Power

(Let me continue with the story.)

Anna has her edge. She is humble and all willing to ask people around to help - as well as giving them the power and honor that they deserve. On the other hand, she stands in the front to face the difficulties and works relentlessly to treat her people well. It doesn't take long for her country to recover from the horrible frozen winter.

Of course the story does not end there. Amongst the monarchs previously being ill treated by the Snow Queen, The Duke of Weselton and Prince of the Southern Isles form a league and declare war to Arendelle. Although Anna has a cohesive kingdom under her hands, she is at her wits end because she is quite powerless to a military conflict.

At this time, she remembers her elder sister. She travels to the no man's land and, by this time, Elsa is quite depressed and autistic - convinced that her special power has no earthly value. But Anna gives her all the encouragement and, after a lengthy and wholehearted persuasion, Elsa agrees to come out from the ivory tower and help the new Queen.

For obvious reasons, with the capability of controlling cold and ice, the small army of Arendelle wins. Anna invites her elder sister to stay so that the two of them could run the country together. But, by this time, Elsa knows what she is good at and what she loves. She decides to retreat to her ivory tower for a simple life.

After all the hassles, the Snow Queen learns how to make the ivory tower warm.

Happy new year.

Plot

You may say I am merely criticizing without any constructive suggestion.

Em... If I were writing the story, it might go like this:

*******************
The King of Arendelle has two daughters. Elsa, the elder one, has the special power of manipulating cold and ice at her own wish, while Anna, the young one, is just a lovely ordinary girl.

When the King gets old, he has great hope on Elsa and makes her to become the Queen of the country. Everyone is excited because they all think, with the special power of Elsa, their country will prosper. But, the reality is, after a short honeymoon period, they realize that their new Queen has difficulty to control her power. She looks down upon her ministers because she considers them useless people with no special capability. She takes whatever she wants from Dukes and sovereigns around and does not treat her alliance with fair terms. Soon afterwards, the country gradually gets frozen. Elsa is taken as a monster and has to exiled to an icy ivory tower.

After Elsa is forced to leave the country, Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle. To begin with, she hesitates, because, without any special power like her elder sister, she doesn't think she could rule the country well. However, since the old King has no other children, she has to agree with reluctance.

I suppose you could imagine how the story is going to unfold subsequently?

Frozen

Vivian and I brought our princesses to watch Frozen the movie during the Christmas holiday.

To begin with, as an adult with a convoluted mind, I am sure I see little point watching this cartoon of Disney. Well, I am almost right. The story is remotely related to Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and, as a musical for kids, the plot is expectedly weak and sometimes unrealistic. For example, why should Prince Hans refuse to kiss Anna? Since Elsa is regarded by everyone as a monster and there is only her younger sister to rule the country, any crook in a sane mind would jump to that opportunity and seize the crown.

Em… I must say my criticism is undoubtedly biased because I watched the 2D Cantonese version; all the songs are converted to Chinese and I am not able to determine how good they are in their original English appearance. Alas, I can’t really understand why the songs need to be converted to Chinese.  After all, do we expect asking some American pop stars to sing for Yam Kim-Fai (任劍輝) and Bak Sheut-Sin (白雪仙) when a gweilo watches The Flowery Daughter of the Emperor (帝女花)?

PS. The best part of the film is, you know what, the cartoon of Mickey and Minnie that appeared at the beginning as a prologue. It is hardly a story and, I believe, has no hidden meaning. Nonetheless, it is immensely funny and entertaining.

The good old traditional Disney is really beyond comparison.

Footprint

The basic idea of water footprint is simple: It is the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. For the latter, it means the total volume of freshwater used to produce a product, summed over the various steps of the production chain.

For example, the production of a cup of tea requires 32 litres of freshwater, a glass of milk means 200 litres, and one kilogram of beef is equivalent to 15,000 litres.

