Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Malaysia and the Beijing Olympics

Two words. WE SUCK. As a nation we suck and as a sporting nation we suck more. We have a population of 20-25 million and we only send just 33 athletes? Not to mention the 29 officials who REALLY need to be there. But that is a whole other blog entry. Anyway, Malaysia is banking on badminton, archery and cycling to deliver the medals. HAH.. So we, at best, might only get 3 Medals? Whoopee!

What happened to our Hockey team? Soccer team? Lawn Bowling team? Too bad Ten Pin Bowling and Squash aren't Olympic events, we might of had a glimmer of hope. Nicol David is the current Women's Squash world number one, so one gold there.

As it turns out, so far, we have won one silver medal and looks like it would be Malaysia's ONLY Olympic Medal for 2008. Thanks to the efforts of Lee Chong Wei, who incidentally, is ranked number 2 in the world. Lee lost the gold medal match to China's World number 1 'Super Dan' in a stadium filled to capacity with a large partisan home crowd that urged the local hero to victory. Take nothing away from Lee, we are so proud of him. Lee gets RM 300,000 for the Silver, but I say give him the RM1,000,000 gold medal bonus as he single handed-ly united a nation and instilled some pride back in an otherwise dismal Olympic outing.

Our archery team cracked under pressure and did not perform to the best of their abilities. Disappointment was written all over the faces of the Malaysian archery trio which failed to advance to the Olympics men's team semifinal after losing by five points to Italy in their Olympics debut. What stood out in their 213-218 loss to the Italians was their lack of exposure in the highly-charged atmosphere of the Olympic Archery Field. I say again, "cracked under pressure".

And our Cycling team? Well here is and excerpt from a news article about one of our cyclist. "Meanwhile In the quarter-finals of the men's sprint Chris Hoy, who broke the Olympic record in qualifying on Sunday, was at his imperious best against the flamboyant Malaysian Mohd Awang dismissing him in two classy rides." See the words used... FLAMBOYANT and DISMISS. You can always spot the Flamboyant Malaysian no matter where you go. We Malaysians seem to worry about looking the part more than focusing on the important aspect of actually performing. In this case, it didn't matter what expensive state of the art equipment Malaysia used, genetically, we were at a disadvantage. Chris Hoy is like 7ft tall or something, and ONE of his legs was the size BOTH of the Flamboyant legs combined.

Point being, why can't we compete in events where we have a chance of wining, in events where our genetics complement the sport? Events like Badminton of course. Events like, the 50 Meter Air Pistol or Ping Pong or Rhythmic Gymnastics or Sailing or Fencing or Horse Jumping? You get the idea. There was one Olympics years ago, we actually entered a guy for the 100 Meter Sprint. Needless to say he came in dead last but broke our pitiful national record of 15 seconds or something. Yea!

By the way, did you see the 100 Meter race? That Bolt fella jogged his way to the world record, smiling and waving as he crossed the line. This guy probably sprinted out of his mother's womb from birth. It has been proven, that Negros have an extra muscle in their legs that give them that extra spring in their step. So there you go.


We as a nation have wasted millions investing in sports and where has it gotten us? Dead last and reputation of being stylish. Its truly the Twin Tower syndrome of wanting to be the best but not wanting to put in the hard work, and just paying for it.

Maybe it is the millions that is the problem. With politics and the corrupt leaders the constantly meddling in the affairs of sports. Everyone is looking to make a cut for themselves and not for the benefit of our athletes. As I said earlier, we send how many officials? 29? In fact, after all the middlemen.. how much is spent and how much of the budget actually filters down and reaches the sport?

I could tell you how much.... but first, what's is in it for me?

Monday, August 11, 2008

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50's, 60's & 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes after running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. Let your kids know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

 Does anyone still use this???   Seriously.....