not busy wif work but busy going out, making full use of my free day today.. =P
decided to venture into biz.. not realli a big event, jus wiggling my toes into e world of bazzar.. testin water.. heh.. have been playing with e idea for quite some time but never realli have a chance to do so.. din have a lot of capital to play with.. lol
then heard from jingni last week that she n her frens will be settin up a stall in a bazzar so decide to try for once..
went to look for materials and stuff to sell durin e bazzar.. bought quite a bit of stuff.. and when earrings are going for onli a dollar a pair, i obviously couldnt resist e temptation and bought a few pairs for myself.. =P
oh no, looks like i realli cant kick my soft spot for earrings.. ning is going to scold me liao.. think i bought 7 pair of earrings within these 2 mths even though she alr told me not to buy any more earrings cos my ears cant take so many anyway.. then lost count on the num of earrings bought this yr, or rather, dun dare to count.. one thing for sure, my earrings is standing at 35.. omg.. this means tt e amt of $$ i spent on earrings is actually quite significant..
anyway realise our theme for the stall is not v clear cut, seems like a plate of rojak instead.. think we nid to sort it out.. and now we nid to start making earrings.. praying tt i wont end up liking my creation so much tt i dun wan to sell.. hah.. but my craft skills and creativity is jus average, so doubt if i can come out with quality earrings.. hmm, perhaps i can take a look at my collection or go online to search for inspiration... hee..
then at night meet up with esther n shuying @ MOS for dinner.. so good to see them again.. =) esther say its e first time we met since clubbing, which is like, wow, months ago man! but even then, we still have no lack of topics to talk about and tts great!! cos at times u wont know wat things to say if u haven been in contact for quite a while and e conversation can be rather bland n dull.. its so good to chat with them (from school work grouse to e bag tt my tuition gal gave me (so nice of her, thanks! =] ) to guys to holiday trips to fashion etc), joking among ourselves.. then esther gave me n shuying a pair of earring.. its lovely.. like it lots! n add to to my collection.. heh.. how i wish we can meet up more often, but our timetable seems to be at odd with each other.. but at least we plan to meet up next week liao, cant wait.. hee..
on a more serious tone, read an article in the newspaper which say tt going to univeristy for china students is actualli a disinvestment.. my heart sank aft i complete the reading.. actualli this is not new to me, i have already read many heart ranching stories about how poor families pawn or sell every valuable stuff they can find to send their child/children to uni.. but the facts presented in this article still shocked me to some extent.
first, 4 yrs of uni sch n misc fee = 2 yrs of income of an avg urban family = 7 yrs of income of an avg rural family = 50 yrs of income of an avg rural family living in western china!!! and we are onli talking abt e avg family here!! can imagine the sheer num of cases where the family go practically broke or bet on their entire fortune when their child goes to uni.. it is literally like a gamble.. what if the child, after graduation, decide to forsake their parents?? they will be left with nothing.. & uni fee is not e onli complaint.. read somewhere tt even high school (= JC in spore) sch fees can go up to thousands per yr (= at least S$200, compared with ard S$360 my parents pay per yr for my JC edu).. IMHO, i feel that e govt ought to step in and intervene in the charging of sky-high sch fees that is beyond the reach of a large % of families and also perhaps to provide more scholarships or financial assistant.. the same goes to healthcare too.. im still scratching my head as to why the china govt decided to sort of privatise/deregulate these 2 sectors.. even in spore, these 2 sectors are heavily subsidised by the govt or at least play a significant role..
to make matter worse, the intense compeition for jobs among grads depress wages so it is now no longer true that when you own a degree = you can get a well-paid job.. wat this implies is some grad may not earn enough to make ends meet and some may still even need to depend on their parents! so e $$ tt e parents pour in initially is literally pouring down to a drain.. it may be better if they deposit e $$ into a fixed deposit account, at least it earns a fixed interest rate aka return.
IMHO again, i think the perception of parents plays a part in this situation (low grad pay).. in china, parents tend to have the thinking tt 穷自己却不能穷孩子 & 万般皆下品，唯有读书高。。so they will try all means to send their child to uni when he/she qualifies for a uni, so that he/she can 光宗耀祖。 but they forget about e basics of econs... when supply of one good shifts right, e price goes down! so actually e cleverer way is to go to a vocational sch (= poly in spore) instead.. there is already reports from UK sayin that plumbers and electricians are earning much more than a junior admin staff cos many ppl shun this type of job.. similarly, parents in china will definitely prefer their offspring to get a degree and then get a 9-5pm office job rather than go to a vocational sch then doing a menial job.. perhaps time for parents to change the mindset tt uni is better?? nevertheless it is not going to be easy, in spore it took yrs before parents become more open to poly.. however, even up till now, there are still ppl who think tt students who go to poly are those who cant qualify for JC and therefore interior..
e govt needs to play an active role in correcting the situation.. it is a good thing tt the citizens are receiving more education and it will be a shame if not enough quality jobs are provided for them.. in e long run the country may suffer cos some ppl may be depressed in the dismal job mrkt and decide not to pursue a degree or e grads may choose to migrate in serach of greener pastures which can translate to talent loss/ brain drain.. however i can say tt e govt is in a rather difficult position. on one hand, they did not want the economy to overheat and thus the rationale for raising interest rate.. on the other hand, the cooling down of economy may cause the unemployment problem to be more acute.. there are already millions of workers being retrenched from SOEs (State Owned Entreprise) due to the reforming of SOEs plus millions more of new grads. at the employment front, the situation is already quite gloomy at the current rate of economic growth (approx 9%), wat will happen when e economy is cooled = less jobs created?? but if the economy continues to overheat, there is a risk of high inflation. 难道鱼与熊掌真的不能兼得？
