hellos.
yest was fun. and funny lah. was spose to go beach to celebrate teha and sarahs bdae but evryone [or almost evryone] was late. and sarah couldnt go. so we decided not to go to the beach. but instead went to suntec then ate pizza hut. and i was somehow tired.
and i might get sick.
later going to a wedding. and i hope to use my wrap around skirt from bangkok!. hahahaha. its soo formal that i can only use it on like "ocassions".
anyhows. i was reading the papers today and something really caught my eye. an article about child labour. its sad that soo many children [below the age of 14] is made to work. they have never been to school. there are efforts done to try raise awareness. but nothing is really done. the aricle was accompanied by a picture of a little girl preparing food to be sold at a very cheap price. she is only 8. and she is also on one of the posters against child labour. i find it ironic that tho she is on those posters, she is still made to work. and she, together with her many other siblings have never been to school. although alot has been done to try help raise awareness, its still not enough. the little girl i mentioned will get married and have children. since she is soo uneducated she will probably get married to someone as uneducated and poor as her. she wont have money to send her kids to school. inevitably, her kids will have to work at a very young age aswell. this cycle might go on for a really long time. and poverty will not just remain but may become worse. since the poor are getting poorer, naturally the rich get richer.
i think it is really hard to try solve this problem of child labour. simply because families that engage in it do it out of desperation. they need the money to keep the food on the table. not that the food on the table is much anyway. but i really think that something should be done. something like a comprimise should be made. maybe the working child should attend school for a few hours every morning. and then work to get some income or maybe work to pay for his/her school fees. that way the child would be more or less "independent". just depending on their parents for shelter and food. this way, slowly but surely, porvety-stricken children will get educated. with education they can find jobs which will give them higher wages. in the long run, they would help improve the state their in.
another of my concern is that soo many children are made to work. its not just a handful of people but in some under-developed towns it is almost a norm to start working as long as you are strong enough or tall enough; physically abled. these children can only dream about sitting for a test, learning to read or even to be able to recite the a-b-c. however, those that have the means to educate themselves complain. some are genuinely concerned about scoring an 'A' for every subject but others complain. sadly, i myself fall into the catergory of continous complaining. everthing is either too hard or too time consuming. we never stop to think "i'm soo lucky to be given this oppurtunity to think so hard on this math question unlike the poor families in underdeveloped countries which have to work and earn a living." i think i shoule be more grateful with what i have. since i dont have the means of helping them, the least i could do is be more grateful.
the ariticle is in Life! its a very short article. if you have the time go read it and be amazed by the figures of children having to work before they turn 14.
thats all for now
toodles.
it makes me wonder ♥