From: Chen Yixiong, Eric (cyixiong@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Aug 11 2001 - 21:42:24 MDT
<< But if we had the opportunity to directly invest in individuals worldwide, through financial mechanisms such as Massachussetts Trusts, then a vast network of information resources and companies would quickly emerge on the net to serve that investment option, looking for the individuals most likely to be good investments - the kid in Africa or Laos with a high IQ, a positive attitude, and a good family, but no money for education, or the small businessman or woman who has all the skills and willingness to work, but lacks the capital. >>
This idea does not seem very new to me: I thought of it 2 years ago in an educational context, and recently made a demo of it as a student project. (http://homex.coolconnect.com/user/ericchen/LIS/) If you have a million dollars, then you can implement it. If anyone really implemented it, then I would love to join it. This could also provide a model for educational system in the Sociologistics Project.
I know it has commerical viability, and that it doesn't need to rely on giovernments which often like to feed excessive propagenda or cater only to the "average" students. I feel very frustrated having to experience such a nasty, inefficient educational system that I now still have to endure.
<< The collective solutions to these problems are often worse than the problem, sucking good money from taxpayers or contributors and ending up giving it to dictators who use it to make matters worse, which gets them more money. The micro-loans program, which has brought the critical assessment information down to the local level, on the other hand, has been very successful. >>
Yes, I know it only too well. These people even have the ruckus to ignore my feedback with various absurd or ambiguous claims, such as that they have to consider everyone else's opinions and that I belong to a special case of students (such that I have to defer to the majority). Their favorite excuse lies in saying: "It's just not practical", as if their idea works (when you can see so many teens with bad attitudes and a hatred of learning).
They even refuse to let me enter into a computing course because someone else had better numbers from irrelevant exams, so that it holds more importance than my actual experience and talent. Knowing that, I don't feel very surprised when a hacker vandalised one of Singapore's websites with a message denouncing the Ministry of Education. According to some sources, this student had immense talent but lived in a frustrated state because the educational system threw him into a "slower" stream without recognizing his talent. He took to harrassing people on IRC with his computing skills and perhaps the frustration just got too much to bear on that fateful day.
The powers eventually caught him and I think they threw him in jail, and perhaps they thought: "case closed". I went through enough intellectual Hell enough to know that probably only nutcases would declare this. I know I can only weep at their arrogance, apathy and stupidity, and not to their face because I know they have to power to make life difficult for me too. I can see so many people with broken wishes and dreams, and though I know a few who succeeded despite their problems, I can only sigh at the majority who wander aimlessly around life, living a false dream for the "common good".
How I wish I can live in a rational society without this problems, and for myself to transcend my limitations. Only when one can self-actualize, then can one live a life worthy of living. However, our societies do not easily permit such lives, treating it as a luxury instead of a neccessity (or perhaps as a "right"). For this I pledge to make this society a reality through the discovery of the knowledge necessary to make it true, and to help create a sanctuary of peaceful co-existance in which those rational and oppressed can escape to.
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