Thinner

Recently, there was a case in UK where a 7 year old was starved to death by her mother. This is my take of a similar story. of course, the fictional parts are fictional, including the names.
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5453570/Seven-year-old-girl-starved-to-death-by-her-mother.html"

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She took a deep breath after taking off everything on her body, including the rubber band that she used to tie her hair. Very slowly, she stepped on the digital scale and exhaled until her lungs was empty. The scale showed 40.2kg.
“Not good. I have to work harder and control myself”. She thought.
She turned on the light in the bathroom and looked at her naked self in the mirrors. The mirrors were arranged at the right angle so that she could see her front and back without turning around. Her collar bones and ribs were clearly seen, as well as the protruding spines on her back.
“I will have to buy the more of X-slim from Angie later. Have to make Mei-mei to eat more. She is not slimming down at all”

Tonight is weekly gathering night that she had never missed since she joined the group. She took a quick shower and drove to the Angie’s house with Mei-mei.
On the way, Mei-mei was sitting quietly with her head down.
“What’s the matter, my dear?”
“I m hungry, mom.” Mei-mei answered in a very soft voice.
“What? You are already over weight and all you can think of is food? Do you want to be a fatso when you grow up and have no husband?”
Mei-mei dropped her head and kept quiet for the rest of the journey.
“My dear, I m doing this for your own good. It is more painful if no man want you, than to control your weight and look pretty. Look, all these X-trim products are not cheap and I m working very hard just to pay for them.”

There was already a small crowd at Angie’s house when they arrived.
“Oh my! Linda. You look slim and great. How I wish I can look like you.” Angie greeted them at the door. Linda loved to be complimented. This was the only pleasure she had after her husband left one year ago.

The gathering started with everyone chanting the weekly motivation slogan.
“We can and we shall make it. X-trim, Xtrim, we shall be slim”

After the chanting, it was the weighing session.
Linda waited nervously when Mei-mei stepped on the scale.
“Have you been eating our X-trim product everyday as per my instruction?” Angie asked Mei-mei.
“Yes. Auntie Angie.”
“Mei-mei, you have gained 1 kg since I weighed you last week. Give her a boo, everyone. Mei-mei is a failure.”
Mei-mei stepped down from the scale slowly and didn’t dare to look at Linda.
After the gathering, Linda dragged Mei-mei to the car in brisk steps.
“Come on. You useless fatso. You are really good for nothing. You must be eating secretly at school. I have to see your teacher tomorrow.”

“Ms Linda. You have to understand. Mei-mei is 10 years old. It is perfectly normal for children at her age to gain weight because she is growing up.” Mei-mei teacher, Mrs. Ravi explained patiently to Linda.

“I don’t care. I don’t want my daughter to become fat and disgusting. I want her to have good future. I request the school to monitor her and make sure she doesn’t eat anything other than the food I prepared for her.”
“Ms. Linda. This is not the responsibility of the school to do this. Besides, Mei-mei is a very smart child and she needs balanced nutrition for her brain development. The slimming product is not suitable for young children.”
“Oh. Now I understand. You had been giving her those fattening food. I know, you are jealous to see us look slim and pretty. Look at yourself, fat and disgusting. Did my ex husband pay you to ruin our lives?”
Linda walked out angrily from the office and slammed the door.
Mrs. Ravi shook her head and sighed.
“Poor Mei-mei.” She thought.

“The whole world is against us. Why do they want to ruin our lives? Is it not enough for him to dump me for another woman? Now they want to ruin my daughter’s life too. I have to do more to make sure she doesn’t grow into a disgusting fat girl.” Linda thought while she was driving home.
“I will double the X-trim ration for her everyday. That should make her slim down faster.”
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Linda was hysteria and needed 3 men to hold her down when the paramedics put Mei-mei’s pale body onto the ambulance.
“WHY are you taking away my daughter? Give her back to me! You are all jealous and want to make us suffer. She was doing very well and slimming down finally.”
At the hospital, Mei-mei was lying with her eyes closed and her father was sitting by her bed.
The doctor spoke to him earlier about the condition of Mei-mei.
“Your daughter has a serious problem. She had probably consumed large quantity of supplements containing excessive copper and selenium, which caused the liver and kidney to overload. These minerals also suppressed the iron and potassium levels in her body and as a result, they have caused other complications as well. We will do our best.”

