Reborn

Chi Seng Cheong

Reborn

            Black eyes, dark hair and iconic yellow skin. I am a typical Chinese person, but it is incredible that some Europe cultures have seeped into my ethnic background. Portugal had been in charge of Macau, the place I grew up, for over 400 years. In 1999, Portugal ended the rule in Macau, and returned Macau to China. Most people living in Macau desired that Macau could get rid of Portugal in order to change their identity. Thus, the current president of China at that time Jiang Zemin visited Macau and declared that Macau would be a Special Administrative Region similar to Hong Kong. Although I was just a child at that time, I felt that this change had many influences on my whole family.

            The most impressive memory for me is that both of my parents had originally come from Mainland China, and this return let them reconnect with their hometown. Before 1999, it was not common for Macau citizens make a trip to China. However, after Macau was transferred back to China, my parents went back to China frequently each year. In every Chinese festival, my parents preferred to spend their holidays in their hometown in China. Unfortunately, I had to go with them regardless of my school obligation. However, it wasn’t all negative. It was my first time to be in touch with nature. In their hometown, there wasn’t air conditioning, television or any entertainment. I just could sleep with bugs in the inside of mosquito net. However, I got many opportunities to experience village life, such as taking care of the animals. These experiences helped me to grow up.

            In addition, the standard of living in my family has increased because of Macau’s economic development. Macau is a tourist city, and unique legal gambling city in China. China invested a lot to build casinos instead of textile mills. My mother was a textile worker. In the wake of the economic development, job requirements increased. My mother got the opportunity to change her environment that was more stable, safer and better. Also, the difference of income enabled my family to afford other extra luxuries like travel. We could afford to move another bigger house. I was so excited to move because I didn’t have to use plates anymore to pick up rain from the broken roof forever. This was the first time that I thought it was good for Macau to return to China.

            

          Beside those family changes, I also had some personal changes due to different types of religions in Macau. In fact, Macau is an international city, and it includes Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism. People can practice an religion their favors. Furthermore, everyone had their own ways to deal with negative emotions. When I faced troubles, I usually went to church, what was a quiet place where I could calm down. Basically, I used to go to church twice a month, even though I was not a believer. In my school, each religion had an academic club. For students, school held a debate regularly. It was not a competition, but more liked a dialog. I would not miss any debates. These experience taught me to see things from different angles.

            Life is life. We have no chances to reset anything. Fortunately, Macau got a second chance to be reborn when it was returned to its homeland, China. My family was also reborn along with Macau. I am glad that I had the chance to experience Macau’s changes. I stood with two adults connected with their hometown, a complete family and one of a kind person. In the competitive world, people always desire improvements. Most Macau citizens doubted that China could save Macau before 1999. I am thankful that those doubts were unfounded. I can’t say that the decision has improved all Macau citizens’ lives, but it definitely cleared my family’s load.

How Lucky I am by Marcy

How Lucky I am

            Czechoslovakia is what my country was called before the break up between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was November 17, 1989 when the capital city of Czechoslovakia, Prague, was changed by young students forever. This historic event was called the Velvet Revolution, which might make you think it was non-violent, but that is not true. It started as a peaceful demonstration of young students, which soon became a brutal attack against students by the police. The Velvet Revolution a was national rise against a communist regime and push to become a democracy. The Velvet Revolution brought numerous opportunities to many Czech citizens including my family.

            The Velvet Revolution affected many families and my grandparents were not exceptions. After many years living under a communist regime, people felt confused about the new rules and freedom, especially the older generation like my grandparents. My grandparents lived in a communist country their whole life and they had a hard time adjusting to the major change like traveling and job opportunities. My grandmother eventually found her way and started to work at a private company. My grandfather lost his job, and as an older person, he never went back to work.  My grandfather never fully healed and it had a big impact on their marriage because my grandfather was the leader of the family. Younger generations were amazed by how easy it was to travel without permission from the government. People could make their own decisions where they want to travel. The Czech Republic was full of many opportunities for jobs and people could learn more languages, and explore import goods from other countries.

            Another effect was coming with import goods from other countries.  The Czech Republic quickly became aware of drugs and sex. The head of Education in the Czech Republic started to fight this problem with school seminars teaching children about bad effects of drugs and “filthy” magazines like playboy, which my grandmother used to call “book from hell”. Pornography quickly became popular, and the Czech Republic became famous in that adult film industry. With young people trying drugs from around the world, people also learned about sexual diseases. Eventually, the country started a lot of antidrug programs to help to protect the people.

As a young girl during this time, I did not notice the opportunities I had that my mom could only dream about. I could study at any school I wanted, I had toys from around the world and I could learn foreign languages. My generation was taught two languages in high school and had opportunities to go for exchange programs. I remember my mom used to say “how lucky I am,” but I never understood what she meant. My mom was a teacher in a secondary school, and she loved her job. After new opportunities, she moved to a business company in the private sector.  My mom wanted to make more money so she could give my sister and me more opportunities to attend private schools and take us for family vacations. I was nine years old when my sister and my mom went for our first holiday. We took a flight to a town called Mallorca in Spain. I was the first person from my classroom that had been on a plane and everyone was so excited to hear everything about the sea, food and Spanish people.

        Adapting to new things, rules and laws is hard. My mother always said “How lucky I am”. I live in my generation of many opportunities. My whole life I have wondered if my grandparents would have been happier together if they still had lived in the communist regime. Sometimes I think people have too many opportunities, and they are not happy. I wonder if I would like it or not. I can see the positive things that I have gained after the Velvet Revolution. I can travel where I want, I can buy things from other countries and have many job opportunities in the Czech Republic and around the world.

