Choong Ee

The building was so crowded that you could only see a narrow strip of sky. The vegetables in the convenience store downstairs were always wilted, and the numbers on the price tags were greener than the leaves. When the working uncles and aunts passed by, most just glanced at it and walked away.  Their small salaries had to cover rent and children's needs, so fresh vegetables felt like a luxury. In the children's lunch boxes, there were only pickles and ham sausages. No one remembered what fresh spinach tasted like, let alone picking tomatoes by hand. Everything changed when an art teacher moved in. On her first day, she squatted in the corridor. She didn't have a paintbrush but a bag of tomato seeds. She picked up a broken cardboard box someone had discarded, cut it into a square box, and drew a smiling sun on it with red chalk. She thought that drilling a few holes would make it a new home for the vegetables. At first, no one believed in her. An old lady passed by and told...

If my town had no access to clean water for a day, my life would be awful. Homes, streets, and public spaces would quickly become dirty and neglected. If this situation continues, my town will turn into something I don’t want to think about. When I wake up from the bed, I go to the bathroom as usual. I turn on the faucet, but no water comes out. At first, I thought it’s just a temporary issue, but then I realized it’s worse. There are no alerts from the school or warnings from the city. The dryness in my throat is getting stronger and stronger. I lick my lips and realize even brushing my teeth is becoming a challenge. The panic at home started from the bathroom. Toothpaste gathered on the toothbrush, but there was no water to rinse my mouth. I end up using the remaining half cup of mineral water to manage. The situation in the hospital is even more concerning. Staff members start wiping instruments with disinfectant. They have diluted the saline originally used to clean wounds. Even th...

  When we see waves bringing plastic bottles to the beach, plastic bags entangled in lake plants, or marine life suffering from eating trash, it’s hard not to feel powerless. Traditionally, cleaning up garbage in our waters involved waiting for it to accumulate and then gathering it by hand. This method is not only inefficient but also struggles to reach hidden spots. The intelligent garbage magnetic suction collector is a machine designed to actively locate and collect trash, making polluted waters clear once more. The core function of the intelligent garbage magnetic suction collector is to independently find marine and surface waste, collect garbage through active adsorption and directional capture mechanisms, and is especially suitable for cleaning floating garbage in closed or semi-enclosed waters such as ports, lakes, and inland rivers. This machine will have a positioning tracker to find garbage. This tracker is linked to the AI ​​image recognition system in real time. When ...

  The world is not peaceful. Many countries are experiencing wars, leaving behind destruction and sorrow. Those who survived the war hold the relics of their loved ones tightly, always afraid of losing them again and afraid that the people around them will leave again.  The world I want to live in is clean, not just in streets free of debris, but in our hearts, clear of prejudice. Everyone should be treated equally, without racism, sexism or other discrimination. We can build genuine friendships with people from different races. In addition, I also hope that everyone in this world can dress freely. We can all live the way we want, do whatever we want without caring about other people’s eyes. No one should stare when a nonbinary person walks by in a sequined jacket, or when a Muslim girl wears her hijab to a swimming class. No one will be criticized for their clothes, skin color or choices, because "different" has never been a label, but a pigment that makes the world richer....