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.