And, therefore, it goes without saying that for countries with limited water supply, it is far more cost effective (and more environmental friendly) to import a spoon of tea leave or a bottle of milk than to transport that gigantic volume of water to make the corresponding items locally. In fact, even if a country does not have to import water from other places to grow their own food (hardly any countries actually need so), there remains an opportunistic cost to pay. For example, do you really want to cut down the petroleum consumption slightly (by doing away with importing food from other countries) but, at the same time, cut down the freshwater available in a local river (with a number of ecological consequences to follow)?

Water

On a first glance, it seems a good idea to grow our own food because agriculture is green.

But no. The reality is quite different.

First, agriculture is, by and large, not environment friendly. To most countries (Hong Kong included), growing our own food does not mean we turn part of the cement forest to genuine ones; it is achieved by converting some woods and grasslands of the country side into farms and fields. The place for wild trees and flowers becomes occupied by edible crops and vegetables.

You may argue producing our food locally is still a good idea because we consume less petroleum (and hence there is less air pollution) for the transportation of crops.

Well, do you know what is water footprint?

Food

I must say I should not be too harsh to the extraterrestrials on Sirius. They are noble creatures and always pave our way with good intentions.

While talking about the swarm from the ocean, I am reminded of a hot topic that comes up repeatedly in the media over the past few months: We should grow our own food.

You may think it is all advocate by fans of environment protection. But no. The original idea comes from nationalists and supporters of protectionism, and the objective is simple: If a country could be self-sufficient in terms of food supply, it has no fear of being isolated and could have all the say on her home affair as well as foreign policy.

Of course that doesn’t work out. A country can affect another by millions of ways, and food has little weight in this equation.

Although the objective is not achieved, however, the idea persists and is carried forward by environment protection groups. Their argument is simple: Agriculture means green and is environment friendly.

Shuffle

If you think it is a pain in the neck to ask a group of creatures that have never seen a tree to discuss the suitable strategy for preserving the tropical forest, you may may even a lower opinion to know what happened that very morning after we fixed up with the direction.

Alas, we had a tea break and then shuffled – all creatures moved randomly to another area and discussed what projects should be undertaken to materialize the strategies being chosen. (You see? It is really poisonous to go outside the solar system. I stayed there half a day and begin to talk like an extra-terrestrial!)

And, if you have ever tried the megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲), it is easy to predict what’s going to happen. When the earthworm was dismissed (and joined the group for South Pacific Current) and the strategy on the tropical forest was elaborated by a Neanderthal, a polar bear, a platypus, an oyster from mercury, and a ladybird from Uranus, the original strategy was interpreted in an entirely different manner.

As Humphrey Appleby always says, this kind of workshop serves only one purpose:

They appear to be doing something.

Group

The mass began with a speech by the second brain of the Stegosaurus Authority. His message was simple: All creatures in the solar system could pray, but the Lord would choose who and when to reply.

(The very question is, of course, why the second brain of a stegosaurus could speak for the Lord. Well, Fritz could speak for Count Westwest in The Castle, and, in a strong country on Earth, a fox could represent a tiger.)

After the remarkable speech, the Schwarm split into groups and discussed strategies of specific areas.  Em… all creatures discuss; if we define thinking as any exchange of neurotransmitter between neurons, we would have to agree all vibration waves generated  by vocal cord are some form of discussion. On the other hand, you may have a tiny trace of concern to see a group that made up of an Eskimo, an earthworm, a blue whale, a squid from Venus, and a praying mantis from Neptune were assigned to discuss the five year plan of the tropical rain forest.

Alas, you guess that much: The strategy was decided by the earthworm !

Mass

A critical idea of der Schwarm is a group of unicellular organisms could come together, share their memory (by exchanging their DNA), and come up with a unified action that would benefit the group as a whole.

Alas, that may be true for amoeba and other protozoa – but never for multicellular organisms.

(No, not necessarily Homo sapiens. Invertebrates and mollusks are all the worse.)

