Helping the Poor

Good morning to our beloved teacher and fellow friends. It is an honour for me to be here and the topic that I would like to share with you today is entitled: “Helping the Poor”.

Sometimes it is easy for us to forget how lucky we are with our family always by our side, making sure that we live a comfortable life and getting formal education. We often take things for granted because we do not have to worry about basic necessity unlike many people who are not as fortunate as we are. Many people, for example, the community living in Kampong Tupai who is living below the poverty line, have to go through their daily lives from hand to mouth. Since Kampong Tupai is a typical rural area, there are very little job opportunities for the community there. Those who are lucky enough to secure a job will still have to work on a minimum wage as they make ends meet. In fact, majority of the residents of Kampong Tupai cannot even afford to seek medical treatment. Worst yet, most of them have to live in a deplorable and unhygienic condition because they are unable to improve their standard of living.

We should be aware that there are many more places around the country like Kampong Tupai, where people do not have much to defend themselves from the problems of poverty. They desperately need our help and assistance but you may wonder: what can you do to help the poor? The answer is simple. You may start a local charity drive in our school or even local residential area. Get people to gather various forms of aid such as groceries, medicine as well as cash aid.

Besides that, schools can definitely help by having welfare and service clubs that are like any other co-curricular activities. The only difference is that such student bodies will focus on community service and get the whole school to be involved in helping the needy people. Furthermore, students can be encouraged to participate in school organised trips to visit local orphanages and old people’s home. Through such noble effort, students can become more understanding and giving in charity work.

All in all, in line with the effort of creating a caring society, we should all be involved in social work and serve the community voluntarily. By helping others, we do not only bring happiness to strangers but we are also sowing the seed of love in the lives of those who are living in hopelessness and sorrow.

Drugs

Ever since human started dabbling in the field of medicine, people have learnt many uses of drug with great medicinal value. However useful they are, drugs should only be taken after consultation with a doctor. Otherwise, it will lead to addiction and cause great harm to the user if the drug is taken habitually.

Our country has been battling the problem of drug abuse for many years. It is the nation’s number one enemy because it will lead to various social problems. When the problem concerns youth of the country, it becomes a more distressing issue for all. This is because we cannot foresee our country being led by future generation with drug problem.

Besides that, people who are addicted to drug are often associated with crimes because drugs will impair their sense of judgment. Therefore, they will go to the extend of stealing, lying and even killing just to satisfy their addiction. They become a menace to the society and their behaviour poses a great threat towards the peace and orderly of our community.

Furthermore, being depended on drugs causes one to lose his or her ability to function normally. In other words, drug abusers cannot work like a healthy living being and without work, they lose financial independence. That means they do not have money to support themselves as well as their terrible habit. Hence they will once again resort to crimes in order to maintain their intoxicated lifestyle.

Moreover, drugs are lethal because people will die of drug overdose. Abusing drugs can also expose the users to the deadly AIDS virus if they share syringes with another drug addicts with AIDS. Therefore, either way we look at it, a drug addict will still die of a horrible death.

As a closure. It is important that we become more aware of the dangerous effects of drug abuse. That way, we will learn to say no to drugs in every possible situation. By staying away from drugs, we will assure ourselves a healthy and fulfilling life.

The Setting of The Return

In the novel “The Return” by K.S. Maniam, there are two types of settings which are social setting and physical setting. Social setting refers to the time or period when the story is set in and physical setting refers to place where the story takes place.

In terms of social setting, the story is set between 1940 until 1962, from the pre-independence era of Malaya that is also known as the British colonial period in Malaya; to the Japanese occupation of Malaya; to the independence of Malaya; even until the time of emergency, when curfew hours were imposed due to the activities of the communists. The story is also set in a small town of Bedong, Kedah where most of the action takes place in the “lines” which is known as Bedong Group Hospital.

