Am I a prodigy child?

Now the answer to this question will not be possible because as I stand now I wasn’t one and had not been discovered as one; also being 58 already, I don’t think it possible to do those checks to ascertain the possibility of being a prodigy.

This came about when I watched some youtube channels showing some of the prodigy children that made it into college at 12, graduated as doctors at 20, and are writing books, playing music, playing sports, and having a life time of enjoyment in reading books and discussing science. So I wondered if it is possible to discover kids with special talent in our countries.  Do we have the elements that make this discovery possible?

Well, I don’t think we do for many reasons.  To begin with most of the marriages are not compatible, and parents spend a lot of their time arguing or fighting, the kids are neglected and left to their own devices while that is going on.

Secondly parents are busy working and trying to make ends meet, so instead of focusing on their children’s abilities and watching if the kids have the reading power at two, playing music at three, writing music at 4, finishing school at 6 and going to a college at 8, and so on, they come home, cook dinner and put the kids to sleep without noticing what the kids did or about to do.  The small means do not allow the kids to even buy those books, and the few items at home don’t provide enough inspiration to the children to explore.  

Thirdly, most of our countries are living in turmoil, political problems, religious differences, fighting for no reason and debates about unimportant issues.  This environment is not conducive to cultivate a prodigy child. 

Fourthly, our schools are not equipped with the right teachers that will notice clever children, and in any case by the time the child reach the schools it’s a bet too late to find out if he or she is prodigy.

Last but not least, our society at large believe in negative things, for example they are worried about evil eye, envy, black magic and so on, so they would rather have a child that is “normal” in their standards than have a child that is clever who will be the envy of the neighborhood. 

I think that a child’s brain is a sponge for information, it’s a fertile soil, anything can grew on it, so with a little bit of nourishment and planting the right amount of seeds, we could have prodigy children, and I don’t really care if we are the envy of the whole world, as maybe these prodigy children will discover a cure for that evil eye, or they  may eliminate black magic. 

Happy reading

The glory of Thailand

These days visitors to Thailand enjoy the beaches, the scenery, shopping and food. They also enjoy the good rates of the hotels, and how inexpensive the country is.  I frequent Thailand as a stopover when I go to New Zealand, but haven’t actually gone there as a tourists, so the maximum I have seen is the hotel and shops. Once only we went touring around to see the gem factories, the rivers with the jumping fish, and the lovely statues of Buddha and so on. 

I like Thailand, and enjoy reading about its history, and its glories, their king also sounds great having been in ruling since the 1940s, of course the government goes in and out with changes from military to civil ruling and many problems and turmoil’s had affected that country that generates billions in tourism alone.  The Thai people had been like hay stalk in the face of the wind for many centuries and had always succeeded to live and flourish.  Of course there is poverty and people fight their government and try to remove it to a better one, but the recent problems in Thailand are somewhat strange! Why am I saying this?? Well read on

The first time I went to Thailand was in 1998, and to tell you the truth, I am the best in noticing things, details do not escape my eyes, and my instinct never fails me.  I noticed prostitutes, but didn’t see ladyboys.  That word was not in my dictionary, until I went to Thailand this time and was utterly astonished.  Of course my kids think that I am sheltered and naïve, I agree, I am stuck in universities and colleges, busy reading books and meeting students so things in the social arena do not come easily in front of my eyes, but once they do, I grab them by the neck (don’t want to say the other word of course).  So we were walking and I see these stunning tall girls with husky voices and I ask my daughter about the voice, so she tells me it’s a guy not a girl.  My head turns faster than a bullet to take a peep, of course I didn’t want the lad to be startled because I was looking at him. The severe surprise came about when I saw a congregation of the ladyboys around town.  Now that got me thinking!! 

Apart from being scary that boys want to turn into girls and actually endure the painful operations to install breast and what not, what is happening to the girls? Who is marrying them? Are we going to be having Thai kids? If the formula of number of ladies to the number of gentlemen is interrupted then the Thai people who survived centuries of glory may actually soon be extinct!!

The second thing that came to my mind is why is this happening? Is it because Thai men feel that they have been minusculed as they cannot run governments, they cannot do anything of essence to their country so they might as well turn into women? Not sure what the Thai women would think about their men becoming ladies? Or do Thai men think that women are better off so let’s be like them? Or did the world take so much advantage of the Thai men to the extent that we made them feel that they are equal to women?  

