August 2018 - You Write

Education & Gambling - Two 100-worded Stories

August 30, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

The Value of Education Ah-Seng made money through his ‘char kway teow’ at Newton Bridge. He sent his son, Weng, to University and Wing graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Weng returned to continue helping his Dad - preparing the famous dish. “We need to upgrade,” Weng said. Ah-Seng listened and moved to a shop premise nearby. It was tidy and neat, but business turnover went down. “We need to advertise,” Weng said. But the turnover continued to drop. “We are going back,” Ah Seng firmly concluded. And the turnovers and profits increased. NOTE: ‘Char Kway Teow’ means ‘stir-fried […]

Gambling - DON’T BE TEMPTED

August 26, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

Yes, I have to start this article by repeating the warning I often hear in my inner mind “Ignore the news of any gambling gain - the loss has never reported.” The two Chinese characters for ‘gambling’, in the Cantonese speaking world, are 赌钱 [du qian] literally “gamble money”. These two characters, in Cantonese, rhymes with another two characters 倒钱 [dao qian] meaning ‘pouring out money’. My mother and my grandmother had drummed into me from a very young age that ‘gambling equates to pouring out money.’ The story that triggers me to write this story is the recent NZ Herald […]

Have a Little Faith 有一点信仰吧

August 13, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

The first article on the same topic was written on 16th March 2016 posted on my LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/have-little-faith-mitch-albom-%25E6%259C%2589%25E4%25B8%2580%25E7%2582%25B9%25E4%25BF%25A1%25E4%25BB%25B0%25E5%2590%25A7-francis-lai Now that I have just returned from Cambodia (Kampuchea) I have time to reflect again on this topic after my visits to the two genocide sites: The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTRjJAo2jjU and The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDsjA25bLo As I toured the two places, I remembered the story of my departed father and grandfather who were taken by the Japanese soldiers to be killed somewhere in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation of the island. This was in February 1942 […]

The Inle Lake in Myanmar

August 9, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

Today is Sunday the 29th day of July 2018. I am expecting to welcome into my blossom a birthday girl and five of her family members. I hope this can be one of the best experiences of her life. I wish that this day can be a memorable one for her. There she is, getting on the narrow motorized ‘dragon boat’ now with her husband and a local guide. Her second daughter’s family of four have boarded on another narrow boat earlier and they are waiting in front of her at the pier of the Inle Lake Villa Resort. As their […]