China: a economically booming country that lacks humanity?

On October 13th, 2011, a two-year old girl in the Foshan area in China was hit and ran over by not just one, but two vehicles. As if this wasn't bad enough for her fragile little body that, in the next ten minutes, 18 pedestrians will pass by, but none, none of them will be willing to lend a hand, or even call the police to report the accident.

It showed the people, all varying in age, gender, working class. What especially shook me to reality was when a mother with her child, seemingly around the same age as little Wang Yue, walks by without giving second glances. How a child's mother be put in that situation and not call for help? Surely, maybe some of her father's hardware store neighbours would help, but no one, until a 58 year old scavenger woman decided to move her lifeless body to the side and go look for aid.

This incident led chills down my spine for a very very long time.

But the ugly truth behind the Chinese society today is that there are far too many people in China. Over two billion and growing, there is that lack of sense community. The country has grown too right wing, only caring about their own benefits and losses.

Another explanation to this accident would be similar situations from before, where a elder has fallen down, a warm-hearted pedestrians decides to step in and help, but ends up being framed by the senior of pushing them down. In a place like China, where competition for jobs is fierce, and a place with a large middle class workers, they cannot bet their incomes on the conscience of the family.

The girl is in now hospital, but when and whether she will ever awake is a mystery that her family wishes to be soon solved.

Nuit Blanche 2011

 Nuit Blanche in Francais means all-nighter, aka code for party! It is annual arts festival held in downtown Toronto that starts at sunset and runs till the next morning's sunrise, so approximately from 6:30PM to 6:30AM. Artists from all over bring their authentic artwork for display, the quirkier the better!

I went with a few friends to check it out:

Photography by: Kevin Li

At first glance, this art piece doesn't really scream "I'M AN ART PIECE." But this creation is to reflect on the G-20 ( The group of twenty Fiance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) protest that happened in June, 2010. It brought massive damage to the downtown area, many took this as an opportunity to steal and gain.

Photography by: Kevin Li

Photography by : Kevin Li


Photography by: Kevin Li

Photography by: Kevin Li

Photography by: Kevin Li

Photography by: Kevin Li

Yummy pasta place!

India: Secrets to A Bright Future

To start off, I'd like to apologize for the lack of blog posts over the last week. I've been extremely busy with homework, 7 AM basketball practices and sleep. This past week has been disastrous especially because I came down with a cold, a stuffy nose and sore throat.

Anyway, a few days ago, I read that many teenage girls in India are forced into prostitution. India isn't the only country that encourages this practice: Thailand, Cambodia, and many other Asian/Middle Eastern countries are all involved in the trade. But the girls are not abducted and then forced in by some mysterious trafficker, they're forced in by their own family. Their mother, father, brother and sisters. This has long been the tradition passed down by their ancestors, they see it as a way to increase the family income, as a way for the family to live better off the prostitution of the girls.

A red light traffic area in India

The girls enter during their teenage years, and work until they're in their late 30s. In a country like India, where work for women is far more harder to find than in North America, a daily income of 1000-1500 rupees ($12-$15) dollars by serving 10 - 12 customers a day seem like a irresistible deal. I mean it's understandable, there are so many unbelievable things that people would be for money. Especially in a country where money doesn't come easily.

Many prostitutes in the trade find it hard to quit, mostly because of they're so used to the daily massive income. Therefore, the only possible solution would be for the girls to never enter the trade in the first place. Education, education, education. It is the key. The girls need to learn there ARE other options than just prostitution.

Note: The girl is not Priya

A mother, who's in the trade right now named Meena, had called her experience hard work. She sometimes defends the industry but blames her family for the burden that she now carries. She has to support her family, as well as her sister and brother's family.

Meena herself has a daughter named Priya, but she does not wish that her daughter follows in her footsteps, but rather receive a better education and follow her dream, which is to become an actress. Girls need to achieve equality. The movement began in North America in the late 1900s, hope will continue a long time down the road in the future.

"Forest Boy" Found in Berlin

A seventeen year old teenage boy has been wondered into the city saying that he has lived in the forest for five years now.

He speaks English and a little big of German but has no memory of anything whatsoever except for that his name was Ray.


His dad and him has retreated into the woods since his mother died and had lived there ever since. But the duo had never made their own shelter but lived in huts and tents they found. The boy started walking in August and walked for two weeks

Police are now looking and searching for information within Europe to find his identity and background information.

