extremenanopowe said:
Aiyah...what to do..? Short cut mah.... Got plenty of money... shopping for players loh.....cheap cheap....
I guess maybe not much in proactive participation in sports development. Easy way out I guess....Wah.. Imagine Taufik play for singapore....what a waste...
When I say short cut, it doesn't necessarily mean what you are suggesting.
Long time ago, we had our very own badminton maestro, the late Wong Peng Soon. But because of the nature of our society then, when the majority of Chinese parents wanted their talented children to study first, play later, sports never took priority.
It was only recently, say last 5 to 10 years, that greater efforts have been placed on the arts and sports by the government and the local National Sports Associations once Singapore has achieved a comfortable level of economic development. To a certain extent, it was found that the arts makes more creative people and sports can help improve productivity in the sense that sports can improve health which then reduces the incidence of illness and sick leave.
The so-called 'short-cut' is to help us reduce the time taken to revive our badminton prowess sparked off so long ago (in the 1950's) by the great Wong and his teammates. Since it will still take some time to convince parents to readily send their sports talented children to the special Sports School (only in its third year of operation (?) compared to other countries in the region like Malaysia and Indonesia) and more time (at leat 4 to 6 years) to develop SS kids, who are admitted when they are about 12 years old, into regional and international athletes. So importing talented children from this part of the world and developing them with our resources is one way to go about it to beef up our numbers.
From time to time, popular names like Taufik, when the opportunity arises, may be engaged to help popularize the badminton game here and they have indeed delivered. And when our players win regional and international competitions, they also help raise the popularity level of badminton to such a frenzy as was the case last year.
Engaging and importing foreign talents come at a price. The price is determined by market conditions. The question of cheapness is relative. If the market price, together with other related living conditions, is not right then foreigners won't come if they have a better choice.
But for Singapore this arrangement has been a "win-win situation". Some of our imported talents are now Singapore citizens. Obviously they must have decided that it is better for them. Indeed, had such foreign talents remain in their home countries, they may not have the opportunities they are now enjoying, comfortable pay, overseas travel, competiting against the best in the world, prize moneys, bonuses, etc.
I suppose once Singapore has built up its own talent pool, there will be less need to import. But I think to a certain extent, Singapore is disadvantaged in this area as it has a small population and there are many competing demands on its talented young. In other words, our badminton talent base will continue to be small and this makes it difficult for us to really shine on the world stage.
This policy of importing foreign talents is not restricted to Singapore. Many European countries which are richer than Singapore are doing so as well. Globalization and the liberalization of such countries as China, where hitherto travel is controlled, make it possible for talented sports people to ply their wares elsewhere.
