Singapore is no country for 18 golf courses

Posted on February 3, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Which golf courses will get the chop?’ 3 Feb 2013, article by Royston Sim, Sunday Times and ‘Let’s debate land use for golf course’, 2 Feb 2013, Voices, Today

…In its Land Use Plan unveiled last week, the Government flagged golf courses as one area that could be consolidated to free up more land. The Ministry of Law said some of the 18 golf courses here would be phased out, and the land put to other uses. It did not specify which would be affected, saying only that it would be working with planning agencies over the next few months to “provide clarity” to various golf courses on whether their leases could be extended.

Golf courses here are a mix of public and private ones. They occupy a total of about 1,500ha – 2 per cent of Singapore’s total land area. Eleven clubs are private, with membership prices that range from $223,000 for the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) to $5,000 for Changi Golf Club. These 11 clubs have about 30,000 members altogether, and most lease land on 30-year terms from government agencies including the PUB.

(Chng Koon Beng):…There should be a debate on the Land Use Plan for such a vast space of land, which is now only accessible to a fraction of our population. It is not only a question of which courses will be closed, which would lead to arguments over why others can have their lease renewed. Do we need private golf clubs at all?

Would it be fairer if all remaining clubs could be converted to public golf courses when these leases are renewed, so that everyone can enjoy this recreation, the lush greenery and fresh air?

The ‘club’ C in our ’5 Cs’ may very well refer to the golfing kind. This land-gobbling sport took up a total of  5-10 % of the total land area in the early eighties. We also assumed that the government knew how precious a resource land was – and still is – for a tiny pinprick of a nation like ours, but lacked the (wait for it) FORE-sight to manage them properly, otherwise we wouldn’t need a policy today to skim them down.

Some compared this devotion to golf to the analogy of setting aside land for a nudist colony - giving up a large area of secluded space just for a few privileged individuals. I myself have never stepped on the green nor handled a golf club, though I’ve always wanted to cruise around in a golf tram with a glass of champagne and act all hoity-toity. Now my dreams of living the high life are dashed, reduced to swinging imaginary clubs in front of the Xbox Kinect in my jammies. Thanks a lot, White Paper!

Even avid golfers questioned the need to allocate so much space to a sport that sells luxury watches and striped polo T’s, and were aware of the runaway profiteering that comes with the acquisition and transfer of exclusive golf memberships. And all I did as an NBA fan in my teens was trade Michael Jordan cards.  Expensive golf memberships are as prized an asset as property, with some investors holding on to multiple memberships, not ever having need to swing a club, or step onto the green, even once. It explains why the majority of golf course remain private, and why opening some up to the masses is like having vagrants crash your cocktail party to sip off your designer punchbowl. Asking the government to let go of these money-spinners is like turning the F1 into a Mario Go-Kart theme park. But I shudder at the thought of what the alternative could be. For such highly coveted land, I would imagine another high-end condo or a shopping megacomplex at least. You could use the existing ponds as a reason to make the name of your monolith sound as aquatic as possible. Or how about an aviation hub like the Aerospace PARK in Seletar and adding insult to injury by naming something a ‘park’ when it’s anything but. It’s like calling a landfill ‘Serenity Gardens’.

Even if enthusiasts claim that the sport has become more accessible over the years, one can see why clubs like SICC are unlikely to let go of their exclusive brand. Former NMP Jessie Phua and member of 3 clubs thinks golf courses have a role to play as ‘GREEN LUNGS‘, a last-ditch attempt to play the eco-card. Does anyone have any idea how much water is consumed to maintain these things? If all we had were golf courses to replenish our carbon dioxide we’d all be in respiratory distress. Instead of public golf courses, I’m more in favour of green untouched spaces, parks, prawning lagoons or playgrounds and courts which encourage team sports like basketball or football rather than one where people spend more time standing around amidst vast tracts of ‘lush greenery’ sealing deals and hobnobbing than hitting balls into holes, pretending that they’re the King of Versailles having a garden party. I would also rather see more land set aside for CRICKET than golf, safe in the knowledge that our foreign workers are entertaining themselves productively over the weekend instead of planning strikes or fooling around with maids.

In fact, I see little reason to promote golf as a recreational sport at all, knowing how hazardous it is, having to expose yourself to deadly lightning strikes or even knocking innocent bystanders out cold, for the price you pay to be a part of it. Let’s have artificial ponds, neighbourhood petting zoos and dog-runs by all means, create safe, social spaces to foster community spirit and active ageing rather than just staging them for royalty to see in Queenstown. For the golf aficionados with more club than credit cards, time to pack your golf bags and pursue your fairway dreams elsewhere like you can afford to, or you could mope around stroking your gear singing Tom Jones’ Green Green Grass of Home.

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Filed under: 1980s, 2013, Environment, Public works, Sports | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Li Jiawei returning to China after retirement

Posted on January 1, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Li Jiawei’s departure a loss to Singapore’, 1 Jan 2013, ST Forum

(Christopher Chong): IT WAS disappointing to learn that former world table tennis champion Li Jiawei (right), who came to Singapore on the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme, will be returning to China (“Hard for Li to say goodbye”; last Friday).

Singapore is losing someone who has had an impressive list of contributions and achievements; someone who has won countless medals for us and earned an estimated $1.27 million from the Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme.

I am disappointed also because her departure lends support to those who doubt the long-term commitment of our foreign-born athletes: Will they return to their countries of origin after they are done with their sporting careers here?

Singapore should not be seen as “buying” success – fast-tracking citizenship for our foreign-born athletes, only for them to return to their countries of origin when they can no longer win medals for us. While Li has indicated that she will continue contributing to Singapore, it is unclear if she intends to remain a Singapore citizen, and whether her family will move here in future.

As a Singaporean, my wish for the new year – and the years ahead – is not to lose any more talented citizens.

