Recently Feng Tianwei won the bronze medal for the women’s Table Tennis game after beating Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa 4-0 in 25 minutes on Wednesday. I watched the match as it happened, and I was genuinely proud as I saw her just demolishing her opponent, especially during the final set.

When the match point was scored, facebook’s newsfeed exploded with punny  remarks like “Feng Tianwei FTW(For The Win)!”. However, as the excitement died down, it became apparent that not everyone was that excited about the fact that we’ve won an Olympic medal.

Some people noted that it’s not really Singapore’s medal, and that it was made in China. They also talked about how the Chinese has done it again, coming and hitting balls to earn SG$250,000 from the government.

Perhaps I am biased to begin with, but it made me sad to read comments like that.

I find it sad that despite showing that she has excelled in the sport and winning a medal for the country that she has chosen to fly the flag for, everyone merely questions her intentions rather than be happy for what she has done for Singapore. Even if she was a money guzzling woman as critics has asserted, the fact that she has brought home a bronze medal such a giant step for sports in Singapore. Be it more willingness for private companies and the government to fund sports, or even instilling within children a realistic motivation to get involved in a sport. Getting an Olympic medal is not impossible anymore.

Also, many people seem to simply discard the fact that she has worked hard for that medal. In the end, table tennis is a sport, and requires considerable skill and effort to win. She made an effort to train, and she was rewarded for her efforts with a bronze medal at the Olympics. Do I think that $250,000 is overkill? Yes. However, I do think that for anyone who can prove that they can produce results, a monetary incentive is definitely called for. It only makes sense.

Having said the above, I also like to make a point that I believe that having imported strong talented players for Singapore, especially for the past few years was probably a really good decision. It would not be an understatement to say that sport in Singapore was nowhere near international levels in the 1990s. Any logical long term solution to that problem would require a good coaching team, both knowledgeable about the environment that athletes can train in Singapore, as well as having prior experience either training successful athletes or being one. I argue that this first step has been achieved, especially in our women table tennis team. Also, only with this foundation to work with, can we move towards a more effective training regime for more inspiring Singaporeans to come up to the stand in the future and be a force competitively in the global scene.

However, I believe that by building a strong team today, we have undeniably reduced resources and places for young talent that might have made the mark with them. The SEA games incident with Isabelle Li is a very good example of how the plans fell apart. I do however believe that there’s definitely a fine balance that can be struck, but I can’t really say that with complete certainty.

Another concern is also the question if these foreign talents would continue staying on in Singapore after the prime of their sporting career and switch to coaching in Singapore. Its no secret that many have left promptly, Egmar Goncalves from football, Zhang Xueling from table tennis, Dong Enxin from shot put and Xiao Luxi from badminton. Perhaps there should be more concern placed on why these athletes have simply left after they were done.

Finally, for the ones that simply completely disregard the whole thing just because she wasn’t born in Singapore, I can only say, piss off. I can understand when national pride prompts one to be less excited than if a Singaporean born woman wins the medal, but when xenophobia becomes your reason to disregard the medal, seriously, piss off. Apparently for some of you, winning an Olympic medal is not enough credentials for her to be recognized as making a contribution to Singapore.

Congrats to Feng, and hopefully the team can continue and bring home another medal in the team event.

For the past few days, the community in Singapore, especially the online community, erupted into a furore from the recent incident. People vocally expressed anti-immigrant sentiments, which in turn allowed for the extremely xenophobic few to fan the fire.

"The level of xenophobia in Singapore have reached new heights in Singapore." That's what a lot of people have been telling me when I speak to them about the recent incident that ended with 3 deaths. I would like to respectfully disagree with that. I believe that the xenophobia is not something that is simply developed over one particular serious incident that is not experience first hand. Rather, it is the product of collated events that we see for ourselves. Be it small articles in the news like the curry incident, the student that described Singaporeans as "dogs", or even the Chinese lady that was rude to you on the bus.

It was obvious that xenophobia had already been a hot issue in everybody's mind since even 2008, when plans were made for Serangoon Gardens Technical School to be converted to dormitories for foreign workers. Even in the recent elections, we could see how immigrant control was an issue that was brought up repeatedly, but avoided as a topic by both parties, for good reasons as well!

Allow me to emphasize the fact that it is not only important, but crucial for Singapore to keep a healthy flow of immigrants. Both parties understand and know that, and speaking about reducing these numbers, even for the opposition parties, is taking a big risk. If there were no intake of foreigners, our fertility rate would be way below of the replacement rate, and the influx of talent would also allow us to grow the pool of ideas, skills and innovation that we could extract from, for any relevant purposes.

