OznAsia

I'm back in Phnom Penh, back to the dentist. My appointment is 10.00 am but thanks to running on Malaysian time I'm there at 9.00 am. He often has no one at this time, I might get in anyway. Besides I brought my book with me, didn't I?

Well, he already had a patient and when I checked my bag I didn't have my book after all so I headed around the corner to where there is usually a young woman selling English-language newspapers outside Lucky Supermarket. The vendor is there and also a middle-aged woman with two small kids, begging.

'How much is Cambodia Daily,' I ask.

'1,500 reil.'

'But on the cover it says "1,200",' I point out.

'Yes, 300 for me.' She can't be more upfront than that, can she? I know that when she sells the Phnom Penh Post she charges the cover price. I guess whoever she gets the Dailies from doesn't allow her a margin. And 300 reil is less than 10 cents. I give her the money.

All the time this transaction is taking place there is a two-year-old kid at my ankles with his hand out asking for money. Without paying him much attention I interrupt my purchasing a couple of times to say 'no'. When I have my paper in my hand, he's still there with his hand out. I look him in the eyes, 'Ot tay.'

He obviously understands Khmer because now he backs off. The mother/aunt/grandmother smiles at me with betel-stained teeth.

Labels: Asia, Cambodia, children, kids, Phnom Penh, poverty

Two recent incidents in the news in Thailand have been getting a few comments in online forums.

First a teacher was charged for caning students. A student filmed the act on his mobile-phone camera. The film showed the teacher, who really looked like he was enjoying it, swinging the cane wildly before bringing it down on each boy's bottom. There were also shots showing the bruises left by the caning. The students' crime? Their dormitory rooms were untidy.

In a separate incident, a nine-year-old boy was shot dead while leaving a Bangkok bus on his way to school. There was apparently a gang war between students from two different schools and this unfortunate kid got in the way.

Some of the forum posters suggested that the reason there are gang wars is that there is not enough discipline and that kids should be caned more to make them behave themselves. I disagree strongly and would like to explain why.

I believe that one of the most powerful teaching tools is demonstration, ie kids learn from what is demonstrated to them at home and in the world at large. This has been shown, for example, with literacy. There has been much research to show that children who come from homes where parents are seen to read and write regularly are more likely to do well at reading and writing tasks at school.

I believe that if we want to stop this gang warfare that occurs in Australia, perhaps as much as in Thailand, we need to ask what we demonstrate to our children about the use of violence.

If we demonstrate that when we have a problem with someone, we smack them or beat them then the child grows up believing that violence is a way to solve problems.

If we demonstrate that we can exert our power over another who is smaller than us, the child grows up looking for smaller or weaker people to bully.

If we demonstrate that we are more powerful because we have a weapon, the child who wants to be powerful will be looking to acquire weapons.

If we sit at home with our children watching movies where violence is seen as a solution to a problem, the children are learning that violence is the best solution to problems.

If our children watch the news every night and see people with shirts of one colour or another challenging authority with violence then they may grow up believing that they have a right to use violence to get their needs met.

On the other hand, if we demonstrate that we can have rational discussions with our children; that we can set clear boundaries so they know what they should and shouldn't do; that there are rewards and punishments that are fair and understood and administered fairly and consistently then there is some hope that our children will inherit a peaceful society where one can catch a bus without the fear of being shot.

Labels: Asia, children, family, fear, karma, kids, love, teaching, thailand, violence

I have a note in my diary that Tuesday August 18 is Science Day in Thailand. No, it's not another public holiday but apparently King Mongkut predicted a solar eclipse on this day in 1868 and now we acknowledge the father of science in Thailand. Keen to promote science, the Thai government has now declared the whole week as Science Week.

I knew something was happening because on the weekend a whole heap of stalls sprang up on the road outside the science buildings but no one told me why. I had decided to go and do some stuff on the old campus this morning. It wasn't a commitment, just a plan.

There were many sorngtheaus and big buses parked along the road that I was walking towards the local sorngtheau stop—and more still arriving with kids of varying ages getting off and heading towards the science area of campus along with their teachers.

I took a few photos and asked a friendly kid where he'd come from. He gave the name of his school but that gave me no more clues. As I got to the bridge that crossed the canal and led towards the science faculties, I decided to change my plan.

Most people were heading into the biological sciences building and so did I. I discovered that there was a science fair with displays from the various science-related faculties and also many of the high school students from schools around the region, that would be MSU's feeder schools, had set up poster sessions based on experiments they'd done. There was a lot of stuff there that would make an environmentalist proud on topics such as natural pest control, paper recycling, composting, earthworms, biodiesel and alternative electricity generation.

One section was attracting quite an audience. I managed to get close enough to see that one of the nursing students was testing male students to see if they knew how to put on a condom. She had a wooden erect penis on a table. This guy had to open the condom packet, remove the condom and place it properly on the wooden penis. But that wasn't all. She gave him some tissues and he had to remove it in a manner that would not allow any fluid to escape. He must have got it right because all his friends cheered.

Just past this was a room that most people coming from were holding their hands, a tissue or a cloth over their mouths and noses. I wondered what could be in there. I saw groups of people gathered around tables.
It took a while before I could see what was on the table—some sort of dead animal I guessed. There was lots of meat and organs exposed. As I looked more closely at the shape of the legs and then the rest of the body I realised that this animal was in fact human. 'It can't be real,' was my first thought. When I got close enough I asked the student who was taking care of it, running her bare hands through the various organs, picking them up for everyone to see, 'Jing reuh?' (Is it real?)

'Jing jing,' she replied. (It sure is.)

