Truely Inspired...~

"Physical contribution alone is no longer sufficient to help the poor, it is only through proper education that we can break the cycle of poverty, that we can change the mentality and lifestyle of the people..." (Hannah Yeoh, 2009).

"Breaking the cycle of poverty through education"

This is the most meaningful message conveyed by the young Subang Jaya assemblywoman today for the launching of "Charity Walk for the Children". Seriously, what she said was indeed very true. No matter how many visits we pay to the homes, how much money we donate to them, all these alone are not sufficient. They are physical *materials* that can hardly change the mindset of those people. Yea no doubt they will be very happy with the sum of money you donated to them, but that doesn't mean this can change the way they think of life, the way they want their future to be.

According to Hannah, in USJ1, there are 8000 households living in 4 blocks of low cost apartments, 24 people are staying under the same roof, under one unit, everyone has to take turn to sleep and some don't even get enough money to eat. Yea, in USJ, a place that we naively thought was over-developed and where everyone is rich or at least above average. Some of the volunteers went over to that area to offer free tuition, when the children were asked what they wanted to be in the future, guess whats their answer? They said they wanted to be Mat Rempit. This is no joke dudes. You see, the mentality of these children is not right, they are being influenced by their living environment, where Mat Rempit is their hero and everyone wants to be the hero.

Just in case if you do not know what is Mat Rempit. They are people who participate in illegal street racing. Also, sometimes they perform crazy acts for fun such as superman (lying flat on the seat), wikang and scorpion (Wikipedia, 2009).

So you see, the only way to save the poor souls of these kids is through proper education. It is only through education where we can change the mindset of the people, where we can save the future generations.

I am inspired. I feel that for a young woman like her, she is indeed someone who we can learn from. Look at our environment now. The weather is so hot, and this indirectly causes the bush and forest burning and therefore haze. What we do is to stay indoor, on the aircond and continue to live in denial. This at the same time emits more toxic air to the atmosphere and thus the weather is helplessly becoming hotter. You see, it is just a domino's effect, where one affects another and so on.

Now I started to believe what scientists have predicted, that in the coming 30 years, we will not have enough clean water and clean air, we will not have enough land for food, there will be more people starving as the population increases, we will be using up all the gas and petroleum and the list goes on... Probably in the coming 50 years, the world is so polluted that you will see people walking with an oxygen tank, or being wrapped into a bubble, like someone who is immuno-compromised. Isn't it pathetic? I thought there are still billions of years to go before our earth dies off... But... If due to human activities that the earth is lethally deteriorating, I wish I will not be living that long to witness.

Perhaps, I mean perhaps, I can start my career as a politician. I wish I will have enough strength to change the mindset of the people, to save our country and the world before it is too late. As what Hannah has said, she alone is not able to make any changes, it is through the contribution of everyone, that we can make a difference. I hope I can be like her one day.