Winners and Whiners

Congratulations Joseph Schooling on your historic Gold Medal achievement for Singapore! Truly a remarkable feat.

Pic from http://www.oneindia.com/sports/rio-olympics-celebration-at-singapore-changi-airport-schooling-phelps-2181235.html

Now what will it take to please all Singaporeans?

I ask simply because comments about him not being ‘really Singaporean’ and so on have started surfacing and it really pisses me off.

OK so from what I understand, he is Eurasian and his mother is a Malaysian and a PR in Singapore. His training was done in the US where he has lived for some years. So, does he then truly represent Singapore?

Of course he does, you idiot. He is a citizen of the country and he donned national colours and swam for the country and that should be enough. And yet there are those who would complain.

I remember when the Singapore Table Tennis team comprising naturalised Singaporeans of Chinese descent won medals for Singapore and yet were denigrated for all sorts of supposed shortcomings and misdeeds. Things finally came to a head when one of the team, if I remember correctly, was seen to celebrate a win with the Chinese audience rather than the Singaporeans in the crowd. 

Look, it takes a great deal of commitment to perform at a high level in any sport. Relocating to a foreign land to do that just adds another layer of difficulty on top of everything else. Just ask Fandi Ahmad… And I say if someone dons the national colours of a nation and represents that nation in a sport and wins, on top of all that, then for heaven’s sake just shut up if you’ve got nothing better to say, welcome that person and and celebrate the achievement. 

Heck if I were a sportsman of talent and a new citizen of a country I represented and won for, I’d be more than a little hurt too by the negativity some people hurl to undermine my achievements. And I might very well say ‘Screw this and screw you lot, I’m outta here.’ if I’m not made to feel welcome.

Sportsmen and women do so very much and endure so very much to don a particular uniform and perform for that flag. So what if they earn a lot in the process? Oh and by the way, the fact they may earn a lot is not entirely linked to the issue of whether the government gives equal support to locally-born sportspeople. If you’ve got a problem with that then bring it up with the government. 

Meanwhile, Singapore-born Joseph Schooling did something fantastic. Celebrate that lah. And just please stop whining.