Budget YOG $387m / Needy $175m
-
Measures to help NTU students, staff cope with YOG disruptions
By Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid | Posted: 12 August 2010 2300 hrsPhotos of 
Video 
Measures to help NTU students, staff cope with YOG disruptions Special Report • Special Report: Youth Olympic Games SINGAPORE : Some students and staff at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are seeing disruptions to their daily routine, as the campus houses the Youth Olympic Village.
But the university has taken steps to help them cope.
Athletes have been streaming in to the Youth Olympic Village.
And security is tight. Only vehicles with labels are allowed in.
The entrance along Jalan Bahar and the nearby round-about have been cordoned off.
These have affected bus routes, like service 179 and the internal shuttle service. Bus 199 has temporarily ceased its operations to the campus for now.
Still, family members of staff living on-campus, and students, have found ways to adapt.
"We have to walk all the way to our school, so it is a bit inconvenient for us. Now it takes longer to get to school," said one student.
"It is inconvenient, but I feel very proud, because we are hosting the event, so it's a small sacrifice," said another.
Some car parks are also closed. But arrangements have been made for staff to park off-campus, with shuttle buses to bring them to NTU.
In addition, staff and tenants are encouraged to car pool during the period of time, to ease traffic flow in the campus during peak hours.
Adjustments have also been made to working hours.
The Youth Olympic Village occupies about a third of the whole campus.
The National Institute of Education (NIE) is located within the Youth Olympic Village, so staff have been asked to start work later at about 10.30 am, or where possible, work from home.
As it is still vacation time, NTU expects minimal disruption.
Students who had to leave their hostels for the athletes have found alternative housing.
Anthony Teo, chairman of the NTU-YOG Steering Committee said: "This is not a custom built facility; we are running a university. Although it is a privilege for us to have the Village, it is within the constraints of existing facilities. We have kept the staff and students informed in the last year and a half."
The next academic year has been pushed back by a week and will now start on August 30. - CNA /ls -
so now names have become "one student" and "another". haha. Why cant they just name them? Me suspects it's bogus shit.
-
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
OG volunteers complain about being served “dog food”
Due to lack of public support for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the PAP regime has resorted to forcing Singapore students to “volunteer” for the event to generate fake grassroots support to save its own “face.”
According to netizens, students from schools in Ang Mo Kio were “asked” to line the streets last Saturday to “welcome” the YOG torch before it arrived at Nanyang Polytechnic.
One irate teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote:
“My school students are going to be made to stand around, under the 3pm-hot sun, to pretend that we support YOG. How is that fair? It is like as if we are a communist state – forcing the children to do something that is not only agaisnt their will, but it is also something that would not affect our lives greatly. If the students want to watch and support the YOG torch, they can watch it on their own! Why force the other students to fake support under the sun? 90% of the students in Singapore don’t even care about the YOG, and yet we are forced to pretend that we do.”
Another student complained:
“I am from Temasek Poly and I am forced to take part in YOG. It is made so compulsory that in the event that i do not take part, I will not get a testimony at the end of my graduation. That is the most irritating thing right now.”
Not only are the YOG “volunteers” required to spend long hours doing “sai kang” (hokkien for shit work), they are also served “dog food”.
One obviously peeved YOG “volunteer” sent us a photo of the food the volunteers were given:
“This is what I am eating everyday. Even my dog is fed better food!” she wrote.
In the meantime, public anger over the YOG continues to boil over with nearly a thousand Singaporeans joining the “I hate YOG” Facebook to express their disgust and disdain for the PAP’s “vanity fair”.
Have you been “volunteered” for the YOG? Please share with us your unpleasant experience here.
Source: Temasek Review
That is such a disgrace from the organizer there are volunteers came all over the world and we serve up low calories diet to the volunteers and we want to show the World................????
