Yes it was an unfortunate that the matter was blown up in the press. As I recall, it started with the Chinese 'chief' coach, Liu Guodong, not being present to attend to Singapore's No.1, Gao Ning, in the men's singles third-round match at the Beijing Olympics and he lost to a lower-ranked Croat. The 'chief' coach thought that another coach would be in attendance to provide guidance but somehow the second coach got sick, I think, and was not there. So Gao played without a coach and he attributed much of his loss to this absence. The 'chief' coach got reprimanded but he defended himself by concentrating his resources on and making sure our women's team achieved the historic Olympic Games silver medal which made Singapore proud. Our only silver medal came from Tan Howe Liang in weightlifting some 40 years ago. At the recent awards nomination, this women's table tennis team, comprising Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu, Feng Tianwei and Sun Beibei was awarded the "Senior Team of the Year (Event)". However their coach Liu, whom many considered as deserving to be nominated as "Coach of the Year" was not nominated by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) and the reason given by STTA's president Lee Bee Wah was (as quoted in The Straits Times, May 6 2009): "Results are not the only criterion to the STTA. A Coach of the Year has to be professional, have integrity, be able to gel the team, and is well-respected by all his players." In any case, nominated coaches from other sports did not win this award. Neither was there a winner for the Sportsman of the Year. Even past winners, Li Jiawei and swimmer Tao Li lost to Jasmine Yeong-Nathan (bowling) for the Sportswoman of the Year title. Perhaps coach Liu's decision not to continue coaching Singapore's women's table team might have sealed STTA's decision not to nominate him. Another coach from China who last coached in Europe, France, I think is now in charge of the women's table tennis team. He came with impressive credentials and his familiarity with the Western play style seems to have helped our women players. But many other countries are improving and they are engaging good coaches, so competition remains very tough. But our girls have experienced success before and know that they will continue to have a chance as long as they remain committed to their goal.
lol, don't misunderstood this thread. Being proud of your country's achievements and share with other people. What is so wrong? No, that doesn't make Singapore better than Malaysia or Australia, rite? We do have our own achievements.
Of course you are right. Singapore certainly has a lot to catch up on and this is a reminder that while we still have a long way to go, the little achievements we made along the way will count towards the end. The achievements of others, especially the much bigger and advanced countries, will spur us on to doing something memorable for ourselves and we should not give up trying to do better. "Success begets success", I would like to think.
There are lots of aussies here mate. Why not open another thread like "Good on ya mate" Am sure there are lot of good stuff down under. Whatdaya reckon mate?
Of course.. ..SQ and its Singapore Girls with their "Sarong Kebaya" uniform, which of course derived from its early days of its predecessor, the MSA (Malaysia-Singapore Airlines)..
Chicken rice also, mah! And now we are exporting to other countries it seems. Well on SIA, just like most of the other national airlines, this global recession and the recent H1N1 "swine" flu pandemic have severely hit SIA's performance. It will be extremely difficult for SIA to remain at the top this year.
