Skip to main content

Z-Z-Z-Z-Zoom...

There was an article in yesterday's ST about the lack of local buzz about this Sunday's historic race. I fully agree with the journalist that this is partly due to the lack of publicity directed at us locals (there was a clip of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber visiting a hawker centre, looking at the circuit from up high, etc on Eurosports but has there been anything more than what's in the daily news broadcast here?) and the way the F1 race has been presented as little more than a big economic opportunity.

Hope no one crashes into here and our pre-F1 heritage can be preserved for posterity

We all know there are many, many speedsters on and off the expressways but this doesn't necessarily translate into a very large number of F1 fans. And if one isn't an F1 fan, one just isn't a fan. How to be interested in something one is not interested in? Even if you had the World Cup (soccer) or Olympics here, some people wouldn't care two hoots.

The fact is we remain a not exactly sports-loving nation. It's very hard to drum up enthusiasm for sports when people are ambivalent or disinterested. And even when you do get some enthusiasm up in the air, it seems a little artificial. Like the reported 'euphoria' that enveloped the nation with that table tennis medal. I must confess that I was not part of the euphoria. I mean, I appreciate it is a great achievement to win Olympic honours and I'm glad we have another medal to our name but I definitely wasn't euphoric.

In fact, the only sporting things I've really cared about these two weeks were:
a) whether the boy wants to learn squash or tennis
b) Argentina vs Russia and Spain vs USA in the Davis Cup (wow, the atmosphere was really festive in Madrid, and those super-enthusiastic trumpet- and drum-playing supporters were amusing, though the Americans probably didn't find them so...)
c) David Ferrer and Andy Roddick then flew over to the China Open (and Ferrer has already lost! Aiyoh, that man is so inconsistent...)


Zheng Jie is still in the running at the China Open

So, I will also confess that I'm not an F1 fan and I really couldn't care any hoots if the race was held here or not. But of course I'll watch it (on TV, i.e.) since it will be here. I've watched parts of a couple of 'live' F1 telecasts and they were heart-stopping.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan
4 comments
Read more

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the
3 comments
Read more

No wonder

According to a poll of about 300 people, reported in yesterday's Sunday Times, (how come nobody ever asks me these things?) , the Seven Wonders of Singapore are (in order of merit): 1. The Esplanade (a whopping 82 votes) 2. Changi Airport (53 votes) 3. Sentosa 4. The Merlion 5. The Singapore River 6. Food 7. Mount Faber and LKY (tie - 10 votes each) Some 'offbeat choices' which didn't make it to the top 7: aunties selling tissue paper at coffee shops, Singlish, kiasuism, 4D-Toto outlets and Newater (said someone of Newater: 'We are probably the only country with branded recycled sewage.' Well said, ha ha.). Maybe it's a personal bias but I feel that a 'Wonder' must also have strong historical and cultural/social value (so I'm rather miffed that Angkor Wat didn't make it to the 7 Wonders of the World; in fact it was never in the running for the top 7). Therefore, these choices are a little too modern for me. The Esplanade, for example, is a
8 comments
Read more