Why are teaching institutions booming with overseas students?

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     Why are teaching institutions booming with overseas students?

Visit Time: 14/11/2006 3:04 AM

Remark:
If you visit some public and private institutions, you soon find that many overseas students come to study in courses, which they can score maximum points for application to remain in Australia after their studies.

When I.T. dropped out of favour for maximum point score 2 years ago, the accounting intake skyrocketed. Surfing through DIMIA website, you will be able to find out which other courses will score you the maximum points. The top three popular ones other than accounting are hairdressing, hospitality and childcare. Overseas students flocked to those courses, and upon completion of their studies, some will return to their own countries, but many will get in touch with migration lawyers to apply for permanent residency.

Once permanent residency is granted, many will find employment in other fields. The reason why there is shortage of workers in the abovementioned industries is due to the fact that they are poorly paid, particularly in hospitality, many workers don't see daylight in the kitchens, and they have to feed / serve the customers at the time when they are hungry as well.

Not all overseas students come from well-to-do families. They work to support their fees, accommodation, food and other expenses. It costs an overseas student about A$30,000 to $40,000 per annum to stay in Australia. A student is permitted to work 20 hours per week during school term, but many students work more than the maximum hours permitted. Unfortunately, many have been exploited, working in restaurants or workplaces at $6 an hour. They are underpaid in cash, not covered by WorkCover, and if accidents were to happen, the students will suffer in silence, because they have no one to turn to.

An overseas student pays about 10 times as much as an Australian student in course fee per hour. There is why education is such a lucrative industry for Australia. Some private institutions are very poorly equipped, and the "school" or "college" may be just a leased property with three "classrooms" with no other facilities. Some institutions cater mainly for overseas students, and when you are in such a building, you probably think that you are in a foreign country - all but English is spoken. Take a stroll in Melbourne CBD during the weekend after 1 p.m. and you will realise that I am not telling fibs.

Many colleges also involve in very unscrupulous practices. Overseas students arriving in Australia thinking that they would complete their course on certain date, may have to enrol in another course temporarily for another semester or longer if the prescribed class does not have enough student enrolment. The options open to the students are either to return home until the class commences, or hang round attending another bridging course - the devil and the deep blue sea. The students are not compensated, and cannot enrol in another college, because the visa condition stipulates that they are not allowed to change course provider during the first 12 months.

Kumar referred in your 13/11/2006 report is just one unethical practitioner. If your program digs deeper, it will make your blood boiled!

Breast Cancer

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     Breast Cancer

Visit Time: 7/11/2006 5:04 PM

Remark:

On 25/10/2006, Dr Helen Zorbas, National Breast Cancer Centre commented on 7.30 Reports about "Breast cancer rates on the way up ", that "… having a doubling of increase in incidence between 1983 and today and looking forward to 2011 and saying that that's going to be a trebling of incidents is concerning."

What is doubled - the number of detection in absolute numbers, per female population, or female of certain age group? Don't forget that more females go for mammograms these days; and as the population grow older, more females turn 50 and over, and they are entitled to free mammograms. In short, is the increase significant enough to cause public hysteria when 2011 comes about?

I am not a medical doctor or scientist. However, I take keen interests in cancer, and particularly breast cancer. Rick Kefford discarded the myths about breast cancer being caused by underarm deodorant, or wearing a bra. There are other so called myths like drinking too much milk, a blow or injury to the breast, having silicon breast transplant, or even having a mammogram.

A lot of people are concerned about what they eat; making sure that food is low fat, low carb, no preservatives, no artificial flavouring, no chemicals etc. A lot more people talk about clean air, clean water, no fluoridation in water and no GM agricultural products. I would like to know whether people know what is in their vitamin pills, vitamin supplements, toothpaste, mouthwash, lip gloss and lipsticks. Why do I mention these items? These are ingested, used or applied to area, namely the lips, where the saliva will dissolve them and eventually ingested.

