Are we really proud of the sliver ?

In the same night, same moment where our National women's table tennis team won the long-awaited sliver medal in the team event, our neighbouring Malaysia also ended their 12 year wait by clinching sliver too, courtesy of their very own World no.2 shuttler Lee Chong Wei in Badminton's men singles. But the difference is, while Lee Chong Wei is a locally-born Malaysian who grew up in Perak, the members of our sliver-winning team are China-born Singaporeans.

Well, I am glad that Singapore finally clinched a sliver in the Beijing Olympics after such 48 years of wait, but for some of my friends whom I know, they are not joyful about this national glory. The reasons are obvious.

"Not proud of it when they are foreign talents..."

"This is not a Singapore team."

etc... etc...

But shouldn't we appreciate these paddlers and other non-local born athletes for bringing glory to their adopted nation?...at least they worked and fought hard to win medals for the country, putting Singapore into the World map of sports. Furthermore think about it... How many local athletes will have such will and determination like them? How many local athletes are willing to commit themselves to train full-time and dedicated themselves to the sports whole-day long just to bring glory for Singapore? Already National Service in Singapore is getting easier year after year, yet there are still people who are complaining over silly little matters, even to the extent of calling up their mums...(Just like O.)

I am not criticising my own people for not working as hard as these foreign talents. There are do some local athletes who are training full-time and working as hard as them...just that we should really appreciate these foreign-born athletes who bring victories for the country, and not labelling them as "foreign-talents". And I can say there are foreign-born athletes who are looking more like Singaporeans, rather than nationals of where they born. Sportsman/woman such as Tao Li, who recently finished 5th in Swimming... I can tell she does more have a Singapore-speaking accent based on what I have seen on TV.

While these foreign-talents will continue to bring more glories to their adopted country in the years to come, I also hope that our local-born athletes, most notably of the national sailing team, can bring victories that can send Singapore to the world stage.

By then hopefully, those who do have a bad opinion about "Foreign-Talent Scheme", will not be saying words like, "Not proud of it".