Jia Wei lost the bronze medal in table tennis todae....almost couldnt bare to watch e game....so scary...... but still, she did a great job, keep it up! maybe during the next olympics, singapore will finally get a medal..... :) plus, ronald and xueling not bad too..... sg definately got chance.

ha...i realized this post is the exact opp of my friend's one.... whilst he doesnt salute foreign talents, i think that they deserve much more than wat singaporeans have been giving them these few years. so wat if they came frm a different soil? our ancestors all came from various parts of the world, but was there anyone who denied them a chance to be singaporean? no. its sad that we've become so steeped in the notion that to be truly singaporean, u must be born and raised here. i was born in singapore, but i'm a malaysian. i was raised here, but im a malaysian. does that makes me any less malaysian? whether u're singaporean, malaysian, chinese, taiwanese, australian, american.... they're just words which dont mean anything if u'r heart isnt in it. wad i admire most abt ppl like jia wei is that they actually gave up their lives back home, uprooted and came to singapore, leaving behind family, friends, and the life back there to a completely new one where they r mainly alone and in a totally diff environment. yet they adapt, and not only tt, they must have felt sth which connects them to this lil island to want to be singaporean. it must not have been easy. for me, i've got my family here, i've got my friends here, yet when i go back to malaysia, i feel so wierd and out-of-place amongst my cousins. like an outsider. they bond and click together, they r so close they're like brothers and sisters, but i feel like only the friend to them.... it gets so bad sometimes that i'd wish i was brought up there, so that i can click w em... i see my own friends getting along so well w their cousins, and i look at me. i envy them.... only recently, since they all started using msn often, do we chat, and we begin to open up to each other more..... for the most part of my 18 yrs of life, i have nvr felt as close to them as i do now...... if i feel like this, w my relatives juz living across the crossway, then how does jia wei feel? so much more worse.... esp since she lived w them, clicked w them when she was a child....and giving all tt up for sg..... how many of us, juz going overseas to study, miss our family and friends and wadeva back home? juz 3 years and we moan, groan and cry...... compared to e foreign talents, wat we feel muz be but a minor reflection of wad they feel..... yet instead of opening up our arms to welcome them and give them our support, we criticize them, doubt them and push them away, bcos they r not 'singaporean'.

isnt it an irony then, tt i know of so many singaporeans who will not hesitate to criticize their own country, to say so many bad things abt their homeland, who do not feel singaporean, or rather, do not want to be singaporean, who feel nth during national day other than joy tt its a public holiday, the national anthem and the pledge means nth to em? i remb standing up for sg when they criticized their own ctry, and i was a malaysian then. ironic. so, why do we treat others who r willing to give up their own nationality and embrace singapore as home, where they feel connected to this island, where they feel proud singing the anthem, reciting the pledge, carrying our flag and wearing our colours? why should we doubt them, on what grounds and what right have we? bcos for some of e ppl, we know that they r actually more singaporean than another singaporean? aren't they then, the true singaporean? why deny them this?

given, nth feels better than having singapore-born, bred and raised singaporeans making it big in the international arena and gaining recognition for our home. definately, tt is wad all strive for. but until tt day comes, we have foreign talents tt are willing to give their all for this ctry. it isnt juz the fame, money and recognition tt comes w it, if they really wanted these only, they could have chosen any other country in the world, why singapore, a country reportedly thought to not be able to compete in the international sporting arena? sth in them muz have felt tt yes, singapore deserves to be recognised for sports, yes we can do it, and they r actually opening up the doorway for future singaporeans. let us embrace them then, for their courage, their sportsmanship, their loyalty, let us give them our support and let us work hand-in-hand w them, to bring singapore to greater heights.

to these talents, i salute you!