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Mrs. Ravi cried when she read the last entry in Mei-mei’s dairy.
“Mommy said I m a useless fatso because I m not slimming down. I hate myself and I don’t want to be a useless and disgusting fat girl. I will eat more X-trim than what mommy gives me so I can slim down quickly. Mommy will be very proud of me when we go to Auntie Angie’s house next week.”

what u don't know can't hurt

With the advances in information technologies, we must know much much more than the people 50 years ago. Right?

Do you know these? (http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Child_Labour/lang--en/index.htm)

According International Labour Organization, ILO, 2006, there were 218 million working children of age 5 to 17 years old.
Among them, 74 million were working in hazardous environments like mines, chemical plants etc.
Another 8.4 million were slaves, child prostitutes, child soldiers etc.

To put the figures into perspective, 74 million (74,000,000) is equivalent to 1/20th of the world children population in that age group. That means, 1 in every 20 of the children were forced to labour in hazardous environment.

They are the defenseless group of human being who are suffering in silent, while constantly subjected to physical and sexual abuses. They are forced to work long hours with no pay, and no hope.

Want more figures? In South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) there are about 2.2 million children working in the carpet making industry. In Cote d’Ivoire (Yes, that’s where the great Chelsea striker Didier Drogba comes from), about 100,000 child labour work on the cocoa plantations.

So, what have the adults done about all these annoying figures?

Surely those righteous adults who yell and scream every week about love and moral must be doing something, right?

Surely those caring leaders who always say “children are our future” and never forget to remind us “to do it for our children”, must be doing something, right?

Sadly, very little has been done and the figures are in fact growing. I guess, what u don't see or know won't hurt you. out of sight is out of mind, as long as MY children are still OUR future.

Honestly, I have no answer to this darkest side of human suffering. However, there are some hopes, but I m not entirely sure how true are the claims.

FAIR TRADE claims to guarantee that products, such as chocolate and coffee, are“slave free” and have not been made using forced labour.

RUGMARK also claims that no illegal child labour has been used to make the carpet or rug that bears the stamp.

In the name of global economy and free trade, how much of the world wealth and economy growth is built on the sweat and blood of those skinny bodies digging in the coal mines? To put in cynically, "Its bad for business and economy growth to do away with such cheap labour"

I m not trying to feast on your guilt here, but the next time you reward your children with a delicious piece of chocolate, give a thought for the thin, scarred hands that picked the cocoa beans.

Children are our future

Dedicate this to the millions of children who are going through similar hardship everyday around the world. whoever read this, pass the message on.

The sky was still dark when Maly got up from the wooden plank he was sleeping on. The zinc roofed hut they slept in was almost saturated with smell of urine from a rusty tin container in a corner. The hut had no windows but two small openings in the wall. Maly and his 15 other companions were waiting but nobody said anything. A few minutes later, “Big guy” Le Gros came and opened the lock from outside.

They went out and were joined by other groups of children at the shed on the cocoa plantation. Le Gros barked some instructions and they were given their tools and rations.
Now, it was the harvesting season. Maly and his companions had to fill up the sacks and transport them to the collection point where the trucks were waiting.

He felt hungry and weak, and the sack full of cocoa beans was getting heavier and heavier. He had to wait for another 4 hours before he could eat his ration of corn and banana paste.
“Think of birds when you are working. Don’t ever think about food.” That was the advice given to him by Agasi, who was older and taller than Maly.

