GETTT- Great Economics Tuition Teacher Takahina, 2012 Week 32

I would love to be in a class of his, not for him but for the school girls :p

Sure I'm nowhere as suave or as cool as him, but hey, I think maybe I teach better than him... well academically anyways.

As a few of my friends would have already known, I have been teaching tuition for a couple of years. I won't say I'm the most experienced one out there, neither have I been formally trained at all in teaching. In fact my first experience with teaching came when I gave a 1 tuition session with my cousin Ah Moi when she was in JC and that was the most awkward thing ever. You don't know how to treat her, as a student or as your cousin, and when you cousin gets serious you feel like "WTF is going on!?".

Thanks Lao Peng for the Fuck Up sign. Ah Moi won't like to see her face without makeup. :x

Gradually in University, I scolded Desmond on his flawed economic theories so much so he scores better than me. Then the best thing is all of these is irrelevant to him as he's doing a totally different trade.

Bugger scores better than me and yet doesn't thank me at all!?

Then again there is nothing wrong with him doing what he's doing, it's a proper job with very good business outlooks in the future. Maybe not now, but wait till when people are richer, he gains more contacts and he even has a chance to operate overseas, then there's where his business will get real lucrative.

Now, how does this relate to me teaching? Absolutely nothing... ok la a bit relation.

Something like what Desmond is doing, teaching is in a sense more like a 'self-employment'. You are your own boss, you find clients yourself, you find contacts yourself, you do everything yourself, there's no so-called system dictating your every move like in a job similar to my current contract with UOB. And to be frank, tuition teaching is quite lucrative as well.

I started teaching when I ended my perm-part time job at TNT as a data entry clerk. It was a fun place there, doing brainless typing and talking cock with the many foreign workers there. Trust me once you get to know them better they are actually real nice people.

They're all my ex-subordinates.

But I know I can't afford to type in TNT for until the end of my university. TNT takes away my whole evening to night and it always rendered me very tired to the extent I can't really study for my university. So I had no choice but to terminate it before I entered into the last few sems of my degree.

Then however, I realized I need income. Allowance from my parents were not enough, I need an extra source of income coming in. As a university student, it was the peak period when you have tons of outings happening with your friends and peers, it was also the time when the government would not subsidize this this, would not subsidize that thing, your parents refused to pay for this, refused to pay for that, it's the time when you have no freaking income at all. Studying in university gains you no $ and you spend the most during that period. I mean just a freaking plate of bee hoon can cause up to $2. WTH?!

You believe this shit cost $2+??

So I listened to people around me and finally decided to take up tuition teaching. Initially I was rather against the idea. I had a very good tuition teacher Miss Lee who passed away (god bless her), and she groomed me to be the scrutinizing person I had become today. So in my mind, teaching is not just for fun, it's a commitment to the student you're teaching.

Miss Lee gave me her everything when she teaches. She loved teaching and she enjoyed sharing her experiences with students. Normally when she teaches, she taught them from primary school all the way till end of secondary schools and she'll give advice to what the kid should study and the routes in which they should progress on which best suits their character, behavior and ideals. Of course she's a bit on the traditional side so normally students under her especially those with good results would end up being some sort of doctor or some Masters in Universities. Well very obviously I'm not there. :/

That's me on the right and the Master's on the left.

So thanks to her, my impression of tuition teaching got pushed up to a high level. Tuition teachers don't just teach, they impart life experiences and become friends with the student. I know not every tuition teacher does that much, but undoubtedly that became my impression of a so-called GTT aka Great Tuition Teacher.

Some fan-service is needed here.

Therefore, even though in the past before I even began working for TNT, people asked me to go teach. I refused. I lack the patience to teach kids who don't listen, I'm not that well verse in the subjects learned in primary school or secondary school and I didn't want to tarnish the image Miss Lee set for me. Eventually though, I gave in to money needs as I began to realize how good tuition can actually earn. So there you have it, my initial motive for teaching is $, that like totally ruined my image of Miss Lee already.

When I first started, I was thinking what can I teach. Well my Chinese is relatively quite good, I can teach primary school kids, I play drums and can read drum scores to a certain extent, so I can teach beginner drums, I'm a major in econs and I scored A for econs in my A lvls, that can be a good subject for me to teach too. Then you go to those websites and insert in your particulars and search for assignments. All of them want experience, all of them want good teachers. So it boils down again to the very basic problem:

"NO EXPERIENCE NO JOB, BUT NO JOB NO EXPERIENCE, HOW LIKE THAT?!"

