SECRET CORNER OF THANATOS

to be talented is to have the ability to do something extraordinary other people can’t, adequate to the needs and requirement of the society.

well, you hear many geniuses appearing nowadays, some got enrolled in the university at the age of 12…..or younger…because they are able to do things only adult could at their age….

but what if, things they are able to do, become useless all of a sudden in one day? what if their talents are no longer appriciated anymore? will they still be called "genius"?

for example, if the math has never been invented, the things that most math genius are able to do, altho is impressive, would not be significant to the requirement of the society. and what if english is never invented? those people having talent in this language would not be significant either.

of course, in the course of human civilization, other methods replacing math would be invented. but then, new "geniuses" able to adapt to this new method will become the new genius…and if the languages now were not invented, other way of communication might be more easily adaptable to other group of people becoming the new language genius…

what if one day, art and music is no longer appriciated( that would be a disaster, i know)….those genuises able to compose music and draw wonderful pictures would not be appriciated either. what if those instruments, for example piano were not invented, people that are now able to play this instrument well, will not become the so called genius either…

it might seem impossible now that those elements i stated above is impossible not to exist now..

but imagine,if one day, through the process of ontogenesis and phylogenesis, and process of evaluation, everyone could communicate through brain wave, in other words, to mind read….then language wouldn’t be so significant anymore…

this ability might be very impressive now, if one or 2 people could do it……but in some time, if everyone start to have the ability, it would just be another thing human should be able to do…

i’m sure before those musical notes, mathematical methods, laguages were invented, there are people who could have become geniuses if they would live in our era. but back then, what they do were not adequate to the requirement of the society….i mean who cares if u can play like mozard if u can’t  hunt down the wildboar for your dinner??

if let say i could play "teng teng" better than anyone else in the world…would i be called a "teng teng" genius?? i doubt so….because right now, nobody needs "teng teng" to build skyscraper, nobody needs it to solve problems of the century…..and it’s just a game for small children to hop around on one foot to pass time…

my point is, there’s no need to be upset if u think you do not have any talent. you do in fact have something that other people don have, just that they(your ability) are not needed in society. you are just bornt at the wrong place at the wrong time. try harder in your next lifetime.

the only purpose i can see for looking up to, praise or even worship a so called "genius" is to bare the hope in your heart that you would be able to do things that he is able to do now in the future, to be as good as him, or even better. otherwise, it’s pointless…

recently i’ve came across a forum talking about russian medical system. some of them still have some doubts about how they teach us medicine here.,,,they even question their capability of the russian medical system here in general…

well, i can’t blame them. ppl tend to reject those who are not known/ not familiar to them…

to explain more about this russian medical system, i’ve came out with an orbit and pie theory…

last year when i did my summer practical in melaka hospital, i got to know 2 friends who are studying in indonesia. we were both second year. however, they know much more about drugs and pathology than i do in cardiovascular system and respiratory system….something which i has no idea about back then….

up till now, you can’t just make blunt conclusion that russian’s medical education system shows a big flaw, and neither should you make assumption that i am just weak in studies…..(as it’s impossible)…

during the first 2 years, they studied the cardiovascular system and respiratory system thoroughly, including the anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and pathology…..all in a package…

on the other hand, the had no idea what’s inside their brain(literally), abdomen, and muscles….

whereas for us, we study by subjects, first anatomy, then physiology and biochemistry and now pharmacology and pathology…

ok, back to my orbit and pie theory….

assume that…

1) the "complete" course of medicine is a full compact circle.

2)the knowledge get more profound from the outer(superficial) to the center of the circle.

3) the coloured part of the circle designate the knowledge of a medical student.

russian medical system is like an orbit….the full circle will therefore look like this.

after the first 2 years, the russian medical student have the whole idea of the structure and normal function about human body, but they do not have any idea of how do to physical examinations, any drugs and even pathology.

their knowledge will look something like this….

you can call this an empty shell…..but at least it’s a complete rounded shape circle…

as you might have guessed, as the years go by, russian medical student will start working on the "essence" of medicine, to "fill up" the emptiness in the "shell".

eventually up to 6th year, a good compact circle is formed…

on the other hand, the local uni, as well as the uk, aus, india students learn medicine very profoundly since the beginning of the course…a phenomenon i would like to call as a "pie"

during the first few years, they study system by system, very profoundly of each system up to the core of the circle….but after 2nd year, they still do not have a shape of a complete circle…

then the question arise, which is better? some prefer to have a solid pice of pie than to have an empty shell…some prefer otherwise…

whatever it is, in the end you will still get a full circle.

both have their pros and cons….you might question that there’s no intergration of what we study if u study the anatomy and physiology and the pathology seperately, on the other hand, studying the organism as a whole rather than system by system allows you to see intergration between systems and able to correlate them in the end of the day….thus this might cover the weakness of a heart  specialist treating only his patient’s heart neglecting that human body indeed work as a whole…a defect of one system will influence on other systems as well….

in the end of the day, the question of whether a student is able to put everything together depends solely on the student’s ability itself… of course the student’s result too refelect the quality of the system, but so far, i think this system works fine…

here’s another idea. when the "senior" doctors are accessing the knowledge of the medical students, they tend to find the "profound" stuff useful for the clinical practice, as they think the "superficial" stuff are too basic, not significant enough to ask. thus, it’s a problem for russian medical student at that level. this gives the impression that the russians medical students are just weak, and not capable enough to work in malaysia as a doctor in the future…

you see, these doctors are trained using the "pie" way. so naturally they will test the med students using the way they are familiar with. not knowing enough about the "orbit" way, they assume russian medical students just after finished his/her second years only know the superficial of the medicine…even after 2 years. thus, they would think that we take our recognition here for granted, and we are all lazy bums…

change another point of view, what the doc ask the med student things about CNS or stuff, something which they have never learnt before…is it ok for them not to know then??

to those ppl having doubt with russian medical system…what i have to say is that there are many ways in approaching a certain issues and many ways to look on a concrete object. things that are done in a different way than how u do it doesn’t mean it’s not as good as u think it is…