viewpts

i cannnot agree wholeheartedly that e rise of salaries of our ministers r justifiable..it cannot be merely e case of giving them a blank cheque to fill in..e timing comes right after last mth's introductn of workfare..i am not sure what kind of signals r e govt sending to e ppl..is e argument dat our ministers r highly talented, running a 210billion economy valid, can we reali equate e nature of work done in e public sector comparable to dat of e private sector..

it's not discrediting or disregrading e work dat e govt is doing so far..definitely they have done much to bring us this far but e way they paint it always seem so 'crisis-like', if we dun pay them, things w'd change for us..our women w'd be other countries' maids etc..if that is so, i am worried as well..are we saying dat our ministers will 'leave' for e private sector if they are not paid well?

one of e things dat we r trying to do here is to bring sports to a higher level of priority n importance among major stakeholders be it schs,parents,teachers etc..i guess it makes sense to do it now at a time like tis when we r doing well in external games n e sports hub is up in 4 yrs' time..e ideas of importing foreign talent or 'sports is a gd to have but not a must' have to be given a rethinking..i guess e way to look at it is dat foreign talent can only help so much in improving our locals' standard or win those medals for us..it's a veri short term strategy and we cant possibly rely or trust them to deliver..

i do believe our country has wat it takes to develop a sporting culture here..prob wat is needed is to 'sacrifice' those sacred cows'..if we were to say dat sports can do a great deal for us as a nation n individually..then it's time for us to start believing in dat n be on e same page..whether is it give dat so much needed support to our young athletes dat they dun have to worry abt their studies, national service, other costs involved..can't get jobs upon graduation..bearing in mind dat as a small nation, our resources r limited, we cannot afford all our ppl to give their time n development to sports..where's e benchmark then? 10/20 aspiring athletes per yr? tis is a hard question to answer..e way i see it, at least we should be channeling resources to those sports dat we can excel in, adopt a more integrated approach to champion sports..be it creating a broader base, bring in dat F1 event etc..guess e time is ripe for such explorations to be taken..personally, i have come to appreciate e value of playing sports at a rather late age..prob only in e final yr of my undergrad days..w'd never consider myself to be sporty all my life..e benefits r tremendous. not juz keeping fit n healthy but it is oso a veri gd platform to build character, discipline, determination..e spillover benefits as well..helping yrself spiritually,emotionally etc..in my opinion, far outweighs dat of playing computer games or watching a play..wat can beat sweating it out or thru an adventure race than watching a play in a theatre? i get dizzy playing those Lan games after 1/2 hr..haha..guess some areas r not my forte