Newspaper Cutting – Fee to Deter Birth ‘Gatecrashers’ (5A Lau Pui Yi)

A.     Summary

Recently, many mothers-to-be from the mainland China came to Hong Kong. In order to get an identification as a HongKonger for their babies, they wanted to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. However, such behavior brought about a lot of consequences that do harm to the benefits of the local people in Hong Kong.

B.     Comments

To a large extent, I agree that the government should increase the maternity fee for the mainland women without HK husband to use the emergency wards in HK.

Firstly, too many mainland women give birth to their babies in HK will adversely affect mainly HongKongers. For instance, students in HK are facing a lot of competition. If the children of the mainland people have a HK identity, HK students will face more competition and pressures. In Hong Kong, it is well-known that many students study hard and really want to get into the universities. They strive for a better future. It is not fair to the parents who work hard and love their children. They contribute much to HK and just want their children to have a good career prospect. Nevertheless, if HKSAR government does not take any action to deter birth gatecrashers from giving birth in Hong Kong, the prospects of HongKongers’ children will be dimmer. Also, the existence of birth gatecrashers harms the mothers-to-be in HK. As they rush into the emergency wards for last-minute deliveries, the pregnant women who have an appointment to deliver and the gynecologist-obstetrician can’t help them to give birth to the baby as anticipated. It may even endanger the mother-to-be’s life.

Moreover, it will increase the obstetrician’s pressure and their workload. That’s may degrade HK’s maternity services level and add more possibility to the medical accident.

Furthermore, housing is a big problem. Hong Kong is small. If the population rises rapidly, the supply of housing will be unable to meet the demand. It is world-known that China has a large population but HK is just a small city. We can’t bear the population increase in such a rapid speed. It may lead to population explosion.

Hong Kong has human rights, developed welfare system, freedom of speech…… Those things are all china lack of. No wonder how much the mainland people want their children to get the HKID, Hong Kong people have to join hands to protect what we have as they are important to us.

I think increasing the maternity charge is not the most effective measure. The government should not identify the baby whose parents are not local people as a HongKonger. This is the radical solution to the population problem in HK.

How our schools help students who smoke at school (5D Lam Oi Tung)

A recent study has found that the number of teenagers taking drugs has soared over the past few years in Hong Kong. The result is alarming and it is clear. The extent of the problem is more serious than has previously been believed. In fact, smoking has become a problem at our school and some students have even been caught smoking at school. As teenagers are facing many pressures from their study and peer groups with the unknown effect and the curiosity of smoking, they try to smoke to relieve their stress and boredom. In view of this, there are a number of ways that our schools can tackle the issue.

One solution is to teach students about the harmful effects of smoking. There are several serious side-effects of smoking on your body such as heart problems, lung diseases, anxiety and even panic. Our school should play a more active role in teaching students the consequences of being addicted to smoke to deter them from smoking effectively.

A second solution is to offer counseling services to students. A recent survey has revealed that four in ten lower secondary students are depressed. From the survey, it has found that youth depression could be connected with poor peer relation, the environmental change, the pressure from attending new schools and having important exams. Providing counseling training can give assistance to students to alleviate stress in a proper way instead of smoking.

A third solution is to offer some extracurricular classes. Dancing, drawing, singing and playing music are the popular activities among teenagers to spend their spare time. Offering extracurricular classes such as hip hop class and drawing class can develop students potential and interests. Thus, students can focus on their interests to stay away from smoking and help them to alleviate boredom.

In conclusion, youth smoking is a big issue in Hong Kong. To deter students from smoking, our schools should teach students about the harmful effects of smoking, offer counseling services and some extracurricular classes.

