Foreign Immigrants

i know this topic has been beaten to death in recent days by the local press but let me wade in a little.

specifically lets talk about Singapore's table tennis team. And the local reaction to their silver medal winning effort.

make no mistake, Singapore IS a country of immigrants. But of course. So is China actually, for the Chinese are migrants from Ethiopia too. Some 325,000 years ago of course. Obviously I recognize that immigration has been a trend, and most nations are formed by that. foreign talents help supplement the existing population and enhances its capabilities. thats fine.

But i think there is a huge difference between supplementing talent, and whole sale import of players! The ENTIRE team in Singapore is made up of Chinese talents specifically picked to only play table tennis. That is bordering on ridicule.

I also recognize too that many other countries are also embracing foreign talents in sports. there is a difference though, between specifically INCENTIVIZING foreign talents to join a country using monetary rewards, versus the athlete CHOOSING to defect or migrate a nation on his / her free will without any incentives. THAT, is a big big difference.

What I find objectionable to Singapore's intentions, is that the authorities deliberately went out to get Chinese players by paying them extra money / incentives etc. I embrace Ronald Susilo as although he is foreign born, he did not come here due to badminton but our system helped him reach his potential. Ditto for Tao Li.

But these Chinese table tennis players? Its not about their identity card colours, its about their intentions.

My Weight

since July 2007, my weight has increased from 61 to 68 kg.
some fats around the waist, yes, i admit.
but mostly muscle mass around my biceps and thighs. :)
thanks Sporting Saturday!

SS Open - Table Tennis

Another week, another SS Open.
This week, we bring you table tennis action.
Here, we see Ching training under the feared Japanese Penholder Tay.
When interviewed later, Tay had this to say of his protege, "I believe Venga should have his hands full."

On Yee Cher and super 9 year olds...

so the blokes and i have made plenty of jokes about this super overgrown 9 year old kid called Yee Cher in Singapore who is setting all sorts of age-group records in sprinting. honestly, he looks like he is 14. i mean what the hell, he's 1.6m tall. i think i was at best 1.2m when i was 9?

anyway, yee cher resulted in plenty of news coverage. check some of these out. there were so many cynics out there doubting his age (apparently he was born in cambodia... hmmm... haha, dubious), that MOE had to issue a statement that yes, he indeed is 9 years old. its almost laughable. i wanted to put up pictures of him running, so you can see how he stands at least a head taller than his rivals but i couldn't find one thats not copyrighted... anyway trust me, its ridiculous.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_139731.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/ST+Forum/Story/STIStory_140492.html

anyway, i think he's a boy who just happens to reach puberty way earlier than his peers, thereby enjoying this phase where he could literally overpower them. personally, my puberty arrived really late, and hence during my secondary school days, i was always overpowered in every damn sport by anybody. its ridiculous. i couldn't even do a single pullup until i was in J1 (i then did 6 immediately that year, cheered on by the class girls. :) )

and those boys that reached puberty earlier, they DOMINATED every sport. they aren't even really talented in those sports. but by virtue of the fact that they reached puberty earlier, they were given a chance to play those sports for the school.

(Note: my secondary school has a very damning policy of admitting students into the school's sports teams only if they deem them "talented" enough. the talent test which is administered in secondary 1 as soon as the student joins the school, is a stupid psychomotor test with no theoretical nor experimental basis that honestly disadvantages the boys who are relatively late in their development.)

Its quite clear the school decided on this system, to ensure that the school wins interschool events. but is that the point really? personally i think its highly demoralizing to many young boys who had the interest in sports (for example, i was and still am very interested in tennis), but because of factors totally outside their control, they were never given the chance by the school. In the end, these boys ended up either in music clubs or visual arts nonsense, and were further ostracized by the school population.

bloody hell.

ok on a brighter note, check this video out. Rhaine Davis is a young, normal looking 9 year old British kid, who has been offered a stint at Manchester United's football academy after his father sent in this video. this, is what i call talent, not pitiutary gland overdrive.