*************************
Let me go backward and tell you a slightly convoluted story I recently encountered.

It goes like this: On a few unrelated occasions in the past few weeks, I was asked to give an outline on what should be planned for the coming five years – research projects, space, dialysis facility, and clinical service in Hong Kong.

And, it was exactly for that last topic, on the day after the meeting with our professor of obstetrics (who talked about Nelson Mandela), I was summoned to Sirius to attend a Mass.

Em… our extraterrestrial friends actually called their Mass a different name, in which there were 50 or 60 creatures of all kinds, from the Earth as well as other planets. Well, I must say I could only see a religious value of that gathering. As Philo Vance often said, I was so impressed that I lost my nerve.

Let me tell you what happened tomorrow.

Schwarm

My recent leisure reading is der Scharm (群) of Frank Schatzing.

The plot is simple: The ocean that we know is actually controlled by single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarms, hence the title of the novel). This organism, which is called yrr in the book, has a form of collective intelligence based on inheritable memories, which are passed generation after generation by manipulating parts of their DNA. (The situation is somewhat similar to the hypervariability segment of our B lymphocytes.)

And, the problem is, although yrr has existed on Earth (specifically, in the ocean) for hundreds of millions of years, it is becoming more agitated recently. Many of our activities - oil mining, pollution, global warming, and what not - are devastating to the ocean. As a result, yrr set up one goal: To eliminate the human race.

Sounds horrible, eh? I agree it is. The story is thrilling. But the book does more than that. Schatzing has done extensive research on related topics before he started writing, and, as an amateur scientist, there is much to learn here and there from this arm-breaking paperback.

Germans are always meticulous.

Gerald

For our own students, I suppose it is meaningful to mention briefly the life and time of Professor Choa, whose career was nothing but remarkable:

Choa began studying medicine at our sister university in 1938. However, the Second World War soon broke off and everything became very haphazard. Eventually, he obtained a basic medical degree from the Cheeloo University (齊魯大學) in 1945, and then a formal bachelor of medicine from the other side of the Victoria Harbour the next year (after the Japanese surrender).

After some further training in general internal medicine and tropical medicine, Choa became a lecturer of medicine of his alma mater from 1949. He was soon promoted to be a senior lecturer and, in 1957, he was transferred to become the consultant-in-charge of the government medical unit of Queen Mary Hospital.

In those days, the consultant post was employed by the Department of Health. In 1967, Choa left Queen Mary Hospital and became the deputy director of the Department. Three years later, he was promoted as the director – a post which he held until his official retirement in 1976, at the age of 55.

But, to us, that’s just the end of the beginning. Choa joined our university after retiring from the government. In fact, he was asked by the government at that time to lead a group to set up the second medical school in Hong Kong.

And, as people often say, the rest is history.

永業

During a recent meeting, TC, our professor of obstetrics, sighed, “You know, sometimes the general knowledge of our students are really alarming. I just recently come to realize that many of them do not know who Nelson Mandela is.”

Our dean replied by a bitter smile, “That’s not the worst. Let me tell you this: A good many of them do not know who Gerald Choa is!”

I nodded – as I could attest that statement beyond any doubt.

For visitors outside my circle, Professor Gerald Choa (蔡永業) was the founding dean of my medical school.

PS. George Santayana said: Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

That's not entirely correct. I doubt any of our graduate could have an achievement close to our founding dean without knowing him. In fact, those who have no idea of the past would not appreciate why we are here and where we are heading.

邵雍

Believe it or not, my recent bedtime reading is A Pictorial Guide to Meihuayishu (圖解梅花易數) by Tang Hang Yi (湯行易).

For visitors not familiar with Chinese astrology, Meihuayishu - which literally means the plum flower mathematics of change - is a system of divination devised by Shao Yong (邵雍), a philosopher and cosmologist of the Song Dynasty who is often better known by his nickname Shào Kāngjié (邵康節).

Shao was often considered the most learned men of his time, and was the leading expert of studying I Ching (易經). He was best known by using the (at his time) novel image number approach (象數學) to interpret this classical text edited by the King Wen of Zhou (周文王). Meihuayishu is a practical extrapolation of Shao's system.

