A piece extracted from Tanya's album.
地球上住著很多人，有些人我們認識，有些人我們不認識，『有幾個 共同朋友』 『要不要加為好友』熟悉了，親密了，然後，等到愛情終結了，雙方又將回到..陌生的 初始狀態。如果就像六度分隔理論說的，「我與世界上任何一個陌生 人的中間距離不會超過六個人!」 真的是這樣嗎?穿梭在人群中的你 我 他，沒有人能預知，我們明天 還會遇見 誰。
Monday, September 14, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Follow Up - ST Reporter Comments
Why SIA sponsored an NZ team
Terrence Voon explains why Singapore's Dragon Boat Association needs more marketing.
________________________________________
THE furore over Singapore Airline's sponsorship of a New Zealand side at the recent World Dragon Boat Championships has raised the hackles of some Singaporeans.
But to criticise the airline for not funding the Republic's youth team instead may not be the fairest thing to do.
Questions must be raised about how the sport is run and what kind of official funding, if any, was made available to the young dragon boaters in the first place.
Mr Dennis Tan, the father of one of the Singapore rowers, painted an emotive picture of how he and his child struggled to raise money for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, only to be confronted by a Kiwi team emblazoned with the SIA logo at the event.
His disappointment is heartfelt, if not understandable.
Earlier this week, I spoke to officials from the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA), a national sports body which had previously only made the news after five national rowers perished in a tragic accident in Cambodia two years ago.
The SDBA's stark financial reality is this: As one of the 10 sports ranked in the fourth tier of the Singapore Sports Council's annual funding review, they receive between $100,000 to $200,000 from government coffers each year.
Sending the 49 student rowers to Prague for the World Championships would have drained these funds completely.
To be fair, the SDBA boasts two big-hitting sponsors: Singapore Pools and the Singapore Tourism Board.
But it is not known how much the two organisations contribute to the sport in terms of actual cash.
What we do know is that the SDBA can only afford to upkeep a senior national team and that all it did was to "endorse" the juniors' participation at the World Championships.
For a sport which has now delivered international honours, it is criminal to simply continue giving young talented rowers a pat on their back and sending them on their way — without forking out a single cent.
The SDBA needs to regroup and find a way to maintain a formal national youth squad, and not rely on schools, parents and students to do the hard work for them.
They also need to take a more aggressive approach to securing sponsorship — witness how sports like netball produce glossy brochures and customised marketing proposals to woo potential sponsors.
Armed with a world title and a little more marketing savvy, it shouldn't be too hard to make sponsors — even those at SIA — to sit up and take notice.
Terrence Voon explains why Singapore's Dragon Boat Association needs more marketing.
________________________________________
THE furore over Singapore Airline's sponsorship of a New Zealand side at the recent World Dragon Boat Championships has raised the hackles of some Singaporeans.
But to criticise the airline for not funding the Republic's youth team instead may not be the fairest thing to do.
Questions must be raised about how the sport is run and what kind of official funding, if any, was made available to the young dragon boaters in the first place.
Mr Dennis Tan, the father of one of the Singapore rowers, painted an emotive picture of how he and his child struggled to raise money for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, only to be confronted by a Kiwi team emblazoned with the SIA logo at the event.
His disappointment is heartfelt, if not understandable.
Earlier this week, I spoke to officials from the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA), a national sports body which had previously only made the news after five national rowers perished in a tragic accident in Cambodia two years ago.
The SDBA's stark financial reality is this: As one of the 10 sports ranked in the fourth tier of the Singapore Sports Council's annual funding review, they receive between $100,000 to $200,000 from government coffers each year.
Sending the 49 student rowers to Prague for the World Championships would have drained these funds completely.
To be fair, the SDBA boasts two big-hitting sponsors: Singapore Pools and the Singapore Tourism Board.
But it is not known how much the two organisations contribute to the sport in terms of actual cash.
What we do know is that the SDBA can only afford to upkeep a senior national team and that all it did was to "endorse" the juniors' participation at the World Championships.
For a sport which has now delivered international honours, it is criminal to simply continue giving young talented rowers a pat on their back and sending them on their way — without forking out a single cent.
The SDBA needs to regroup and find a way to maintain a formal national youth squad, and not rely on schools, parents and students to do the hard work for them.
They also need to take a more aggressive approach to securing sponsorship — witness how sports like netball produce glossy brochures and customised marketing proposals to woo potential sponsors.
Armed with a world title and a little more marketing savvy, it shouldn't be too hard to make sponsors — even those at SIA — to sit up and take notice.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Follow Up: SIA defends Kiwi deal
From the Straits Times Sports Section:
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has defended its decision to sponsor a New Zealand team over the Republic's World Championships junior dragon boat side, saying it cannot be supporting every local sport.
SIA provides sponsorship in cash and in kind to local sports, ranging from the Singapore Sports School and the Singapore National Olympic Council to the Singapore National Paralympic Council, its spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.
'As much as we would like to, it is unfortunately not possible for us to support every sport, however,' he said.
'In this particular instance, the cooperation with the New Zealand dragon boat team was limited and was a local initiative by our New Zealand station to support the community we operate in.'
The national carrier was responding to a letter by Dennis Tan, the father of one of the Singapore dragon boaters, in The Straits Times Forum yesterday. He had expressed disappointment over SIA's choice of teams.