But tons of questions rush to my mind. Why did he and his dad retreat into the woods after the boy's mother died? Was it that much of a devastating blow to the father and son? After being born in the wild how are they able to adapt to the wild life? What did they hunt and eat? In times of emergency, how did they get help? They've forgotten themselves so much that they lost their everything except for their first name? Everything just seems too strange, but it's far too early to jump to any conclusion, only time will tell...

A Day to Remeber

Today's date: 2011/09/11

Does that look familiar to you? It's been a decade since the terrorist attack happened on 2001/09/11. 

8:46AM - The North World Trade Centre Tower was struck

9:03AM - The South World Trade Centre Tower was struck

9:37AM - The airplane landed in Pentagon, Washington

10:03AM - The airplane crashed into Shankville, Pennsylvania

Many around United States and worldwide paid tribute to the victims that had their lives taken away in the three attacks in New York (lower Manhattan), Washington and also Pennsylvania. The tragedy claimed the lives of 2,977 people in total, that includes workers and visitors of the twin towers, the victims of the Pennsylvania and Washington incident and the first response rescue workers. 

Present Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, previous president George W. Bush all paid a visit to the recovering site of the World Trade Centre today. George W. Bush read a paragraph extracted from a letter that President Abraham Lincoln had sent to a mother that had lost five sons in the Civil War, citing his deepest apologies and highlighting that they gave their blood for a country that thrives because of them.

Obama Bin Laden, the master mind behind the attack was killed in Pakistan in May, it does give comfort to know that he is dead, but that doesn't even fill up a quarter of the emptiness and loneliness that the victim's family and friends have lived for the last ten years of their lives.

But obviously we should remember there are no faults that are committed without a trigger. United States must have somehow dismayed the Al Qaeda by giving "help" to their countries that they did not want. Perhaps in the future, before we give further help, we should negotiate with those countries to prevent anything similar from ever happening again.

A decade marks great changes, good ones, bad ones, and hopefully better ones. Prayers are sent out for the pricks of the heartaches that thousands of families feel on a day to day bases to end. 

Fashion Week at School?

Many Canadian students have been going back to school this week, particularly students that live in Ontario have been slowly trickling back after their long extended holidays.

Back to school week was supposed to be one of those intense fashion weeks. Everyone usually wears their best clothes to show off who they are. But the weather has been too cold to dress up, so I've been bundling up to keep warm. I just can't risk the chance of catching a cold, as I take extremely long to recover from them.

Lookbook.nu is one of my favorite websites to visit if I want to get interesting and creative ideas for my outfit, so I'm going to pick out some outfits that I think fit into the first week of the school. These are outfits that I would have loved to wear. (They're more on the summer to fall transitioning because it's getting quite cold here in Canada.)

The outfits that I would have chosen:

Tuesday: First day of school. Don't want to be trying too hard, pick something comfortable that you can walk in to find your way to your new classes, meet some old friends and have a few hugs here and there. Baggy sweaters are in for the winter and fall, (even though this is more of a long sleeved shirt you could also substitute this for a baggy sweater) But you can curl your hair or straighten it if you have curly hair to make it seem fancier. 

Wednesday: The slightly warmer day of the week. Simple, simple, simple. Sometimes simple things are the best. This is the casual sheek look, paired with a tank top, some sweats and converse.

Thursday: High waist shorts are really popular for the summer, so make the transition by wearing tights under to add warmth, black leggings under shorts also makes your legs appear thinner. A baggy old looking 80s sweater adds a pop of color.

Friday: Feeling feminine? No problem, a pretty up-do, along with a pretty little dress from summer, a thin belt to make your figure look more womanly, black leggings, a cardigan over and a pair of boots finishes your first week off!

Hope you guys have all had a great and warm first week! 

Dolly the Sheep

I remember the days when cloning was just a dream, something that I'd watch from a Doraemon episode, somewhere down the road in the future. But that was made possible in July 5th, 1996, the day that the first ever cloned mammal Dolly was born in Scotland.


Now that we've mastered cloning, some are aiming for a new kind of technology. Using stem cells to revive animals near extinction. One of the probably candidates is the Northern White Rhinoceros. Only seven of this species are alive now. This never fails to amaze me to what we have done to our planet, this is the fate that many animals will endured or have already endured, like the popular known passenger pigeons.



The stem cells will be used as a last resource, but I hope we will rarely need to use that kind of technology again. The whole aspect of using stem cells and cloning gives me the chills and feels entirely unnatural. I hope that we will never have to stare at the stuffed corpse of the animal in some museum but we will be able to touch the living animal's hide or fur and remember what a beautiful creature that it is to share this Earth with us.