World Cup 2010 - Uniting the World in Sport

June 11th was the start of the 19th FIFA World held for the first time in the African continent with 32 countries from Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Americas competing for the coveted Jules Rimes trophy. Singapore had high hopes with the Goal 2010 set in 1999 but till today, with the foreign talent scheme well and firmly entrenched, Singapore are still nowhere near the International standard, only being 'kampong champions' of South East Asia in 2007, 2005 and 1998.

The point I would like to make is that a simple game of football equalises and fascinates the entire world whereby huge countries like China and India with a combined population of 3 billion (almost half the world's polulation) do not have a team in the World Cup, whereas much smaller countries like South Korea (70 million),Australia (20 million) and Denmark (6 million) can qualify for it.

Its a great leveller for the major economic superpowers like the US have to face much smaller countries like UK, Ghana and Slovenia at the same level and have to rely on tactics, skills and teamwork to win. This is indeed one major viewing sporting event whereby the USA, China, Australia or Russia are NOT the favourites to win.

Youth Challenge Board Appreciation Night 11th June 2010

Some board members past and present

11th June was the Youth Challenge Board Appreciation Night and it was held to thank the Board's members past and present who were helming the charity from 2007 till the current time. The President, Looi Teck Kheong and General Secretary, Michael Lim were the key members who took over from the previous board and steered the charity through some challenging times in the past 4 years. Though I was invited and accepted to the board only for 9 months, I am motivated to help serve in other charities in the coming future as my part of giving back to society.


Basilicco at Regent Hotel

The setting for the dinner was at the impressive Basilicco restaurant, on the 2nd floor and several past board members like Dr. Colin Tan and Clement Chua were also present. The spirit of the dinner was very warm and we had some nice reminisces about what each of us saw as our contributions to the charity. While it is a recognizable name, we as the board felt that the ultimate objective of the charity had been served and there are many overlapping VWOs and NGOs currently serving the same niches of the Youth Challenge. It is only befitting that the people who have sacriciced their time and energy to serving this charity be recognised and appreaciated.

Focus on what's important, work on what's urgent

In life, many people get caught up with the urgent and pressing issues which are present on a day-to-day basis. Paying bills,coming to work on time, ensuring the children are studying for their year end exams, making sure the job/quotation is finished on time and customer signs the delivery order, accepts the invoice and a thousand and one other things.

I have been taking stock these past few days as it is the financial year end and many things are requiring my attention and action. However, I am very mindful of the big picture as I approach the 50th birthday in 2 years time. Many people have 'no choice' but to work for a living, but the key questions to ask yourself :

a) are you impacting anyone positively with your life ?
b) are you achieving your life goals and as a result, happy achieving it ?
c) apart from work and family, do you have time for yourself to pursue your own
interests if any ?
d) are you doing anything to enrich your emotional and spiritual side ?
e) are you financially independent, and have or are working on regular revenue
streams to flow in your later years ?

You may have noticed I have only listed the last point about Money. However, money helps people to live a decent and comfortable life, but 'the love of money is the root of all evil', in my opinion, so one must not view monetary issues and pursuits as the be all and end of of everything. There must be more to life than just earning your first million and then the next million and so on.

Rather, one must like and be able to live within one's own means and earnings and find activities to enjoy when he / she has the good health and time to do it.
That is what life boils down to,a good balance between work, family, personal activities, community and religious giving back.

Many people are aware of it, but few actually objectivise it and even lesser go and do it. Stop and think deeply about your own life. Take a hard look and see whether you are happy with YOUR LIFE. If you are, then fine, if not, then assess the areas where you can grow and improve on and then go and do it with a fixed time to getting it done.

World Cup 2010 Official Theme Song

Jane Peng's 7 Day Run in Sahara - 250 km

Jane at the start of the 25 K / 50 K combined Run on 22nd May 2010

Jane Peng is a young friend of mine from our Karate class at Tanglin CC. A Cornell University (New York) Alumni in Hotel Management, she has recently returned to Singapore to work with Pan Pacific Hotels as a business analyst. Her study experience has taken her from China (home country) to Singapore (secondary and pre-university at Raffles Girls and Hwa Chong JC) to England (Oxford) and USA (Cornell University).

Most interesting is her "joie de vrie" (passion for life), whereby she has undertaken a 1,000 km bicycle ride along the Nile River in 2006 with Uni friends and also a photographic trip to the southernmost tip of the Earth, the Antartica in 2009 via Argentina. As a photographer,she has been selected as a finalist for the International Photographic competition organised by National Geographic in Australia last year. This year she trained and completed for her Shitoryu Karate Black Belt Shodan (Dan 1) from our Karate dojo (school) And (get this), she is only 24 YEARS OLD.

Recently she had expressed interest in running marathons and ultramarathons and I have been training with her in the past 3 -4 months in preparation for the Passion Card combined 50km duo run which took place on May 22nd May 2010.The last few weekends before the race were running up to 20 km and moderating our run strides,pacing and taking in electrolytes, power gels and Gatorade drinks. The running routes were mainly at Macritchie Reervoir (many), Nassim Road (once) and finally the East Coast Park (many times).