So I resorted to what my girlfriend told me, "JUST APPLY, DON'T CARE!! MASS APPLY LIKE NO TOMORROW!"

Hokay. >_>

So I spent a freaking hour finding various tuition agencies and mass spamming my application to whatever Primary school chinese and JC econs, there was no drum assignment at all so screw that. After like almost a month, finally I got reply.

Primary 2 chinese, Indian Kid, Yishun.

You want me to learn Mandarin??????????

My eyes became like this. O_O

Even though I live in Tampines, I didn't mind the location because there's a direct bus there. But OMG Indian kid learn chinese. This family must be pro-government.

What was PAP thinking?
 

I'm pretty sure the government is aiming that at our Chinese families who are turning Bananas, but never mind....

I'm yellow outside but white inside.

The pay is low, but I couldn't complain. I was desperate. So I accepted the job not knowing what is to come.

She's an Indian Kid alright, not lucky for her, now all primary school chinese textbooks has Hanyu Pinyin in it, so she doesn't read from the chinese symbols, but from the hanyu pinyin... which imo is wrong. You learn chinese for the sake of knowing how to read Chinese, not English. Nevertheless I couldn't say much, just kept teaching. From my memories it's one of the most horrible teaching experience ever. I didn't know what contents to teach, all I could do was to every lesson get her to do Ting Xie, read the textbook endlessly and lecture her here and there. I'm supposed to be teaching chinese but 90% of the lesson was done in English. I felt miserable teaching her and I know very well it's not helping her at all.

Soon after, another assignment came in:

Urgent case, 2 months to A level, Economics H1. Choa Chu Kang.

This time, I'm appalled at the location. Damn, it will take like an hour plus to reach his house. But never mind, the pay was much much better than Indian Chinese Kid.

Thus forth, my official teaching life began. From then on my tuition progressed and as I gained more experience, I encounter different students with different problems and characteristics and how eventually it felt to me what being a tutor meant, on top of my original impression of tuition. Of course, I stopped teaching the Indian kid after half a year. No offense to her but I think she shouldn't be studying Chinese as her mother tongue, but her true mother tongue which is Tamil.

Some kids (as how we tutors address them to other tutors even if they are 17-18) are inquisitive, some are very quiet, some are very respectful and even to the extent of scared, some forgetful, some extremely demanding, some blur, some simply don't care. It ranges from a whole bunch of situation. But I always say something for every kid I teach in their first lesson,

"I'm not your teacher, neither am I officially qualified to be one, I didn't attend any course in NIE nor had any school teaching experience, nor did I set any questions paper before. In teaching economics, no one is a teacher, we are all learning what is going on right now. You may be able to ask or answer things that I can't explain or can't refute because that's the nature of social science. Nothing is 100%. So don't call me teacher, just call me by my name."

And up to this date, I don't remember my students really calling me teacher except for the Indian kid (she calls me Zhang Lao Shi) and one RJC kid who is super respectful to the extend he calls me Sir when in actual fact I'm just a Sergeant.

'Allo, Don't call me Sir, call me Sergeant, you freaking hell give me 20.

Throughout this few years, naturally there are setbacks and stuff, sometimes I'm late, sometimes I have to last minute cancel tuition, sometimes I feel tired but I can't stop, sometimes I run out of contents to teach but I must teach something, sometimes my tuition gets cancelled because the kid doesn't like my way of teaching, but ultimately I'm starting to feel a bit of that so-called fulfillment when you see your kid becoming proficient in the topic and improving for their subjects. The fulfillment when your teaching is showing results, that's an amazing feeling.

I often get questions from other tutors, "Wow you teach JC students? OMG!" or "How do you teach econs? It's so difficult to teach!"or "Why some of your students can score so well while some can't?" or "Why don't you try teaching University level economics?"

For the 1st question, actually it's a no brain-er. Because I will ONLY teach econs and only JC has econs. I only teach econs reason is simple. I'm an econs major, so my econs knowledge are sufficient enough to teach the JC kids. Additionally my econs knowledge are fresh because I'm a fresh grad, just out from university. Plus I love econs and I scored well for it in my A's, so it will be easier for me to convince parents to let me teach and secondly, I won't feel bored like I did when I taught chinese because I love it.

