Should Schools Have Debentures at All?

Adrian T., 13, GSIS

        Recently, ESF have increased the amount of debentures to a staggering HKD $500,000. This debenture is a non-refundable amount in which a well-to-do parent will pay the school in order to secure a place for their child in the school should they meet the admission requirements of the school. This move by ESF has been criticized for favoring the rich over the poor and will take away places for less-well-off families. ESF schools are subsidized by the government to provide an alternative for those who do not want to go to local schools (or cannot because of the lack of Cantonese skills), and cannot afford the school fees offered by the international schools. If ESF schools implement this system, they may be in danger of having their government subsidies taken away from them and forced to go private, in which it would raise the school fees and directly affect less wealthy families. Although this system may help raise money for repairing and renovating ESF schools, they are sending the wrong signal to those who want to go to ESF schools. This brings up a very good point that is ripe for debate: Should schools have a debenture system? In my opinion, I think that schools should not have a debenture system, as education and school placement should not involve money except for school fees.

        Education is a right that everybody is entitled to. Every child, no matter rich or poor, should be allowed to have a decent education in order to give them a fair start to life. Education should not be associated with a monetary value, and schools should choose students according their skills and abilities, not according to whether they can pay or not. Education is not a market; it is a place where a child can learn so that they can be better equipped to be a fruitful member of our society. If we put the buying power of their parents, something they have no choice over, then we would be throwing away our society’s cherished values of fairness and equality. This would then send a very adverse and strong message to the people of Hong Kong: Education can be bought, and money is the leading factor when applying for a school. This is not the message we want to send to parents in Hong Kong and the people that will potentially immigrate to Hong Kong. This will in turn undermine Hong Kong’s moral values and create a bad impression for Hong Kong.

        Having a debenture will also potentially affect a close-knit school community. Let’s say some people come into a school because of the newly implemented debenture policy. The people who come into this school will therefore be less qualified but have super rich parents. If the school community is less well-off, then they will not be able to integrate into the school community because they are inferior to the others because they are relatively richer than the other students are. They may also look down on others for being not as rich, or the others may exclude them for being richer than they are. This would create a whole bunch of problems for the community and the pros will outweigh the cons. In addition, the rich kids that came into this school because of this debenture system may not be as smart and so they may lower the school’s standard.

        Some people say that the implementing of a debenture system will help ease the burden of the other parents as they will not have to pay too many school fees due to the revenue generated from the debentures. However, I disagree. There are so many other risks and controversial free ways to get more money for the school such as applying for government subsidies, asking more well of parents to donate some money, starting a fundraiser, etc. These methods are much more effective than having to implement a debenture system that will put the school’s reputation, standard, and society’s values at risk.

Idioms...Literally

Nicole C., 9, FIS

Write about the idiom “When pigs fly…”

Pigs are flying with all their might. I’m watching it with my mouth open. The dogs are barking at the pigs. Then, one of the pigs falls down on my head, thean another falls onto my mom’s head. “Bacon for tonight!” screamed my mom.

Write about the idioms “Keep an eye on it” and “Lend me your ears.”

Often my mom tells me to “keep an eye on it” or “lend me your ears.” I mean, how can I chop off my ears and give it to her? How can I peel my eyes off and put them on my book?

Write about the idiom “Don’t cry over spilt milk!”

I didn’t win the dance competition, so I was really upset, but my mom reminded me, “Don’t cry over spilt milk!” Then someone dropped their cup and milk started spilling out! I immediately stopped crying!

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Markandaya K., 8, RCHK

Write about the idiom “I’m on top of the world!”

I’m standing on top of the world in the Arctic. Pink dolphins greet me by shaking my hand. They make a tower of dolphins. I climb up. I am standing on top of the world.

      

      Write about the idiom “It's raining cats and dogs.”

      It's raining cats and dogs. Cats are meowing and dogs are barking. I can't stand the noise so I go out and use my teleporter to send the dogs and cats to the ocean. Ahhh. Peace and quiet. Suddenly, it rains fishes and sharks! I do the same things with the animals. After that it rains elephants and ducks! I have enough of it so I try and be brave. It  was just a dream.