One thing I was impressed was by her goal setting, mental toughness and 'never say die' attitude, something which I wish my own children could adopt as a life focus.

The run itself on 22nd May was quite uninspiring, and she finished with a time of 2 hours 49 mins compared with my slower time of 3 hours 1 minute. However,she had then signed on for the next week 29th May for the Sundown Ultramarathon for
84 km. Yes 84 km without any serious training !She completed that in 12 hours 35 minutes or so and I am very impressed by her determination to finish this without any major physical damage to her system.

On her blogpost, see http://desertrace.weebly.com, she highlighted the usage of tempo (long,slow) runs and mental preparation of going through the route in her mind. Also, she mentioned correctly that there were cases of endurance athletes who trained less and visualised more, and achieved their run goals without ever running the full distance. A 25% training distance, with 75% mental visualisation of completion is highlighted.

In October, she will be attempting a 250 km 7 day footrun (read as 42km for 7 days or 7 marathon over 7 days) in the Sahara desert, with 40 - 50 deg weather and runing on SAND. Her blog (at the top left corner of mine) covers the details of her endeavour as well as what she is doing to prepare for it. It will be a fantastic achievement for her to conquer it as it shows that a person who dares to dream big will ultimately achieve it, no matter what. She has gotten in-principle funding (majority) of her US$ 9,000 run from her employer Pan Pacific Hotel and with the run itself she hopes to raise funds of US$ 40,000 for the World Vision Microfinance scheme,called Vision Fund to help small businesses in the 3rd world to operate.I am sure that she will achieve this objective which is a huge undertaking but she is up to the task I am sure.

I am very inspired to attempt this soon (next year ??). But in concluding this post to a very amazing lady,I have this to say "GO JANE GO !!"

June 6th 1944 - we should never forget how the world owes them so much

The landings at Normandy France, with 4 beachheads, Gold, Juno, Omaha, Utah

June 6th 1944, 66 years to the day. This was the day the Allied Forces comprising US,UK. French, Belgian, Dutch and many other battalions hit back at the Germans in a 1 million man assault on the European continent. A seminal book, by Cornelius Ryan called the The longest Day has been made into a successful movie some 30+ years ago. It is a classic movies starring then movie greats such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Sophia Loren and many other stars with a cast of thousands. I watched it recently to commemorate the D-Day landings as this was the turning point of the
second world war as seen by many historians.


The real heroes of the war, dead on the beach.

The pictures are real and show the true meaning of war, in black and white with no glamour at all. The message is poignant, in that politicians with their vitriolic arguments and grand ambitions like Hitler and Hirohito, the final outcome is always death and wanton destruction of mankind. Additionally many millions are scarred emotionally and physically by the ravages of war. Yet wars are still staged by various countries to exercise and exhibit their dominance and influence
over other countries for economic and industrial gain.


Landing Craft unloading the marines onto Omaha Beach - nicknames 'Bloody Omaha'

The foot soldiers at Normandy had to carry out their orders and kill or be killed. Their sacrifice and unrelenting focus on winning back the territories taken over by the German 60 odd years and finally overcoming the German conquerers has left the world a very different place than had the Germans won the war. The real heroes are not the Generals and Politicians who motivated all the people to fight to the last, it was the ordinary soldiers who gave their lives to ensure that the world is what it is today.


A Marine swimming to shore in full battle order

This is a salute to the unsung soldiers who died and veterans who the world owes a major debt of gratitude to. You are the fallen heroes whom we should never forget.

Singapore Women's Table Tennis Team World Champions

Cheers to Feng Tian Wei,Wang Yue Gu, Sun Bei Bei;Li Jia Huei was reserve

Firstly, lets congratulate the Singapore Womens Table Tennis Team for the Greatest Achievement in winning the World Team Championship played in Moscow yesterday 30th May 2010. Its a great achievement and the pinnacle prize for a sport dominated by mighty China with a population of 1.3 billion, for the last 40 years.

The ladies have done us once again proud, and as a Singaporean, I can feel that a small nation of 5 million with a clear vision and plan,dedicated strategy and above all, excellent sportmen and women with national level backing and funds,can win at the world stage. Bravo !

The flipside is that, when I posted this article ( source :Channel News Asia) on Facebook, the responses were overwhelming as to the fact that all the paddlers (table tennis players) were born in China, and the coach and reserve were also from China. It raised the question again about the controversial 'foreign talent' policy of accepting foreign born people to our shores to represent Singapore in everything from Research and Development (read AStar researchers and Biopolis life sciencists)to sports ranging from table-tennis, soccer,athletics and swimming (Tao Li).

Were we not once a nation of foreigners too ? Our forefathers made their ways from China, India, Persia, and Europe to trade and seek out a better life. Times were tough and many did not make it, but the one who stayed and persevered and put in their honest days work and built up this country from a poor fishing village would have been very pleased with the result. A thiving metropolis with new talents and great infrastructure (2 casinos !) and a world class table tennis team.

True, our children will not have it easy, what with all these smart foreign talents in the local schools and excelling in academia, sports and culture but then again, I have this to say :

"When the going gets tough, the best will prevail". Lets take on these challenges together and make Singapore truly Our Singapore.