Maly bent over while the other 2 children lifted a big sack and placed it on his back. He walked difficultly trying to balance the sack but tripped and fell on the ground. He heard an angry shout and almost immediately the burning pain of Le Gros’s cane was on his back and thighs. The other children came to pick up the spilt cocoa beans while he struggled to get up to avoid more beatings. Being beaten was almost a daily event and nobody showed any emotion about it.

After the sun had set, Maly and the children were given a ration of rice and a cup of sweet drink. After eating, they were lead back to their small huts.

On their way, Maly saw a big white car drove past them and stopped in front of the manager’s house not far from where they were. A well dressed white man got in the spotlessly white car and it drove off in another direction.

“That’s our big boss, Mr. Santos. Greet him the next time you see him. Understand?” Le Gros barked out loudly at them.

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Mr. Santos and Anna, his pretty personal assistant, entered the VIP room at the airport. The journalist from Business Times stood up and greeted them.

“Thank you so much for coming. I am Andre Luz from Business Times. It’s my pleasure meeting you, Mr. Santos.”

Mr. Santos gave him a warm smile and a firm handshake before they sat down on the couch. Andre couldn’t help to notice how pretty Anna was in her well tailored, fitting business suit.

“Mr. Santos, last year you were nominated as the person of the year by the Environmentalists magazine. Can you tell us more why did you choose to produce your cocoa beans by organic standards?”

“This is simply because I believe in the organic principles of agriculture. I truly believe that everyone has to play his or her part in preserving our environment. Organic farming principles focus in applying environmentally friendly methods to improve soil fertility. The key principle is sustainability. I believe that it is the responsibility of us farmers to take care of the earth and keep the soil healthy. When we leave a farm, the soil should be better and more fertile than when we started.”

“Being certified organic, is your operation entirely chemical free?” Andre continued with the interview.

“Definitely. Using chemical pesticides and herbicides pose a heavy toll on our environment. They are polluting our food, soil and water sources. Furthermore, they don’t solve the problems that they were supposed to solve. On all my plantations, we use cultural and biological methods to control pests and weeds.”

“Organic products usually get premium prices in the market. Is this part of the reasons you went for organic certification?”

“You are right that organic produce is usually more valuable than conventional produce. But no. It’s not the reason why our farms employ organic methods in out operations.”

Mr. Santos looked at Andre and said with his sincere voice.

“The main reason we are doing it organically is because we believe in preserving the environment for our children. We want to give them a pollution free world for them to live better, healthier and happier. Children ARE our future.”

Joy of Life

Sometimes, we don’t realise the passage of time and carry on with life until we are given a gentle tap on the shoulder.
Well, I received such a delightful tap just few weeks ago.
My baby sister has her own daughter and now a mother. Little Xin Yue is indeed a bundle of joy. Even I haven’t met her yet, I m sure we will get along vey well in few weeks time when I get home

Huaaah! Me need some service here.

Now I can zzzz

We all grew and aged, like it or not. I can still remember very clearly many things that happened in our childhood. We used to call her “Bobo”, the cute little bear who always runs along side Yogi Bear in the Hanna Barbara cartoon. They always get into trouble with the ranger for stealing food from the tourists. Hahaa..

She was one cry baby, who cried at least twice a day, for whatever reason.
I used to walk her to the kinder garden at the Fairpark church. At home, she would sing to us the children songs she had learnt at school.
In fact, I can still remember a few of them. Like “Pearly shells, by the ocean, shining in the sunlight….”, “one two three four five, once I caught a fish alive, but then I let it go again, why did u like it go, because it bit my finger so…” and “rain rain go away, come again another day…”

Time flew and the next time I went home, she was already a young girl in her last teen years. I can still remember that time when she cried quietly before me after her first break up. Really broke my heart.

And the next time I went home, it was her wedding. For the first time in my life, I had to give away red packet for a sip of Chinese tea. Everyone in the family was happy and we went to Bahau to attend the wedding dinner.

This time I go home, I will be greeted by my baby sister and her little baby. How nice. Life ain’t too bad.