Enrolment List - International Church Visit: St. Andrew Church Family Services (23 Dec 2012) (Updated on 18 Dec 2012)

The following students have been selected to join the International Church Visit: St. Andrew Church Family Services on 23 December 2012:

 

                               Enrolment List (Updated on 18 Dec 2012)

2A Wong Cheuk Yiu
3C Lai Ching In
3C Cheung Tsz Ching
3F Lee Yat Him

News Sharing --Compensated Dating (6A To Ka Chung)

(A)  Summary

Ah Yan, a girl who has been participating in compensating dating for 9 months, accepted money or gifts from men in exchange for companionship which usually involves sex. It was lucky that Yan’s clients treated her quite polite but some other girls might not. Some of them were struck by violent companion while some were blackmailed because of their video about sex. These are the pieces of  evidence to justify that compensated dating is detrimental to the mental and physical development of teenagers because they have no competence to ward the vigorous patrons off and will feel nervous and frightened when they are threatened by strangers.

(B)  Comments

Ah Yan’s case demonstrates that compensated dating is more serious. It is not uncommon to see young girls seeking patrons on the Internet forums. It seems to be alarming and parents should be aware of it. Therefore, I am going to express my views about compensated dating and the consequences of engaging ourselves in this kind of relationship.

First of all, tremendous risks can be triggered during compensated dating. Young girls may be struck by violent clients because they have nothing to ward off. Also, they may be blackmailed because they do not want to reveal their companionship. This illustrates that maintaining relationship with strangers is detrimental to young girls who do not have any working experience of working. Therefore, young girls are cheated by the strangers easily. We cannot deny that security is important for the healthy growth of young girls and compensated dating obviously falls short of it.

Depart from the security of the young girls, relationship between parents may also be affected by compensated dating. When a young girl goes on a compensated dating, she may escape from talking to parents because companionship with strangers may be revealed during the conversation. As a result, the opportunity of knowing more about each other decreases since talking is one of the communications and thus widen the gap between parents and the young girl. It is ridiculous to say that teenagers can grow healthily without parental care and compensated dating is not an exception.

In conclusion, compensated dating is harmful to our mental and physical health. Besides, relationship among parents and teenagers will be harmed if the children go on compensated dating. It is everybody’s business to teach teenagers for fostering a healthy community, so I sincerely hope that more advertisements can be made to show teenagers the consequences of compensated dating.

Say NO to Depression (6B Law Chi Kin)

School days are supposed to be the happiest time of one’s life. Nonetheless, according to a recent survey, many Hong Kong students are not happy with their lives. Some even have a pessimistic attitude towards life. This phenomenon deserves our attention.
 
Depression is a kind of mental disorder which sufferers often display low self-confidence, along with losing interest in anything around. It can seriously hinder one’s interaction with others, worsening their family and social relationships as well as performance in school. Also they have a higher tendency to commit suicide.

As the education system in Hong Kong is too examination-oriented, a multitude of students fail to achieve good academic result and feel frustrated. It is common that tremendous family and academic pressure can cause depression to students. My friend Tom is one of the victims but has already retrieved from it. As the only son in the family, he bore all the hope of his parents, who were businessmen. Tom was literally demanded to come top in everything, including his studies and extra-curricular area such as piano exam. Nothing seemed wrong until he was in Form 6. When he had to prepare for the public exam, he began to have gloomy face and became reluctant to chat with others, as I observed him in our friend gathering. Later on, he stared to decline all gathering and completely withdraw himself from social circles. Last month, he phoned at midnight to tell me he simply could not take it anymore and wanted to commit suicide. Finally, I encouraged him to seek professional help and the mental doctor confirmed he suffered from depression.

With the help of the mental doctor, Tom realized that failure to achieve good academic results itself is not a problem provided that you have tried your best, it is your values that matter. Tom also started to release pressure through leisure activities, so he rejoined friend gatherings. Finally, he became cheerful again. He knew how to handle the pressure and treated them as a source of motivation.

 
If you are suffering from tremendous stress, you should seek professional help and identify the sources of stress. Also support from family and friends is crucial. That is why it is advisable for us to share our problems with them when we feel stressed.

Drug Abuse at School (6C Yam Hoi Ching)

Dear Editor,

        I am writing in reply to the letter sent by Amy Lau which posted on the South China Morning Post on 11^th September, 2012. We are of one mind that we both opine schools need to be more proactive on the drug problem at school.

