The academics are at fault.

A few weeks ago, I got an SMS to attend this WORLD POETRY DAY organized by WOU in conjunction with Penang's award as a WHD. I went during my lunchbreak and found out there was a program I had missed out half already. I had seen the announcement in a small column in the newspaper, but no mention of a programme. Calculating the cost of organizing such an event, I felt the 'reach' was really not something to shout about. It appears that all the events organized by academic institutions only reach the "inner circle", their own friends and the academic staff themselves making up the audience.

It made me wonder whether I would even have known at all about the event if not for the fact that my friend's father was launching his book and doing a recitation that day. And it was my friend's mom who had sent me the SMS.

As a marketing person at heart, I find the idea of a lack of publicity and layering to create awareness in events like these mind-boggling. But maybe I'm on the wrong page. Maybe all these programmes are not for lay-people like me. They are only for intellectuals, academics and their inner-circle. They are only for people who have, one way or another, a direct involvement in it, be it selling a product or presenting a paper to add to their resume.

On the other hand, I realize this situation is specific to White-thinking people. What I mean by White-thinking are people who have been educated in the Western way of thinking. I realized this when I saw a book tour organized by the DJZ for Malaysian Chinese poets. These young poets were willing to sacrifice time and effort and their pride and approach all kinds of bodies to help them promote their work to the people they want to reach. They ask alumnis, associations, etc to market their books. This is also true for literature published about schooling and learning problems. I offered parents my friend's book on Learning, "Learning Beyond Schooling" and one told me her sister-in-law had given her a similar book in Chinese.

I notice this also in the arts scene. I've seen Chinese-ed students organizing small performances, sometimes doing it for free. They come together, create props, find avenues, use their own money if necessary, if they want to stage competitions or shows. If they want to make films, they write their script, convince their friends to act or put the word out to get financing, help or talents to collaborate on. If they want to write books and publish poetry, they work two jobs and write on their free time. They dedicate themselves to building online network communities they can use for free. They galvanise resources through networking. They are never too proud to doubt themselves.

We can argue that the Chinese-ed community has done little to mitigate the problems in Chinese schools. But that wasn't the point I was making. The reason why the DJZ cannot resolve the problem is because their agenda is not always 'education' and the future of Chinese students. There is also no money to create a research and dissemination department who can distill the tons of information published in English and creatively customizing the information to meet the needs of the Chinese-school population. Yes, one has to be an insider to realize all these things. I do not expect non-Chinese ed people to understand the implications of the Chinese-school education system. The Western approach of research, design and implementation is not necessarily the benchmark that MUST also be adopted by the Chinese-ed people. To them, problems should be solved arbitrarily.....it's about giving face to people not telling their supporters, Teachers and School Heads how to better do their job with 'the better way of doing things according to Western research.'

A few days ago, I attended a talk at Georgetown College given by Nick Wreden, a Branding Guru who is now consultant for Tourism Malaysia and a host of other projects. Judging from his portfolio of Malaysian projects, I'd say he walks his talks because those are the only projects that has visibility and integrity in the eyes of Malaysians. And because of these two factors, Malaysians are more likely to lend support because they know how to demand accountability on those projects.

In a separate blog written before I attended the talk, I had said that apart from the obvious downloading of info from the brains of a Guru, I wanted to know what type of people would attend and what their responses say about where Penang folk are at in the entire scheme of things. I had expected my acquaintances, the organizers of the I LOVE PENANG brand concept and owners from several 'branding' agencies I know of in Penang, to attend. I don't know them well enough to spring them an SMS about it. As a neutral party, I just needed to know the reach talks like the one I had attended as part of Georgetown College's lecture series, had on the people of Penang.

As has been the case, it is the same faces in town-hall meetings and Sunday events, people who know people who know people. This is in contrast to the talks given by academics but organized by non-academics. Earlier this year, I wrote an article on Autonomous Learning after attending a talk given by Emeritus Prof. G.Confessor of the School of Education, George Washington University. There were about 50 walk-ins, and the other 10 were people who were part of the organizer's inner-circle. This was the FIRST TIME the organizers were inviting a guest speaker, the other 2 times, the organizers themselves were the speakers. They had no funding so they had to rent a premises and charge RM30 per person for refreshments.

Maybe it's just me but it always seems like laypeople, who are willing to sacrifice time and money, are not informed about information that can change their lives unless they are 'paid members' of a club or some faculty. No one wants to be a paid-member of anything unless they already have friends in there who form the "inner-circle". It is intimidating to invite ourselves into other people's inner circle, not that it's even my desire. Whose fault is it that the mine academics sit on hardly benefits the target audience that will CREATE MOMENTUM, TAKE ACTION and UTILISE it?