The Importance of Standing

Jared C., 14, HKIS

        There are many cases across the globe of excessive sitting affecting the life span of people. When people sit down too much, their metabolism slows down, their insulin becomes less effective and the probability of catching type 2 diabetes rises. This is exactly why offices should be redesigned to allow less sitting and encourage more standing. It is possible to redesign the offices in such a way that people will not be standing for the entire day and still cut down the amount of hours they spend sitting during working hours. Redesigning the offices in this way can be done by changing all the desks in the office into standing desks and moving supplies further away from the workspace to encourage more walking. For those who want to sit occasionally, they can provide high chairs for the standing desks.

         Replacing all the desks with standing desks is very good for a person’s health as standing desks allow more mobility. They allow you to move around to get things needed to finish the work. These desks are good because sitting down reduces the effectiveness of the insulin in a human and raises the chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Standing, on the other hand, lets the person move around therefore tripling his or her calorie burning rate and maintaining his or her metabolic health. Since standing up is such a good thing health-wise, it should be encouraged wherever a person goes.

         The next thing that could be done is to move supplies further away from the workspace. This encourages more walking. Research shows that the people who do not gain too much weight are the people who do little things like take the stairs, walk down the hall to get office supplies, or simply like to fidget. This means that people will not gain too much weight even if they do not exercise and tend to eat large portions of food. Seeing that walking around gives even more health benefits, and office should be rearranged to promote more walking around.

       Even though there is an uncountable amount of health benefits that can come from moving around and walking a little bit more, people still cannot be standing up for th entire day. So, something that can be implemented into the redesigning of the office is tall chairs. The time spent sitting on these chairs must be limited or the redesigning idea of the office will simply backfire but standing up too much will cause other problems too. Obviously, there has to be a balance between sitting down and standing up in the office, so having tall chairs in the office is not necessarily a bad idea.

         To conclude, the countless health benefits are too large to ignore by not taking any action. On the other hand, there also must be a balance between the amount of time spent sitting down and the amount of time spent standing up, so tall chairs are also a good idea.

Should Students Receive Awards for Doing Well?

Kyle H., 10, SPCCPS

       Students shouldn’t receive awards for school performance because students will start to expect more rewards. If parents start giving rewards, it will not put the focus on learning and the kids will be spoiled.

        If parents start to give awards to students, they may work harder. however, if they start getting awards for a long time, they may think that they don’t need to work hard to get awards and will also expect to get even more awards.

        Secondly, if parents give awards, students will start to focus on thinking how to earn gifts or earn money more than focusing on studying or learning new things that are useful when students grow bigger as grown ups.

        Lastly, students would be spoiled! They won’t study hard after getting so many awards and gifts by parents and will think that it is enough for them and think that it doesn’t matter if they have awards or not and will be as lazy as pigs!

        In conclusion, giving awards to students may make them study hard, but after some time, students will be lazy and wil not be eager to work, study properly and care about good grades.

Good Jobs

Crystal L, 12, SIS

        The most important things to consider when pursuing a job is whether it is enjoyable, if there is a good boss, and the amount of money you make. Considering whether the job is enjoyable or not is important because most of your life would be spent at work, and if work is not enjoyable then the person’s life would not be as meaningful as well. Whether the person has a good boss or not needs to be considered as well because it will contribute to their happiness. Last but not least, the amount of money that person earns needs to be considered because that’s’ the main point of working: to earn money.

        Firstly, whether the job makes the person happy needs to be considered because that person would be spending most of their life at work, so even their life out of work would be affected. If the person is unhappy, it would lead to depression, stress, and even an early death. She or he might also want to have a job because that person is passionate about it. Even the work hours or location might not matter to the person anymore because of how much she or he likes the job, and that they look forward to going to work every day. It would also be best for the person if she or he is being paid for something they love to do.