         The problem of drug abusing at school is deteriorating as a survey conducted by HK Youth Federation last month found out that a quarter of the interviewees are taking drugs, Compared with the statistic of last year, the number of cases is escalating, there are nearly 10% increase in the number of cases of drug abuse. This alarming increase of drug abuse cases remind us that we should not turn a blind eye to this problem.

        Before suggesting solutions to the problem, I would like to examine the causes and effects of drug abuse so as to take the right remedial steps to correct the shortcoming. First of all, owing to great pressure from academic field and high expectation of parents, adolescents deem taking drugs such as cocaine and ketamine as an excellent way to escape from reality. They deem that taking drugs can help them to relief stress and pressure. In addition, it can let them forget the unhappiness in real life. Secondly, driven by curiosity and peer pressure, they want to try drugs to fulfill their curiosity. Nevertheless, teenagers have never thought of the destructive effect of taking drugs. They never notice that taking drugs do leave a permanent, deep scar on their health. Ranging from confusion to memory loss, from cold sweat to coma, there are undeniably a raft of detrimental effects on their health.

        Here comes to some solutions of drug abuse. Admittedly, prevention is always better than cure. Defensive measures should be done before it is too late. Education is the best precautionary measure of drug abuse. Schools should organize different kinds of anti-drug seminars to students to correct their misperception about drugs as well as the considerable amount of disastrous effects of drugs on health. This kind of anti-drug seminars can deter them from taking drugs. On top of the preventive measures, it comes to the remedial measures, what the schools should do to mitigate the problem is to grasp the nettle. Teachers play an important role in supervising and identifying students unusual behavior, for instance, if their students go to toilets for urinating frequently or they find their students hard to concentrate , they have the responsibility to find out the reasons, as these are main symptoms of drug abusing. After discovering the drug addicts, they should be sent to rehabilitation center or social workers for counseling service.

        I hope after the school has adopted the above measures and be more proactive, the number of case of drug abuse will soon be curbed and will be eradicated eventually.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Wong

Enrolment List - AFS Intercultural Fair 2012 (10 Nov 2012)

The following twenty one students have been selected to join the AFS Intercultural Fair 2012 on 10 November 2012:

                         Enrolment List

1C	5	Dai Ho Yi
1C	6	Ko Wing
1C	10	Leong Hai Ying
1C	13	Ng Sin Tung
1C	14	Ng Sin Yee
1C	29	Hui Chung Kit
1C	30	Lai Hei Wang
1D	1	Chan Gwyneth
1D	9	Leung Yan Lam
1D	11	Lo Hiu Tung
1D	35	Wong Tsz Ho
2A	21	Cheung Hiu Yeung
2D	1	Angela Hung
2D	6	Lee Yan Kiu
2C	14	Pun Hau Ying
2C	21	Au Yeung Kai Tik
2C	28	Leung Ho Ching
3B	6	Lau Tsz Ching
3B	11	Ng Yuen Ki
3B	14	Yeng Hoi Ting
3C	5	Lai Ka Yiu

Enrolment List - Exchange with International Christian School (13 November 2012)

The following thirteen students have been selected to join the exchange with International Christian School on 13 November:

                       Enrolment List

1A	15	To Wing Kiu
1A	19	Chan Ho Chuen
1B	16	Yim Sxe Wan
1C	14	Ng Sin Yee
1C	21	Chan Cheunk Hei
1C	27	Choi Kin Ting
4A	12	Au Tze Pok
4A	14	Chan Pok Him
5A	6	Ho Man Ying
5D	7	Lam Hok Yee
5D	13	Lui Ka Lai
5D	14	Lun Wai Kiu
5D	22	Wong Lok Tin

Letter to the Editor – Causes of Compensated Dating (6D Lam Man Tao)

Dear editor,

I am the reader of your newspaper. After reading the article named ‘Compensated dating tactics change’ published on 2^nd April, I would like to share my opinion on the causes of compensated dating and suggest ways to tackle the problem.

There is an astonishing increase of young lady to go on compensated dates, referring to the poll conducted by a local organization. This is a serious social problem as this is an immoral commercial activity. The following are the causes I suggest for girls to go on compensated dates.