-
IOC hoping Youth Games can overcome cost
addthis_pub = 'dawnadmin';
addthis_logo = 'http://www.dawn.com/styles/default/beta/images/logo.jpg';
addthis_logo_background = 'FFFFFF';
addthis_logo_color = '338DCC';
addthis_brand = 'DAWN.COM';
addthis_options = 'twitter,google, digg, delicious, myspace, favorites, myweb, live, more';
function fbs_click() {u=location.href;t=document.title;window.open('http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(u)+'&t='+encodeURIComponent(t),'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436');return false;}
“Very soon, the Youth Olympic Games will become as much an indispensable fixture of the Olympic calendar as its grown-up brothers,” Rogge wrote in the days leading up to the inaugural event. -Reuters PhotoSINGAPORE: IOC President Jacques Rogge expects the Youth Olympics will overcome spiraling costs and the so-far subdued fan enthusiasm to evolve into one of the world’s premier sporting events.
The Youth Olympics, which open in Singapore on Saturday and run through August 26, will feature about 3,600 competitors aged 14 to 18 from 204 countries competing in the same 26 sports on the current Summer Olympics programme.
“Very soon, the Youth Olympic Games will become as much an indispensable fixture of the Olympic calendar as its grown-up brothers,” Rogge wrote in the days leading up to the inaugural event.
Cost estimates for the event have skyrocketed. The IOC initially projected in 2007 the Youth Games would cost $30 million to stage but by the time Singapore won its bid in 2008, the budget was up to $76 million. The government said in July it expects a final bill of $287 million.
The organising committee for the London 2012 Olympics has a budget of $3 billion. The overall construction and infrastructure budget for London 2012 is more than $14 billion.
For Singapore, the Youth Games are part of a strategy to diversify its economy toward tourism and services and away from manufacturing. The opening of two casino resorts built by Las Vegas Sands and Malaysia’s Genting earlier this year and the staging of the first annual night race for Formula One in 2008 have helped attract record tourist arrivals.
But ticket sales for the Youth Games have been sluggish despite a $8.9 million government publicity campaign featuring large billboards around the city that encouraged neighbourhoods to celebrate the Games.
In an online poll last month on Channel NewsAsia’s website aimed at getting a gauge of public interest, 88 percent of 6,400 respondents voted, ‘I’m not interested at all,’ in the Games.
“Singaporeans should spontaneously be generating more excitement for the Games,” Ang Swee Hoon, associate professor at the NUS Business School, said in a Straits Times editorial last month.“We should feel in our hearts a sense of awe that our country has been chosen.”
The organisers, though, are confident of a successful games, expecting interest to pick up once competition starts. The football competition was to kick off o Thursday. The official opening ceremony will be Saturday, with medals awarded in triathlon as early as Sunday morning.
“The IOC president took a great risk to organise these Games and bet on its future,” IOC Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli told reporters earlier this week in Singapore.“The world is going to look at it and see if it works or not.”
Australian athletes are already in Singapore, with many hoping that a stopover destination used by tens of thousands of their compatriots en route to Europe each year can be a springboard in their aspirations to compete at the London Olympics.
The Australian Olympic Committee has hosted national youth festivals in recent years, which have launched some Olympic careers.
“It’s not only a pathway for competition but an opportunity to help prepare young athletes for a lot of experiences,” AOC president John Coates told the Australian Associated Press. The Youth Olympics “are going to have a big element of education, learning about Olympic values, life skills and values and those sorts of things, an anti-doping message. We’re very interested to see how it all goes.”—AP -
Balakrishnan should try a little bit of humility 
Saturday, 14 August 2010 Singapore Democrats
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan told Dr Chee Soon Juan to see the "response" on the ground. Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Finance Minister, said that the YOG enthusiasm was "infectious". Now PM Lee Hsien Loong says that the Games "has struck a chord with our people." Comical Ali has come to town.
President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Mr Jacques Rogge, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) that is underway in
Singapore, zeroing in on the bloated budget and lack of public support.
He said that he hoped the "spiraling" cost of organisng the YOG and the
"subdued" enthusiasm among Singaporeans would be overcome for future
Games.
But instead of acknowledging the reality of the situation, the PAP is busily telling Singaporeans that they are madly cheering on its woefully organised Games.
What is most upsetting is that instead of admitting that mistakes were made in organising the Games, the Government is insulting the intelligence of the people and angering them even more by arrogantly dismissing their criticisms.
First it went ahead with the YOG like it does with everything else - making decsions without consulting the people and then expecting everyone to support it when the time comes.
