(792) Waiting for Public Exam results

** this blog was published on 06Feb2011.

My youngest daughter is waiting for her pre-university results. A guy friend went to work in a casino, a girl from another class works in a language centre. The latter commented that the former earns twice her pay. I suppose the casino had to offer higher pay to attract young people to leave home, even for temporary jobs. On the other hand, education had never been a a source of high income.

The other day Elizabeth went for two job interviews. The first place, an advertising outfit with a research slant, kept her form on file. Jobs have been slow lately. There was  no vacancy. The second, the above mentioned language centre, interviewed her and promised to give her a reply after the Chinese New Year holidays. In fact, she had at least two job offers in retail. But if she takes those up, there would go her youth meeting and Sunday worship.

We saw a banner advertising job vacancies in a nearby factory. She would probably hit that possibility come the next working day. That day we drove past the area I had my very first job offer when I graduated from high school. I answered a job ad in a Chinese newspaper thirty odd years ago. An accounts position in a spare parts shop offered me five hundred dollars a month for a five and a half work week. I did not take the job due to some transport constraint. My friend, whom I recommended, worked there for three years. I was just relating that episode to Elizabeth about how nice the boss was in buying me lunch when I visited my friend during working hours to say Hello to him. It is important to note that if Elizabeth were to be offered the teaching job, it would pay eight hundred dollars for a five day week. Note that thirty over years have passed. Consumer index probably had tripled in the intervening years.

For my readers who have been following my blogs, remember the piece entitled "injustice" written about Hong Kong ?  Some of that is true in my country, too. It is no wonder that thousands have immigrated to Australia, New Zealand and other Common wealth countries. I don't see a rosy picture politically nor financially for my children in the country that I love. But I suppose I trust my God. He who called me to return has good plans for all my children in my birth place.