For the 2nd and 3rd question, it's more complicated. To me, Econs is not a subject like maths or science. Sure they call it social SCIENCE, but there's a core difference behind it. Economics is never 100%, not like maths formulas. You want to score well for econs, you got to understand economics and that's how I teach econs. I go beyond the syllabus when needed, I teach contents in a way some may call "Kopitiam Talk". Because I believe teaching Econs lay-men is the best way for students to understand it and "Kopitiam Talk" could get a bit unruly at times. I talk to you, you have to talk back to me and we keep shooting each other economically. That's "Kopitiam Talk", I learned it from my dad and practiced it with Desmond.

My pa, Ph.D in Kopitiam Kong Wei

That's why for some people it's so difficult to teach, because the understanding has to be deep. You have to understand how everything you learn in econs can gradually link to one another, you have to know how to think beyond the context; not everything you answer in econs are in your notes.

A sign of showing you are an economist or think like one is when you can link many things in reality to economics.You learn how to scrutinize things and learn how to fully analyze information thrown to you. When you talk, when you look at things, you look at it from another point of view unconsciously. I have one student whom speaks in a different manner as compared to when I first taught him, it's amazing in the change I see in him and scary as well cause he's speaking in a manner quite similar to mine. O_O; And the best thing all those things he said, made sense, especially economic sense. When you have reached a level like this, there's nothing to worry about the economics content, what would be worrying is his exams skill of interpreting the question, how to answer them and understanding what the question meant. Some students on the other hand, just don't make have that change, I guess it boils down to character and personalities to determine how much they will change.

Economics is not a subject to be spoon-fed, it's a subject to be understood and some kids got so-used to the spoon fed secondary school system it's difficult to switch. Their understanding will always be limited and scoring A's will be difficult for them.

Why don't I teach university level? Simply put I'm not qualified enough. The knowledge and concepts I know may not be sufficient to teach university level even if I have already graduated. Hence I don't teach them.

Some tutors are in it for the money. Undeniably I started out with that thought as well, but I'm teaching econs not maths, so I can't teach econs in a totally systematic manner, that's just not logical with econs for me. So some students won't be able to adapt to the way I teach cause it could get a bit disorganized, and for that I have lost a couple of tuition assignments.

Regardless, I'm still teaching now and I will finish teaching my current students until they finish their A's or until they do not want me. It's just simple business and commitment. I did contemplate whether or not I should pursue teaching economics or being a full time tutor as my job, but I chose otherwise. :/

Ultimately, I don't think I could teach with great knowledge and responsibility like the Great Tutor Miss Lee, or I don't have the charisma that GTO has. However, I teach with my own principle and that's what I believe both the non-fictional Miss Lee and fictional GTO has, and that makes me my own GETTT.

So for you students or parents who don't like my style of teaching, you can kiss my....

Ok la no la kidding only, I still want your business. Relac ok? relac...

The Job-Hating Takahina, 2012 Week 31

Never thought I'll say this, but I guess it's official.

I Officially Hate My Job.

Yes.

Even though there are tons of perks in it, there's also tons of shit in it. To be fair, I'll name out the perks.

1. Near to my house, it's just 10mins walk away.
2. Low volume of customers, meaning very free and very low stress level.
3. Easy job to handle. The few things you have to manage regularly are relatively easy.
4. It's a 'respectable' local bank, so it looks good on the resume.

Now, the shit.

1. Everyone is free, meaning people will be blabbering their big bad mouth.
2. Low level entry job, meaning no one gives you any form of proper respect.
3. Being a local Chinese bank, the systems runs in a very "hierarchy" system. Everything must go through a lot of red tape and the bosses are as stingy as a Chinese salesman.

I give you best discount, 50c discount. You can't get it anywhere else.

4. Pay is low, note point 3.
5. Everyone pretends, even my supervisor.
6. Lack of proper training. You go through on-job training, but ultimately you only know things related in your own job scope. Nothing else. So essentially you're not gonna know anything of use for ur future job.
7. You feel dispensable. Anytime people can just replace you and your supervisor won't protect you even though they said they will. Note pt 5.
8. You feel too free, but you can't do your own stuff cause people are "watching" you. If they spot you, they'll just report you, even though you have done your job already. So ultimately you have to act busy. Something which I absolutely hate.

Let me rant, initially I was very excited about the job. Finally I can be like a working adult full of responsibilities and performing them. Emails come in asking me and I can confidently answer them about it. But that's far beyond what is happening right now. Let me just state it right from the start.

I searched for a job fast even before my last exams because I don't want to waste time. I know I'm a person with high inertia; you get me started I can keep going, you let me cool down my engine don't expect me to start anytime soon. So I got my job shortly after my exams finished. I sacrificed holiday trips and many other events just to make it for the interviews and stuff, in the process upsetting quite a few people I can imagine, but nonetheless I made my choice.