I am not trying to degrade the women here, I am a woman and nothing wrong with me, I never think of turning myself into a guy.  I do notice however that the percentage of men changing into women (not transvestites) is large, I guess it’s larger than women changing into men, why is that? But then this is not based on research it’s just formulated by my naked eyes and looking at pictures on Instagram and facebook etc. 

The other factor I noticed in Thailand is an increase in the number of beggars in the streets, children are being used by adults to beg from the tourists, and dirty old ladies dance to attract attention and beg, women sitting in corners of streets with their kids running around them to beg, Kids with dirty clothing and no slippers and guys with no legs thrown in the street with a bowl and people trip over them, and of course the sites are ugly.  Thailand is turning like India guys, we must do something about it. 

In my thinking, any country that has these symptoms can only mean one thing; its resources are going to the pockets of those in power instead of the people’s pockets.  I feel that governments should be careful, they will soon have no one in their country except beggars, prostitutes and ladyboys.

The flowers are lovely but the words are even better

I have a friend from Oman who always send me some forward emails, some I just skim through and some I file away to be read in the future, but some of his forwards are really nice; this one in particular I thought that it must be shared with you, hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
 

   
We never get what we want,
We never want what we get,
We never have what we like,
We never like what we have.
And still we live & love.
That's life...

The best kind of friends,
are the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word,
And then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.


 


It's true that we don't know
What we've got until it's gone,
But it's also true that we don't know
What we've been missing until it arrives.




Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart,
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.




It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
.



Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
Because it takes only a smile to
Make a dark day seem bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile!




May you have
Enough happiness to make you sweet,
Enough trials to make you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
And enough hope to make you happy





Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
It probably hurts the other person, too.




The happiest of people
Don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
Happiness comes to
Those who cry,
Those who hurt,
Those who have searched,
And those who have tried,
For only they can appreciate the importance of people
Who have touched their lives.





When you were born, you were crying
And everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
You're the one who is smiling
And everyone around you is crying.

An interview with me by one of the companies that I work with

 

1. Tell us about yourself. (Your educational background, family, your likes, your interests etc)

My family is a normal one that lived in Bahrain, my dad loved languages and he was an electrician, my mother couldn’t read or write but loved to study and made us love to read.  I was so interested in being a doctor or a teacher, and used to read books in Arabic or English that my dad will bring back with him when he returns from his trips; my cousin used to work in a library so she also introduced me to Arabic novels.  It was only later on that I was introduced to classic novels and started to read them.  Of course I am not a doctor, but I did fulfill my dream to become a teacher.  That didn’t happened straight after college as I went into the wrong profession for 30 years of life.  Teaching was an experience for me, I found out how not many of our young ones love to learn, and I found out that what we teach is not necessarily what is being practiced out there. So I stopped teaching.  I do training from time to time just to keep my interest alive.

Well at 58 I can only remember what I did with that education.  To me Education is just a tool so we excel in the world and achieve our goals, without having goals in life it doesn’t matter if we are educated or not.

I am interested in art, and interested in making every person in our country a bachelor degree holder.  With the grace of God, this will happen.

2. You are the Managing Director at Education Zone FZ,LLC. Tell us more about it.

I mentioned above that I had spent 30 years of life doing the wrong profession, that is because we dint have people that will direct us to the correct career path that suits our mind and our passion, so I decided that I will start an organisation that will save people’s time and money and create geniuses instead of machines. That is the story of why we created this company.  Its 12 years old now, and I am hoping that it will be 120 years old and that my kids and their kids will carry it forward.

3. You tend to prefer women employees in your company. Any particular reason for it?

I believe in empowering women because I believe that an empowered woman can raise prodigy kids.  A woman that is sitting at home may not notice if her kids are clever or not, so my ultimate reason is the future generation.

4. Being a lecturer and now a business specialist how has been the transition?

I mentioned above that I noticed that we do not teach what the world needs, we teach textbooks, so I stopped.  How many times did we need to draw a map of a country? And how many times did we need to do an ROI for the company that we work for?  We need instead to learn how to communicate and how to play in a team. We need to understand people to avoid office politics.  These qualities re not taught in colleges, so why continue.

