A while ago, someone got to the crux of the issue when he said that the garment has put itself on such a high pedestal, pay-wise and otherwise, that anything they do will not measure up to their lofty perch. More so screwups.

To differentiate the many points brought up by various pple, I see a couple of valid points:

1. Dissatisfaction with how money is spent on the event.
a)$387,000,000,000 on one event. Arguements are, money can be better spent on other things, social welfare, hospitals, providing legal aid, etc.
b) no accountability on how the project costs of $104 million shot up more than 3 times to $387 million

2. Dissatisfaction with how local media try to portray the “success” of the event, and minister comments about Singaporeans being “very, very selfish”.

3. Dissatisfaction with the organisation of the event itself, bad organisation, maggots in the food, etc

4. Unhappy with the fact that the citizen has absolutely NO say in whether or not the event should be held, a disconnection between what the govt wants and what the citizens want. (I.e. the thinking that if the govt throws money at an event, pple will have no choice but to support it)

5. Unhappy with bus lanes specially designated for the YOG buses, fines imposed, and aggressive, dangerous driving by certain YOG bus drivers.

6. Dissatisfaction that the event seems to be for the benefit of non-Singaporeans, rather than Singaporeans. Recent poll indicating that 90% of Singaporeans can’t be bothered about the event at all should send a clear indication about the support and the impact of the event.

I’m not saying I agree with all the points, but merely classifying them. Though personally I’m not interested in sports, but that’s a personal reason. But then again, I bet many pple aren’t interested in sports either, aside form soccer.

Personally, even though I think YOG is a great thing and I am proud that Singapore is the first to to host it, I can see why others don’t feel that way. However, in YOG itself, there are merits. If we stop picking on the bad points, you would have seen some good things.

Also currently for my school, we don’t need to buy the tickets, and there are even some sports games that have been really popular, that many people were left disappointed because they couldn’t get the tickets.

What I’m saying is that yes the YOG may not be perfect, but please give it some time before we judge the whole thing. Remember, Singapore is ultimately still a very very very small country, we should be proud that we can actually host it.

Furthermore, the budget overruns are typical of any big events. Look at the London 2012 olympics and the 2010 Vancouver winter olympics. Common sense should tell you that with the economy always fluctuating, prices are never constant. Then comes the inherent difficulty of organizing an event on this scale, particularly when it seems to be our first time.

This year Singapore should not have bid for it. too many events clashing. World Cup, Commonwealth Games , World Youth championship in Hawali. Why must always be the first?!!. I rather Singapore bid for Asian games. It will be better

I’m afraid you have to excuse them.
How to plan when rain is a 50 year
once phenomenon?

saw some wear poncho waiting for the flame to arrive at CHIJ Toa Payoh, but those running, run despite the rain, no welfare.

i guess with TV & news crew around, the show must go on? just like the ruling elites, typical of people who do not plan for incliment weather- no back-up plan.

=P

Amongst his woes of how cock-up the entire operations is, is how PICO is screwing up the fabrication of those purple directional boards you see dotted around the island these days. And I quote:

“Seems like they can’t get it done properly and on time, then we have to do it ourselves.”

Now wonder budget can triple the original estimate if the jobs were awarded to incompetent vendors in the first place!