Li Jiawei’s not the first foreign-born athlete to return to her homeland after a sporting stint here. Another naturalised player and former compatriot Zhang Xueling quit the game after just 7 years as a Singaporean, moving to Beijing to join her Chinese husband only to endure his sudden and tragic demise. In the interview, Zhang had initially wanted to settle down in her adopted country, but things ‘didn’t go as planned’. In 2008, another top shuttler and Singaporean Li Li resigned abruptly and returned to Wuhan to spend CNY with her parents, citing ‘personal reasons’ and ‘fatigue’. Fellow shuttlers Zhang Beiwen and Gu Juan followed suit barely a YEAR after being granted citizenship. None of those who departed have been seen or heard since. I doubt they can even get past the first line of Majulah Singapura.

It’s probably the same ‘change of plans’ with Jiawei here, for whatever personal reasons that she decided to move back to China. Many would recall her high-profile turbulent relationship with ex-fiance Ronald Susilo, and her similarly public marriage to a Chinese businessman right up to her pregnancy and birth of her Singaporean boy. Who knows, if Ronald and Jiawei had worked out and stayed for good, critics wouldn’t be howling ‘I told you so!’ at the STTA right after the her retirement announcement. Some may have noticed her slow creep back to the motherland when she took part in the China Super Table Tennis League playing for BEIJING University. Now, there’s the possibility of us not just losing another Singaporean athlete, but her progeny as well. I don’t hear ESM Goh Chok Tong coming out to chastise those who pack their bags before even learning how to construct a proper sentence in English as ‘quitters’.

Along with Sun Bei Bei, who also decided to quit table tennis, Jiawei, Li Li and Xueling were all part of the $7 million Project 0812 funding program, which unashamedly declares that its mission was to win medals and national glory for Singapore. The program also involves converting star players into Singaporeans as soon as possible to qualify for international tournaments. If they had arrived as nobodies playing for domestic clubs and left as millionaire Chinese nationals we wouldn’t have bothered, but these girls left their hard-earned fans as Singaporeans and have given critics all the more reason to call them out for treachery, treating the citizenship as a mere feather in their cap and using the Olympic opportunity as a stepping stone to loftier ambitions that have nothing to do with Singapore. But what else can they do if they had chosen to remain after retiring from professional sports? Just look at happened to our original silver medallist Tan Howe Liang. Maybe our ex-National Players were just looking out for their own given the uncertain, limited future of sports professionals here.

I would question why so much effort and money is splurged on nurturing foreign sports talent at the risk of losing them, and whether the pursuit of Olympic success is worth dispensing citizenship like candy from a vending machine. With many Singaporeans giving our China-born sportsmen a less than lukewarm reception, you should expect them to be a little ‘homesick’ given the cold treatment. Maybe we were a bit too hasty in christening our paddlers as our own, or overestimated our reputation as a ‘promised land’ for sporting achievement. With Wang Yuegu also retiring from competitive sport, maybe it’s time to close this obsessive chapter on Singapore table tennis and focus on other talents. Let’s hope Feng Tianwei makes good of her stay, finds a decent Singaporean man for once (instead of a Chinese tycoon) and settle down. Meanwhile I’m still waiting for a sighting of fellow Singaporean Jet Li here. No one I know was particularly excited that we had a Singaporean starring alongside the biggest action stars on the planet in The Expendables 2. I’m sure many of us still think he’s either from Hong Kong or China (Like Jiawei he’s also from Beijing)

Filed under: 2013, Foreign workers, PRCs, Sports | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

F1 extension delights almost everyone

Posted on September 24, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘News of F1 extension delights all but bay area businesses’, 23 Sept 2012, article by May Chen, ST online

Almost every one, from fans to hotels to Formula One drivers, welcomed the extension of the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday with open arms – every one except several retailers in the Marina Bay area.

Their main beef: The disruption to business when the area goes into lockdown for the three-day extravaganza.

“The race brings a buzz to town, but not everybody is impressed. A lot of people try to stay away and it affects our business, and a lot of other people’s businesses,” said Indochine chief executive Michael Ma yesterday, a refrain echoed by Allan Chia, who operates a pushcart in Suntec City selling mobile phone accessories. “People avoid Suntec City altogether because of the road closures,” said the 35-year-old.

Well, not just the bay side retailers. While the hotels and banks may be popping the champagne with all the money flowing in, the latter flying in VIPs to hobnob with drivers and the rich and famous at the Paddock Club, there have been opposing voices to the F1 Night Race right from the get-go. So it may be rather presumptuous to announce how everyone will embrace another 5 years of night racing, when some groups were already up in arms over the inaugural one in 2008. It’s also worth noting that we didn’t get off to an auspicious start either, with Fernando Alonso winning the first Night race because a Renault teammate deliberately crashed his car to give him an advantage (I don’t know enough about racing to see how that helps). Nobody ever mentions ‘Crashgate’ anymore since, though we had a multi-religious prayer this year to make sure such ‘accidents’ don’t happen. It’s also taboo to even discuss the Ferrari accident near race period, and it’s somewhat ironic that we label supercar drivers here a menace to our roads on one hand, yet embrace the F1 with gusto on the other.

F1 claims to be making conscious ‘green’ efforts to improve on their fuel efficiency and emissions, like planting trees in Mexico or using biofuels, though such actions may register nary a blip on the carbon ECG, especially if they neutralise each other when you need to starve viable forest land to make way for fuel crops. Our Government continues to enthuse over how this event is putting our tiny country on the map, high on the ‘buzz’ that the addictive cocktail of fast cars and posh celebrity delivers, but conveniently forgetting in their delirium that we once made a PLEDGE to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 16% by 2020. Oops.

In 2007, some forum writers spurned the energy-guzzling and glamour posing that comes with each F1, that hosting this event sends conflicting messages to the rest of the world about our stand on energy conservation and combating climate change. One moment we’re talking about supertrees and the next thing you know we’re pounding our streets with oil-guzzling supercars. According to a senior ST correspondent, a single race produces up to 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide, this excluding that spewed from freighting cars and equipment into and out of the country. But it’s not so much the noise, the exhaust or the heat that brands every night race an eco-nightmare; It’s the damned lighting.