        Next, whether you have a good boss or not needs to be considered because it would affect your happiness. Work colleagues also count because you will need to build relationships and respect the people the person works with so that the boss and colleagues will respect them back. The people the employee works with will also affect their work quality. Since work is one of the best places to make new friends, it would be hard ignoring them all day if the employee is not able to work with them. She or he would not be able to gain any new friends from work as well and might be blacklisted through the whole company.

        Thirdly, the amount of money needs to be considered because that is the main reason for the person to go to work. The person would need to think about whether they have enough money to pay rent, support your family, save, and buy food. The location also needs to be considered because if the person is spending too much money on transport then it would affect their lives as well. If the person is not able to pay rent or buy food because of their lack of money, there would be no reason for them to stay working at that place.

        The most important things to consider when pursuing a job is whether it is enjoyable or not, if the person has a good boss or work colleagues, and the amount of money you earn. Whether or not it is enjoyable affects the employee, it would affect their life a lot. Next is whether the person has a good boss or work colleagues because it contributes to their happiness and affects their work quality. Last but not least the amount of money has to be considered because it is one of the main points of working. Salary, how good the boss is, and whether it makes the person happy are important things to consider when pursuing a job.

Tick tock tick tock tick tick

Karam Y., 12 , GSIS

Tick tock tick tock tick tick. Mrs. Simonson stared balefully at the clock. Why did time seem to go by so quickly? She sunk into a reverie. In the good old days........She saw herself as a child of four or six giggling happily with her friends, pigtails flying in the wind. She saw herself at the desk, her head drooped down trying to solve a hard problem. She saw herself graduating. Diploma in hand, grinning proudly at her parents. Then she saw dear Mr. Simonson's face, smiling at her. She saw her two children reaching out for her and laughing when she scooped them both up.

After that came the years of sadness and pain. She saw herself waving goodbye to her children. She saw herself dressed in black weeping over the freshly dug grave in which her poor son lay. She remembered the lonely times, with only Mr. Simonson for company, feeling so lonely. She remembered the Christmas when she had sat on the porch waiting for nearly a whole day for the daughter who never came. She remembered the recent years. Returning to the house and finding Mr. Simonson sprawled on the floor, barely breathing. She remembered the long hours she spent chewing her fingernails and praying to God to spare her husband. All in vain.

Mrs. Simonson woke up with a sudden jolt. A tear glistened on her cheek. She stared at the empty old house, half expecting her family to pop out. She sighed and looked down at her hands. They were swollen from arthritis and worn from many years of work. She stared into the mirror and saw her countless wrinkles and snow white hair, her sad grey eyes and her down-turned mouth. It would be her time soon, she thought.

On Family

By Anonymous

Our parents brought us into this world. Since we were born, they have spent hours, nights, and days to train, teach, and build our character. They have given us opportunities and love. Money cannot replace the happy moments we have spent with our family. Our family demands quality, hard work and honesty. This is what motivates me every day. These values are drilled into me and make me who I am.

I am not a perfect person. I am not the smartest. I am not the strongest. I have made mistakes. I am very grateful to everyone in my family for trying to guide and shape me into a better person. My parents have always demanded that I work hard and give my all in everything.

I have spent so much time with my family. Through thick and thin my family have always given me support and pride. I try my best to make my family proud. The endless investment in me can never ever be repaid. The only way to repay my parents is to show love, work hard and achieve my best.

I owe my parents a huge debt. They have been patient, willing and have sacrificed a lot to train me. My parents have always cared a lot about my academic studies. They have shown a huge interest and have guided me. My parents are big believers that education is the only way to success. They always tell me to do what they do and learn their strengths and better myself. Without my parents, I would not be able to meet new people, own fancy gadgets, have food, shelter and most importantly love. Without my family I don’t know what I’d be like. I come from an amazing family and am so thankful for what they have done.

Sometimes my parents nag, but they do it because they care. It makes me want to prove them wrong. I may not always be appreciative but I cannot emphasize the debt I owe and how grateful I am to my family.

