One day, while driving home from school, Brandon, out of the blues, popped this question.
Brandon: Mum, what's the smartest university in the world?
Me: Well there's a few around, depending what you want to study. There's Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge.....why do you ask? I was thinking, oh wow! Someone is aiming very high here at the same time feeling proud that he's thinking of the best.
Brandon: See, nerds always get bullied by the 'cool' guys when they go to normal school (university). But if I went to the smartest one, I won't get bullied at all, because the whole school will be filled with nerds.
Well, I'm glad in a way that he has his future all mapped out....with contingency plans in place.
Then there is this:
The other day, we had curry for dinner and I often use kaffir lime (limau perut) leaves in my curry. Brandon asked me if they were the same leaves from the little tree in por por's backyard. I said yes, that's it.
Brandon (turning to Chloe, whispering): Hey che che. That's the tree that we plucked the limes from and threw them into the drain hole at the back. Remember?
Chloe: No I didn't! You did it. Not me.
Brandon: Teeheeheee......
Since he was being so smug about it, I decided to mess with his mind.
Me: Ohhhhh! So it was you!
Brandon: Huh? Me what?
Me: Did you know that por por's garden wall crumbled down? Now I know why. It's because all the limes must have clogged up the drain, causing the wall to break apart.
Brandon was looking very worried at this stage.
Brandon: Is that the wall holding up her land and house?
Me: Yes!
Brandon: Has she fixed it yet?
Me: No. But now I know you did it. You'll have to fix it when we are back in KL.
Long, thoughtful pause............
Brandon: Will I get paid for fixing it?
Me: What?! You broke the wall and you still want to get paid for fixing it?
Another long thoughtful pause.......
Brandon: You know, in Asia, if you get children to work and not pay them, that's child slavery. So if por por doesn't pay me, that's child slavery, and she may get sent to jail!
He sure knows how to rub salt into the wound.
5 comments:
Brandon is right - Child labour is strictly prohibited in Asia. But how did he know that?
Child labour is one of the topics that they studied in their SOSE (Studies of Society & Environment)class. They've done research, assignments and watched documentaries on child labour. So they know a little bit about the issue. In fact, when we were in Vietnam, they saw firsthand little children some as young as six carrying a little baby while begging on the streets. Apparently these children are from Laos, and their parents, or whoever send them across the border, which is not far, to beg for money. Very heartwrenching sight.
The best way to deal with bullies and "cool" guys is to "teach them a very good lesson".The bigger they are,the harder they will fall!
The coolest nerd on earth is Austin Powers in Goldmember.
I should not have kicked the mini palm trees in T3.I did not know that the vibration is so powerful!
If you doesn't pay a child its work, it's child slavery.
If you pay a child its work, it's child labor.
This is a contradiction in itself.
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