It haughtily chased students out of their dormitories to accommodate the visitors, reserved lanes for YOG buses on our already congested roads while continuing to charge motorists ERP, and then served quality food for the athletes while giving volunteers sub-standard fare.
All these have antagonised Singaporeans who are already less than enthusiastic about the event. The public has been sorely inconvenienced by an event that it - and the rest of the world - care little about.
Worse, they have been made to foot the bill to the tune of $400 million.
Because money doesn't come from the pockets of the ministers and because there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop the Government from wasting such vast sums of public funds, it's easy for the ministers to play fast and loose with our money.
As the minister for sports, Dr Balakrishnan must shoulder the major part of the blame. Instead of continuing his arrogant attitude, he should try a bit of humility and make the following statement:On behalf of the YOG organising committee I would like to extend my apologies for the poor showing thus far. As minister in charge of the Games I take full responsibilty for the shortcomings. We will look into where things have gone wrong and how we can rectify them for future events.
In particular, we acknowledge that support for such events cannot come from orders and decrees but from the heart-felt support of you, the people.
We apologise to all those affected by the logistics and for the inconvenience caused especially to motorists, students, volunteers, and businesses.
For now we ask that all Singaporeans get behind the effort to make the Games a success while it is going on. After the event, we will hold public inquiries and public forums to find out all that had gone wrong. We want your views on how we can do better.
In future, we promise to stage such events with the people of Singapore instead of the Government high-handedly going it alone and expecting everyone to cheerily comply with our decisions.
But like the floods, the Mas Selamat escape, and the MRT depot breaking-in the PAP is accountable to no one. This must change. -
The plight of Singapore volunteers at the Youth Olympic Village
By Aloysius Sim, a Youth Village volunteer
I am a volunteer for the youth Olympic village in NTU whom, initially, was very intrigued and impressed with this “global” event that is to be held in Singapore, but is now utterly disappointed .
First off, my Institute “**ATEC” volunteered almost everyone within the institute for this event of course, with certain legit penalties/disadvantages to our grades and attendance if we do not.
We started volunteering one or two days after our tests, that have been modified, crammed, trimmed, drilled into us within the most impossible and unreasonable duration.
I am in charge of a Hall, whereby consists of 5 Blocks, of a nearly 300 or possibly more athletes and delegates combined, from different countries.
I am the supervisor for the hall, and working WITH, not under me are 1-3 officers a shift, depending on the turn-up and schedule given to us. A.M and P.M shifts are 8 hours, night shifts are 10hrs.
Gladly, the people I’m working with, god bless them, are pro-active and efficient, making life less painful for this duration.
Do let me state clear that WE, the volunteers within the village ARE working hard, I daresay, mostly not for the YOG, but for our comrades that are working alongside us, be it the translators, the caterers, laundry coordinators, event planners, NTU hall office staffs and housekeeping staffs(do forgive me if I left anyone out).
I know not of what goes on within the YOG committee, but I DO KNOW that the Residential Centre manager, Housekeeping manager, Room allotment
manager and duty-managers to name a few, ARE working at least 14-16 Hours A DAY, on shift, to keep the village in order, despite the lack of staff, resources, means and constraints.I know that for I speak to them every day, hear them through the walkie-talkies. See their sweat soaked uniforms as they trudge through the maze-like NTU to assist us with unreasonable and unyielding demands from international delegations.
Work force = All volunteers and staff “working” within the village.
What we face:
1) Many of us till now are still facing problems with the ez-link cards that are given out to us that should provide complimentary public transportation to the Village. Meaning, as of now, some of us are still paying for our transport. Try going back and forth from Simei (Cost X 29 trips).
2) Shuttle buses from Boon Lay interchange, the only means of getting into the village comes in 30min intervals, are single decked, shared by the whole workforce with the village and sometimes delegates, are ALWAYS filled to the brim leaving some unable to board during shift changing times. They have yet to rectify the issue or they might even not be rectifying the issue, for all we know, they might just be averting their eyes from it.
3) Internal shuttle services within the village are no better for they are shared by not only the workforce and delegations, but the full strength by the thousands within the village. Bus stops are constantly packed with people, and do note, they are single-deckers again.
