YOG 2010

Right. Amidst all the negativism surrounding the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) I felt compelled to blog something nice about it.

To be honest, I liked what I saw during the opening ceremony last weekend and thought that it was awesome. It did make me feel proud that my country is able to pull off such an event, and looking at the end product (I can imagine the amount of logistical nightmares it must have been), I must say that the organizing committee deserves a kudos for the effort and hard work.

Having said that however, I did feel the theme or "storyline" of the opening ceremony show was a tad too Singapore-ish. There seem to be too much focus on Singapore's story, culture, history, etc. I felt that it needs to be more international, something that the youths around the world can relate to irregardless of their culture or background.

Opening ceremony aside.

Back to games. I honestly feel that the YOG is a noble initiative to engage youths and give them a global platform to showcase what they are capable of at an international event.

I have always believed that the youths are the one group of people with lots of energy, time and talent as well, and it is good to have something to be able to channel all that energy into something meaningful, instead of let that go to waste, or worse, fall prey to vices or crime.

So I must admit that I was disheartened to find so many negative comments about YOG (mostly by Singaporeans) complaining about how the event disrupted their lives and worse, how some hate it when I googled YOG.

These comments about YOG are unfair I feel, as its not only not objective, it isn't even a review on the games itself, just the preparations and logistics of it.

It's like going to a movie and complaining about the aircon, the traffic and the seats and then tell the world that the movie sucks.

And then you have the apathetic lot, who needed to make remarks that Singapore seem to be the only nation who is excited about the games. But may I ask, "WHY NOT?" WE ARE HOSTING IT for crying out loud!!

After all the negativism and surrounding the games, I can't help but mention a few things I've observed and want to point out:

1) It's never easy being the first one to do something, you don't have past experience or case studies to refer to.

I don't think it's fair to say what a huge disappointment it have been, or what was expected more of it. It's always easier to say than to really do it. As the inaugural "installment" of the games, the entire world is looking at us to see how we are doing it.

Plus, we were only given 2.5 years to prepare when most host countries were usually given about 7 years to prepare. Sure, some things could have been better, but we all learn from it.

Comments about how the Singapore government treats its citizens like dirt, how much the whole expenditure for YOG was compared to percentage or amount that went to meals for volunteers or even comparisons to other social plans in our government should not be the basis of anyone's "review" of YOG.

YOG is an international event, its not fair to give negative feedback just cos you don't agree with certain plans in Singapore.

I think our Singapore athletes (and volunteers) need more support. We are hosting it, they should have home ground advantage! Many of these youths just want to be a part of something meaningful when they are young, please stop the hate and pouring of cold water to dampen their spirits!

Enough said. It is an honor to be able to host a global event of such a large scale, and I certainly do think that it will boost the "Singapore brand". Stop saying how much you hate it cos its such events like these that help our economy to grow, nobody would rather us remain as a small fishing village, right?

We Singaporeans need to stop behaving like the spoilt affluent brat and appreciate the opportunity to be a part of something as meaningful as this.