Then this interview at Tampines came in via Recruit Express. To me I didn't mind a low pay at that time cause I was desperate. Plus this job is just 10 mins walk away! Just imagine the amount of transport I can save up. It'll be comparable to a 2.5k job which is standard for most fresh grads. I accepted the job, went through a whole bunch of things in preparation for it.

Got to know that this job is about Options. Just nice, I learned options in University, something that I can use my expertise on.

So I started work. First few week is what they call a honeymoon period. You practically do nothing, just waiting the whole day. You try to study the procedures and everything but reading is not as efficient as doing it. You try to understand the product, which I did eventually. You know margin, you know the systems behind it, you learn the history.

At this point I was, "Well it's not too bad. People are quite friendly here and the mood is relaxed. Looks like I'll like it here." Plus I see my supervisor so busy all the damn time so I felt that once I'm qualified, I'll be almost as busy as him with a bit of free time available, which is just nice for me as I needed some time to do my own organizing and planning for my own life.

Go play some games, you'll get more lives.

 But gradually, after a month or 2. It felt different already. I find a lot of accusations towards me even though I have done my job. I find myself doing a lot of mundane stuff which is not necessary for the operations of the job. I find myself getting looked upon by people even though they say things until it's so nice and act friendly in front of you. I find myself worried about my own job position when there's a new staff coming in. The insecurity and the lack of value in my own work, made me feel that this job is no better than just a student job.

At the same time, thanks to my job coming from Recruit Express, what they told me initially was this job will be contract at first like a probation period, after that you'll be recruited in. What I didn't know is that I'm literally a "temp-staff". Under my email, it writes "non-staff". Any company updates doesn't go to me, it has to be forwarded to me via my supervisor.

Eh... isn't it supposed to be just probation period? How come I'm now like a temp-staff? Due to my status being "non-staff", I can't access to a lot of systems, meaning I can't value-add to my supervisor. He'll be looking around for more "proper" staff eventually.

Gradually a few days later he asked if I'm willing to continue to work in the company after I finish my contract, "Woon Han, I want to know how you feel, in that I don't want to continue looking around for more staff cause I'm tired of labour turnover and retraining them. Would you still want to continue in this position?"

Then I said, "I thought I'm supposed to continue unless you guys don't want me?"

Meaning... no. I'm not supposed to continue. If I want to I have to re-apply again and go through the whole bullshit process.

Haha you suck big time!

Then from there I started to know how lowly paid I am and how "dis-benefitted" I am. Kinda sucks to hear that you're colleagues earn around $600-$700 more than you doing the same shit job.Thanks hor Recruit Express.

Next, working in Settlement (back end) means that you're a cost. The company does not treat you kindly or the same as with those front end. Because you cost them their profits. Being a stingy Chinese Bank, they do not update their systems even though it's centuries outdated. Anytime they will cut you up and transfer the department overseas for cheaper cost. I mean working in back-end itself means that you're dispensable. Plus the job I'm doing has low volume of customers, added to the fact that I'm a non-staff and just a fresh grad and also the youngest in the whole back-end department, I'm the MOST DISPENSABLE OUT OF THE DISPENSABLE.

I'M THE MOST FREAKING DISPENSABLE PERSON IN MY BANK!

I should have a cameo role in this show.

No wonder I'm treated with almost no respect, people don't really care about what I do, hold no true responsibilities (meaning the job I do can be easily substituted) and the back-end department being relatively quite free, anytime I can get reported for skiving on the job. Oh yes I'm skiving by blogging bout you jerk-asses.

Recently my conduct got worse, I guess you can say my engine has slowed down. My conduct is not on the ball, I go to work late, take extended breaks, can't help but doze off a bit while staring into space when using computer etc. However I have to support 1 thing, no matter how much I 'skive', my work always get completed on time without me needing to do OT. That shows something.

I'm a capable person and I can spend all ounce of my strength to get things done. Ask my Uni Project mates and they know how I can rush a whole night, completing one rough diamond to a good cut.

My subordinates call me da boss for a reason.

The way I do stuff is not like the conventional Singapore sometimes. The more rush something is, the more I take it in my stride to finish it, kinda like how artists and Manga-ka (manga drawers) works. You rush them, they will seemingly appear uncaring, but then next day you see the work done. I try to keep my cool when doing stuff and don't appear nervous although sometimes I do lose my cool.

