Happy Chinese New Year of the Snake !! 2013

Singapore in 2030

     There are a number of pictures circulating the internet right now, all of which are lampooning the Government's projection of the 2030 population 17 years from now which projects that Sinhapore needs 6.5 to 6.9 million people of which the great additions will be from the foreigner and permanent residents (PR). This is because the projections of 1 elderly person will be supported by only 3.5 younger working persons is much lower than in previous decades.

     The fears of the common citizen are plentiful, overcrowded buses and MRT trains now, jostling for food court tables, cars and goods vehicles aplenty, accidents due to people rushing from point A to point B, see my post below, the prospect of citizens competing for jobs with the added new faces, and the ever upward spiral of costs of goods, cars, and HDB flats make an already stressed population of 5. 3 million sceptical of another up to 1.3 million more. Will we be packed like sardines and moved around from place to place, while the areas for quality living get more and more expensive ? 

      Businesses, small and large will worry about the current control of foreign workers permits jumping threefold in the last few years, costs of COEs for Open category vehicles around the $100,000 mark, the highest ever, and ever squeezing down of profits from the tender projects.

      I worry that this time, the push ahead will be too much for the ordinary citizen to cope pscholgically and will impact their quality of life. Lets look for other solutions from Scandinavian countries and the other countries with aging populations and see what policies have they got to tackle this inevitable issue going forward.    

    

Laurentia Tan for Sportsperson of Year 2012 !

Laurentia has made many Singaporeans proud of her dedication and tenacity

          Tonight, 2 momentous events will take place.One is for sporting excellence for the last year, the Sportsperson of the Year 2012 will be decided. The other is the Punggol East by-election.

           First the Punggol East by-election, will the groundswell of support for the strongest Opposition party,Workers' Party translate into winning votes or will the ruling People's Action Party still hold dominant ? Personally I like both candidates, as they have a very willing heart to serve, Dr. Koh or Lee Li Lian are both worthy candidates to be MP. Its up to the voters to decide. 

        For the Sportsperson of the year, I am rooting for the equestrian rider, Ms. Laurentia Tan. Born with cerebral palsy and deaf, she communicates by sign language and words she learnt through early childhood special teachers.Since she was 3 years old when the family moved to UK based on her father's work posting, she has managed to develop into a fine athlete and a world class equestian rider. 

        Laurentia has a degree in Hospitality Management from Oxford Brookes University and has also swum for Singapore at the national level at other Para meets. She is living proof that anyone with the will and vision can and will achieve the highest aspirations in life. Coupled with the wonderful support she must have had from her family to meet both her financial and training needs, which would run into the millions, she has overcome tremendous obstacles to be where she is today.

       For someone who has overcome her congenital difficulties and become a national athlete is already very impressive, for her to win multiple Para Olympic medals (silver and bronze) is really outstanding. She and her family must have made tremendous sacrifices as well as gathered around her, a multitude of opportunities and financial and moral support for her talent to flourish.She has lived in England for close to 20 years, and has made many Singaporeans, including this blogger, proud to be a citizen of this Little Red Dot. (Cue from the World Map, Singapore is so small, it only shows up as a little red dot).

       I am doubtful that in Singapore such an educational,physical and supportive, ecosystem could have made her what she is today. There is still alot of ground to cover for us to really 'level up' all sections of our society.

      For the other Sportsmen and women, well, they have had tremendous assistance from the various Sports Association (NSA) as well as funding, structured training and financial support, so I think, in essence, the comparison is not a fair one. Laurentia did the impossible all on her own, in a counrty far away from all our NSAs, so her achievement of 1 silver, 1 bronze in London's ParaOlympics 2012, and 1 bronze in 2008 is really incredible.

      Laurentia is my choice for the Sportsperson of the Year 2012.

      

        

    

Ski 101

I'm no ski expert, but this was taken at Tomamu Resort in 2011. I have some way to go before I can attempt the Black Diamond or Expert level ski pistes, but as my interest is very great, who knows ?  

Green tea can protect and even cure Parkinson's disease

Beautiful Hokkaido or Northern Island

Coming down Mt. Isola with visibiity perhaps 3 meters at most.

Every year for the last 3 years, my family have taken a ski holiday for over 1 week each time. In 2010, it was Daemyung ski resort in Korea, in 2011 it was Tomamu in Hokkaido, Japan and last year 2012, it was in Rusutsu, Hokkaido. Hokkaido or Northern Island is the northernmost island, sparesly populated and subject to extreme cold weather as early as October. It is also home to 16 international, world class ski resorts and is famous for its 'powder snow'.  