However, coming back to the accident, it seemed rather unfair that his nationality was even brought into the picture in the first place. His irresponsible act is to be scorned upon irregardless of whether he was Singaporean a not, or if he was driving a a Toyota or a Ferrari. There is, however no reason to be berating the departed, and we can only hope that this would perhaps remind motorists to stay safe on the roads. (Edit: Another accident has occurred on the same intersections.)

Also, perhaps as a note to end on, videos of multiple road accidents have found themselves online, and have been spreading virally over the internet. I personally find that to be rather distasteful, knowing for a fact that I was watching the death of a human being and that it was available for anyone to see over the internet. Then again, its probably just me.

I have recently been reading a website that I stumbled upon called Remembering Singapore. Upon reading the first few posts, I was instantly hooked by the content that it was providing, and had been reading it daily since. I'm proud to say that I'm now currently almost halfway though the entire list of articles on the website, and probably will have it fully read by the end of this academic year.

Ama Keng Village - If I remember correctly, the village where I was in. - Taken from http://remembersingapore.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/from-villages-to-flats-part-1/

When I was younger, I always thought that learning history was a chore. I understood the concept behind it since I was a kid, the whole point of knowing about your beginnings to fully appreciate the blessings of today, or as the Chinese say, 饮水思源. Yet, I never really subscribed to that idea as a child; it would be very sad if one could not cherish the things in his life just because he did not know where it came from. I thought of it as merely another unnecessary subject in school. Interesting, but unnecessary.

As I started growing older, that mindset did not change. I still believed that history was a study of events in the past that would almost certainly never happen again. And even if it did, current environments would leave it impossible for the teachings and lessons of the past to be even remotely applicable to the problems of today. What that did change for me, was the definition of the term history.

And to this, I ask you. What is history to you? Is it the story of historical events? The Hundred Years War? The French Revolution? The Xinhai Revolution?

I realized that my definition of history was just simply stretched too far from my own existence. That might sound egocentric perhaps, but I only start finding things interesting when it involves either myself or the important people around me. It is hard enough to find meaning in things that one has first hand involvement in.

The first thing that started me on this change of mindset was when I was introduced to Storycorps. What that was important to people around the world was not usually what that was happening globally, but what that was usually happening in their own world. Be it the loss of a loved one, or the return of a spouse from war.

As I listened from one story to another, I questioned myself. How many of these stories do I know from the people around me? I felt mortified when I noted that I did not even know how my parents met, much less of their lives before then.

And the thought spread, what about the place I’ve lived my whole life. What did I learn about Singapore in history lessons? When history is remembered by events, it makes it hard to remember the impact and significance of the places where it occurred.

So I keep reading Remembering Singapore. And I will make sure to have my father bring me to what’s left of the Kampung which we lived in when I was one. I will also remember to ask him about his stories.

After all, good stories are meant to be shared.

I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why I would have had spent time to have written this letter in the first place. My father had been a man of little words towards me, and I would imagine that so would I, towards you. Yet, there was almost a reverential feeling around it all, like he knew. About anything I did wrong. About everything I did wrong. But never did he scold, nor did he punish. He simply waited for time to take its course, because nature's punishments are much more memorable and painful than what he could ever dish out upon me. He never spoke of things that bothered him. Because men never do. Money, health, lust or meaning in life.

As your father I understand that we grew up in different generations, and very different environments. But remember that I was still once a boy like you now are. I will not get mad. I will not get disappointed. You will never let me down. I will let your mistakes ride in the wind, as all mistakes do, and relish when you overcome it, erasing it ever again as a problem in your life.

In fact, I will pass you your first beer before you are 18, I will tell you that studying is not too important, and I will tell you that girls are pretty awesome. Because the best time to discover yourself is when you are still young. Its much harder when you're 30, when the world demands much more of your time than you have to spare.

However, I will give you a moral compass. I will tell you what is right and what is wrong. I will remind you that there is never a complete consensus in the world about anything, even morality. I will err, and you would learn that even I could be wrong. You will realize that it is impossible to live without regrets, but that it would be mundane if you never did have any.

I will remind you that your friends will shape you more than I ever will. I will tell you that you have to pick your friends. And that you might not be your best friend's best friend. I will convince you that another human being will teach you more than any book ever can.

I will remind you to respect everyone including your enemies. And I would encourage you to never make enemies, because life is too short to be bickering. I would also note the fact that only true friends and enemies will stand up to you when they think you're wrong. I will convince you to hold the doors open, to say thank you, to go out of the way for others. Because making someone's life a little better is the best joy that one can derive in life.