4) Food served for the volunteers, for an example, 2 vegetable items, 1 meat item, a fruit and drinks from sponsor, coca-cola. What I had yesterday, Baked carrot sticks, Baked potatos, 1 piece of dry bland almost unsalted chicken, rice and a banana. Note the food are portioned and they had on more than one occasion ran out of food and volunteers sent out for lunch had to go back to work without food for it took too long for them to replenish the food. I believe everyone has an idea of what the athletes have already so I shall not elaborate.
5) The delegates, representatives of each of their own countries, are mostly demanding and unwilling to listen to reason. Not that I blame them for the facilities are indeed limited and “shabby” in some instances. But not to say all of them are bad, there are also some delegates of some countries that are understanding and a pleasure to work with. I have personally experienced and also heard from staffs of other halls relating events of delegates hurling vulgarities at them. Some of them will also ignore our advice or enforcement of the no-smoking rule within the village. They will also ignore the village rules and put up their own signs on toilets, corridors.
6) The athletes in their bulk of numbers will at times make it a point to make fun of or irritate us for their own fancy. Some of them smoke within the compounds despite our enforcing of the no-smoking rule within the village. They will often not heed our advice, for example, of not sitting on railings and the 2nd and third stories of the buildings.
7) Some of the workforce staff that are attached to the delegates, instead of working with us, will sometimes demand and refute our claims despite providing proper paper work and explaining proper procedures that are etched for the benefit for all.
8) Internet via cable is only available for the Chef De Mission’s room and his officials will have to head down to the village square business centre or book meeting rooms within the hall to get it. Athletes are only allowed internet access within the “TV-Rooms” which is a public area and privacy is non-existent. Sad thing is that I had on an occasion had a young athlete pleading with me to find a place whereby he could use access the internet to have a private conversation with his family back in his country. I could only advise him to seek his Chef de Mission to allow him access through his room or request for a booking for the meeting room.
9) We are given empowerment to use our own means to provide for our guests and that we did. We come up with solutions to solve issues, we help the delegations out manually if we have to, we do some clerical work of them if we can, some of the nicer delegations in return control and discipline their athletes to our benefit in return. Now, this, all this, happened before the opening(I wrote this on the 13th august) And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We do not know everything, but we are trying. We can’t do everything but we attempt. We shouldn’t bend the rules but we sometimes do.
Come on, we’re people too. Try asking an average chef to create a menu degustation, I’m sure he’d be dumbfounded as well.
If you’re not a volunteer, if you had not experienced what we’re going through, please do not even think about criticizing the volunteers on how ill-informed we are, how unmotivated we are.
If I were to tell YOU to “volunteer” or face an impending penalty, I’d love to see how YOU would react.
EDITORS’ NOTE:
Has your life been turned upside down by the YOG? Please share your views with us. We assure you that your identity will be kept strictly CONFIDENTIAL. We will be your UNCENSORED VOICE. We will publish your letter in FULL with ZERO editing, moderating or censoring. You do not have to suffer in silence! You have the RIGHT to speak up as a citizen of this country. Remember: you are a CITIZEN of Singapore, not a SLAVE of the PAP regime.
Our mailbox has been swarmed by letters from YOG volunteers for the last few days. Unless you specifically want us to publish your REAL NAME, we will use a pseudonym instead. Please understand that due to manpower constraints, we may not be able to publish your letters immediately and we will have to stagger them a few hours apart to ensure that they get maximum exposure.
Please keep your feedback coming! Singapore for SINGAPOREANS! Your interests always come FIRST.
Source: Temasek Review
-
Hundreds of students from Sembawang Primary School were FORCED to stand in the rain for hours to welcome the YOG torch rally during its island-wide procession on 11 August 2010.
A netizen who was driving back home managed to capture this shocking scene along Sembawang Crescent at around 5.10pm:
[Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mDji0Sa9o]
As we can see from the above snapshots, it was still drizzling and some of the students were in raincoats while the teachers tried to shelter them with umbrellas.
According to one teacher we spoke to on the condition of anonymity, they were asked to bring the students out as early as 3.30pm and were made to stand in the rain for almost two hours to ”cheer” for the YOG torch rally.