My parents always work their butt off for me. They have made sacrifices. They go to work and I spend time with my grandparents. My grandparents are all happy individuals. I share endless memories with them. My grandpa on my dad’s side always spoiled me, played with me until he was sick. I miss the times when I was a kid and every holiday I would be so excited to see him. He taught me to enjoy life to its fullest. I was very devastated to lose him recently. Losing a family member makes you appreciate the things that money cannot buy. On my mom’s side my grandpa taught me how to study and about core values. I love spending time with my family. My grandmums would always cook delicious food and spend time together with my granddads. At this point in time I treasure my grandparents a lot. Losing my granddad made me appreciate every second I spend with my grandparents. One day our parents will have time gone. Therefore it’s equally important to be grateful to them when they train and spend time with us.

        My family have loved me deeply. I want to treasure every moment with them. I do not want to take them for granted because one day they will be gone. I love my family a lot.

Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong

Dhruv M., 13, HKIS

At present, Domestic Helpers are not allowed right of abode in Hong Kong despite residing here for many years. Until recently, domestic helper Evangeline Banao Vallejos was part of the 250,000 domestic helper population in Hong Kong. She recently won a lawsuit with the backing of several renowned lawyers to be able to seek permanent residency. However, the rest of the hundreds of thousands of helpers present in Hong Kong still have not been granted the right to abode in this city and enjoy the benefits permanent residency ahs to offer. This is wrong. After living for 24 years Vallejos still had to go to court, and she is just on helper. The Hong Kong government must realize that after rechecking their system it would be illogical, and maybe even illegal, to prohibit domestic helpers the right of abode.

One of the foremost reasons that helpers should be enabled to have permanent residency because by denying residency, that is a contradiction of the Basic/Immigration Ordinance laws. The Basic Law states that discrimination is not legal in Hong Kong SAR. According to it, residents are of equal status when involved with the law. On the other hand is the Immigration Ordinance law, which according to the reference basically disables helpers from being granted “permanent resident” status. Not allowing helpers to get permanent residency based on their occupation is discriminatory, and by having one law that says that discrimination is unlawful, and another promoting discrimination there is, as earlier stated a crossover in the law. Basic Law is fundamental to the city, and in order to prevent violation Basic Hong Kong Law, regulators must make sure that helpers are no longer discriminated, because this could quickly become a massive flaw in the city’s vast legal system.

Secondly, helpers do in fact contribute to Hong Kong society. They give people the ability to not have to worry as much as they would have to without a helper about the home life, and whether everything is in check, and so on. While some people say their contribution to society is outweighed by the negative effect they would have on the economy if granted residency, these people may in fact be incorrect. Now that they debate on permanent residency has been raised, some helpers may leave if not granted citizenship, because they have “come to their senses”. The helpers leaving could create a domino effect.

First the helpers would leave, then people would work less in order to take care of the home, then income would reduce, and consequentially the economy will slow down. So now that the topic on residency has been raised within the helpers’ community it would be a safer bet for the government to grant them a right to abode.

On top of this, it makes no sense that the government are complaining about the effects on the economy, when the Hong Kong government just spent 5 billion dollars on a new headquarters. The amount the government would have to pay in order to give the helpers citizenship is dwarfed by the amount they paid on something that has no visible public benefit. The amount spent on Tamar (new headquarters) could have been allocated into many different projects across Hong Kong that would have had a larger public impact.

At the end of the day, it is time for the Hong Kong government to reanalyze their laws, and to double-check whether some of it may be wrong, and actually promote discrimination. It would most certainly save them quite a few million in probably future lawsuits from the now awoken helpers group of Hong Kong. It is time for a change.

On Body Image

Christie L., 15, St. Paul’s Convent

        Being skinny has already been a trend in the modern-day society. From teenage young ladies to middle-age women, keeping fit has already been a long-life goal to work for. Everyone thinks that skinny means beauty. They think that being skinny makes them feel confident and successful. Why is being skinny a trend for women (or even men) to achieve? One of the reasons is those models in the fashion shows or fashion magazines looked really skinny, and publishers try to build up a “skinny means beautiful” image and it influenced the way that people look towards health and beauty.