Gratitude

Gratitude

When I became an adult, I begin to respect my parents’ labor and suffering, especially how they raised my siblings and me. I am from Kyrgyzstan, which is in Central Asia. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in the end of 1990, Kyrgyzstan became an independent country. After getting independence, it began the transition to a market economy and my country experienced an economic crisis. Even though the government could not provide people with job or money, because factory and manufacture did not work, people had no job and their salary was too low. My parents were teachers at the school of the village in Talas region of Kyrgyzstan. They had six children, and they did not have enough money to care them. Finally, they decided to move in Bishkek, which is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. By moving from the village to Bishkek, my parents’ knowledge increased, their confidence enable them to make good money and they could choose a bright future for their children.

In 1997, when my parents moved to the capital of Kyrgyzstan, their world view started to develop. There were big differences between the capital and the village of Talas region in Kyrgyzstan. Of course, cities are more developed than villages. Secondly, my parent grew up in the USSR, under communism which tried to create equality among people. Nobody could not be richer or cleverer than others. Until Kyrgyzstan was independent country, my parents had not thought about moving to another place or making enough money to save. A dissolution of USSR affected to my family. They moved to developed city, and they met many intelligent people. The people of Bishkek thought my parent to make their life purpose. They became a goal-oriented and deliberate people.    

Moreover, when my family moved to Bishkek, my parents had the chance to find a highly paid job with their diplomas. My father was a science teacher, and my mother was a mathematics teacher. Compared to a working in a village school, they received a very high salary in Bishkek, because they worked at private schools which gave the highest salary for teachers with experience. When they made good money, they had money to save. My parents were able to buy own house and private car. They had money to go to vacation and relaxing at the tourist place. I went to vacation with my family to Issyk-Kul lake every summer. Issyk-Kul is a popular tourist place of Central Asia. Finally, we could feel coziness and happiness at home.

Furthermore, my siblings and I had opportunities to go to private school. We could get a quality education and learn foreign languages. Due to moving to the capital of Kyrgyzstan, I studied in the International Turkish High School. I received a solid education and broad knowledge. It helped me come to the US. As a result of learning English, I am now a college student. Moreover, my siblings also studied in private technical schools. Thus, they have a good job. A dissolving the Soviet Union ultimately had a good effect on my family and me. On the other hand, when Kyrgyzstan got independence from USSR, my parents had more opportunities to choose excellent way for their children’s future.

In conclusion, the collapse of the Soviet Union forced my parents to move to Bishkek. By moving to there, my family’s life change for better side. I thank to the Soviet Union for gaving us the opportunity to live self-sufficiency. Due to this, my parents had a purpose and hopefulness for bright future of their children. I want express my sincere gratitude for my parent’s upbringing and care of my siblings and me. Consequently, my siblings are useful people in Kyrgyzstan and I live in the US. I believe this is all due to my parents’ successes and achievement.

Wrong Government

All the governments around the world with abad administrations are guilty of robbing part of the money of the countries. Now, due to a corrupt government Puerto Rico had a big debt with the United States. How does the government made a bad administration of the money? An example of this is that some politicians give money to their "friends". The "friends" are the people who help a candidate with money in exchange for a position in the government, or for money. This is an example of what the majority of people involved in the government do. Because of this bad administration of the money the government of Puerto Rico had to request more money from the United States.This is how this billion dollars debt was created so many years ago. This debt shows my family how to faced the problems that were created because of this debt.

The first effect because of this debt was the creation of new taxes in the island. To try to fix the Puerto Rican economy, the Puerto Rican government start to implement new taxes., for food, for medicine, for insurance and even for beverages, but the problem was that my mother and father worked for the minimum salary. It was very hard for them to pay all the bills, plus the new taxes the government of Puerto Rico was creating. Everything was very expensive for my family, so I tried to find a job, but I couldn't find one. My mother started to request loans from the bank to pay all the necessities for our house. This was a very difficult time for my family. Some days my family and I didn't eat because we didn't have the money to buy food. As a result of this period in my life, now I work and I try to help my family with anything they need.

In addition to the new taxes in the island, a year later, the economic situation put on worst and my father lost his job. The past governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, created a law that fired 33,000 people from their jobs. My father was one of these 34,000 people. This made the situation even more difficult to my family because they didn't have money to pay the bills, taxes, and my medical bills was a high problem too. In addition, the prices at the store were increasing because they needed to pay taxes too and my family didn't have the money for everything. The only person that was working in the house was my mother, but she was working for only $7.25 per hour. To try to help her, my father started to weeding in our community. To made a lot of gardens per day, I helped my father with his new job. My father and I didn't have a lot of interaction before because of his job, before the gardens, it consumed a lot of time. Thanks to the gardens job, my father and I created a great relationship.

Besides the job problems in my house, the retirement system also changed. The past governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, created a law that changed when people could retire. Before changing the retirement age, people in the island could retire at the age at the age of 55, but then people had to retire at the age of 65 to receive all the awards of the retirement system . My mom's birthday is in November, but the past governor signed the new law in July. at that time, my mother was 54, and she was so angry. I remember perfectly all the bad words she said that day. My mother decided that after I graduated from high school, both of us, were moving to Chicago. Thanks to this law, now my mother and I live in the state of Chicago.

The debt that Puerto Rico had with the United States has existed for so many years, but Puerto Rican government tried to do something to late. This problem is thanks to all politicians that people in Puerto Rico voted for elections. This problem is going to end when people start to realize that the real problem is the wrong government they chose. That day people are going to take out the trash, and they are going to see good results. For now, people in Puerto Rico have to face all the problems that will arise in the future. This debt is going to be in the history of Puerto Rico forever.