According to one website dedicated to the F1 Night Race, the lighting statistics are as follows:

Total Power   3,180,000 watt
Track Projectors  1, 485, 2,000 watt each
Power Generators  12 pairs (with back-up)
Aluminium Truss 6,282m
Steel Pylons   240
Power Cables  108, 423m

At 3000 LUX levels, the lighting is FOUR TIMES the lights at sports stadiums. The gorgeous illuminated skyline that we’re so proud of, the one that helicopter cameras glide across every year like a director lingering over naked thighs in a porno film, is the result of a dozen generators belching 3 megawatts of electricity, the same amount that could light up a few Malaysia Cup final matches at the National Stadium, or serve a few underprivileged households. Will Singapore compromise when we face an oil crisis within the next 5 years, or perhaps consider switching to a less wasteful DAY race instead? But you can’t argue about electricity expenditure without sounding like a spoilsport who doesn’t appreciate the exhilaration of night racing. Singapore NEEDS the F1, so they say. But you don’t need bright lights and dozens of expensive parties and concerts to make an icon out of Marina Bay. Sometimes, all you need is an amateur porn star and a camera.

No it’s not about our national identity, the Marina glitter, the F1 fans or the small pushcart businesses in Suntec City. It’s about the after-race Dom Perignons, the $26,600 per table at Amber Lounge,  the $6850 Paddock Club pass.  Few people who could spend thousands on a ticket are really interested in the technicalities of the sport, rather using it as a backdrop for business or high-society pleasure. Money is all there is to it, and while we rush headlong into this glitzy fantasy, our heads reverberating with the erotic growl of the engine and our hearts pumping with adrenaline, our most influential supporters of the race continue to sleepwalk through our energy conservation efforts, dump flyers at us telling us how to save electricity (but not the trees obviously) while raising tariffs, yet preparing for the next race bash by hugging for dear life onto whatever surplus oil barrels we have.

Filed under: 2012, Clubs, Environment, Festivals, Nightspots, Noise, Public works, Shopping malls | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Queenstown wayanging during the Royal Visit

Posted on September 13, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Queenstown visit was an exhibition’, 13 Sept 2012, article by Tessa Wong, Singapolitics, ST

Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Indranee Rajah has responded to online criticism of the staged scenes put up at the Queenstown Green playground for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. “The pictures that people have posted do not take into account the context of the visit,” she said.

She was referring to several pictures surfacing on the Internet showing the playground before and during the visit, accompanied with sarcastic captions. Many netizens felt that the sight of residents performing taichi and silat, and using the playground and fitness equipment in the middle of the afternoon presented an unrealistic slice of Singapore life.

She told Singapolitics that the organisers – made up of grassroots groups, the Housing Board, the People’s Association and the British High Commission – had two objectives for that visit. One was to showcase HDB living. The other was to showcase the various cultural and community activities of Singapore.

“At the same time, the organisers were also given a very short timeframe of about 25 minutes to show all of that,” she said, adding that they felt the best way to achieve it was to “do it in little exhibition spots…The demonstrations were to showcase the different types of activities themselves. It was not to suggest that these activities take place at 3pm everyday… It was meant to give a snapshot, and in that sense it was no different from a demonstration of activities,” she said.

Ms Indranee said that as she toured the area with Prince William, he had asked her if Singaporeans actually practice taichi and silat in the afternoon. “I explained that they wouldn’t do so at 3pm because it’s hot, and that these groups were just here to demonstrate… So it was explained to our visitors that we were just showcasing activities,” she said.

Uncle, you can’t get any cuter

The Queenstown wayang is the Singaporean way of laying the red carpet to welcome aristocrats, and somewhat of a hospitality overkill. The image of a playground JAMPACKED with activity looks like a scene taken off a staged musical, a real-life collage of local kampong pasttimes squeezed into a common space, people PRETENDING like they JUST happened to be there at the time.  I wonder who’s the director of this conniving carnival set-piece, thinking it could fool the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge into believing that Singaporeans owe their success today to afternoon playtime and chapteh kicking (Who plays with chapteh these days, anyway?). One can imagine what Will must be thinking while fumbling with a toy not many children actually know about these days: ‘Bugger. Back home we hit these feathered things with racquets. This game is bollocks, now I appreciate Polo better’. Still, he would get thunderous applause even if he so much as tossed the chapteh to a commoner. WITH HIS BARE HANDS.

Will was also cheeky enough to ask if uncles do taichi at 3pm in the afternoon, probably long aware that his trip here is one elaborate, but fishy, show and tell after another. Kudos to the couple for pulling through what seems like a laborious globetrotting courtesy call to celebrate the Queen Mother’s Jubilee, while grinning and bearing with the phony Potemkin-ness of it all. Anyway, the Queen would have spoilt the surprise for them by now. In 2006, she dropped by Toa Payoh to the same rousing lion dance routine, watched a demo of SEPAK TAKRAW (not the most elegant of sports I must say), and of course had to endure some uncle performing TAICHI like waiting for painting on a wall to dry. She also planted a tree. There’s nothing uniquely Singaporean about taichi and lion-dancing anyway. At least a flash mob of the Great Singapore Workout would have meant something.

Queen having a ball

In 1989, the same Queen was greeted by pom-pom schoolgirls while touring Townsville Primary School. She was also caught wearing shoes into a resident’s home during an Ang Mo Kio Town Centre visit. Of course one doesn’t just tell the QUEEN to take off her shoes before stepping into your abode. It’s like asking her if she’s the one who farted at a dinner table.

Exhibition or not, one can’t help feeling that this outlandish choreography is an insult to royal intelligence. I’d assume Will and Kate have done their homework on Singapore before trotting over here. These blue-bloods are probably secretly wishing to see the things low-lifes only whisper about in seedy underground London bars, like:

  • The auntie who feeds stray cats and leaves a mess the morning after
  • The rats that are bigger than cats
  • The stained underwear and sanitary pads which were tossed out of windows
  • People hanging flags of China on their window ledges
  • Children doing homework at void decks
  • The ‘No Urinating’ sign in the lifts
  • The hidden CCTVs which track residents’ every move
  • Loan sharks’ O$P$ calling card
  • And of course, the MILLION DOLLAR flat barely big enough to house the Queen’s corgis

Viewing a slum in a country like Singapore is an eye-opener, not something ‘been there, done that’ which can pass off in a bid for the next Happiness Olympics. After all, these guys spend their entire lives in pageantry, the last thing they need is trying to act like they’re thoroughly impressed. Adieu, Will and Kate, you have been obliging, sporting, very noble and if you’ve been disappointed by this patronisingly sterile charade of  Singapore, a hub of stress, sleaze and scandal rather than a picture of spotless, blissful ‘gotong royong’, then I offer my humble apologies.