Firstly, those girls want to earn money. Compensated dating refers to the girls being paid to go on dates that often involve sex. Certainly, those girls want to earn money. It is because the girls may come from low-income families facing the problem of poverty. In addition, some girls want to buy luxury goods in order to raise their self-confidence and to feel fulfilled. Therefore, those girls go on to compensated dating may want to earn money.

Secondly, the girls are facing problems. This is the under-lying reason for them to go on to compensated dates. The problems they face could be the bad relationships between them and their family. This leads to them to go on to compensated dates as they want to show they have already had the ability to earn money and hence their parents have no more control on them. Another problem they face could be they want to get attention from the peers. These show the troubles they are facing to lead them to go on to compensated dating.

Compensated dating is related to the moral values of teens and even the next generations. What is more the social atmosphere is affected if this phenomenon continues. We should stop it immediately via these solutions:

Providing counseling services. Most importantly, the girls go on to compensated dating to obtain suitable helps for them. More ways should be provided for those girls to get helps. On the other hand, social workers can go to search those girls actively to give them helps such as to chat with them. This helps social workers to know what they really need and hence help them to quit compensated dating.

The government should put some more resources on education. Schools need more resources to educate students the bad impacts of going on to compensated dating and raise their awareness. Furthermore, educating public through commercials promotions are needed. This raises public knowledge on this issues and also preventing the girls to go on to compensated dating and therefore this is the long-term measure but is the most effective way to solve the problem in the future.

 

The cops should strictly monitor the activity of compensated dating on the internet. Those girls usually look for clients on the internet. Occasionally, they find clients on the online game chat rooms, according to the results of a survey conducted by the DAB. This shows compensated dating depends on internet. In order to stop doing this, the police should strictly govern it. This threatens the girls and their clients and this helps to reduce the occurrence of compensated dating.

To conclude, the problem of compensated dating is extremely serious. We must stop it now. Otherwise the problem will get worse.

 

Yours faithfully,

Pat Chan

6D Class Presentation – K-Pop

Background
K-Pop is a musical genre consisting of dance, electronic, electropop, hip hop, and R&B music originating in South Korea. As an important part of the Korean Wave, K-pop has come from humble begimiings to gain a huge fan base not just in Asia but also other parts of the world. As South Korea continues to develop its IT infrastructure, K-Pop music is being shared over the internet and through mobile devices more rapidly than ever.

Fans come from all around the world and K-Pop is considered by some to be South Korea’s greatest export because of its popularity and growing influence.

Characteristics

Many K-Pop music videos have colourful visuals and a catchy beat. K-Pop multiple vocal genres, especially hip-hop and rap, and emphasizes performances and strong visuals. Dance is an integral part of K-pop. When combining multiple singers, the singers often switch their positions while singing and dancing by making prompt movements in synchrony. K-Pop is also recognized for pretty-boys and girl groups that are young and considered attractive.

Globalization

South Korea is emerging in the 21st century as a major exporter of popular culture. K-Pop has been embraced by the South Korean government as a tool for soft power abroad, particularly towards youth. K-Pop music videos were viewed more than 2 billion times during 2011, almost three times the 800 million views in 2010. According to the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, K-pop has been a successful export of Korean culture in Asia. On its “Korean Waves” index, the top country in 2010 was Japan, in a list that includes Taiwan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Following BoA’s successful Japanese career, countless Korean pop acts have also made inroads in the market, including SHINee, Super Junior, BIGBANG’ KARA, Girls Generation, 2PM, and Brown Eyed Girls.

Consumerism (6E Leung Wing Tung)

Do you like shopping? How often do you go shopping? People love shopping. They spend most of their free time on shopping centers, so their bedrooms are full of stuffs that they never use. They don’t seem to understand that some of the goods which they have bought are actually unnecessary.

 

Being a consumerist can cause many serious negative consequences.