'Ma jark ti nai?' (Where did it come from?)

'Khon Kaen University.'

I asked if she was from the faculty of medicine. Nursing, I discovered. I was told that on the other side of the room were students from the faculty of medicine. There were several tables on each side of the room and on each was a similar body, cut up sufficiently that the gender was not obvious. The skulls on most had been sawn open. They weren't newly dead. They looked like they'd been preserved in some chemicals. Perhaps that is what was giving off the smell that many found offensive.

There were kids in the room, perhaps no more than ten, and no one was bothered to protect them from this sight. I was having a mixed reaction. On the one hand I was fascinated and got a few photos. On the other, I've been known to have bad reactions to this sort of thing in the past. I checked myself and decided that I wasn't about to pass out but that perhaps I'd feel more confident if I got out of there.

It was an interesting exhibition. Now I'm wondering if I should go back tomorrow.

Labels: Asia, children, Mahasarakham, science, thailand

On my first visit to Cambodia some years back I met a few young people and as we were chatting some made some disparaging remarks about Thai people. 'How many Thai people do you know?' I asked.

'None,' came the answer.

'So, tell me—How many fingers do you have?'

'Ten.'

'Mmmm. Same as Thai people. And what about toes? How many toes do Cambodian people have?'

'Ten.'

'Just like Thais. How many eyes do you have?'

'Two.'

'So do all the Thais I've met. And ears—How many ears do you have?'

'Two.'

'The same as all the Thai people I know. You know,' I said. 'Thai people are even more like Cambodian people than I am. You can be friendly with me, why not Thai people?'

I don't want to put these people down. I don't want my Thai readers to think any less of them. They simply didn't know better. They'd never met any Thais but they'd been taught to dislike them. They perceived differences but I pointed out how much Thais and Cambodians have in common. How different their attitudes might have been if they were taught this as children instead of being told lies.

Mem Fox is an Australian storyteller and children's writer. I know that Mem and I share similar attitudes on this issue and others. It seems that Mem has undertaken to write a book to teach the same concept that I was talking about. It goes...

'There was one little baby who was born far away.

'And another who was born on the very next day.

'And both of these babies, as everyone knows,

'had ten little fingers and ten little toes...'

The text of the book does not mention any differences at all but Helen Oxenbury's illustrations show babies from many different races and the book subtly and beautifully suggests that we all have more in common than we are different.

I've bought copies of this book for my grandchildren. Maybe I should buy a few for my friends in Cambodia.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Mem Fox, Helen Oxenbury
Penguin / Viking, 2008
Mem Fox's website

Labels: book review, Cambodia, children, children's books, family, fear, Mem Fox, prejudice, storytelling, thailand, tolerance, trust

I was raised in a Christian home and taught to believe that Christmas is a Christian celebration. I have since come to understand the real meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is training for children in the only commandment of the religion of Capitalism:

Thou shalt covet.

'What do you want Santa to bring you?' we ask of children too young to separate the fairy tale from reality. Even the most selfless child soon learns that they have to come up with something to ask Santa to bring. And those who've been through it before can demonstrate to younger siblings and friends that you don't have to be modest in your desires.

I confess that I too covet. Perhaps what I want for Christmas is too big, too much. Maybe Santa can't even fit it in his sleigh. Dear Santa, this year for Christmas can you bring to children of all ages (up to 99 or so) throughout the developed world the understanding that there are kids in many countries who not only have no toys but don't have enough to eat? Dear Santa can you somehow help us to put the needs of those people ahead of our own never-ending insatiable desire for more and more toys that won't make us happy anyway?

Labels: children, Christmas, poverty, religion

I was recently asked for a few tips on working with kids. Here's some of what I've learned over my time as a professional storyteller.

Everyone is a storyteller. Don't think you can't do it. You probably already do but don't know that's what you're doing. When you tell your friends and family about some incident at work or from some other aspect of life, you might notice that they pay you full attention. That's because you are weaving an interesting narrative and they want to find out what happens next.

When you tell stories to kids you can use stories from life, folktales or contemporary published stories. The way to hold their attention is with a story that keeps them guessing about what is going to happen. If the story surprises them they are satisfied. If they can guess what's coming that's boring. Don't rush it. Draw it out and you'll keep them on the edge of their seats.

Reading to kids from books is great. It shows them that the good time they're having is coming from literature. That encourages them to turn to books for entertainment and leads them to literacy. However, if you can let go off the book and tell the story from memory, you make eye contact with the audience, you read them and from their feedback you know how to pace the story, what to emphasise, what to leave out. Storytelling with a book is great. Storytelling without a book is way more powerful. Try it.

When choosing stories, it's not actually wrong for a story to have a message but if the message value is higher than the entertainment value forget it. Even 'bad' kids will sit and listen for hours if you entertain them well but start giving out overt messages about what they should or shouldn't do and you lose them. If your message is so subtle that they don't even notice it, the story can do it's own work on their subconscious.

For all performers, remember the audience comes first. Don't get caught up in your own ego. It can happen so easily. You start thinking how cool you are and then you lose it. The trick is to make them feel cool about themselves and they'll keep coming back for more.

If you teach kids, look for what they're doing right, not what they're doing wrong. So called 'bad' kids have had people telling them bad stuff about themselves so much they've turned right off. To turn them back on find what they do well and let them know. The same applies to adults too. We all need a self-esteem boost from time to time. But don't be patronising. Even kids can see through that.

I've always found kids to be fun. I had a ball for nine years working as a full-time storyteller. Make sure you're having fun and they will too.

Labels: children, kids, performance, storytelling