Mark Bannerman commented that "… researchers have begun mapping the disease. What they found is that breast cancer is more prevalent if you live in a major city, numbers are higher in affluent suburbs too". In a more affluent society, people tend to be better presented in term of appearance, and as a result, the females are likely to use more cosmetics, including lipsticks. Every time a lipstick user drinks liquid or wet her lips by her tongue, she unintentionally dissolves the chemical of the lipstick, which finds its way to the blood stream.

Statistically, there are 2% of men suffering from breast cancer. Men in certain profession do use cosmetics and lipsticks. More and more people also use lipgloss on hot days.

If chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, then it is very likely that there are chemicals that can trigger or promote the growth of cancer cells. If certain contraceptive pills, alias chemicals, can cause deformity of foetus, there must be chemicals that can cause deformity of cells - or put it bluntly, turn them into cancer cells!

Cigarette was once believed to be harmless, but what has happened to the unfortunate smokers who have signed their own death warrant? Is lipstick / cosmetic the curse of the century for the women? I hope I have not opened the Pandora box.

Global warming - a scare campaign?

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     Global warming - a scare campaign?

Visit Time: 4/11/2006 11:52 AM

Remark:

The doomsday prophets are on the go again. After billions if not trillions of dollars had been wasted worldwide on fixing the Y2K problems, the latest scare campaign on global warming is scandalous.

Unscrupulous campaigners convince many Australians that by stopping the opening of new coalmine will help in curbing the greenhouse effect. Unfortunately, these campaigners may be from competing nations, which also export coal. Coal is not only used for power generation; it is also used for the production of steel. Coal mining creates many direct and indirect employment, and brings in export dollars.

While some rural towns in southeastern and southern parts of Australia are experiencing severe droughts, other places in Australia and abroad receive good rainfall and even flood.

Throughout the past many centuries, the exposed area of the sea has not diminished; and if the earth is warming up, the evaporation rate should be higher, and therefore, rain should fall more frequently. The hypothesis about global warming causing severe droughts seems contradictory.

The crystal ball gazers reckon that the global warming will cause the melting of polar ice and drought. The sea level will rise to as much as 25 metres. If that is the case, why should we worry about the drought? Arid land will be flooded and irrigated by the rising water. The Simpson Desert, the Sahara Dessert and the Gobi Dessert, just to name a few, will probably become fertile farmland which could support a couple more billion people.

Before the sea level increases to such height, much of the water will have channelled into the existing river system, or new rivers formed. Part of the water will also fill the artesian wells, which for the past decades, have been drained close to empty for farm use and domestic consumption.

Carbon capturing, carbon trading, recycling, and reducing greenhouse gas emission do not solve global warming. It's about time scientists should think spherically to find a solution in cooling the earth - that's right, GLOBAL COOLING!

Uncovered meat, corporate paedophile, and junk food

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     Uncovered meat, Corporate Paedophile, and Junk Food

Visit Time: 4/11/2006 12:59 AM

Remark:

Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly delivered a Ramadan sermon in which he said, "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat?"

The full sermon of Sheikh Hilaly upset many people. However, the extract passage above does convey a powerful message - risk minimisation.

Just so happened during the week when Sheikh Hilaly was delivering his sermon on "uncovered meat", I was running classes on risk management. Most people in the society condemn violence and sexual assault because of their moral stance. However, there are always exceptions, and as a result, one has to minimise and control the risk of such unpleasant occurrence.

Just recently, a feminist academic accused major retailers of "sexualising" children in their advertising. Putting this in a similar context, "If major retailers sexualise children in their advertising in catalogues or magazines, and the undesirable admirers collect the pictures and post them on the Internet ... whose fault is it, the undesirable admirers' or the children's or the retailers'?

Obesity has been another hotly debated topic. "If a junk food company promotes its products on television or billboards or school canteens, and the obese customers buy and eat them … whose fault is it, the obese customers', the junk food or the company's?

Different people will come up with different answers for the above questions. There are no right or wrong answers - it is a matter of one's opinion, perception, attitude, belief, culture, and societal influence.

Australia is a democratic country. It is unthinkable that we have to be correct politically for every deed - every word sanitised, and every action scrutinised.