“What to do? The instructions come from the top. We have to welcome the YOG procession even if there are thunderstorms. I just hope that my students won’t fall ill from standing in the rain for so long,” she said in exasperation.
The school did not seek consent from the parents for allowing their children to stand in the rain to welcome the YOG torch, many of whom are probably still unaware of what happened.
Besides Sembawang Primary School, students from Compassvale Primary School were also forced to stand for hours under the hot sun to cheer for the YOG torch with a few students falling sick the very next day.
Despite the massive resources poured in by the PAP regime to promote the YOG, the response from Singaporeans has been lukewarm so far.
Short of “inspiring” young Singaporeans as proclaimed proudly by one of its purported objectives, the YOG has managed to peeve many people off especially after the stunning revelation that Singapore YOG volunteers are being fed “DOG” food by the organizers.
Is this what the “Olympic spirit” is about, Mr Jacques Rogges, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee?
By forcing unwilling students to provide “free labor” for ten hours or more without rest sometimes under the sun and being fed “DOG” food for their efforts?
Is it reasonable and fair to make our innocent primary school kids to stand in the rain for hours to “cheer” for the YOG torch procession just to save the blushes of the PAP regime? What if they catch a cold and have to miss school as a result? Who will pay for their medical expenses?
Shouldn’t the cheering be spontaneous from passer-bys rather than orchestrated by the organizers themselves?
While the chorus of unhappiness, frustration and anger at the YOG from the ground continue to grow louder with each passing day, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan is fast running out of excuses to justify his $389 million dollar investment, or rather misadventure.
Source: Temasek Review
-
THE SPORE GOV ARE FORCING LITTLE SCHOOL KIDS TO STAND IN THE RAIN ??!!!!!
DIDNT THE PARENTS COME AND TAKE THE KIDS BACK IMMEDIATELY?????FCUK!!!
-
IF I WERE THE SCHOOL TEACHER I WOULD HAVE ASKED MY STUDENTS TO SEEK SHELTER AT NEARBY SUPERMARKET.
WHAT HAS SINGAPORE BECOME???ANOTHER CAMBODIA UNDER AN INSANE POL POT??
HAS ANYONE NOTICED IF SPORE " LEADERS " HAVE GROWN A FEW HORNS OR A TAIL??
-
THEY ARE FORCING LITTLE SCHOOL KIDS BY THE HUNDREDS TO STAND IN THE HEAVY RAIN???!!!
ADOLF HITLER NEVER DID THIS TO HIS PEOPLE!PERHAPS STALIN MIGHT HAVE DONE THAT!
-
It is time for the parents, the volunteers and the rest of singapore to stand forward and walk away for the wayang events.
The events have so far caused nothing but suffering to all involved (except for the top dogs who still claiming that they have support, how ignorant and stupid can they be ?)
Coupled with the scar of the people forced to volunteer, the parents should unite and write a petition to feedback on the true situation here.
For the locals, it is to end the suffering and free the volunteers of their misery.
-
YOG “dog” food – NSF ordered to eat it or starve
I am a NSF been called by my unit to go and help out for the YOG.. Initally I was quite happy, as I feel I can do something for our nation. However does our country treat us the same way we treat them? I seriously Doubt so! Because from the food that have been served to us, it says alot of thing about them.
They
have been serving us that kind of foodbox that you guys have seen in
the previous post for one month plus and they never do anything to
improve it. They even threaten us that if we dear to waste any of the
food, they will not indent food anymore for us which I think is
bullshit..we are all putting in our effort to try to make this Yog a
success, and the minimum they can do for us is to keep our stomach
full, but with the standard of food that they are giving to us, its
really very hard for us to put in our best.Previously when the NDP people was also there at the F1 pit, we always saw them eating Pizza Hut, KFC etc etc..and we were thinking maybe the fastfood resturant wasnt able to provide so many in a day, however even after the NDP was over, we are still been served the same kind of food which is tasteless, dry and horrible to us everyday and yes, we end up throwing most of the food away.