The best known work of Shao is, of course, The Book of Supreme World Ordering (皇極經世書), which is supposed to be able to predict (no, not only explain) everything under the sun by applying the principles of I Ching. The interesting rumor is Shao was convinced that neither his son nor students could fully understand The Book, and, for that reason, he wrote a less complicated one for them to earn a living.

This very version is The Iron Version of Mathematics (鐵版神數).

Or, Shao himself called it The Mathematics for the Dummies (蠢仔數).

List

Once I come to the opinion that the Michelin guide is not meant for our local people, a (biased, of course) list of good Chinese (or Asian) restaurants not included in the guide come to my mind. They are by no means comprehensive, but just the ones that I have some personal experience.

Here you go:

1. 陸羽茶室
2. 寧波會館
3. 銅鑼灣雪園
4. 銅鑼灣上海綠楊邨酒家
5. 銅鑼灣金不換
6. 炮台山香港老飯店
7. 北角東寶小館
8. 黄大仙詠藜園四川菜館
9. 九龍城清真牛肉館
10. 紅磡時新快餐店
11. 佐敦金山海鮮酒家
12. 佐敦麥文記麵家
13. 澳洲牛奶公司
14. 尖沙咀海景軒
15. 尖沙咀東來順
16. 鹿鳴春
17. 泰豐廔
18. 好時沙嗲
19. 楓林小館
20. 西貢通記海鮮

Michelin

For all local gourmets, the top news recently is the release of the Hong Kong Michelin Guide 2014.

Although not a professional food critic, I suppose I have sufficient experience to comment on the quality of any restaurant, and, for that reason, I always find the result of this tire-man manual inexplicable.

Well, the ranking of French and Italian restaurants are, by and large, expected and sensible (except the very fact that Gaddi’s of Peninsula is not on the list, and my recent experience with Tosca at Ritz Carlton was not entirely satisfactory). The list of star-grade Japanese restaurant is, to say the least, skewed and incomplete.

But, when it comes to Chinese ones, the list is nothing more or less than absurd. Strictly speaking, most of them do not serve traditional Chinese cuisine – but a modified one presented in a western manner. If we focus on the quality of food, how could Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) rank lower than any of her competitor?

PS. I must say I should not be too harsh to Michelin. The guide is not only written by a group of (predominantly) western gourmets, it is intended to be read by white people who come to this, to them, unfamiliar part of the world. The number of star of a restaurant does not reflect its absolute quality, but how well it suits the palate of Europeans and Americans.

Prevention

The idea of temporary licence flashed through the mind of General Forbes, but, in no time, he began to think of something else, “I see what you are getting at. All you worry is our naval students are green and may cause you trouble – with potential legal consequences!”

Colonel Clapperton blushed, “I could not say no to that statement. You know, as the pier manager, my  aim is complete prevention of all accident.”

The naval school principal shook his head, “Seriously, is that a realistic objective? Let me tell you a story: When the US Forest Service was established in 1905, complete fire suppression was the objective. Before that policy, small fires happened every now and then by lightening or other natural reasons, and trees of easily burnt species are regularly destroyed. After the fire suppression policy, however, highly flammable species became much more abundant in the forests. The result is simple: The strategy enjoyed a short period of minimal fire. In reality, the number of ordinary small fire was reduced, but the few major catastrophic ones remained inevitable. More so, because the composition of forests had changed, these fires were much worse - they became uncontrollable disasters.”

Colonel Clapperton was speechless. He appeared like a boy being caught red-handed while stealing candies.

“The same hold true for your zero accident policy.” General Forbes concluded.

Safe

Colonel Clapperton said helplessly, “Sir, if any of the naval student has an accident out there in the storm, we shall be in trouble.”

General Forbes sneered, “That’s hardly an argument. If any of the trained naval officer has an accident, our trouble is all the worse. At the time when a young person decide to join the naval force, he should accept the job has certain risk. And, seriously, we should have the concept that their career in the navy begins when they are a student – not after they graduated.”