To me, it doesn't matter how you do your job, as long as you manage to finish it properly, and that's what I do for my work. My 'conducts' doesn't really matter because I have ALREADY finished my job. Yet rumors still fly around like no ones business about my poor conduct. Fine, UOB.

PLEASE GIVE ME MORE FUCKING JOB THEN! MAKE ME SO EFFING BUSY THERE WON'T BE TIME FOR YOU TO EVEN COMPLAIN ABOUT MY CONDUCT!

I dozed off in office, because simply, there's nothing to do. And when I do doze off it's not because I intentionally want to sleep, but I can't help it. It's too BORING. And wait here's more... it's not just me!

There are others who do nothing as well whole day in the office. Openly activate Pinball and play like no one's business. Yet no one complains about him. Why? Because he's an IT support tech and he's of a somewhat senior position. So what is the between me and him?

He's indispensable cause of his IT knowledge while I'm expendables like a temp-staff that's why. I'm like freaking Arnold 杀死那个.

The Singaporeans call me 杀死那个 for a reason.

 People don't respect me here even if I do my job well. I slack as much as everyone around but I'm the only one who gets the complain. Why? I'm expendable that's why!

My department in Tampines overall only got 2 person, my supervisor and me. When my supervisor is out teaching staff in the other branch at Tanjong Pagar, I'm the only one left alone, settling my own meals. Lonely I tell you lonely.

I'm a kon and I'm lonely. So I sing a song with chipmunks voice despite being black and badass.

Initially I decided that I'll continue on the job until end of 2013 provided that I get a suitable pay-rise to the level comparable to everyone and I become known as a proper Settlement Officer, not some "non-staff" bullshit. Fucking hell if I'm a non-staff why the fuck am I still in the company for? If I don't get those condition, I won't continue.

Now I'm thinking, even if they give me those conditions, I don't want to stay anymore. I didn't sign up for a shit job.

I didn't sign up for this fuckery.

And I dare to write all of this shit here, because I have no friends in FB or anything and they won't find it, neither would they care. I can tell you none of them up till now still knows how to spell my name correctly. "Choon Won Han" MY ASS! 

The Takahinian Olympics, 2012 Week 30

As most of you guys know, Takahina has never been one to write about sports and stuff. I mean, Takahina was never a very sporty person and you guys know it. That's also the other reason why Takahina is fat, but that's besides the point.

But then Olympics... hmmm well you can't say that I'm totally not interested in sports. At least I have played several of them but excelled at none. I mainly watch soccer, but for Olympics I watch several items due to influence from my father. I watch sports like Badminton, Diving, Table Tennis, Gymnastics and 100 meters Men's. I watch soccer too, but only when there's Arsenal or Arsenal players or I've bet on it.

Thanks for ruining your own fan-base Van Pu**y, where your Arsenal Bros now?

Now if you noticed, the sports that I've watched other than 100 meters Men's, the rest are dominated by 1 frigging country.

China.

Sorry Manluo, can't resist myself when I mention China.

I was wondering why as I watched what I watched and pondered, why is it that I hear the Chinese National Anthem all the time? Well partly because my father loves China and he knows more about China news than Singapore news thanks to Starhub Cable TV Phoenix Channel.

It's like Anime to Otaku, for uncles.

And since I have to kinda watch whatever Olympic events that he watches, I kinda grew up watching these events. I don't totally know all of them and how all of them work, but I just like can kinda appreciate them. Note, I'm not a BTSS (Bian Tai Shu Shu) just because I watch gymnastics. It's my father, not me. If you want to, call me a BTKK (Bian Tai Kor Kor) instead.

Now personally I have never been interested playing any of these sports except for Badminton. I tried Table Tennis and the balls just hates me, it flies around like nobody's business. Diving is out as all I can do is an atom bomb into the pool, doing Gymnastics will break the equipments, 100 meters men will end up like rolling for me. Lastly, I have stated before, I only watch soccer, and I only watch ARSENAL. So yeah, sports wise I suck, big time.

Regardless though, I still know certain aspects of the game and I know China deserves their gold medals. It bewilders me in why China can do so well in these sports and why other countries can't. You have the same training time, you have the same, if not better resources. Then why can't these countries win over China? Is it simply because China has a big population of 1.2 billion? Then India should be close to getting number 2 or 3, but normally it's USA. So in a sense, size of a country only matters to a certain extent. There must be a reason why 2 countries always dominate Olympics, China and USA.

Fear the freaking Panda goddamn it!!!

