English News Report (最近一個星期) 緊急!!!!!!!(100字)

Will this help you?

Charity comes before business at New Year fair
(SCMP) 02月 06日 星期二 00:03AM

Kindergarten children will be out in force at the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair selling handmade flowers and spring couplets.

The 1,500 children from four schools run by Hong Kong Ling Liang Church will for the first time join 4,500 of their older counterparts from the church's primary and secondary schools at the fair.

But unlike many other schoolchildren who run stalls at the fair they will be learning not about business but about charity.

Teacher Lam Suk-fan, who is in charge of organising the event, said all money raised would be donated to the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association so that the organisation could help more elderly in poverty to enjoy the personal emergency link service. "Most teachers who host stalls at the fair are economics teachers who want to teach their students about how to operate businesses," Ms Lam said.

"But we want to teach our children to show their love and care for old people and let them know that they are members of society and should play a role in offering help to the needy."


Ms Lam was speaking at the Lam Tin Ling Liang Church Kindergarten where about 180 children were preparing plastic and paper flowers and spring couplets which will be sold at the fair at Victoria Park next week. Three other kindergartens under the Hong Kong Ling Liang Church will join two primary schools and two secondary schools to host four stalls at the fair which runs from February 12 to 18.

Ms Lam said children nowadays did not know how to express sympathy and love for others.

"They do not know how to show their love and care for others, because they are the ones being cared for and loved by their parents or relatives."

To illustrate the abstract concept of caring for others, teachers at the kindergarten dressed themselves up as old people and acted in a drama featuring an old woman who had trouble seeking help after she had hurt herself at home.

"The kids loved the drama very much. They even kept telling the teacher who played the role as the old lady in trouble to be careful and not to hurt herself again."

Ms Lam said that though most preparation was done by their parents and teachers, children made the flowers and spring couplets together with their parents.


Children and their parents will be assigned to be on duty for an hour or so at the fair to help sell the flowers and spring couplets. Among them is Gavin Poon, five, who has made a pot of flowers with his mother Gloria Poon, a nurse. "My mother wakes up at 3am when she has morning shift. But she helps me work on the flowers till late when she has a holiday," he said.


Schoolmate Leung Wing-hei, four, was happy that her father helped her make a pretty pot of flowers. "I like purple flowers and I helped my dad do the cutting," she said. Her father Leung Ka-ming said Wing-hei lost her mother less than a year ago so he had to get involved with her school life more.

"No matter how busy I am, I do not want Wing-hei to feel that she has lost someone dear to her."

Tokyo demands explanation of Chinese boat intrusion into disputed waters


日要求中方交代探測船駛釣魚台海域事件
A longstanding territorial dispute (爭議) between China and Japan heated up yesterday, as Tokyo demanded an explanation about a Chinese research vessel's entry into disputed waters while Beijing fired back that it was "dissatisfied" with Tokyo's handling of the incident.

Japan's top government spokesman said Tokyo was demanding an explanation and apology for the civilian (民間的) ship's entry into what Tokyo claims to be part of Japan's exclusive economic zone. The ship was spotted early on Sunday off a group of East China Sea islands claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, .

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also expressed anger at the alleged incursion (入侵) yesterday.

"There is no change whatsoever to our position that the Senkaku Islands are Japan's inherent territory," he said.

Beijing's Foreign Ministry, however, has responded in a statement that "the Chinese side expressed its strong dissatisfaction to the Japanese side."

Beijing informed Tokyo that the research vessel (船) would be operating in the disputed waters over the weekend, but the ship then entered a different area, chief Cabinet spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said yesterday.

"We would like a clear explanation," he said.

Japan warned China about its "inappropriate" behaviour in another incident on Monday when a Chinese ship entered disputed waters for an apparent maritime (海事的) survey into what Japan claims to be part of its exclusive economic zone.

The flap over the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu by China, is among various disputes that have strained (造成緊張) ties between the two countries.

Tokyo controls the islands, also claimed by Taiwan, as well as the surrounding fishing grounds. Japan seized the islands in 1895 when it colonised Taiwan.

As the Chinese ship Dongfanghong No. 2 carried out the survey, it ignored repeated warnings made through loudspeakers and radio from a Japanese coast guard patrol boat.

The vessel left the zone on Sunday night and headed west, the Japanese coast guard said.