Filed under: 2000s, 2012, Fun and games, HDB, Politicians, Public works, Sports, Tourists | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Feng Tianwei’s bronze reward 5 times more than Paralympian’s

Posted on September 5, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Why the big disparity in cash rewards?’, 5 Sept 2012, ST Forum

(Shanta Danielle Arul):…It saddens me to hear that while both (Laurentia) Tan and paddler Feng Tianwei won individual bronze medals at competitions of the highest sporting level, Feng was awarded a $250,000 cash prize while Tan got only $50,000.

During the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008, when swimmer Yip Pin Xiu won a gold medal for Singapore in the 50m backstroke, she was first awarded $100,000 – a tenth of the $1 million an Olympic gold medal would have earned. This was later doubled to $200,000.

Why should there be such a disparity in rewards for these athletes?

We yearn for Singaporeans to do us proud on the international stage, and champions like Tan give us that source of pride. Yet, it seems some wins are viewed as more worthy than others.

In 2008, our Olympian paddlers got $750, ooo for their silver showing in the team event, a win which overshadowed the GOLD AND SILVER won by Pin Xiu in the Paralympics, not just in terms of dollars and cents but the amount of media attention, just like how it is today where the Paralympics is treated like the 1 minute extra-credits scene at the end of a blockbuster movie. I personally never watched a minute of Paralympic footage, and I wonder if those who complain about award discrepancy have done so themselves.

With everyone either swooning over Feng’s win or busy scoffing it as one bought for the price of citizenship, our ‘true-blue’ Singaporeans in the less ‘prestigious’ sister Olympic event were all but forgotten. But perhaps it’s worth thinking about where exactly the prize money comes from, before accusing the sports council and the government of discrimination against the disabled, treating our Paralympians like Michael Jordan dunking in the face of an opponent on a breathing tube in a wheelchair, though we’re talking about a country where the disabled are described as ‘HOPELESS’ in public service ads, and more money is pumped into making the city more cyclist than wheelchair friendly.

According to a 2008 forum letter, sponsors were not ‘forthcoming’ for the Paralympics, and it does make cold-hearted business sense to invest in an event which draws more eyeballs. A structured payout ranked in accordance to the level of competition was formalised only in that same year, whereby the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) would dish out a range of monetary rewards from a measly $1K in the ASEAN Para games gold to the $100,000 Paralympics gold. In September, Teo Ser Luck responded to critics that the Olympics was ‘open to all and sundry’, and that rewards came from the ‘private sector, not state funds’. But that doesn’t mean the government can’t do a little more just to show they give a damn instead of a patronising pat on the back. To be fair, they did dish out some consolation tokens of appreciation to past winners like Theresa Goh, including titles like SDSC’s Sportswoman of the year and a National Day Public Service medal. For Feng Tianwei, the additional reward was having Chan Chun Sing find her a Man. Wonder if our Para girls would get the same match-making perks.

Most of us can’t relate to either contest to judge how intense the competition could be, but the odds of a Paralympian doing well in an event may seem better than an able-bodied person who has to endure heat after heat to make it to a final. In Laurentia’s silver-winning equestrian event, she was placed in Grade 1a, which includes athletes whose ‘impairment has the greatest impact on their ability to ride’. This classification system, unique to the Paralympics, is intended to ensure fair play, but also narrows down the field, at the same time ensuring that there are multiples of gold, silver and bronze medals for EACH event. We shouldn’t take anything away from Paralympians of course. I  wouldn’t be able to make a horse boogie myself even if I spiked its hay with Ecstasy.

In the Olympics, there is no such physical moderation or generosity to ensure that slight, Asian swimmers only battle one another while big Caucasians like Michael Phelps are placed in a separate grade of ‘Superhumans built like winged torpedoes’. Freaks of nature like Phelps, breakout eye-candy celebrity athletes, even controversial doping scandals, are all part of the reason for the Olympics being an sponsor’s goldmine. Still, lottery thinking and advertising dollars alone will do nothing to convince critics playing the sympathy card, those who believe that a higher reward would help offset our Paralympian’s medical bills, though I doubt that’s our winners’ primary goal when they take part in these games. It then becomes a question if our disgust at the pay disparity arises from our emotions being tugged by sportsmen who overcome tremendous physical limitations to excel, from a sense of fairness in terms of performance or effort, or the lack of ‘big-heartedness’ in accepting Feng Tianwei as a true Singaporean champion. If we’re comparing Laurentia to a Singapore-born Olympics champion instead, would we be less picky on the money? (To throw another curveball in the argument, Laurentia Tan is based in the UK and has been living there since she was THREE years old. How much more ‘Singaporean’ is she now compared to Tianwei?)

Matching Olympian pay is probably a stretch, but a good start would be the sports councils increasing the publicity for the Paralympic games, so that those who continue to heckle Feng Tianwei and her success would at least do something more productive like supporting another Singaporean in a world-class event. Maybe they should organise a charity match between the Brazilian Paralympic football team against our very own Lions, if only to educate fans that some professionals can dribble and pass balls better on one leg than our two-legged Lions ever can.  A heroes’ welcome would be a nice touch too. Chan Chun Sing, you know what to do.

Also, just watching this ‘Murderball’ trailer below will change your mind about the Paralympics forever.

Filed under: 2000s, 2012, Money, Sports | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Singapore pulling out of Venice Biennale 2013

Posted on September 1, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From various letters, 1 Sept 2012, St Life! Mailbag

(Hua Tye Swee): While I understand the need of pulling out of the next Venice Biennale in 2013 so as to assess Singapore’s overall visual arts development, my hope is that we will return for the 2015 edition. Two of our artists, Ho Tzu Nyen and Ming Wong, have proven that taking part in the Biennale is money well-spent compared to the sports budget for the Olympics.

