8. ACADEMIC TESTIMONIAL RECOMMENDING ME FOR AN MA (2007)

8. ACADEMIC TESTIMONIAL RECOMMENDING ME FOR AN MA (2007)

In the previous post, showing and describing an email to me from my parents in February 2007, we see that they ask me there for my "long-term plan". They mention money left "to provide equally for" me by my recently deceased brother ______ , who had passed away in late 2006; but (1) they do not say how much was left to benefit me, and (2) they clearly imply in their email that it is no great sum (it was in fact £67,000, though that figure was hidden from me by all four members of immediate family until 2013).

A stipulation that the parents make in their co-authored email of February 2007 is that in my planning, I should be considering study "with prospects of a decent job in a civilised country". The letter of 10 May - just three months later - and attached here shows that I was doing precisely as instructed.

I was indeed in a civilised country at the time of receiving the February 2007 email and then three months later the letter of reference recommending me for MA study (directly related to decent and worthwhile work) attached here. The country was a Commonwealth nation and as civilised as any one could name anywhere.

The letter below shows that in the first few months of 2007, I had completed two lower-tier college courses to convert my English teacher-training certification in compliance with local rules, regulations and standards. At the end of those courses, three of the teacher-trainers strongly recommended to me that I should study for an MA at one of the very best centres worldwide for research and study of Applied Linguistics.

That actually shocked me too, I recall - for many years I'd had to become used to family denigrating and even mocking my academic ability. The head of the two training courses I had just completed was only too happy to provide a testimonial, and as you can read in her letter, the view of me of those good people is the starkly black-and-white opposite of what my family say of me.

I visited the University that was recommended to me and was warmly welcomed there too. Next I called home and told my mother of these things. I told her I had budgeted the costs of the MA and living expenses at $38,000 (this was 2007, remember).

She replied, "I'll have to ask your father. Call back tomorrow."

Next day, I did as asked, only to be told that there wasn't "anywhere near enough", yet six years later I discovered there had been more than twice as much as I had asked for.

The sheer sadism of that beggars belief. That was a clear, golden chance for me finally to recover my chances of having a worthwhile career in work for which I was perfectly well-suited, and at the same time buy a home of my own back in my own country.

And, as with so much else in life, family denied those to me too.