The pier manager shook his head, “That depends on what kind of accident. If there is a storm and their skill of sailing is not adequate, they may endanger others’ life.”

“Same for any fully trained naval officer…”

“No, not the same. They are qualified and licenced to do so when they have graduated.”

General Forbes was about to say the Department of Defence should provide temporary licence to all naval students so that they have the legal right to carry out necessary procedures during their training.

Sailing

General Forbes was dumbfounded.

He read the memo again to make sure it’s not his hallucination.

No. It was a real nightmare. As the principal of the Royal Naval School, he found Clapperton’s memo no different from an order to close down the naval school that and there.

Later that afternoon, the general paid a visit to the pier manager and discussed the matter.

“I just want to ask a very simple question,” General Forbes began, “For what?”

“For the protection of everyone! People sailing out there will get into trouble when there is a storm.”

“Don’t beat about that bureaucratic bush. I can understand why recreational and voluntary services are banned. They are not essential. However, the naval school is different. It is always better to sail in an uncharted sea than not to go to sea at all. If our students are not allowed to sail even when there is merely a trivial turbulence, how could they become competent?”

Close

The face of the alternative scientist lighted up, “You know my method, don’t you? Close down the pier. Bar everyone from sailing. Give me the money. I shall work out how to cut down the damage from the storm.”

Colonel Clapperton was about to say the deal is no different from head you win tails I lose. If there was little damage by the typhoon, it’s because of what the alternative scientists did; if the storm ended up a disaster, they had long given the warning. In fact, they could go on and say the situation would be even worse if it was not for their good work.

But the naval officer kept his mouth shut. Instead, he took out an antique instrument and began to type.

A memo was put up at the entrance of the pier ten minutes later:

In view of a forthcoming storm, all activities in the marine areas of the pier will be suspended with immediate effect. This will include all recreational activities, voluntary services, as well as training sections on sailing practice for all students of the Royal Naval School at Plymouth until further notice. Official military duties of the Royal Naval Force will not be affected.

Storm

A bell clang in the mind of Colonel Clapperton. In no time he put up a political smile and went forward to the alternative scientist, “Who doesn’t? Your method is so impressive! Em… What brings you here?”

Professor Y took one step backward in order to keep a (psychologically) safe distance from the naval officer. He was surprised to find someone greeting him so eagerly. “Sir, a storm is coming.”

“Is it?” Clapperton sneered. To be honest, he found it an anticlimax to hear such a warning. It was the season of storm and Plymouth sees five or six typhoons each year; he would be much more amazed if the alternative scientist told him that there would not be any storm in the coming twelve months.

“I know what you are thinking,” Y went on, “But the storm is different this time. Have you heard of El Nino and the south Pacific current? Well, to put it simply, when the conditions are all fit and our luck is really tough, the storm could kill millions of people this time.”

The naval officer wished to say all storms could do that in theory. If everyone in England go swimming during the storm, a mortality in million would be an underestimate.

However, Clapperton did not say such kind of thing. His mind was considering another problem, “Professor, what do you want? Is there anything you could do to help us?” 

Pier

Colonel Clapperton was late.

He overslept. Well, who wouldn’t? It was in the middle of summer but the breeze was remarkably comforting. Thank goodness it was Sunday, and the naval officer had no official duty.

But he thought he had to do something. After thirty years of daily exertion, it had become his habit to go to work everyday. He quickly went to the garage and got into his Land Rover, and, in no time, he was by the shore. To be specific, he was at the pier of Plymouth. As the general manager of the port, he felt home by simply sitting there and watching the boats sailing in and out.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It has the familiar hue of saltiness.

"Em..." a voice appeared from his back.

Colonel Clapperton opened his eyes and turned around. There was a middle-age stranger with a curious smile at the entrance.

The stranger hid his smile and said, “Sir, let me introduce myself. I am Y, the Professor of Alternative Science from the University of Munchausen. You may have heard of my achievement from the local news..."