If this is a budget issue, perhaps a private-public funding partnership is the right way to go. We should help our artists scale their own Olympics.

(Peh Chin Sin): I would like to see the Government spread its funding for the arts to promote arts appreciation and learning for the masses, especially for the underprivileged. To have a renaissance in arts for Singapore, we need to cast the net wider, to nurture the larger population and not just a select few.

Public funding must go towards public good and not just benefit the egos of a few privileged people. Can the masses here identify with Singapore’s participation in the Venice Biennale?

I am not sure they can.

I’m not going to be an arts patron anytime soon, and I’m not sure what Peh Chin Sin meant by ‘egos of a few privileged people’. But honestly this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a ‘Venice’ Biennale, and the last time we had our own Singapore version we raised a fuss over ventilation at Old Kallang Airport, some homoerotic exhibit called Hotel Munber, and people turning our Merlion into a one-night love nest. I wonder how many people who’re fiercely passionate about this event can claim to pronounce ‘Biennale’ correctly.

So how ‘accessible’ is a typical Venice Biennale entry anyway? In 2011, Ho Tzu Nyen presented a video installation presciently called ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, a wispy, sensory ‘journey’ which pretty much describes the future of the arts in Singapore.

Looks like a Nine Inch Nails music video

Ming Wong did ‘Life of Imitation’ , another video installation for the 2009 event which requires split-brain syndrome to fully understand it. I wonder if they gave out free packs of Panadol at the Biennale like they dish out 3-D specs at a blockbuster movie. But you don’t need a ‘prestigious’ champagne-swirling event to bring out the best in our local artists. Sometimes you just need a pen company as a sponsor, like Faber Castell pitching Singaporean Chan Hwee Chong’s amazing spiral portraits drawn with ONE SINGLE CONTINUOUS LINE. Now this is GENIUS. Chan is a one man Biennale all by himself, and it’s a shame that he’s less well known at home than among the non-Singaporean internet community.

How convenient to choose the Olympics as an analogy for recognition in the arts, though I believe there are distinct differences between the two, even as purveyors argue over which should get greater attention and funding. In sports, for instance, people of different ages and backgrounds can rally together to support a national player or team, and games are relatively EASY to understand (cricket is an exception) though not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. Art, in the award-winning, biennale-standard form, is anything but SIMPLE and often strives to be a personal journey of the ‘higher senses’. For every fermenting shark in a tank there is someone snipping off his pubes in public, and always someone lauding such baffling works as ‘masterpieces’. Most lay people find contemporary art frustrating, distant, highbrow and feel oestracised by the arts scene which has developed an exclusive appeal and magnetism of its own, while the ‘arty-farties’ thrive on being coolly ambiguous, nodding in appreciation while the rest of us scratch our heads. Let’s not forget that sport has the crowdpleasing, goosebump-inducing legacy of Malaysia Cup nostalgia behind it. Nothing wins votes like a minister turning up to support a national team in an away match. That’s why we pump in money for trophies and bronze medals, not top prizes in fancy art contests.

You would need an arts enthusiast to have a lively conversation and debate over art, while you can have a water cooler conversation with your boss or the security guard at the front desk over something as humdrum as sports. When people say they seek ‘intelligent conversation’ you know they’re not going to discuss football club trades but rather look to be impressed by your knowledge of the Renaissance. If you’re caught in an awkward speed date you’re likely to be saved by mentioning Feng Tianwei than UOB painting of the Year winner Bai Tianyuan. When people think contemporary art they don’t think Biennale, they think of that Chinese guy who paints himself into his surroundings like a chameleon. In the age of Instagram where anyone can show off artistic touches, actual artists need to differentiate themselves from cookie-cutter installations, and with a little help from the Internet and a brilliant idea coupled with a show-stopping talent, you could be the talk of the town, and you know you have succeeded if people discuss your work in place of ‘How’s the weather’, Biennale or No Biennale. Provided you don’t break the law of course, though that appears to be a surefire way to get noticed.

If there’s one thing in common between arts and sport it’s how hard it is to make a living out of either. But even as rivaling siblings with vastly different characters, we need both to keep society fresh, vibrant and distinctly HUMAN. Watering down arts to suit the pop-culture-fed masses may not be such a good idea if that means creating a rift between public perception and the upper crust of the arts community. In my opinion we have little to worry about. We won’t descend into a band of uncultured hoodlums just because we got pipped out of a world-class exhibition that only the arts folks seem protective about, while those of us who haven’t a clue about Biennales refrain from asking ‘What’s the big deal?’ in fear of being labelled a soulless troglodyte. But neither should we chase elusive golds and forget that there’s more to life than beating China in pingpong all the time.

Filed under: 2011, 2012, Art, Sports | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Feng Tianwei cannot compare to Tan Howe Liang

Posted on August 4, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Foreign sports talent..There’s a difference’, 4 Aug 2012, ST Forum

(Tan Boon Keng): THERE is a difference between Singaporeans who were born and raised here and those who were recruited to win medals for the country (“Simply Feng-tastic” by Mrs Eunice Ang-Choo Sok Ee; yesterday). While paddler Feng Tianwei is a Singaporean who made history by winning the country its first individual Olympic medal in more than 50 years, she is unlike the first Olympic medallist, weightlifter Tan Howe Liang, who was a home-grown sportsman.

Mrs Ang-Choo’s remark that she, too, is a foreign import by virtue of her heritage is puzzling because she was born here. My grandparents arrived from China, but I do not consider myself an import, because I was born in Singapore. Certainly, I shall feel proud if Feng’s children win medals for Singapore, provided they are born here.

As a former Chinese citizen, Feng can opt to return to China. For us, Singapore is home.

Tan Howe Liang’s skimpy leotard. In 50 years maybe we’ll see Feng Tianwei’s legendary bat. From KeropokMan’s blog.

