselves to show that someone should be able to do research.

It is apt, I think, to look with broader eyes on people, lest narrow vision preclude good people from contributing good ideas and good projects, because they haven't jumped through all the "right" hoops. If someone is creative and clear thinking they have all that is necessary to do research. They don't need a piece of paper to prove it.

So, I would suggest that recruiters look a little more broadly at what people have to offer. There can be some very good non-standard candidates out there. Indeed, I am sure that there are many potentially prize-worthy researchers, sitting in the non-PhD pile on the average human resources desk. Typically, however, they will never get a chance to show what they can do. Why not give them that chance? After all, Einstein didn't have a degree when he contributed his first four seminal papers to the world...Would you dismiss his work because he didn't have PhD after his name? Some would...

(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.)