My 2 sons, Noel and Andrew, with their snowboards 

2012 winter snowfall was extremely early and heavy, and by early December, much of the resort we were in was in meters deep of snow. How lucky we were ! Anyway, the Rusutsu resort is known for its many intermediate slopes as well as advanced slopes, and my wife and I were treated to an adventure of sorts (we are experienced beginner and intermediate respectively) when we mistakenly went up the highest mountain on the first day of skiing and had to ski down at least 5km of slope, which took us easily 1 and a half hours ! 

Stark and Beautiful Scenery in Winter

My teenage sons are keen snowboarders and they too, enjoyed the powder snow. The softness and compactness of the snow makes it very enjoyable to ski plus the fact that the snow is so soft and powdery gives one a sense of daring, so we tried the intermediate slopes which, in Korea would rank as advanced or black piste level. 4 days of skiing is equivalent to burning off calories  while running one full marathon of 42km, let me assure you. Additionally, one uses the arms to coodrinate and push through rough terrain as well as move forward on flat ground. It gives me a full body workout.  

Chirashi or Rice Bowl complete with Miso Soup and Sapporo Beer 

At the end of each day, we invariably eat Japanese or Hokkaido special dishes such as Chirashi (or rice bowl) with seaurchin eggs, salmon roe, steamed prawn, Japanese cucumber, chawamushi or steamed egg,miso soup and topped with the best dry Sapporo beer.

        Oishi !   Delicious as I would say. I still have very fond memories of the ski holiday.  

Singapore - AFF Champions for a record 4th time. Bravo !!

                                         AFF Suzuki Cup 2012 Champions - Singapore 

           The pundits predicted that Singapore's National Football (Soccer) team, headed by Raddy Abrahamovic would not make it past the Qualifying Stages, well, the so-called experts were so wrong again. All of us who had put down the Singapore Lions as being old has - beens relying on foreign born players to win games for us have to eat humble pie and shut up. The Singapore Lions won the 2012 Asean Football Federation Cup for a record 4th time. Congratulations to the team !! 

          Coach and Manager : Ratko (Raddy) Avramovic
  
         Goalkeeper : Mohammad Izwan bin Mahmud
  
         Defenders   : Daniel Mark Bennett
                                 Baihakki Kaizan
                                 Jumaat bin Jantan
                                 Moh'd Shaiful Esah
                                 Moh'd Safuwan Baharudin

         Midfielders  : Hariss Harun
                                 Mustafaric Fahruddin
                                 Shahdan bin Sulaiman
                                 Shahril Ishak (Captain)

         Strikers       :   Alexander Duric
                                  Fazrul Nawaz
                                 Moh'd Khairul Amri

Shahril Ishak winning Most Valuable Player of the 2012  AFF Suzuki tournament 

         I am an armchair critic, and supporter, so I have my share of eating humble pie. But as a Singaporean, I am proud that once again,the team defied all odds and beat the higher ranked ASEAN teams in the following manner : Singapore is ranked a lowly 154 out of 195 teams worldwide, below that of Vietnam,Thailand and the Philippines.

    Round Robin Stage
   ------------------------------
a) Malaysia (the Old Enemy)  : 3 - 0   away.    What a great start to humiliate the Tigers at their Home Turf.   Sharil Ishak, Captain Fantastic hit a brace (2) and Alex Duric the other.
Alexander Duric, I must add is an amazingly fit and skillfull 42 years of age ! 






b) Indonesia : 0 - 1 away. Everyone came down to earth. So we lost, the last game wamaybe just a fluke ?

c) Laos :  4 - 3. What a thriller, after going down 2 - 0, the boys had the guts and talent to score 4 goals on the trot, and hang on to win 4 -3.

    Sharil Ishak (2), Khairul Amri and Hariss Harun were the heroes. 


    SemiFinals  vs Phillipines
    -------------------------------------

a)  Philippines   ; Away 0 - 0.   Home 1 - 0.   Scorer of critical goals Khairul Amri scored a cracker. What a crucial goal !

    Finals vs Thailand
    --------------------------
a) Thailand : Home 3 - 1 Scorers Mustafaric (penalty), Khairul Amri's world class goal and Baikkaki Kaizan's 90th minute were the gems of the day.



                        
    Thailand   Away  0 - 1

   Singapore prevailed in the pressure cooker last game against Thailand to win the Cup 3 - 2 on aggregate.  In my opinion, the entire team were excellent playing as a team,strong defensively, as well as controlling play with their passing with flashes of individual brilliance when needed by their country. This is the hallmark of a Champion team. I am righfully proud of our South East Asian Kampung (village)  champions !!  

   AFF Champions 2012 !!  Lets work towards greater things Singapore Lions !!