I seriously hope that they can do something to improve on the food and attuide towards all the Fellow NSF that are helping out at the YOG, as we are all HUMAN, so please treat us like one, by providing us with some decent food. Thanks.
Yong Han
Source: Temasek Review
-
Dr Vivian: I am confident that Singaporeans are PROUD of YOG
Amidst the rising chorus of disapproval, unhappiness and anger among ordinary Singaporeans at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the minister in charge of bringing the PAP’s mega “vanity fair” to Singapore Dr Vivian Balakrishnan continues to ignore the genuine sentiments on the ground and put up a brave front to pretend that all is well.
The embattled Dr Vivian has come under increasing fire from Singaporeans for bursting the YOG budget by more than three times to an obscene $387 million dollars and the dire conditions that Singapore “volunteers” are being forced to work under including being given “DOG” food while the foreign delegates are being served three buffet meals daily.
Despite the extensive media coverage on the YOG and intense “astroturfing” efforts by various government agencies such as MOE, grassroots organizations and government-linked companies to generate fake support for it, most Singaporeans are simply not bothered by the event at all, prompting IOC President Jacques Rogges to express his concerns that the prevailing “infectious apathy” among Singaporeans may diminish the YOG’s “prestige” if there is any to speak of in the first place.
When asked by the Brunei Times about the criticisms hurled at the YOG from opposition leader Dr Chee Soon Juan, Dr Vivian asked Dr Chee to see the “response from the ground” as the torch is being passed around:
“The answer lies on the ground, what people do and how they feel. At this point of time, I am quite confident that Singaporeans are proud of this and want to show our best to the world,” he boasted rather unashamedly.
Dr Vivian should first view the video clip below on the YOG Torch Relay at Simei Green before embarrassing himself further:
[Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdtGHSKyCTs&feature=player_embedded#!]
As we can see from the above, the number of participants in the YOG torch rally far outnumbered the “supporters” who were being ferried to the scene to “cheer”.
The passer-bys ignored the rally completely and one poor boy appeared to be so traumatized by the noise emanating from the rally that he fell down from his bicycle when cycling on the pavement. (towards the end of the clip)
Dr Vivian doesn’t seem to understand or appreciate the basic fact that genuine passion must come from the heart and not orchestrated from above as the PAP regime is wont to do.
Instead of showing our “best” to the world, we have ended up being an international “laughing stock” for taking the art of “astroturfing” to another new level altogether which would have put Communist China and North Korea to shame.
Source: Temasek Review
-
that guy would sacrifice hundreds of lil kids in the rain and probably have them struck by lightning....and say.....we need more foreigners(thats cuz they all killed every singaporeans wiv their stupidity kid,soldiers n old folks0
-
dr vivian has been possessed by some demon......forget who n what he is now!!he is nothing but another monster.
-
If we had no internet, I dare say this event would be a "resounding success".
-
i suppose there would be a murder at yog village soon by spoilt adrenalin atheletes with ego problems.
what a way to go!!!
-
I think there's one group of people worth saluting....the volunteers. And as usual, I expect PAP to come out at the end of the event to say YOG has been a "terrific success". haha all these wayang shit...fuck those clowns.
-
Junior College students FORCED to attend YOG games
Im a 17 year old from a Junior College. I find it absoulutely absurd that we have been given a letter from the college which states that we have been SPECIALLY chosen to attend one of the YOG events.
I find it absurd that we have been asked or rather mobilised to go for the Football match this Sunday at Jln Besar Stadium when the government for the past few months has been telling us, we members of the public that sale of YOG tickets for the events ”are going very well”.
This leads me to wonder why then is MOE issuing a directive to colleges to get students to go for some of these events. The truth is that many of these events are only in their preliminary stages and thus no one would want to attend. Thus it would look very very bad for the host country if no one were to attend these games.
But honestly, I think we are being treated like slaves. The college has handed down instructions that anyone who do not attend these games will have to do 6 hours of Corrective Work Order. Why use such drastic methods ?
Furthermore, the college had also forced us to go down and support the Torch bearers. So that it would look good on newspaper.. this is rather oppressive and I see no difference between the YOG committee, MOE, the government and the Communists in China where people were forced to attend events just to make up the numbers.