As long as there are immigrants in our Olympic squads, there will always be people making comparisons to ‘home-grown’ Tan Howe Liang (He was actually born in Swatow China and came to Singapore when he was 4 years old). You can argue all day about what exactly makes one Singaporean enough for one to be fully satisfied with the victory, and even if Feng could cram a user manual on all things Singaporean and recite the pledge in all 4 languages, she still wouldn’t hold a candle to our much lauded Silver Olympiad because, according to the writer, she just wasn’t here long enough. Even if Feng continues to participate in ping pong until she’s 70, there will be critics who’ll continue to go ‘Meh’ at her well-deserved Bronze award. It’s also easy to forget that during Tan’s time, hardly anyone of us were true-blue Singaporeans in the first place.

Tan Howe Liang didn’t just win ONE silver medal and called it a day. He accomplished it despite cramping in the legs, and walked out a hero without a SINGLE CENT. He was a world record breaker, once hailed as the BEST at his weight in ASIA and made it into the GUINNESS BOOK of Olympic records in 1972. That is why Feng (now $250,000 richer) and her gang can’t compare to Howe Liang, not because they’re not ‘localised’ enough, but Tan is probably the greatest athlete Singapore has ever produced, or will ever have. Like Feng, Tan had his share of critics too, that he wasn’t the humble boy from Chinatown as everyone thought he was. His post-medal refusal to participate in the Rangoon SEA games trials got him labelled as a ‘prima donna’ and a ‘spoiled child’.  Still, it’s easy to heap praise and remember Tan’s sporting achievements fondly, or make him a flag bearer and curate his photos and stories in the National Archives, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t FORGOTTEN as a person.

In the 80′s, Howe Liang was appointed national coach for the SEA games, but suffered from a lack of participation in the event. I thought any professional athlete who has spent his entire life mastering a single sport could slide easily into a coaching post, like what paddler Jin Junhong and Ang Peng Siong have, but apparently not in the case of a niche and severely gruelling sport like weightlifting. According to a Today letter writer, Tan also spent some of his post-glory years as a CARETAKER in the National Stadium (More likely he was a gym instructor i.e glorified caretaker. A ST headline in 1982 reads ‘Olympic hero PERFECT for gym job’ 4 Nov 1982). He was last reported to be earning his keep as a gym supervisor at the Singapore Sports Council, struggling to pay medical bills for his cancer-stricken wife, a little known fact overshadowed by his past Olympic success. Ironically, if it weren’t for our foreign-talent paddlers and reporters, few would have heard of Tan at all, and it seems like it was only in the mid 2000′s when somebody, in the midst of the Olympic ping pong glitz, suddenly remembered ‘Hey, didn’t we have whats-his-name win a Silver medal in 1960?!’ Which is all the more inexcusable because we’ve only ever had ONE guy winning at the Olympics. I have to admit I had trouble recalling his name myself during a recent argument with a friend about Singapore’s Olympic history.

In a Today piece, Tan had this to say about his so-called Olympic fame:

..The problem is Singapore sport. After you represent your country, they will CHUCK you to one side. Who will remember you? At least I’m lucky. Some people still remember me.

Instead of being made to languish as a convenient afterthought in obligatory tributes to local sportsmen or as a standard trivia question on a game show like We Are Singaporeans, more should be done not just to TELL the story of Tan’s ascent and quick decline, but to make sure that our legends continue to contribute by fulfilling the dreams of subsequent generations of sportsmen, like how they have fulfilled the entire nation’s during their glory days. The story of Tan Howe Liang is the story of Singapore’s sporting dilemma, where the quest for excellence and the pursuit of passion at the expense of academic success gives one diminishing returns. That the worst thing that could happen to any committed sportsman here is to get a debilitating injury, or RETIRE. That the fact you’ll be the only benchmark against which all other local sportsmen will be compared is proof of how popular sports is as a career choice. That winning an Olympic medal is like the brutal curse that is the Best Actor/Actress award at the Oscars. It goes all downhill from there.

Tan’s recognition is long overdue. And yet here we have people swooning over expat billionaries or praising a disgraced pastor in music videos. There is no God.

Filed under: 1960s, 1980s, 2000s, 2011, 2012, Foreign workers, Sports | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

No Arts and Sports in reshuffled Ministries

Posted on August 3, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Keep Arts and Sports in ministries’ names’, 3 Aug 2012, ST Forum

(Ace Kindred Cheong): I AM saddened that “Sports” and the “Arts” have been omitted from the names of the new and restructured ministries (“No ‘sports’ in name sparks debate”; yesterday). The omissions will lead to doubts about whether the Government is still as committed to supporting the arts and sports.

It is also ironic that it happened in the middle of a historic Olympics in which Singapore won its first individual medal in 52 years, after the fantastic bronze medal achievement by our top women’s table tennis star Feng Tianwei. It would be more sensible for the Cabinet to retain the titles of the two ministries – the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.

This will send a clear signal that sports and the arts have not been sidelined by the Government.

The new ministries have been named MCCY (Culture, Community, Youth), MSF (Social, Family Development) and MCI (Communications, Information).  It’s made more confusing than it already is and drives one MAD (Ministry of Arts Defunct) just trying to tell one other apart. Ministries of ‘social affairs’ tend to be rather wishy washy over what they’re supposed to take charge of historically. ‘Culture’ is a catch-all term that is itself archaic in its usage. Established in the late fifties, the job of then ‘Ministry of Culture’ was responsible for brainwashing people with film propaganda. They were also the state censors, precursors to our current Board of Censors and MDA, who glued objectionable pages of books together. They were more the Culture and thought POLICE than a ministry of any sort, and here we see ‘Culture’ coming back with a vengeance. Watch out Fifty Shades of Grey sequels. Incidentally, the top Google search for ‘Ministry of Culture’ yields a local company that promotes some sort of corporate motivational team-building. Wonder if there’ll be any suits filed for copyright infringement ala Subway.