The novel deals with life of the Indian immigrants from lower social strata or rather labourers. They are the Tamils who had very little education worked in the district hospital and in the rubber estates. They included Kannan and his neighbours. On the other hand, there are also the educated Indians, like CD (Ayah), Mrs. CD and the Justice of the Peace (JP), who held more responsible positions and looked down upon the working class. They keep to themselves and constantly look down upon as well as discriminate the labourers. Meanwhile, there are also the British, who ran the country and held the top posts and they were feared and held in awe. Despite the differences in social ranks, the Indian community in Bedong does share similar cultural values. The Tamils observed Hindu festivals such as Deepavali, Thaipusam and Ponggal. They lived their lives according to mainly Hindu customs.

In terms of Physical settings, there is Bedong which is the place where Kannan’s family lives specifically beside the Hindu cemetery where Periathai puts up the first shelter in the most undeveloped part of the town. It is also the same place where Periathai dies of cancer. Besides that, there is the long house or better known as ‘the lines” which is the place where Ravi is introduced to formal Tamil education at first. In addition to this, there is the hospital compound where CD sneers at the Ravi and tells him he is fit only to wash other people’s dirty clothes. As Kannan’s business prospers, we witness the opening of the laundry shop in Bedong town. However, as the story spiral downwards for Kannan after the death of Periathai, the setting slowly changes to beside the river where Kannan’s tragic death occurs there.

Bedong is also where Ravi used to live in - the “lines” which are houses with little basic amenities. The lines is the place where most conflicts and values systems affect him. He goes to school around the area and it is where Miss Nancy influence him by providing him with hopes, a place for him escape poverty and oppression and that draws him away from life at the “lines”.

On the other hand, a different setting took place at Sungai Petani which is where Ravi goes to school and later returns to this place to teach. At the same place, we see Ravi gaining a place in the English school. At the end, Sungai Petani is also the same place where Ravi starts work as a qualified teacher.

Other less significant physical setting includes Gurun and Merbok where Kannan opens two laundry shops were here. Not forgetting England where Ravi goes to for two years for teaching training

As a conclusion, we see Kannan and Periathai being affected by their environment. They try very hard to establish roots in Malaya as well as to own their piece of land. However they both fail as we witness Periathai dies of cancer without achieving her dream whereas Kannan dies in a fire. Ravi, though saddened by the tragic lost, finds his own way out of the difficult life in Bedong and changes his fate through means of education.

The effects of pollution

Pollution has become a happening issue which many of us would not have welcomed. It is a distressing problem because as we are discussing the topic now, our mother earth is also slowly being eaten away by the problem of pollution. The question is what are the devastating effects of pollution if we continue to allow it to happen?

First of all, greenhouse effect is considered as the worst ever problem which the earth has ever come across with. Due to the excessive emission of global warming gases, our mother earth is now surrounded by an extra layer of greenhouse gases and this causes heat to be trapped inside the atmosphere. This will lead to the increase of temperature, uncertain weather and the melting of ice caps at the poles.

Besides that, due to the pollution of water, we face a possible loss of clean fresh water source. If we cannot have the supply of natural clean water simply because we ruined it, we may have to pay a huge price just for a glass of drinkable water.

Not only that, the pollution of air and water has also caused the extinction of flora and fauna. They cannot continue to live if there is no clean air and water. In fact, the whole ecosystem will lose its balance once pollution becomes out of control.

In addition to this, humans cannot escape the terrible effect of pollution either. Due to pollution, we are exposed to all kinds of pollution-related diseases. Hence, the more we pollute the earth, the sicker we become. In other words, our longevity will be greatly shortened because of pollution.

Finally, when worse comes to worst, we will witness the total annihilation of the human race one day due to pollution. Perhaps some may not believe it, but it is highly possible especially when people cannot control the rate of pollution.

Simply put, we may think that we are intelligent and superior beings, taking charge of the world but we are wrong. The balance of nature has been disturbed and if we do not step on the break on development now, it may be too late. Hence, it is vital time for us to step up and protect our mother earth from further destruction.