From ‘Anti-YOG Facebook group members are cowards’, 26 Aug 2010, article in The New Paper
The anti-Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Facebook group that claims to have more than 2,700 members has come under fire.
Athletes, volunteers and fans whom The New Paper spoke to yesterday hit back at criticisms by the group, with one of them calling members in the group “cowards” for hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.
A netizen also blasted the group – which calls itself “I hate the YOG organising committee” – for being a bunch of whiners.
…Netizen Wei Khai, 13, posted on the group’s wall that all they did was whine. He was unhappy that the group members had done their criticising while hiding “behind the anonymity of the Internet”.
…Another netizen, Nas Hakim, 21, posted yesterday afternoon: “Seriously, if you people think that you can do a better job, then why not organise your own YOG or be part of the initial organising committee?
“Please don’t be a typical NATO, No Action, Talk Only, and complain about everything under the sun!”
…Karleef Sasi Abdullah, 17, said: “The (anti-YOG) netizens didn’t see the time and effort we put into the Games. They didn’t see us training, getting home late and having less time with our families.
“They also don’t see how full the venues were, so how can they just criticise the YOG like that?”
Perhaps calling a 13 year old a ‘netizen’ is stretching it, but riddle me this: How is posting complaints on a Facebook page a ‘cowardly’ act of hiding behind the ‘anonymity of the Internet’, when you have the police going around arresting the very same Facebookers, with target precision I must add, for inciting violence? No details were revealed as to how a certain Abdul Malik was tracked down and I’m dying to see Crimewatch do a Facebook special on this. Big words from a mere kid, who can’t differentiate real anonymity i.e posting random insults on a forum under a pseudonym (but then again, not entirely foolproof either), from stupidity. Yes, the stupidity of posting inflammatory comments next to your face (duh..it’s Facebook after all), and with your real name too.
Really, can’t we all get along? The YOG is over and done with and telling detractors ‘you so clever you organise one yourself lor’ is pointless because those who argue from the tax-dollars point of view don’t see the need to have one in the first place. Such reactions from the YOG teamsters is akin to a trauma patient healing from wounds (of defeat perhaps) lambasting the social worker for complaining about the dressing skills of the nurses, which is, ironically, analagous to what most anti-YOG Facebookers are really complaining about: the lack of welfare for the volunteers. A case of biting the hand trying to feed them perhaps, since it’s the committee which anti-YOGsters have a beef with, not our local athletes/volunteers. Also, training hard for your event is a given and is more a concern of your coach and your beloved Minister and not ours really. But then again, kids being kids, it’s only natural that they’ll take the defensive against mudslingers, fail to distinguish ‘committee’ from ‘YOG’, and impulsively fling themselves into friendly fire like how any kid would take a bullet for an abusive parent. Anyhow, let’s just stop this childish turf war already (yes even if it’s indeed a youthful thing to mob and protest to no end) and get on with our YOG-free lives shall we? For those who want to relive the ‘Best Of’ YOG complaints to see how it all begun, go here.
Filed under: 2010, Complaining, Sports Tagged: | complaining, facebook, YOG