(See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2013/10/village.html)

Tomorrow

Don’t get me wrong. I am not sorry for making so much trouble and being harsh to my student. But, rather, I feel it’s really unfortunate as he would not have a chance to further his clinical exposure and improve his deficit.

As Groucho Marx said: Yesterday is dead. Tomorrow has not arrived yet. I have only one day to live – today.

Or, as Marius of Les Miserables sings (in Empty Chairs at Empty Tables),

Here they sang about “tomorrow”.
And “tomorrow” never came.

PS. I must say I have a strange feeling with what’s happening. On one hand, the two medical schools are trying to train up global health care leaders for the future. On the other, however, there is a problem of securing the provision of bare basic clinical exposure to our students.

Sorry

Very soon afterwards, that very student sent me an email to clarify the standard and requirement of the case report, and we had a brief communication via the electronic means.

Let me show you the last email exchange between us.

*************************
Dear Professor,

I must apologize for the numerous emails, but I thought it might be more environmentally friendly and less troublesome for the both of us to show you the amended case report via email before I submit a written copy. Please find attached an electronic copy of the amended case report. If this is acceptable
shall I submit a copy for you to mark?

Thank you again and I apologize again for any inconvenience caused.

Best regards, et cetera.

*************************
Dear --,

I will have to accept (with some reluctance). After all, since the ward is closed for the flu alert, you will not be able to see patients for a long while and it would be impossible for you to clerk other cases.

Please submit the hard copy.

Sincerely, et cetera.

*************************
I feel sorry for my students.

SOAP

Many of the visitors of this site may know that third-year medical students of my university have to submit a handful of case reports as part of the continuous assessment of their medical clerkship. The standard of these reports are, as you would expect, highly variable. From the angle of the receiving side, we are often disappointed, but very little could be done. Since the case reports constitute a negligible percentage of the total score, students could advance to the fourth year of study even if they score zero in the case reports – as long as they score not too badly in the OSCE (objective-specific clinical examination).

Some months ago, when we reflected this problem to AK, the coordinator of this exercise, she said, “For reports that are far from acceptable, we can return to the student without giving a score – and ask for a re-do. You know, they have no problem even if the score is zero here, but they cannot have it blank.”

I must say that’s a brilliant suggestion. And, on a recent occasion, I was forced to follow the advice of our professor of endocrinology.

A few days later, I received the revised report from that student. To my surprise, the new version was not much different from the original one – just like juggled the letters of cheating and call it teaching. Again, I returned the second report to PC, our secretary, and said, “This is no good. I’m afraid this student has to do it once again.”

PC twisted her lips. I’m sure she was thinking, “What a piece of SOAP.”

PS. SOAP stands for stubborn obsessive arrogant professor.

Homework

A recent homework that Adler has to do is to pick fallen leaves and flowers from a local garden and make an art work out of them.

To my surprise, the project is really fun.

Here is what we did:

History

During a recent casual dinner discussion on some sensational literature, Vivian asked whether a deputy chief implies a foreseeable promotion.

I shook my head and laughed, “Alas, don’t you remember the story between our Chairman Mao and Lin Bao (林彪)?”

“You know, I have little interest in the history of modern China,” my wife twisted her lips, “It spoils our soul to read too much about the dark side of human nature.”

“In that case we should also ban Macbeth and Othello and a good many others,” I said to myself, “It really depends on what you make out from a story. Yes, as we learn from Theodore Roosevelt, a man may become capable of stealing the whole railroad by having an university education, and a girl may become the worst crook of all time by learning all dirty tricks from her predecessors – like Ada of the Greene family. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary to have some experience with the evil spirit before we could appreciate the beauty of all virtue. A soul that has never seen the most sordid part of the world is nothing but naive.”

鐵蛋

Vivian went to Taiwan recently for a conference.

As always, she bought some souvenir to our girls and other family friends. To my surprise, I have my share too.