The Singapore team, comprising 45 National Junior College (NJC) students and four from Hwa Chong Institution, had won the World Championships Junior trophy in Prague from Aug 26-30.
Despite making their debut at the competition, Singapore won the award - given to the top Under-18 nation - by winning four golds, three silvers and one bronze. They had to fend off stiff competition from 24 other countries, including powerhouses China and Russia.
Tan's feelings were shared by members of the dragon boat team, among them NJC rower Alyssa Lim.
'The New Zealand team were staying in the same hotel and we saw the Singapore Airlines logo on their polo tees. It was a little disappointing that they sponsored a team from another country.'
However, it is not uncommon for international companies to sponsor sports teams from other countries.
Mr Yong made a follow up clarification:
'We did not approach SIA for sponsorship, so I don?t think we can blame them.'
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has defended its decision to sponsor a New Zealand team over the Republic's World Championships junior dragon boat side, saying it cannot be supporting every local sport.
SIA provides sponsorship in cash and in kind to local sports, ranging from the Singapore Sports School and the Singapore National Olympic Council to the Singapore National Paralympic Council, its spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.
'As much as we would like to, it is unfortunately not possible for us to support every sport, however,' he said.
'In this particular instance, the cooperation with the New Zealand dragon boat team was limited and was a local initiative by our New Zealand station to support the community we operate in.'
The national carrier was responding to a letter by Dennis Tan, the father of one of the Singapore dragon boaters, in The Straits Times Forum yesterday. He had expressed disappointment over SIA's choice of teams.
The Singapore team, comprising 45 National Junior College (NJC) students and four from Hwa Chong Institution, had won the World Championships Junior trophy in Prague from Aug 26-30.
Despite making their debut at the competition, Singapore won the award - given to the top Under-18 nation - by winning four golds, three silvers and one bronze. They had to fend off stiff competition from 24 other countries, including powerhouses China and Russia.
Tan's feelings were shared by members of the dragon boat team, among them NJC rower Alyssa Lim.
'The New Zealand team were staying in the same hotel and we saw the Singapore Airlines logo on their polo tees. It was a little disappointing that they sponsored a team from another country.'
However, it is not uncommon for international companies to sponsor sports teams from other countries.
Mr Yong made a follow up clarification:
'We did not approach SIA for sponsorship, so I don?t think we can blame them.'
Thursday, September 3, 2009
From the Straits Times Forum
Below is an excerpt of an article written to the Straits Times Forum by one of the parent of our kids.
Please read till the very last line
Struggling Singaporeans and lucky Kiwis
Singapore's world championship-winning junior dragon boat team had to toil to raise funds for the Prague meet, according to a parent, compared to the more fortunate New Zealand team which was sponsored by Singapore Airlines. -- PHOTO: NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE
AS THE parent of a rower from the victorious Singapore junior dragon boat team, I was glowing with pride - and gratified - to read Tuesday's report, 'Dragon boaters roar in Prague'.
For the past year or more, my daughter trained seven days a week and squeezed in additional time and labour between training to scour housing estates, collecting old newspapers and drink cans to help raise money to fund the trip to the Prague meet. She lugged these items from home to school as well. All this in addition to keeping up with her school work. My home was turned into a karung guni depot, stocked with old newspapers and drink cans.
Relatives chipped in by collecting these items and passing them to us during weekend family gatherings.
My neighbours must have thought we had financial problems.
I had to sacrifice my sleep to drive my daughter to training to save travel time and so she could get as much sleep as possible. She missed most weekend family gatherings around the dining table because of training or she was simply too pooped.
She - and we - made these sacrifices with one aim in mind: to send a national team to Prague and do Singapore proud. And it was mission accomplished for the 49-member squad of students who won four gold medals, three silvers and a bronze.
But here is the ironically disappointing postscript: My daughter and the team discovered that the national team from New Zealand which took part in the same championships was sponsored - by Singapore Airlines.
Dennis Tan
Please read till the very last line
Struggling Singaporeans and lucky Kiwis
Singapore's world championship-winning junior dragon boat team had to toil to raise funds for the Prague meet, according to a parent, compared to the more fortunate New Zealand team which was sponsored by Singapore Airlines. -- PHOTO: NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE
AS THE parent of a rower from the victorious Singapore junior dragon boat team, I was glowing with pride - and gratified - to read Tuesday's report, 'Dragon boaters roar in Prague'.
For the past year or more, my daughter trained seven days a week and squeezed in additional time and labour between training to scour housing estates, collecting old newspapers and drink cans to help raise money to fund the trip to the Prague meet. She lugged these items from home to school as well. All this in addition to keeping up with her school work. My home was turned into a karung guni depot, stocked with old newspapers and drink cans.
Relatives chipped in by collecting these items and passing them to us during weekend family gatherings.
My neighbours must have thought we had financial problems.
I had to sacrifice my sleep to drive my daughter to training to save travel time and so she could get as much sleep as possible. She missed most weekend family gatherings around the dining table because of training or she was simply too pooped.
She - and we - made these sacrifices with one aim in mind: to send a national team to Prague and do Singapore proud. And it was mission accomplished for the 49-member squad of students who won four gold medals, three silvers and a bronze.
But here is the ironically disappointing postscript: My daughter and the team discovered that the national team from New Zealand which took part in the same championships was sponsored - by Singapore Airlines.
Dennis Tan
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