I will tell you all the stories I had with girls when I grew up. I will tell you about my first crush, my first date, my first kiss, my first love. I will tell you how I met your mother. I will tell you how I convinced her that I was the one. I will tell you that crushes are normal, and good. However, I will tell you to always give it time. Wait to give yourself to a best friends that you can laugh heartily with. Wait to give yourself to a woman that you can imagine marrying and spending the rest of your life with. I remind you that marriage is not an event, its a commitment.

Finally, I will tell you that in the end, your life is your story. Paint it in any way you wish. Be it as a minimalist, as a impressionist, abstract or realism. You are always the one in control. Even if shit falls, I will remind you that a man is defined by how he acts under pressure, not how he acts without it.

But what I can promise is that I will be there to support you in any way I can. Everything else, keep painting.

...............

Inspired by A Letter To My Future Son by Max Andrew Dubinsky.

When I was younger, whenever bad things happened, I used to simply suck it up and walk it off. Its not as if I was in any position to change the situation, because I would have acted the same way if I had another go at it without the information I now have. It was always an issue of working with the things I had at the point in time rather than what I might have had. Also, I always believed that there was always someone that's in a deeper shit than I was, no matter how bad my situation seemed to be. It was not hard to imagine that to be the truth as well. Its easy to imagine how things could be so much worse if the bad thing happened, and you got run over by a car while at it.

Even if you got run over by a car, you could have been run over by TWO cars.

However, as I grew older, I discovered that I began to detest bad luck more and more. It was no longer an issue of working with the flow, but rather I felt more and more than I was working against it, as if the universe has made my life shitter and I was making sure it wouldn't get away scot-free.

I no longer think about the good things about my situation, merely the fact that I was in it. I end up constantly reminding myself that the test of character is not when the shit lands, but what you do after it does.

While these thoughts are running through my head today, I wonder when this transition happened. Was it because of how I was educated? Did I simply grow out of my naive ideas? Or was it just that losing was no longer a trivial result in life any longer? Was it just simply because I had been embroiled in so much shit that I developed a sense of injustice against it?

Whatever the reason might be, if history can be trusted, I quite suspect that this change of mindset will not be the last. It would be quite nice that the new one comes along quickly though, I don't quite like this one that I'm having now.

So there has been a drop in Minister Salaries.

Never really have seen what the big deal was regarding this. In these abundant times, when we can afford it, why not just pay them well?

Some people argue that the high pay may just attract people to try and be a politician just for it. Thus, we end up having incompetent people at the helm.

To that I say, really? People will take up possibly the most scrutinized job by the general public when they could be earning perhaps slightly less somewhere else? And do you honestly think that political parties would pick people like that to join their party anyways? If its an independent running just for the dough, then why not just not vote for him?

Did you even realize that the whole point of the high pay was to get competent people in the first place?

I would agree though, that the high pay would likely lead to situations where unsuitable people end up with the job. But incompetent? No.

However, I'm still not fuss by how much we're paying our ministers. I believe that the team we have now is more than suitable, and that money is quite honestly secondary.

The respective ministers/ministry performances during the recent problems are of much more interest to me. I honestly don't care how much I pay them so long as they get their job done well.

I headed down to Westfields today with Xin Jie and Jieru for a bit of Boxing Day shopping today, and it being the first time that I've actually done so despite having been in London for the past 3 years, I was looking out more for the experience that would come with it rather than any good buys that I might make on the day.

Eventually, an interesting thought did manage to cross my mind during the afternoon, and it came from perhaps the most unprobable place possible.

While we entered the Build-A-Bear workshop on the ground floor of the shopping centre, Xin Jie went about his stuffs, while I was left to browse about the place. To be honest, the items about are rather cute, and would very much appeal to kids, irregardless of sex. I was even more so taken aback by the plethora of accessories that accompanied the bears. The range started from clothing, to shoes, and even glasses and fishing rods.

As I moved along looking at the prices as well, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the average amount spent for a dolled up bear would be easily above 20 pounds, perhaps even 30. And as I looked up around the store, I noticed 'punny' phrases printed around the top, such as "Be the Bearer of Good News" or "Paws for Thought". What that caught me was "Clothes Make a Bear Feel Special".

What a blatant phrase to put in the shop to get kids to spend more money, isn't it?! I was rather disgusted as thought about how capitalism would taint something that seemed so pure. How dare they pollute even the minds of our young children with consumerism with such pure and good feelings? Will they grow up undermining the effort required to earn money?

And then, on the very next moment, a laughing girl, with a stuffed polar bear in one hand, and a bunny in another, bumped into me, smiled, and stumbled off.

Then I realized. Well, if the kids are happy, why not right?