Someone must have the premonition that the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is going to be a hot topic to come up with such a strange prefix for the YOG website – whyohgee.singapore2010.sg.Although the web address has been changed to just ‘singapore2010.sg’, ‘WhyOhGee’ is an apt description of the sentiment some of us may have about the games.
First, why the Minister for Community, Youth Development and Sports (MCYS), Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, thinks it is money well spent for the YOG despite having its budget tripled from $104m to $387m?
We gave up the 2013 SouthEast Asian (SEA) Games because we couldn’t get the Sports Hub ready. The same Minister said then the delay was because ‘the Government did not want to over-spent on the facility’. The budget-conscious Minister was quoted to have said, “I still want to work within the budget that we have set out for ourselves…” (‘SEA Games – S’pore may not play host’, 30 Sep 2009).
So how could a budget-conscious Minister suddenly morph into a free-spending executive overnight? It is ironic for Singapore to give up the 2013 SEA Games because of costs and yet, the Minister has no issue with hosting an Olympic event on a runaway budget.
We spent a lot of money on upgrading our facilities just to meet the Olympic-class standards of competition. We even built a 3ha equestrian facility to the tune of $24 million. And since most of our horses prefer to stay at the Turf Club, we had to pay more to get those ‘goody-two-shoes’ horses from Australia for YOG.
We have no problem staging a glitzy Opening Ceremony last Saturday despite not having a stadium at our disposal. We even moved the Youth Olympic Village from NUS’s University Town campus to NTU because of escalating construction costs.
Surely hosting the 2013 SEA Games will be a cinch since the Minister is so resourceful in staging the YOG. We can certainly be flexible with the venues for the SEA Games. In addition, a lot of our facilities are upgraded to Olympic-class standards so why did we have to give that up?
Well, here comes the ‘Oh’ part.
Oh, the YOG is an excellent opportunity for us to showcase Singapore to the world. Oh, budget is not an issue when the world is watching. Oh, etc… etc…
When asked if it is money well spent for the YOG, the Minister said:
And why do we have to use $387m to ‘put Singapore on the world map’ when the country is already well known around the world? We have been selling Singapore for a long time. Our miracle story has been told many times around the world. How many more times do we want to keep doing that?
Finally, for a $387m event, the quality of the food given to some volunteers is just beyond comprehension.
Gee, that is a lot of money spent for an event the world doesn’t really care much about! And gee, that is money not well spent as well.
I could be wrong but when the only countries standing between Singapore and an Olympic medal in Football are Bolivia, Haiti, Montenegro, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe, something is definitely amiss. You can’t fault the low media coverage around the world for that.
We can still have a good YOG but we definitely do not need to have a bottomless budget to showcase Singapore again and again. We must ask ourselves - are we selling the spirit of the first Youth Olympic or selling Singapore? I shudder to think that we are showing off our ‘wealth’ to the world actually.
We gave up the 2013 SouthEast Asian (SEA) Games because we couldn’t get the Sports Hub ready. The same Minister said then the delay was because ‘the Government did not want to over-spent on the facility’. The budget-conscious Minister was quoted to have said, “I still want to work within the budget that we have set out for ourselves…” (‘SEA Games – S’pore may not play host’, 30 Sep 2009).
So how could a budget-conscious Minister suddenly morph into a free-spending executive overnight? It is ironic for Singapore to give up the 2013 SEA Games because of costs and yet, the Minister has no issue with hosting an Olympic event on a runaway budget.
We spent a lot of money on upgrading our facilities just to meet the Olympic-class standards of competition. We even built a 3ha equestrian facility to the tune of $24 million. And since most of our horses prefer to stay at the Turf Club, we had to pay more to get those ‘goody-two-shoes’ horses from Australia for YOG.
We have no problem staging a glitzy Opening Ceremony last Saturday despite not having a stadium at our disposal. We even moved the Youth Olympic Village from NUS’s University Town campus to NTU because of escalating construction costs.
Surely hosting the 2013 SEA Games will be a cinch since the Minister is so resourceful in staging the YOG. We can certainly be flexible with the venues for the SEA Games. In addition, a lot of our facilities are upgraded to Olympic-class standards so why did we have to give that up?
Well, here comes the ‘Oh’ part.
Oh, the YOG is an excellent opportunity for us to showcase Singapore to the world. Oh, budget is not an issue when the world is watching. Oh, etc… etc…
When asked if it is money well spent for the YOG, the Minister said:
"Definitely, yes. Even at this amount, we will still get value for money and put Singapore on the world map. The many eyeballs, potential investors and interest in Singapore would make our investment in the Games worthwhile.” (‘Worth it despite tripled budget’, The New Paper, 16 Aug 2010)But is the world really watching us? The YOG coverage on the major sports channels and websites is almost negligible. The Ministry of Education had to buy 80,000 tickets to ensure the YOG is well attended by our youth.
And why do we have to use $387m to ‘put Singapore on the world map’ when the country is already well known around the world? We have been selling Singapore for a long time. Our miracle story has been told many times around the world. How many more times do we want to keep doing that?
Finally, for a $387m event, the quality of the food given to some volunteers is just beyond comprehension.
Gee, that is a lot of money spent for an event the world doesn’t really care much about! And gee, that is money not well spent as well.
I could be wrong but when the only countries standing between Singapore and an Olympic medal in Football are Bolivia, Haiti, Montenegro, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe, something is definitely amiss. You can’t fault the low media coverage around the world for that.
We can still have a good YOG but we definitely do not need to have a bottomless budget to showcase Singapore again and again. We must ask ourselves - are we selling the spirit of the first Youth Olympic or selling Singapore? I shudder to think that we are showing off our ‘wealth’ to the world actually.
5 comments:
Did we embrace the whole spirit of the Olympics?????? Excellence, friendship and respect? (NO). How do we treat our VOLUNTEERS and their families??? Can blow budget 3X over but cannot afford to give even 1 free ticket for the hardworking volunteer's parents! What so proud about YOG? Yucks, Ouch and GoodGrief!
"We must ask ourselves - are we selling the spirit of the first Youth Olympic or selling Singapore?"
Seem to me from the BBC interview with Dr. Bala, putting Singapore on the world rader screen is his one and only objective! The spirit of youth, sport and being an oympian are just red herring!
But seriously, don't he thinks that positioning Singapore can better be done by out ministies and statutory boards vs-s-vs MCYS?
EDB, STPB, A-Star, etc just to name a few!
Wonder why Singaporeans want others(foreigners) to know Singapore ?
Why would others want to know by coming here when they can just click on a few keys on their computers to find it is so expensive and have little or nothing of interest.
Will Sigaporeans themselves want to visit a sterile country with little or nothing to offer and yet expensive ?
There are many "wu liow" people around. Doing things for wrong reasons just to look good at the expense of others - there are many sides of Singapore and Singaporeans we can show - no need S$387m to tell who we are. Wu liow again!
Investing in something for a moment of glory cannot bring out the Spirit of Singapore. Don't they know there is something more endearing and enduring than physical facilities and glitzy fireworks! Aiyohhoy..... so blind like bats.
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