IM WRITING THIS ON BEHALF OF EVERY JUNIOR COLLEGE STUDENT WHO HAS BEEN FORCED TO ATTEND ANY YOG EVENTS/GAMES.
Jane Doe
Source: Temasek Review
-
Thousands show up hours before YOG Opening Ceremony kicked off
By Satish Cheney | Posted: 14 August 2010 2052 hrs
Photos 2 of 4
Dancers performing a dance representing Singapore's cultural diversity ah the opening ceremony. (YOPS photo)SINGAPORE : The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Opening Ceremony was definitely a moment to treasure for the thousands who were there.
And many showed up hours before the start, to soak in the atmosphere.
Many came early - all eagerly waiting to be part of sporting history.
"All of us were sports women during our school (days), so it's a good thing. I get very excited because I love sports," said one spectator.
For one family, they were second time lucky, as they were unsuccessful in securing tickets for the recent National Day Parade at the Padang.
"We want to get the best seats, to get a nice view of everything, and to be supportive and patriotic," said the family.
For some, the event had an extra meaning.
Said one spectator at the Opening Ceremony: "My heart is pumping so fast. The Youth Olympic Games means respect, friendship, excellence. It means everything."
Security was tight as well with people having to go through several levels of checks.
Some came hoping to get last-minute tickets but these were already all snapped up for the Olympic extravaganza.
For the organisers, it's a culmination of hardwork and tonnes of planning - all coming together on Saturday at the momentous occasion - the Opening Ceremony of the first Youth Olympic Games - which many believe will leave a lasting legacy for Singapore beyond sports. - CNA /ls -
I'm wondering if these spectators were forced to attend.
-
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
I'm wondering if these spectators were forced to attend.
Opening won't lah. Thats the only event people wanna attend most. Its the best event to claim back the losses.
-
This is really getting communist. CNA and ST are reporting all the positive news, literally.
-
Originally posted by Junyang700:
Opening won't lah. Thats the only event people wanna attend most. Its the best event to claim back the losses.
On the other hand, the govt wouldnt let themselves look bad in front of the whole world right? lol. I'm sure a number of them have been "given free tickets" to attend.
-
No news of YOG opening ceremony in most international papers
Despite the massive dose of propaganda heaped on the inaugural Youth Olympic Games’ opening ceremony today by the PAP-controlled Singapore media, there were no reports on it in other international papers except Malaysia’s The Star.
Unlike the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games which attracted worldwide attention, the Singapore 2010 YOG is such a low-profile event that major broadcasters like CNN has chosen to give it a miss with its headlines on the Rogers Cup and PGA:
[Source: CNN]
We spent the last one hour scouring for news about the YOG in the international press and found nothing about it.
No regional papers in the ASEAN region (other than Malaysia) wrote about the YOG opening ceremony in their sports headlines.
The Jakarta Post made no mention of the YOG opening ceremony in neighboring Singapore:
[Source: Jakarta Post]
Neither did the Bangkok Post bother to write anything on the YOG:
[Source: Bangkok Post]
The response is equally muted in other parts of the world.
The British paper Daily Telegraph sports headlines is on the opening match of the English Premier League which saw champions Chelsea thrashing West Bromwich Albion 6 – 0:
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
USA Today focused on Tiger Woods’ poor performance at the PGA:
[Source: USA Today]
There were no reports on the YOG in the Japan Times, Sydney Morning Herald, China Daily, Taipei Times or South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo either.
According to earlier estimates by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, ”the international media value to Singapore will be worth $86 million as a result of the publicity from the over 2,000 accredited media personnel flying in to report on the YOG.”
If the YOG is indeed an “international” event, why is there so little publicity about it outside of Singapore?
Perhaps there are indeed over 2,000 accredited foreign journalists having a jolly good time in Singapore right now, but found nothing interesting to write about the YOG.
They may like to consider moving to the High Court next week to cover the trial of the 75 year old British author Alan Shadrake who will surely generate more FREE publicity for Singapore, thanks to the “wisdom” of the PAP regime in charging him for “contempt of court” and “criminal defamation”.
Source: Temasek Review
August 11th, 2010 | 
Author: 
