“If it is our schools which are ‘teaching disabled,’ the symptoms of
this lack would still be visible primarily in the students and not
necessarily in the schools or teachers. When a doctor is incompetent,
it is the patient who dies” (The Paideia of God, Douglas Wilson).
Month: January 2006
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I had previously posted about 12-year-old Malaysian autistic savant Yeak Ping Lian so it was good to read that he’s in NY participating in an exhibition, Autistic Savant Artworks: Don’t ‘dis’ the Ability at
the Henry Gregg Gallery in Brooklyn on Saturday. Ping Lian’s work
is being shown together with 2 other well known autistic savant artists
Richard Wawro of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Iranian-born Christophe Pillault of Olivet, France.Autism educator and networker Dr Lawrence Becker of Creative Learning Environments, Austin, Texas, praised the trio saying they embodied the “quality and persistence of the human spirit.”
I was going to say that ‘persistence’ was also a quality that Ping
Lian’s mom possessed in spades, because she believed in him enough
to put her own interest second to her child’s. Ping Lian could
never quite fit in conventional schools so his mother Sarah Lee
had him homeschooled, supplemented by additional special needs
tuition, and especially art.Related link: Wisconsin Medical Society
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So Tash Aw didn’t get a whiff closer to the
Booker Prize than a mention in the long list (Banvile won), but what a whiff
for someone who apparently appeared from nowhere. Never mind that. Aw’s sophomore effort The Harmony Silk Factory,
was recently announced the Whitbread First Novel 2005 winner which is sure to
move more books off the shelves. It’s a competent story if not a little uneven,
and Aw’s forays into exotica is a mite too self-conscious.
The Harmony Silk Factory has a
Rashomon-like narrative presenting the recollections of 4 protagonists in
colonial
Snow Soong who became Jasper’s mother; and Englishman, Wormwood. Johnny whose
shady dealings earn him bragging rights as the richest man in
across as a typical Chinese man who is as inscrutable as he is unrefined – at
least compared to the delicate and high born Snow Soong who ends up becoming
his wife. Snow is the languid beauty caught in some kind of love triangle, but
you wonder what the fuss is all about because she is also the least interesting
of the four. What is interesting to me, however, is the backdrop – the
geography and culture – which is immediately recognisable to one who lives in
and is familiar with its history.
The rising literary star is an engaging
storyteller and a genuine talent, and I predict, Aw could well be the next
Asian celeb writer. In time. 33 year-old Tash Aw was born in
his childhood in
in his late teens where he now lives. This explains why Malaysians are
embracing him as their own, as if Aw’s own achievement somehow redeems our
lowly station in a constellation of explosive Asian luminaries. It’s something
that embarrasses me no end and I don’t understand the media’s shameless complicity.
Review: Colonial fantasies put to rest
Interview: Tash for Cash
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Got this interesting link from Lim Kit Siang’s blog. Whether they mean anything waits to be seen, but Ed Caesar
of the Independent believes the following list is a certainty. If so,
that’s a lot to chew on don’t you think? What is striking about a
seemingly value-free list such as this is not what it says, but what it
does not say.2006: WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW
It’s
too early to tell if the new year will turn out good or bad. But a surprising
number of facts about it can be stated with something close to certainty. Ed
Caesar presents a selectionNext year, for the first time, more
than 50 per cent of the world’s population will live in towns and cities rather
than in the countryside30bn tonnes of greenhouse gases will
be dischargedThere will be more than 2bn mobile
phones in useMore than 65m new cars will be made
22bn rolls of toilet paper will be
usedTwenty-four nations are due to hold
national electionsThe sea will rise by 2mm
Around 130m babies will be born, and
around 57m people will dieAt least 35 nations will experience
armed conflictOn 29 March, a total eclipse of the
Sun will be visible from over half the EarthMore than 1m people will die from
acute malariaAround 2.7trn insects will be
accidentally eaten by humansNASA will attempt to launch its first
mission to PlutoManuel Noriega will become eligible
for paroleMore than 3m people will die from
HIV/Aids; a further 3m will become newly infected with HIV in sub-SaharanAt least 25,000 sq km of Amazonian
rain forest will be destroyedThe global internet community will
reach 1.21bnGas and electricity bills in the
will increase292bn cans or bottles of Coke will be
soldTesco will open 80 new hypermarkets
and 128 new supermarkets worldwide
will assume the presidency of G8One person in five will have less than
$1 a day to live on50,000 species will become extinct
More than 1bn people will watch the
final of football’s World Cup on 9 JulyAt least 13m people will be refugees
Smoking in public places will become
illegal in
and then
will take over the EU presidencyMore than 1m people will commit
suicide; a further 10m will try but failRoughly a third of the planet’s
population will be under 18Kofi Annan will step down after 10
years as Secretary-General of the UNTen million people – including 4.5m
children – will die from hunger or hunger-related diseasesMore than 1m working computers will be
thrown away39bn barrels of oil will be pumped
The
will produce around 400m tonnes of waste, including 30m tonnes of domestic
wasteAround £350bn will be spent on
advertisingKenneth Lay, formerly of Enron, and
Conrad Black, former owner of the Telegraph Group, will both stand trialMore than 900 films will be made in
BollywoodAl Jazeera will launch its satellite
service, Al Jazeera International, in
AmericaAround $1trn will be spent on arms
Roughly 530,000 military servicemen
and women will be deployed globally; 70 per cent of them AmericanPatras, in south-west
will be
of CultureOver 100,000 new book titles will be
published in theMore than 4m British people will be on
weight-reducing dietsOne person in five will be Chinese
At least 6,150 square miles of Arctic
sea-ice will disappearThe average Briton will spend more
than 400 hours shopping
