Story contributed by Red Sports reader Ian Chew.
Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Saturday, January 12, 2008 – Imagine sharing training tips with elite young athletes from other countries! Or even learning about what their hobbies are like or what foods they enjoy!
That could soon be possible under one of MOE’s key initiatives to involve more Singaporean youths in the upcoming Youth Olympics 2010 bid. This was according to Mr Goh Ek Piang, Deputy Director of CCA Branch, speaking at a seminar to publicise Singapore schools’ support for the bid at Suntec City.
Under this plan, all primary and secondary schools will be paired with the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of each of the 205 participating countries. Our schools will then act as local ambassadors to facilitate their visit to Singapore, as well as provide support in terms of hosting and even cheering on their athletes during the competitions. Cultural and sporting exchanges will also be conducted to increase learning and promote understanding.
Altogether, the organisers are hoping for a total of 5000 local and 2000 foreign youths to volunteer their services in areas such as journalism, photography and even medical services during the games.
“How it will be done, we do not yet have all the details. But one thing’s for sure, no youth in Singapore should be left out,” elaborated Francis Chong, Director of Youth Division MCYS, who is spearheading the inter-ministerial effort.
Another exciting aspect of the new games will be the introduction of more extreme sports such as BMX biking, beach volleyball, wrestling and street (or 3 on 3) basketball for the games, revealed Vice President of the Singapore National Olympic Council, Ng Ser Miang.
He added that he was particularly thrilled by the efforts already put in by Singaporean youths, such as Republic Poly students’ drive to collect 1 million signatures, a new website for the Youth Olympic Games and even a facebook account with more than 2800 members!
“Ultimately, students should be at the forefront leading, organising and providing fresh ideas for the event,” he urged the more than 2000 primary and secondary students gathered at the seminar.
The inaugural Youth Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in 2010, will provide competitions in 26 games fro youths between 14 to 18 years of age. You can find out more details at www.singapore2010.sg/day/index.htm
For a related story, please go to: Singapore students raise their voices in support of city’s Youth Olympic Games bid
Red Sports is collecting 2010 signatures to show our support of the Youth Olympic Games bid. Please sign off by going to the following story: Show your support for Youth Olympic Games bid
Aloysius is a student of Manjusri Secondary School and he is student until 2007 but after 2008 he is in the sch i mention,can you change it
This is an email excerpt we got in January 2008 from CCAB MOE on this matter that confirms Aloysius Sim was not a student of Hong Wen school when photo was taken.
“We refer to your e-mail regarding the Rope Skipping performance put up by Hong Wen School at the MOE Seminar on Youth Olympic Games.
Hong Wen School did include two ex-pupils in the team, one of them Aloysius Sim. As it is the beginning of the year and the school was given a short notice to put up the performance, we gave the school permission to include the ex-pupils so that the performance would be better received by the seminar participants. This is a non competition event and the performance is taken in the spirit of entertaining the participants before the arrival of the guest speakers. There is no intention for Hong Wen School to mislead the audience.”
he is from hongwen school he is at my school you should check the south zone rope skipping competion you can see his name at the overall chamipon for school
To onloooker: To be precise, I asked one of the boys who was performing, not specifically the boy in the picture. I trust this clarifies the matter. Hopefully, nobody will sue me for the caption which has been changed based on “Why” comment.
I update captions on this website to reflect the names of the athletes whenever readers provide them in the comments section. It has worked well for us and hasn’t been subject to any abuse.
Thank you for the advice.
To Jan and Les,
Don’t be angry, Les. As an elderly person, I am just giving you advise. You don’t have to be that defensive.
I do recognised these young althetes’ effort and YOG. That is why I am surfing this website of yours. However, my question still evolves in who is the person who answered Les’ questions – ‘them’ or ‘ the student who was performing’.
So, Les managed to got hold of the boy who performed and asked him. But, why did Les said “What school is he from? Because I asked them after the performance and they told me they were in Hong Wen Primary.”
Les mentioned Les asked ‘them’. Now, you are telling me you ask the boy. Since, there is so much inconsistence in your ‘ask them’ and ‘ask the boy’ (himself, personally?). I would advise you to use these caption:
“Hong Wen Primary demonstrates rope skipping for the audience”
It is would be more neutral.
Next, next time you post comments of queries like those by Why — seek clarification. If too troublesome to seek clarification, dun post such comments.
Cheers.
To onlooker:
Just to assauge your concerns…. Anytime you point out an error, Les would be glad to change. There has been numerous errors in my write-ups over the past year as well… and I’m glad to acknowledge that I’m not perfect.
Nevertheless, the point of this website is to highlight local sports achievements – in particular school sports – and in this respect, I think that it has been a resounding success!
And I would continue to contribute articles, despite the unavoidable occasional error, so as to recognise the efforts of our young athletes.
Cheers too.
Hi Onlooker
To clarify your concerns based on my legal knowledge.
There is plenty of room for human error in circumstances like these and since it does not involve any sort of defamation, unless there is measurable quantity of an obscure kind of damage inflicted owing to the infringement of one’s right in the case of a ‘mistaken identity’ (so as to be able to file a claim for breach of human rights), otherwise there is nothing sue-worthy in this. Whoever is to file a case on the basis of negligence (i.e. simply believing what people post) has to first convince the jury why the case of guilty until proven innocent should be upheld in the virtual space, which is fundamentally a platform that operates on the benefit of doubt theory.
Nevertheless, I’m sure that redsports value your concern 🙂 Cheers.
I asked the student who was performing. Perhaps you would have preferred the following caption:
“Unknown student from unknown school performing rope skipping. We cannot identify school or student due to legal issues since we might be sued and since whatever school the student says he is from might not be the whole truth and clarification should be sought from the right party and we cannot believe everything people tell us when we interview them. Other than that, please enjoy the athletic performance of said unnamed athlete.”
WHO did you ask, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM? As an onlooker, I would advise you be very discreet in your words or when you are publishing articles, photos or comments. You might be sued. It would be advisable to seek clarification from the right party and dun believe in what people post to you.
Aloysius is a student of Manjusri Secondary School.
What school is he from? Because I asked them after the performance and they told me they were in Hong Wen Primary.
That last photo is a photo of Aloysius Sim. He’s in secondary school. How come your article says he’s a student of Hong Wen Primary?
[…] For a related story, go to: Singapore schools to play host to visiting countries if Youth Olympic Games come to Singapore […]