While sitting on the grand-stand of the Fairfield Showground with my family waiting for opening ceremony of the 2010 Tet Festival, we saw a group of kids (mixture of girls and boys) around 13-14 years old sitting near us. The girls all dressed in provocative cloths with tight mini-skirt and revealing tops along with a face full of make-up. The boys were dressed a bit better than the girls. However, they all have cigarette in their hands. They puffed away without a care in the world for the people surrounding them.

I can understand if this group were made up of 20′s something people but 13-14 years old kids ?!?! Moving my eyes away from this group of kids, I saw more groups of kids standing or sitting around with the same scenario. Can our (Vietnamese community) future rely on these kids? Each year I attend the Tet Festival, I feel more and more disappointing at the younger generation of our Vietnamese community.

At the same time, I wonder to myself – where are all the parents? Shouldn’t they be spending time with their children and guiding them the right road to take?