The humble American

Last week I attended a briefing for a group of students including myself who are leaving for a science centre program in December. The Director of the department organizing the program was an American man named Jamie.

I haven't met many Americans, but despite the common belief that they're arrogant, Jamie was surprisingly humble. During the briefing he didn't talk about himself much. Instead he gave a lot of credit to his team members. After the meeting, he socialized with some students, politely introducing himself, learning their names and saying he was looking forward to having them on the program.

We could tell that sometimes he did this on purpose. Maybe it was part of his job, or maybe he derived personal pleasure from being nice. But whatever the reason, seeing him so modest felt good anyway. Nobody likes arrogant people, even if their status justifies their conceit. We all want to be around people who are successful but unassuming.

I had a chat with Jamie after the briefing. He said he'd been in this line for 20 years. Interactive science museums started in North America in 1969 with one in San Fransisco (where Jamie is based) and one in Toronto. Later it spread to other continents. There are currently 10 such centres in Australia and 2 in Malaysia. Jamie has been to several countries around the world, helping them establish thier Centres of Learning.

I think it's a great idea to have experts from developed nations lead Malaysian teams. If developing nations were to be overly patriotic and independent and try to learn from their own mistakes, it would take them forever to catch up with the West. Jamie is leaving Malaysia in two years. By then the people he supervised will have learnt how things are done and will be prepared to take on his role.