Current Affairs - Loan Sharks Hiring Teens

Be it in FACEBOOK, in online games, coffee shops and schools, loan sharks are striking with various means to get hold of teenagers to do their dirty work. Getting them to distribute name cards, or giving fliers advertising their illegal services. A report on "The New Paper", stated that one 13-year-old student had gotten a job after responding to an adertisment made on Facebook during the school holidays. She dialled the number and was told to meet at an MRT station, where she was given a stack of name cards and made to sign a "job contract". Apparently, these were the name cards of those of loan sharks. Hence, by doing so, she had unknowingly violated the law.

I feel that these loan sharks are very despicable. They use various means just for the sake of money. Even if it meant ruining the lives of teenagers. They target teenagers as they are young and naive, easy to be tricked. And by doing their dirty work, these teenagers has inadvertently ruined their lives, getting themselves a criminal record.

Hence, I feel that teenagers should be more cautious. They should not be blinded by that single moment whereby they might have the chance to get a job and earn some money. They should not make a mistake by taking a job blindly and they might unknowingly ruin their own future. Thus, they should run a deep check on those supposed "companies" or consult any adult as they might know better. They can also check the website for information regarding the job offer. By doing so, these teenagers might save themselves from potentially ruining their future.

The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by asian-american author Amy Tan, and this book has also been made into a movie. Amy Tan's works are mostly on exploring the relationship between mother-and-daughter, which is also what this book is talking about.

This book focuses on four mother and daughter pair. The mothers had immigrated from China and set up families in America. They started a club called Joy Luck Club, where they played mahjong and ate together. The book has a total of 16 stories, divided into 4 sections with 4 stories in each sections, which might be structured like a mahjong game, which also has 4 players.

The main characters are Suyuan(who passed away before the start) and Jing-Mei Woo, An-mei and Rose Hsu, Ying-ying and Lena St. Clair, Waverly and Lindo Jong. There is a total of 8 main characters but only 7 are still present in the novel. The stories are told individually by each character, with each section having all the mothers(accept Suyuan being replaced by Jing-mei) sharing their experience or all the daughters sharing their experience.

The novel is mostly talking about the relationship the mother and daughters have. And one significant similarity to their relationships, as seen from the stories, was that all are rather strained. This was partly due to their cultural differences whereby the mothers were born and raised in a Chinese influenced family, whereas the daughters are brought up in a rather westernized environment. This stories and experience shared from both mother's and daughter's point of view would further show how their views on matters and their ways of thinking differ greatly. Like for one, the daughters would dare to talk back to their mothers, who were their elders. This was a sign of disrespect in their mother's times, doing such things were not even thought of. The mothers were taught to follow instructions and not complain. This was due to them having a more traditional way of thinking, or some would say the Chinese way of thinking. This is just one of the many cultural gaps that could be seen in the novel.

Overall, this book is rather enjoyable as it keeps changing the point of view of characters and would not be so plain and boring. I really recommend this book if one likes to know more about the cultural differences between Westerners and Chinese.