In 1985, ‘Culture’, with its negative connotations as mind controllers, was taken out, and the MCD (Community Development) was formed. It’s only in 2000 when SPORTS was plopped in to form MCDS, and ‘Youth’ joined the fray in 2004 to the soon-to-be-defunct MCYS. It’s also ironic how the government needs to set up a ministry arm solely for YOUTH when we’re on the crest of a silver tsunami. If I had my way with government acronyms, I would have gone for McCOYS (Ministry of Culture, Community, Old people, Youth and Sports) which just about covers EVERYTHING. We’re also more likely to have an SCOG (Senior Citizens’ Olympic Games) than a YOG. At the rate these ministries are splitting, you’ll have a whole chunk of large Roman numerals instead of abbreviations. At least some people can still make out Roman numerals.

What did having a SPORTS ministry ever do to produce a sporting  nation? Our Olympic medal winners are foreign-born. We have some decent swimmers, sailors and shooters here and there. But our local footballers have been the same dismally inconsistent lot for the last 12 years that ‘Sports’ has been part of MCYS. Our best moments in the Game (Malaysia Cup) were in the 90′s, BEFORE sports got noticed as a government agenda. Today, we can’t get past mediocre ASEAN teams even with the government boosting our foreign import funds, which either means our sports officials are getting it all wrong, or we simply are a nation who are no longer interested. Mah Bow Tan’s expensive Goal 2010 fantasy turned out to be one as attainable as flying solar-powered cars (It may be argued that the state of football is worse off now than when this pipe dream was cast more than a decade ago). Obviously the tactic of pumping in money to buy talent (players or coaches) on the pretense of grooming a sporting nation just isn’t working.

‘Arts’ emerged in 1990 from a messy series of acronym spin-offs, from the Ministry of Culture to MCI (Communications, Information), MCD and then MITA (the ‘TA’ stands for THE ARTS, without the ‘T’ it would be ‘M.I.A’), a move lauded by struggling artists who needed government investment and support, until MITA began clamping down again on offensive material and recordings as its grandparent Ministry once did (A Janet Jackson album and the video game Half-Life). Sounding too close to ‘MATA’, MITA then rebranded itself as the effeminate MICA (Information, Communication, Arts) in 2001, and proceeded to get on the nerves of arty folk by banning gay concerts like ‘Affect 05′ in 2005. Unlike the short-lived Sports arm, Arts enjoyed a good run of over 2 decades despite the zealous snipping, keeping the scene vibrant and local performances afloat, though there are always critics complaining that they’re never doing enough. We also have an ‘Arts’ NMP Janice Koh in a government now castrated of an Arts body, someone credible to comment on Grandfather Road issues when the ministerial body itself has trouble defining what ART is. But I think the simpler reason is that having a ministry of ARTS gives ART a bad name. Film fans have already felt the effects of the omission of ARTS , with this year’s Film Fest pulled out due to lack of funds. I think there’s something more deeply entrenched in the Singaporean psyche that defies government intervention when it comes to sports and arts. We have been bred and raised with a very skewed bias towards a results-based ideal of personal achievement, one that doesn’t involve a paintbrush or kicking balls.

Our Malaysian neighbours have a cleaner dichotomy in the form of a ‘Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage’ and a ‘Ministry of Youth and Sports’, the former bringing to mind the image of a fuddy-duddy curator who knows his history and the latter that of an hip, vivacious, fun-loving official devoted to keeping the country relevant. Japan has the same idea as me when it comes to combining everything together, with its Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The PM proposed 3-tier system with its bland categorisation sounds wan and jaded, with the MSF, or should I say Ministry of Procreation, as a disturbing personification of all the kaypoh aunties who ask when you’re getting married or when you’re having kids during Chinese New Year.

Filed under: 1950s, 1980s, 2000s, 2012, Art, Bureaucrats, Censors, Politicians, Sports | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Wang Yuegu blaming umpire for being German

Posted on August 1, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Wang lets fly at officials after loss’, article by Tan Yo-Hinn, 1 Aug 2012, Today

Singapore paddler Wang Yuegu yesterday lashed out in a controversial attack on the umpire after her quarter-final exit from the women’s singles competition yesterday. Moments after her 4-1 defeat to Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa at London’s ExCel Arena, Wang stunned the Singapore media when she hit out at the appointment of German Claudia Moller as the umpire for their match.

“As soon as I saw I had a German umpire, I knew I was going to lose points,” said the 31-year-old, who is ranked world No 11, and who could be competing in her last Olympics. “My husband is German, and I have a private problem with them. Someone from their team is abusing their relationship with officials and has arranged for me to have a German umpire.

“They’re abusing their power and I can’t respect that. “Today, I feel fine personally about the match, but I feel bad for the sport and bad for the Olympic Games that this is allowed to happen.”

…At the World Championship in Dortmund, Germany, in March this year, Wang was shown the red card for protesting a series of dubious service calls by German umpire Klaus Seipold and Kosovo’s Jeton Beqiri during Singapore’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in a Group B match. She initially refused to leave, and women’s team coach Zhou Shusen and assistant coach Jing Junhong were also involved in the incident.

Damn you, Sky!

Considering how strange it is for Wang to discriminate against Germans when she claims her spouse is German himself, I dug further and pulled out another report stating that Wang’s husband is actually a TAIWANESE BASED in Germany. If not convinced, look no further than this Facebook pic of Wang in a wedding photo shoot.  Another discrepancy is the reason for Wang being red-carded in March; CNA reported that Wang was tossed out of the match for giving ‘illegal advice’ or ‘coaching’ from the sidelines. I didn’t think you could get ejected from a game of ping pong, but even in the face of immense pressure to perform for the current World no. 11, such unsportmanslike hysteria is disappointing of any athlete in any stage of competition, especially a silver medalist. Incidentally, Wang’s ranking points according to ITTF are on a rather steep decline, in proportion to her shortening temper and turning into the female Wayne Rooney of Table Tennis. I wonder if estrogen pills are permissible drugs in the Olympics because it seems obvious that a temperamental Wang needs some hormone replacement therapy. STAT. (Even though she’s only 32 this year, according to the Wang Yuegu Fanclub Facebook Page)