5. How do you manage life as a mother and a successful business woman at the same time?

This is a classic question. And now that my son is married and has a daughter of his own, my middle daughter is pregnant and running her life, and the little one is about to graduate I feel I managed my time very well.  Time is not material, what we do with our time is the most important thing.

6. Tell us more about your life as a lecturer

Basically I taught while working, so I had to juggle between family, friends, homemaking, teaching and my own hobbies; but I loved my students and I knew why they are bored, they want to start their lives as it was pending that piece of paper called certificate.

7. Any tips for future entrepreneurs?

Yes do it yourself, and don’t depend on anyone else, if I can succeed any one can

8. Would you like to add anything else?

Yes, I want everyone to read the book “outliers” and try to understand it.  Its my favorite.

Ethical behaviour and ethics

What is ethics? I am always in debate with myself of what constitutes an ethical or non-ethical behaviours, so I intend in this article to talk about it in deeper meaning. In general ethics which is derived from the Greek word “ethos” means “way of living”, its a branch of philosophy that is concerned with human conduct, more specifically the behaviour of individuals in society. Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments; it studies what is morally right or wrong, just or unjust.

According to Wiki:
"Ethics, sometimes known as philosophical ethics, ethical theory, moral theory, and moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct, often addressing disputes of moral diversity.^[1] The term comes from the Greek word ethos, which means "character". The superfield within philosophy known as Axiology includes both ethics and Aesthetics and is unified by each sub-branch's concern with value.^[2] Philosophical ethics investigates what is the best way for humans to live, and what kinds of actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances. Ethics may be divided into four major areas of study:^[1]

• Meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth values (if any) may be determined;
• Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;
• Applied ethics draws upon ethical theory in order to ask what a person is obligated to do in some very specific situation, or within some particular domain of action (such as business);
• Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality;

Ethics seeks to resolve questions dealing with human morality—concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime"

And according to the BBC guide:

"At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives.
Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.
The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition.
Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

• how to live a good life
• our rights and responsibilities
• the language of right and wrong
• moral decisions - what is good and bad?

Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

So Ethics is a responsibility, as its derived from a feeling that what we are doing or about to do is not good, hence there will be a tingling in our brain that will try to hinder us from committing that unethical behavior. 

So, do organiations do unethical  stuff? or is this limited to people? I feel that because the organisation is made of people then it can be unethical too, and that is the jest of my discussion today.

I have been working for over 37 years, and have been faced with so many situations that made me upset and sometime had depressed me even as I cannot stand unethical behaviors.  People do it, organizations do it, companies do it, and governments do it. Leave aside the bribes, the waste of time and resources, the unlawful dealings with the public or counterparts, and the unjust treatments, I do not want to even delve into them in this article as it will take me forever to recite all of what I had encountered in these 37 years, I will only talk about two effects; the medical effect and the prison effect.

Many of those that were affected with unethical behaviors are frequenting the hospitals and clinics, as they couldn't tolerate that behavior and worried to talk about it so a disease of mental trauma is created, I think the medical team (if they are ethical of course as this article include the doctors too) should investigate this factor and add it as an extra check point to resolve.

Many of the poeple in prison are also there due to some sort of unethical behaviour of people, for example it could be a bank charging exorbitant interest so the person cannot pay that amount so the bank put him in prison forgetting of course that by doing so the bank will not only lose its money but will also be doomed as the imprisoned person will be cursing it and its employees every minute of every hour.  I know some people who are still in prison due to defaulting of payments to banks or due to committing bribery and unlawful doing.

Of course having said all of this, I expect universities, colleges and schools to be free from unethical behaviours as they are "the teachers for the nations", unfortunatly even these organisations who teach these subjects and tell people what to do and what not to do are committing the same things, they deny people their dues, they cheat in fees and their proffessors either fail students or expect money in return for services rendered or otherwise.

When are we the human beings who makeup the world (organizations and other communities) are going to wake up and listen to our inner minds! when are we going to be completely truthful and portray the correct information and not expect a kickback or a bribe etc.

Well, just some thoughts to ponder upon.