 

First, it can destroy our environment. Consumers always buy things which occupy many spaces of their home. Once they have found that they need more spaces, they will throw away the unnecessary things which have never been used before. It creates many solid wastes and hence increases the burden on our landfill.

Second, it can cause pressures on themselves and their family members. Sometimes people like buying things by paying credit cards. If they cannot settle the debt, they will commit suicide. Also, asking family members for money to pay the debt can harm the relationship between them. There will be arguments about this problem because they need to cope with the problem of loans.

If we kick the habit of buying unnecessary things, we can save money, work less and spend more time with our family and friends. It will then improve our relationship with our family and friends.

To conclude, consumerism will cause a lot of negative effects. Think twice before you buy anything!

News Sharing – Compensated Dating (6DE Wong Chung Yin)

I think many young girls are too open and think money is important than their bodies. This problem is very serious. Young children agreed to date with the old men in exchange for money. If the parents of these teenagers know that their sons or daughters go on compensated dating, they will be very disappointed because all they want is perhaps that their sons and daughters can lead happy lives and have healthy bodies. We should protect ourselves and resist temptation.

Young girls who earn money after going on compensated dating usually buy some expensive branded products. It is definitely not good for their personal development. When we are young, we should study hard instead of earning money for the sake of satisfying our wants.

News Sharing – Compensated Dating (6DE Chan Mei Ting)

 

Only a few teenage girls or boys have noticed the consequences of going on compensated dating: the high possibility of deadly diseases, meeting clients who may rob or kill them and so on. More importantly, they do not understand going on compensated dating will adversely affect their psychological and physical well-being.

In my opinion, compensated dating is not a new social problem. Like prostitutes in ancient times, some people will sell their bodies for money. I think this is the choice of a person. The consequences of compensated dating are deadly and obvious. People go on compensated dating because they think money is more important than their bodies. They have to accept the consequences of their actions.

Letter to a friend about a Christmas party at school (1C Au Yeung Kai Tik)

Dear Angie,

How are you? I’m fine. Hope you are having a relaxing holiday too! Merry Christmas!

 

I am so jealous of you! You had such a wonderful feast with your family! Also, you got a Gunalam model at your school X’mas party! Gunadam has become my favourite cartoon character since I was a child! I want to get it too!

Luckily, my christmas activities were as great as yours too! I think it was the most intersting Christmas ever! On 21^st December, I had a Christmas party at school with my classmates. We had a finger food party first. My classmates brought so much finger food that we couldn’t finish them at all! For example, we had potato chips, cookies, cakes and others. I didn’t think it was worse than a banquet in an enormous and famous restaurant which we may get lost!

After having such a marvelbous finger food party, we packed up and prepared for our next acitivity. Can you guess what the next acitivity was? It was decorating our classroom! My classmate, John, suggested using recycled paper to decorate our classroom. Without any problem, everybody agreed. I think it was because our teacher Mr. Chan had told us we should protest the Earth. We folded some recycled paper into beautiful shapes such as flowers and trees. Also, we drew some “master pieces” on our blackboard. After finishing all the works, we were so tored that we looked like we hadn’t eaten food for three months! But when we were looking at our decorated classroom, we were so happy that we all jumped up and hugged together!

Since everyone was so tired, even Ken, who was always full of energy, was exhausted, we decided we should finish the finger food we left. Everyone dashed out and took the food fiercely, but then after they were full, they were friendly again! What a strange scene?

Next, we played games like pass-the-parcel and musical chairs. The most interesting thing was, when we were playing musical chairs, the fattest boy in our class Ken won easily. He just looked like a giant and then pushed away other classmates. The “victims” could be pushed for about three miles! It was impossible! Everybody was laughing when Ken started to “hurt” his classmates everytime. But then in the end, Ken got the chair easily and he sat on it excitedly. Suddenly, a sound “crack!” was heard, the chair was broken! Ken fell down and shouted “Ouch!” Everybody laughed loudly even the people in the USA could hear it.

I won’t foget the happy memories on 21^st of December. I’m looking forward to having the party next year. Also, the new year is approahing! Happy New Year! I will wait for your letter next year!

Cheers,

Jacky