Wang’s not the only athlete to lash at everything other than their own inadequacies. Fellow paddler and ex-countryman Gao Ning blamed his coach and manager for his crashing out of the 2008 Olympics, humiliated and suffering a blow to the ego for being cast aside in favour of his silver-medal winning counterparts (Wang included). Naturalised citizen and foul-mouthed swimmer Tao Li ‘attributed’ her loss this year to the short time spent with a new coach. Teen sensation Joseph Schooling blamed officials sticking to their list of approved goggles rules for ‘messing up his swim’. Shooter Jasmine Ser was distracted by ‘a photographer’s camera clicks’ despite winning ‘only a silver’ in 2011′s SEA games. Singapore’s top golfer Mardan Marmat, bizarrely enough, blamed GOOD WEATHER for his failure at this year’s British Open. Wang Yuegu herself blamed the English summer heat and the lack of air-conditioning for ‘affecting her rest’

Picking on a bad coach, a spectator sneezing or the weather (good or bad) are petty excuses and typical of not just celebrities but instinctively loss-averse humans in general. To bear a grudge against certain ethnicities while representing the nation, however, is just shameful. Wang Yuegu is one racist weibo tweet away from being sacked from the Olympics, and while she’s giving the Germans all the more reason to think that Singaporeans are all ‘crazy’ in the head, perhaps the table tennis federation, for the sake of keeping ping pong prestigious and as our Olympic bread and butter,  should consider retiring her out of courtesy already.

Breaking news that Feng Tianwei just won Singapore a BRONZE after half a century of an individual medal eluding us. Yay to Tianwei! Boo to Yuegu!

Filed under: 2012, Racism, Sports | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

CHC youths singing about ‘The Greatest Place’

Posted on July 30, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘City Harvest youths record song in support of Pastor Kong Hee’, 30 July 2012, article by Jeffrey Oon, sg yahoo news.

23 youths from City Harvest Church have recorded a music video to express support for their congregation and its embattled  leadership. Titled “The Greatest Place — City Harvest Church” , the 4-and-a-half-minute video begins with an opening sequence of several youths proclaiming their love for “this place”.

The video, which was recorded earlier this month on 15th July, also describes how the music video came to be. “23 youths from different zones and cellgroups came together to record a song in support of our church and our leadership,” says an opening message in the video.

Several lines of lyrics call City Harvest the place where the youths — who by their looks range from early teens to mid-twenties –  found their “home”, “freedom” and the “greatest place I have ever known.” Although church founder Pastor Kong Hee is never directly mentioned,  he is shown preaching in several sequences while lyrics allude to him as “the greatest man that I have ever known“.

The Passion of the CHC

This tribute ends with a shot of the lines ‘The Greatest Place. I love this place (Heart)’, a couplet which wouldn’t have looked out of place in an NDP song (Someone take notes for next year). Half of this song is dedicated to a man who saved many youths with his brand of Christianity, and despite his brush with the law and alleged siphoning of funds to turn his wife into a superstar, here are 23 youngsters returning the favour, though it remains to be seen if this musical tribute/protest would save Kong Hee and his band of Christian brothers from the cold, atheist hand of Justice.

The history of music is filled with songs dedicated to the male species and masculinity including friends, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, boyfriends, ex boyfriends, husbands, ex husbands, sons, grandsons, kings, princes, cowboys, dictators, gods, Jesus, Satan, Superman, Mohammed Ali and Micheal Jackson. I can’t for the life of me think of any song dedicated to a pastor (the closest is Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man), and one that heaps as much idolatrous praise as this, regardless of whether Kong Hee’s maintenance of integrity stands in the face of hard evidence. This feel-good hit of the year is set to be sung by more mouths in rapt unison than our current NDP fodder track ‘Love at First Light’. I can imagine people actually weeping to this, and then breaking into ungodly, ecstatic fits during the ripping guitar solo. Still, this ain’t no Bohemian Rhapsody, and thank God for that.

So let’s look at the lyrics referring to the Greatest One of All and compare it to this solemn but epic tribute to Mao Ze Dong titled ‘People Unite’, summoning whatever limited powers of translation I have when it comes to the Chinese language.

MZD: He is the People’s Great Saviour
KH: He’s a world changer and a History Maker (I don’t see Steve Jobs in the video, still this line is nerve-cringingly cheesy)

MZD: Chairman Mao. Loves the People.
KH: Of all things his love’s undeniable (especially towards Sun Ho)

The lyric of contention in this fawning Ode to Kong Hee (some insist it refers to Jesus Christ) is ‘The greatest man I that have ever known’. What about the actual FATHERS of all 23 boys and girls in the video, especially those toiling night and day for years to raise their Christian kids who are happier in a home away from home, now having to grapple for attention with another man who’s likely to be better looking and more charming than themselves? MM Lee, looks like someone has officially beaten you to it. It’ll be a long while before anyone sings a song about you, our founding father, a man who actually makes it into the Annals of HISTORY. If Kong Hee’s found guilty, this would be waxing lyrical about a JAILBIRD, and that would be, well, awkward. Wait, has any Singaporean man been sung about, ever? You mean we’ve never had a loving tyrant or a folk hero? Not even for our grandfather soldiers who died so we may live during the Japanese Occupation? You mean all these years we never cared about the real heroes of Singapore and all of a sudden we have an opus magnus about some fancy preacher man? Jesus!

But seriously, there are less controversial, more tongue-in-cheek, yet equally fanatical things to band together and sing about other than megachurches and their leaders. Take sports: In 1993, our Lions rapped to ‘The Dream Team’ song. Seeing Jang Jung go ‘I’m Jang Jung and I will TAKER you out’ always raises a chuckle. The sport has never been the same since, and maybe in a good way because we’re left with a touch of zany, fuzzy fondness just thinking about how great we used to be. The Greatest TEAM we’ve ever known.

Well dedicating a song to your church is fine and dandy if you can afford it, and having a man-crush and making your old man jealous is your own prerogative and all, but how about the cause of Gaia protection for a change? Why sing to save one man when you can, well, SAVE MY WORLD? The Greatest Kids in Weird Bee Costumes we’ll ever know.

Filed under: 1990s, 2012, Music/music videos, Religion | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

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