        Looking back in history, ancient people, especially Chinese, thought that being fat meant that the person was born in a wealthy family and they were brought up well. Fat also meant fortune. People thought that being fat meant the person was fortunate. Ancient wealthy or middle class people like to find a fat woman as a wife because they thought that fat women could act like a female pig by giving birth to a dozen babies! Lady Yang Yuhuan is a good example. According to the history, she was one of the four most beautiful ladies in Chinese history. She was described as a very fat woman, but she was the lady that the emperor Tang loved most. This shows that fat people were more favourable in history. So why has this thinking changed?

        Throughout thousands of years, people thought that being fat was great. However, in today’s society, people finally realized that being fat is not a good thing, but that being healthy is the best. Later on in this century, models are asked to be skinny and tall, magazines, pop stars, and actors help build the image that skinny means beautiful. Eventually, those photos made women think that being skinny is most important though it might look uneven. This idea made people lose weight with different methods such as taking pills that may be forbidden, joining some courses that promised to help you to lose weight with a certain period of time, etc. There may be harmful effects of taking these products but these people are willing to risk their lives in order to change into a “model” body.

        Advertisements are some of the most important factors that influence people about body image. They make images look uneven as they think that skinny is more important than uneven proportions. Also, the phrase “skinny equals beautiful has already been their objective. When there are tons of these advertisements lying around, people will be influenced by the ads and agree with skinny equals beautiful. Then, they forget what is the standard of being healthy and start to go for the trip to maek themselves skinny. When advertisements lie everywhere, from the streets to your house (leaflets), from magazines to TV, it is difficult to not be influenced. Then, once your friends are influenced, the conversation you hear may also include body image and eventually you become seriously influenced.

        To conclude, the power of advertising is enormous. We should be careful about the information we perceive and choose the truth. We should not follow the trend of society. Being healthy, not skinny, is best. 

Should the Mega Rich Be Allowed to Build Entire Skyscrapers Devoted to Themselves?

Jonathan C., 14, South Island School

Sometimes you have to work hard to become wealthy or sometimes you could be one of the lucky ones where your business becomes very big and earns you wealth, fame and status. Recently, a mega house was built in the center of Mumbai, India. In a city where many people live in the slums, the building has caused even further outrage when local media discovered that the owner of the house does not actually live in it but hosts many glamorous parties in it instead. There have been many environmentalists who have come out and shown their dismay by questioning the amount of natural resources used to build the house.

I am worried that many citizens will go protest the government’s decision to allow the project. It’s bad enough that he owns many luxurious items but what is even worse is that the building looks down on the poor areas. The poor may start to be jealous and think he is showing off and may wonder why the government has not developed affordable living for the poor instead. In the slums disease is lurking everywhere. On the other hand, if the government chooses to reinvest the money into developing affordable living then many of the poor would become happy.

Another issue that could arise is corruption and greed from the politicians and people. They could become inspired to use the country’s money and build a mega house for themselves instead of developing the country. I feel that the decision to allow this building to be made was wrong. The land could have been used for high rise affordable flats or even for a school or perhaps an orphanage. There is a famous saying that the simpler the house, the better it is. In my opinion this building is too excessive, it takes up space and it’s a huge carbon footprint.

The rich should be setting a good example to the people by being philanthropists, being humble and also being grateful for what they have. Instead of wasting money on lavish items, they should help the needy and educate people by giving speeches. The rich could inspire a better attitude and make others want to work hard. The building sends a wrong message to people because you have to save money instead of spending it on unnecessary items. If many others build things through the loan of banks and not be able to pay it back then it could lead to an increase in bankruptcy in India.

Looking at it from another perspective, the building could become a tourist attraction and bring in revenue to the government. I mean there are not many other places in the world where there is a 27 floor house overlooking the city. If the owner agrees to turn it into an attraction then it could pay dividends. He could also turn it into an office/hotel space. However this is highly unlikely.

In conclusion I believe the building sets a wrong example and should never have been made. The rich should be motivating others to follow suit not trying to show off and make the less fortunate feel worthless.