The Skytrax World Airline Awards 2009 Talking about performance, the awards have been released: CATHAY PACIFIC WINS 2009 AIRLINE OF THE YEAR AWARD Cathay Pacific Airways picked up the 2009 Airline of the Year award at the first live SKYTRAX World Airline Awards ceremony held in Hamburg, Germany on 1st April 2009. The SKYTRAX World Airline Awards celebrated their tenth anniversary with around 500 people attending the 2009 Awards ceremony in Hamburg to see the winning airlines receive their accolades. Edward Plaisted (CEO of Skytrax) handed out awards in 34 categories - the winners being selected by the airline industry's most important audience, it's customers. More than 16 million air travellers drawn from over 95 different nationalities took part in the 8 month long survey. The awards are recognised around the world for being the only true global independent passenger survey of airline standards. The survey does not receive any third party sponsorship and is entirely funded by Skytrax. Edward Plaisted said: "the Cathay Pacific victory this year is the third occasion in the last ten years they have won this prestige title. A factor behind the Cathay Pacific win is clearly the consistency of product and service that they provide to their customers. Not only are Cathay Pacific satisfying their passengers onboard flights, but the ratings they achieved for their airport operations in Hong Kong also played a considerable part in this success". AIRLINE OF THE YEAR 2009 1. Cathay Pacific 2. Singapore Airlines 3. Asiana Airlines 4. Qatar Airways 5. Emirates 6. Qantas 7. Etihad Airways 8. Air New Zealand 9. Malaysia Airlines 10. Thai Airways Malaysia Airlines took the title of Worlds Best Cabin Staff, this being an amazing achievement and represents the 6th time they have secured this top Award in ten years. Another repeat winner in the Airline Awards, was Emirates who were named winner of Best Airline Inflight Entertainment - for the 6th time in ten years. Singapore Airlines won two key awards, taking the Best Airline First Class and Best First Class Airline Catering titles. Qatar Airways proved to be a popular winner, being named the Best Airline in the Middle East and also walking away with the award for Best Economy Class. performance to take this Award". Etihad Airways was named as Best Business Class, also taking the award for Business Class Catering. Turkish Airlines success being named Best Airline Southern Europe . Elsewhere in Europe, success was enjoyed by Swiss International Air Lines who were voted the Best Airline Europe for 2009, British Airways taking the accolade as Best Transatlantic Airline and CSA Czech Airlines as Best Airline Central Europe. Aegean Airlines leapt up the rankings this year, and it was a delight to see them named as the winner of the Best Regional Airline Europe title. Across the airport environment, honours were shared amongst Virgin Atlantic and Thai Airways. It was a double celebration for Virgin Atlantic, with their London Heathrow Clubhouse enjoying a successive win as Best Business Class lounge, whilst Virgin also took the title as Best Premium Economy Class airline. Thai Airways First Class Lounge at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport take the honour as Best First Class Lounge. In addition to lounge facilities and amenities that many lounges provide, this Thai Airways facility is well known for its Royal Orchid Spa offering a full ranges of service including Foot-massage and traditional Thai massage, 3 Spa Suites with Jacuzzi. Further success in Thailand was enjoyed by Bangkok Airways winning the 2009 award as the Best Regional Airline Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Qantas was named Best Airline Australasia with the Best Low Cost Airline Australasia award going to their subsidiary, JetStar Airways. Korean based Asiana Airlines were in triumphant mood, walking away with the title of Best Transpacific Airline, and in the culinary sector being named winner of the Best Economy Class Catering award. Continental Airlines enjoyed success for a consecutive year after being named winner of the Best Airline North America category, proving to be a popular win at the awards ceremony. LAN Airlines took the title as Best Airline South America in the 2009 awards. South African Airways maintained their grip across the African continent, being named the Best Airline Africa. The Skytrax World Airline Awards recognise the importance of the low cost airline sector, and this was a major part of the passenger survey. AirAsia was named the Worlds Best Low Cost Airline for 2009, ahead of Air Berlin (2nd) and easyJet (3rd). "AirAsia is not only one of the pioneering low cost airlines in Asia, but also the first pure low cost to launch long haul operations (having recently started flying between Malaysia and the UK) and many will be watching this carefully to see if such transformation can be successful" said Plaisted. Although missing the top spot on a global basis, Air Berlin enjoyed success being named as the Best Low Cost Airline in Europe, this being the most competitive low cost airline market in the world. With the last 12 months seeing each of the major airline alliances all adding new member airlines, the 2009 award for Best Airline Alliance was won by Star Alliance.
Specially for you Dato, perhaps one long-time record that few countries can beat Singapore is its government. The People's Action Party (PAP) has governed Singapore since 1959 when it achieved self-government from the British and this party continued to rule after full independence from 1965 till now and still going strong... a political span of about 50 years. Recently I visited the Asian Civilisations Museum to view the Emperor Kangxi exhibition and found out that he was a Mongul who captured a great part of Han China and ruled it for 60 years. During his reign he managed to expand the territory of China and brought prosperity and recognition to China.
