Olympics 2008

Did you watch the recent 2008 Olympics? It was one that I followed more closely than all the rest. Not an avid fan, just anxious and excited over the results of the few sports that I had watched.

I've never really liked or enjoyed watching sports - tennis, soccer, track and field, etc. But this time round, I sat on the edge of chair as I watched the Singapore women team challenged and fought ferociously with the Korean women team in table tennis. I was staring hard at the loopholes that the China men team had in their defence in basketball. Not to mention the anxiety I felt over how a 0.2 or 0.5 mark in the 3m / 10m dive can determine if the diver could return home as the holder of a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal.... or none at all.

Each athlete had spent thousands of hours over these last 4 years (after the last Olympics) just to qualify in competing with international sportsmen (& sportswomen) in their specific field. All for that one moment of performance, which can determine if there's chance of qualifying for the finals before fighting to bring home a medal, thus bringing glory to the nation and home.

I must say that I salute each athlete, whether a medalist or not, for his/her hard work, time and sacrifices made to represent the nation at this Olympics. Not forgetting those who had worked hard backstage, making it possible for everyone, anyone around the globe to be able to sit in the comfort of home, enjoying each event, put up by these dedicated and talented sportspeople.

Well done!

Having Babies....

Did you watch / listen / read what PM Lee said during the National Day Rally?

One of the issues he addressed was the birthrate of Singaporeans. In case you're not aware, the birthrate of Singaporeans is around 1.29 per person. That's pretty low, isn't it? So, the government is trying their best to encourage more couples to have babies, through incentives such as (increasing) baby bonus, ang bao for first-time parents, more childcare leave, etc.

A colleague has been mulling over registering her firstborn in a primary school for the coming year. As I realised, this is one of those stages that as parents, you tear your hair off and crack your brains and have sleepless nights. Yes, it's the P1 registration. The dilemma of deciding which school to register your child in, the agony of the 3-day waiting period to see if the school of your choice / registration has to go through balloting due to overwhelming response, and so on, so forth. She has difficulties in planning childcare arrangement too. So, when I heard the PM talking about helping the parents with the various challenges, I instantly SMS her. We continued with this topic in the office today. At the end of our conversation / discussion, she said this "Those who want to have children, will do so with or without the incentives. Those who do not want to have children, will not, even with these incentives. Having these incentives as the dangling carrot does not help at all."

Hmm... well, I thought at least the incentives are a positive factor in the decision process.... Or are they not? Parents, married couples with no children yet, what say you?