London 2012
27 July - 11 Aug 2012
Its the 'silly season', where everybody and their dog goes gaga over the sporting spectacle every 4 years called the Olympics. Over 2 and a half billion people from all 190 plus countries save a few lucky folk from the Pacific Islands and maybe the southern part of South America, or even the South Pole, people are watching the best jocks the world has to offer.
Will Usain Bolt do a 'back to back' 100 m repeat over his upstart training partner Johan Blake ? Will Michael Phelps manage another repeat of his 8 gold medals in 2008 (highly unlikely) ? Will Singapore win any medals this time around (our Silver in 2008 was the first ever in 40 plus years) ? Will Lee Chong Wei beat his nemesis Lin Dan in the badminton singles ?
Frankly, at the end of the day, world records will be broken, dreams will come crashing down, tears of joy and frustration will be shown countless times over the large and small screens of the sporting heroes who overcame all odds to do either their personal best or win unexpected medals which the sports press will make extra mileage to promote the 'spirit of humankind'.
I predict that this Games, China will top the medal standings, USA, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand will come in with great showings too. Singapore will still be nowhere but a medal prospect can still come from our table tennis or sailing members.
This is a great distraction from the daily humdrum of life, but after 16 days, the EURO crisis is still at risk of drawing down the whole world's growth. China is facing the first slowdown in almost 20 years and US is still an indebted nation of U$ 17 trillion. We have a mountain of challenges to get ourselves 'future ready', Singapore is aging very fast, and the challenges going forward as a developed country are 1. aging gracefully 2. adapting foreign people in our midst as well as they adapting to our culture 3. having enough funds for retirement, if not, then having a decent social safety net for those in need. 4. developing a culture of inclusiveness amidst our competitive environment
Many aspire for the bigger house, branded car, yearly skiing holidays and fine dining. But reality and dreams never meet, so your dreams are tempered with a harsh dose of reality when you see people without 3 full meals a day. Folk who need help, bathing, doing even the basic things like going to the toilet let alone being mobile outside the house. Many elderly people have to face these everyday. The true heroes are the social workers and the service providers will do help out day in day out the lesser advantaged people. Some may be young, others are elderly and still serving. I remember a great lady called Theresa Tsu who spent more than 50 years in service to the less advananged people. She is my true Hero. A Gold medallist in the game called Life. My father was also another Medallist, serving tirelessly in his Church and social work.
The Olympics provides just a sweet distraction for 16 days. Who remembers even 10% of the results 1 week after the Olympics ? Who is the basketball champ, football champ ? 400 IM champ ? (OK , some guy name Lochte) Taekwondo silver ? There are easily more than 1000 medals on offer.
Perhaps, our daily problems are too long standing and the solutions too long in the horizon to actualise that it is just that - a sweet distraction for 16 days.
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