Loh, Emperor Kangxi was not a Mongolian or Mongul. He was a Manchu or Manchurian and was the second Qing Emperor of China after succeeding his father the Shunzhi Emperor.
Yes you are right, I wasn't sure and got mixed up with Mongul. He was Manchu, from a relatively small country right up north of China, if I recall rightly from the map shown. Kangxi was apparently a very skilled horseman and archer. The Manchus then were very good soldiers as well. In a huge portrait painting of him his right thumb wears an archer's ring. The impression I got was that the Manchus were not as literate and 'civil' as the Chinese Hans, and were probably looked upon as more barbaric, but Emperor Kangxi took the trouble to study the Chinese classics, Chinese calligraphy and Confucian thoughts and became a learned person himself. In addition he was also willing to learn Western science and mathematics from visiting Jesuit priests and the exchanges and interaction with the West helped him to expand his empire and bring about improved ways of doing things, like in creating ceramic art, and encouraged innovation and invention. Probably Emperor Kangxi was one of China's most enlightened emperors.
Singapore Table Tennis coach, Liu GuoDong, did not even qualified enough to be nominated Coach of the year eventhough he helped Singapore to win a Silver medal in Olympic 2008. What do you say, Uncle Loh?
wow... interesting subject. In other forum, its a heated topic as well. Well, Mas Selamat is caught. Everyone is happy here. His face no longer pasted everywhere. Sickening.. Hope the causeway is less jammed now.
mas has do spore a favour by arresting him hope singapore can learn their lesson this time btw, not sure how can he come out from the jail?? with so tight security??
complacency do happen. now move on and make money on stock market. Singapore market is good now. So don't miss the boat people... long it and invest in moderation. You can have more rackets to smack in a years time. Guaranteed.
Actually your post is not within the thread topic, but since 'Singapore also can' win an Olympic medal, I supposed it is only a slight side-track. As you know the STTA, in not nominating Liu for the "Coach of the Year" award, has already given their reasons. As the national table tennis body they are the best to judge those under their responsibility. However, as an outsider, I must be disappointed that Liu was not nominated and if he had been, I dare say he has high chances of capturing that award, which finally did not go to any other coach that was nominated by their respective NSAs. But just as the Awards Selection Committee had to accept STTA's decision, I also have to bear with it. Singaporeans were in tears (of joy ) when our ladies won the Beijing Olympics team silver medal to be the second best women's team in the world. We can boast of only one Olympic medal, also a silver, but this was captured some 40 years ago, so last year's win was a tremendous relief and pride for Singapore sports. Seriously, no country can expect to beat China in table tennis and it will be a very, very long time if someone can do this. The recent World Championships (?) in Japan proved that no country can come close to overtaking China as she swept all the titles available. Such is China's dominance in table tennis that even their badminton team pales in comparison. I think Liu's predicament is much of his own doing, unfortunately. The Beijing Olympics man's singles 3rd round fiasco was one. I believe he was in charge of the other coaches as well apart from our women's team and if you were the player concerned, without any help at the crucial 3rd round and having to lose to a lower ranked player, you naturally will feel very frustrated and disappointed as the Olympics could mean your only chance in a lifetime as a sports person. Liu did not show much remorse over that incident, instead it seemed bad blood started to emerge in his dealings with the STTA. He even rebuffed the STTA by not accepting the term of his re-employment as coach, particularly his salary which he deemed to be too low. So the lesson is, one may be the best coach in the world technically speaking, but if one's relationship with players and the boss is not congenial and smooth sailing, then one has to bear the consequences. In this case not only IQ and TQ (Technical Quotient) are required, EQ is still relevant, as in most other cases when one wants to be really successful.
My friend, I hope you can keep within the topic. You may wish to start a chit-chat thread on "how to make easy money on the Singapore stock market" and good luck to you.