Now, let's look at things from a few prospective; Geographical, mentality, environment, biological and economical.

Firstly, if the country is like Antarctica, you can bet your ass they will never do good in beach volleyball. I mean the people will freeze to death. So in certain places, certain sports are definitely out. But then again for the summer Olympics, most of the sports are well do-able under room conditions, such as table tennis or badminton. So again there's no excuse for Egypt for example to suck in swimming.

However some countries do get a slight advantage. Ever wonder why countries like Kenya are able to produce very excellent runners? I've seen on Discovery once that certain countries have higher altitude. This makes the air up there thinner hence more difficult to run. For runners that live in these countries, they are faced with such conditions and are naturally trained in a more difficult environment. It's similar to how Lee in Naruto always fix himself to weights and stuff. He's already very good with them, you take out these "disadvantages", they become superb and shit happens.

That's what happens when you Kek Sai for too long.

So yes, where you live makes a difference ultimately. No doubt slight, but it still does.

Next, mentality.

What kind of mentality does sportsman have? To be frank I have no frigging idea cause I'm in no ways a sportsman. But I kinda have an idea that you will push yourself beyond your own pain for that eternal glory kinda thingy. Its like me running 2.4km for IPPT. Few seconds left and I'm free from the pain of RT. So I'll freaking push myself to the state of even vomiting just to escape the time wasting RT. Take that kinda mentality magnify it by 10000000000x and there you get Olympics.

Then you look at the mentality of China. These people get scouted since young and leave their family for their country's glory. They sacrifice more than half of their prime years learning and mastering just this one sport in Olympics. It's no wonder China can get so much gold medals. Just read the many stories and lifes of China's sportsman, I mean you won't get a praise from the country unless you get world no.1. What kind of sadistic mentality are they setting, dictatorship?

 Ahhhh Keng only keng only.


You don't get recognition for being anything other than no.1. You sacrifice a whole bunch of your youth away and you get nothing but just 1 skill of that sports. After you get old? What happens? Country doesn't want you and throw you away? With that 1 skill of yours it would not be enough to survive in society. It's no wonder they leave China for other countries like Singapore where they become rich but strangely looked down upon by the locals. Hmmmmmm...

They got it wrong, I should play in the men's, not women's.

This kind of all or nothing mentality not only gets them going, it forces them to go. Naturally they'll get no.1. So mentality understandable plays a big part.

Ok, then what about the environment you invest your sports in? Good training area? Good facilities? Clean toilets, very important by the way. Good facilities are definitely important, but to what extent? Singapore have very good training facilities for people, but our sports suck while some poorer countries without the so-called state-of-the-art equipments can still get number 1. So definitely environment is only good for up to a certain extent.

I could have placed more disgusting photos but that will harm my viewership.

The biological aspect of sports is getting hazy. In the past, Russian rules gymnastics, South America in most types of balls, the black Americans and Africans getting running gold, USA and Angmoh for swimming and diving and the chinese dominating badminton and table tennis. But now... it's a different ball game. Everyone seems to be winning something they don't seem to win in the past. Although some things still don't change like you see all Jamaicans winning the sprinting and USA conquering the swimming, but you see upstarts from other countries, notably China's Sun Yang huge win in the swimming. And now Chinese and Japan starting to show power in gymnastics, volleyball etc. Just look at the recent scorings and you can see the demographic changing. But I doubt this changes much.

I believe in the end, some "borned" advantages looms amongst athletics. Just look at the running competition it's always some black dude (RACIST~!!~) getting tops. It's amazing actually. This got me thinking that maybe if Singapore wanna win some athletics tops, we should get our bangla to start running.

MLMLWM

Last but not least, economically... which I believe makes no difference into achieving greatness in sports. How rich or how poor a country is not an excuse for anyone to be a great sportsman. Yes I agree in life, when situation handles you with money issues, you are unable to commit to being a sportsman and to represent your country, train and win medals. But then again, what's the whole thing about being a sportsman? As corny as it sounds, I believe that if you are out to be a sportsman, its to excel in your trade, to push for the highest level possible. Competitions are only an instrument to push out that excellence in a faster accelerated manner.

In the end, its still possible for people to become wonderful sportsman, regardless whether you're in the Olympics or not. There's so many differences in this world it's almost impossible to make any contest a "fair" contest at all. Ultimately, the biggest competition is inside you and that's what I believe every sportsman should believe in.

 By the way, I'm serious PAP, banglas have more means other than throwing rubbish.