Friday 4 April 2008

26 Day - Child Prodigy into Prostitution

OK, definition first. form here it says that is a child who masters one or more skills or arts at an early age. One generally accepted heuristic for identifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 13 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding field of endeavor. That it took from here, Feldman, David H: "Child Prodigies: A Distinctive Form of Giftedness", National Association for Gifted Children, Gifted Children Quarterly., 1993, 37(4): 188-193.
And from here, it says it's a noun, and it means a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age.
There are a lot of child prodigies in the world and here's the list. Another is the fictional child prodigies. Add to the list from Wikipedia is Jimmy Neutron. LOL. The Malay version of it a hysterical then ever.
In this post I want to just brief about the daughter of a Malaysian (mom) and a Pakistanis (dad) Sufiah Yusof. Actually not really brief just some so call facts that I gather from the news and also what I think of it. Just the practical view of it.

Ran Away

She ran away from St Hilda’s College in 2000, the day after her third year exams, sparking newspaper headlines, a nationwide hunt and emotional appeals from her family.
She was in hiding in Bournemouth, working in a hotel. She was posing as a student among the 30,000 foreigners who go to the seaside resort each year to study English. When she was found by police in an internet café she refused to return to her parents and was taken into care by a foster family.
When she ran away she sent an email accusing her father of making her life "a living hell" and of putting her through "15 years of physical and emotional abuse". She send an ultimatum to ask her dad to tell the press that she was save and she’s in Scotland or London with her relatives. He as expected of course denied the accusation. He even said that her daughter had run away with some nasty socialists and boyfriends.
Amazingly, she actually passed her exam that she took before she ran away.
Here are the reports of her disappearance.
Her parent lives in Westwood Heath, Coventry near Warwick University, where Sufiah's brother, Iskander, 14, and sister, Noraisha, 27, study who are in their second year. Their youngest daughter, Zuleila, 6, is preparing to sit her A-level math. A family of genius indeed.
If you read all the reports, you’ll read that her father didn’t say that his children as genius or gifted but they became like that through a proper training that the parents conduct and he’s going to make a book out of it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/07/07/nsuf107.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/07/07/nsuf07.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/07/06/nstu06.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/07/05/noxf05.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/07/08/nsuf08.xml
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/story/0,,340769,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/816469.stm

Her siblings

A teenage brother and sister who were the youngest siblings ever to go to university have graduated with math degrees.
Iskander Yusof, 15, and his sister Noraisha, 19, have been given their degrees by Warwick University.
Her dad didn’t want to comment on his daughter Sufiah Yusof’s issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2122284.stm

Married

Sufiah Yusof, 19, marries Jonathan Marshall, 24, a trainee lawyer from Keble College. The pair met at a Law Society function more than a year ago, after Sufiah returned to Oxford in October 2002 to complete her final year but she failed to complete the course and did not get a degree.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article455624.ece

Her dad sexual assault

Her father was arrested after touching a girl on the chest and attempting to kiss her as her parents watched television in a nearby room.
The victim's father said: "This man came across as intelligent, smooth-talking, charming. He said my daughter was very bright and that he would be able to further develop her skills.
"He even told us that his daughter went to Oxford - but he didn't tell us the rest of her story.
"He took a strong interest in our daughter. Now I realise it was for all the wrong reasons and he was just trying to groom her."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=505002&in_page_id=1770
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510726&in_page_id=1770

Prostitution

She advertise her service online. She advertise herself as Shilpa Lee, and she serves £130-an-hour service. The undercover reporter went to her apartment in Salford, Manchester to uncover her activities. She’s currently doing her masters in economics as part-time 2 years course in London.
There are a lot of versions of the reports. The Singapore’s Strait Times said that she’s a Malaysian prodigy but actually it’s not. Other’s said that her parents are Malaysian but it’s only her mother.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/Features/20080402152429/Article/index_html
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_223018.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_222269.html?vgnmr=1
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_222650.html
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/3003_hooker.shtml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/30/nprodigy130.xml
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=550549&in_page_id=1770
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/bar_news/berita_badan_peguam/sufiah_used_net_since_december.html
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/effort_to_save_former_oxford_prodigy_sufiah_yusof_now_a_vice_girl.html
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/readers_express_concern_for_sufiah.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/print/Latest+News/Asia/STIStory_222657.html

Malaysia has made a lot of fuss about saving her. Need to be reminded. She’s not even Malaysian. Did her mom pay the tax? I doubt it. And there’s a 'Save Sufiah Programme'. What? There are a lot more prostitute in Malaysia that have to sell their body in order to pay their tuition fees OK. Why not search and help them instead of helping this non-Malaysian girl. And there’s also some commented on the issue saying that ‘Come back to Malaysia and you’ll have many friends here.’ What come back? She’s not even Malaysian ok. Don’t waste the tax payer money on something controversial like this. Malaysia has been a welfare country helping those in need. I don’t mind Malaysia helping those countries at wars. But helping one single individual that is not even Malaysian is really waste of money. There are still other people who needs them in Malaysia.
This may come through that as a Muslim we have to help other Muslims that’s not on the right track to go back on track. But there are other way of helping this person. She’s an adult. She should have know what’s wrong and right. Malaysia should not be a busy body and try to help directly this non-Malaysian girl.
It’s like who ever wants to get free education in the Britain from Malaysia, just make some controversial thing like Sufiah Yusof and the government will help you through your study. Is that it?
And some reports even include some statement to the bloggers about the ‘Fitna’ short film.
From Bernama.
On another development, Zahid urged Muslim bloggers to help counter the attack against Islam by Dutch legislator Geert Wilders through his short film "Fitna" which was posted on the Internet.
"This is the time for the bloggers to do something useful and not just use their blogs to condemn the government," he said.
I’d say whatever.
In every issue they still have something to condemn about the blogger.
p/s- I’m boycotting the Dutch products but the mainstream TV still shows their ads but they told the people to boycott the products. Hypocrites much. Yeah2. They already paid and contract and all. Didn’t you have anything that couldn’t be bent? A contract is just a piece of paper right?

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