It was a small pack of iron eggs (鐵蛋) - a favorite snack of mine from Formosa.

The dish consists of small eggs that have been repeatedly stewed in a mix of spices and air-dried. The resulting eggs are dark brown on the outside, chewy in texture, and very flavourful compared to standard boiled eggs. As you expect, this interesting snack first came along when hawkers tried to salvage those spiced corned eggs (滷蛋) left over from days of poor business by cooking them again and again.

Suit my taste well.

Timber

After a period of uncomfortable silence, Abraham asked, "Shuah, since you have the insight, are you going for exploration?"

"Yes. I actually decide to go north and pass the Black Sea."

"What do you expect to find?"

"I don't know. It may not be anything valuable - there is a huge forest and all I could find may be wood only. Nonetheless, it is always fun to explore an unknown territory. I would be happy if something could be found, and be proud of myself if I could make the best use of it."

"Alas, that's not a good way to make money!" Abraham shook his head.

"Father, you may be right. But, although timber is way less expensive than petroleum and coal, not every piece of land has oil underground. After all, we need all kinds of raw material. If each and everyone of us work on the liquid gold, we will not have the wood and steel to build the drilling rig."

Destiny

The old man was silent for a moment before replying, ""Because I am an explorer and I want you all to be good ones too. By seeing what you all bring back from your exploration, I would know your capability."

"Father, I don't understand." Shuah said.

"You are too young to understand my plan." Abraham shook his head.

"I know your plan," the young man said, "But I cannot understand how the result of the exploration reflects our capability. Ishmael is never good at anything - he just encountered a fertile piece of land. Isaac is hardworking but stubborn, while Zimran's success has no relation with good exploration. Yes, he is bright and picks up an important omission of his brother - but he would achieve nothing if he is alone. Jokshan and Medan are really good explorers, and the failure of the latter has nothing to do with his ability. What valuable thing would you be able to find in the middle of Sahara? I agree Midian is no good - but he is no worse than his eldest brother. His failure is the result of arriving too late at the fertile field. And, is Ishbak a good explorer? Certainly not. He is successful in another domain. Thank goodness he has his own idea and does not confine himself to exploration!"

"You are correct, and you are not." The old man smile disapprovingly, "I believe in Heraclitus: Character is destiny."

Creative

Next, Abraham asked Ishbak to look for oil.

The young man  headed north-west. A few days later, he was by the shore.

He tried to dig for a while but found nothing – no petroleum, no diamond, and no coal. However, he soon had an idea and began building a castle, followed by gathering a troop and several warships.

Yes, he controlled the entrance to the Black Sea, and crowned himself as the King of Constantinople.

He returned home with glory.

“Good boy. You give up exploration but, to say the least, you are flexible!” Abraham was happy.

Finally, Abraham sent Shuah for the same reason.

To the surprise of the old man, Shuah did not go. Instead, he asked his father, "My lord, why do you send each and everyone of us away for oil?"

(To be continued.)

Explorer

Very soon afterwards, Abraham sent Medan for the same reason.

The fifth son of the old man went west. After passing some rivers and grasslands, there was a gigantic desert in front of him. Medan remembered the story of his eldest brother and began to dig. However, despite being remarkably skillful and spending months for meticulous drilling, all his effort was to no avail - there was not a trace of oil.

Exhausted and disappointed, he went home and told the old man what happened.

“Poor guy. Are you being unlucky, or are you really a good explorer?” Abraham said with a poker face.

Next, Midian was asked to set off.

The young man was anxious and eager to prove himself as a good son of his father. He considered the situation for a moment and, remember the successful story of his eldest brother, he decided to follow the footsteps of Ishmael and went south-east.

He reached the same desert that Ishmael found, and started drilling. However, to the surprise of Midian, there was no oil - all petroleum had been exploited by his eldest brother!

Ashamed but having no idea to go anywhere else, he returned to his father.

"You silly boy! As an explorer, you must be creative!" Abraham said.