As I walk along..

The Athens Olympic Game was finally closed on Sunday night after more than two weeks of intense competions. I enjoyed watching the Olympic Games. To see these top sportsmen and sportswomen performing at their best is sheer exhilarating. You got to see their expressions when they won a race or a competition. These were expressions of triumph, joy and relieve. It was the moment when their dreams were realised. It was the moment of reward for those months and years of gruelling training under the extreme conditions. It was the moment of reward where family sacrifices, community encouragement and support from sponsors and governments. I congratulate those who got gold, silver or bronze medals during the competition. I also admire many others who missed out but have performed well. For those who have trained hard on their own to get to Games, often without much government support, they too have achieved in their own ways.

During the game, I noticed there were some who not only had scored gold medals, but also had golden heart. Like the woman swimmer from Poland, Otylia Jedrzejczak. After obtaining a gold medal in the women 200 meter butterfly and a silver medal in the 400 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly, she announced that she was going to auction her gold medal to help raise fund for children with leukaemia. She was reported saying “It is hard to part with the medal, but that is where my heart tells me to.” What a golden girl.

In another event, the American Michael Phelps after winning 5 gold medals in the pool, decided to give up his position to his team mate Ian Croker to swim the medley relay. The team later won a gold medal for that event. It could have been his sixth gold on the podium. He had been magnanimous to allow his team mate to shine. What a great mate.

In the men’s 3000 meter steeplechase final event, the three Kenyan runners were the first three runners towards the finishing line. They were the leader Ezekiel Kemboi, the second in place, Birmin Kipruto and the third in place, Paul Kipsiele Koech. Sensing that the third Kenyan runner Paul Kipsiele Koech was in danger of been overtaken by the forth runner from Qatar, the leader Ezekiel Kemboi slowed down in the final straits towards the finishing line to encourage his country man to hurry up. They finished up grapping all gold, silver and bronze. What a magnificent gesture of mateship.

Also noticeable was that smiling kids and toddlers were joining their father or mother on the podium to receive the medal won. Needless to say, to train and compete in such a demanding event like the Olympic required not only determination and hard work from the athletics themselves, family and community support, understanding and sacrifices are vital to enable the athletics to concentrate and focus for the success. To me the Athens Olympic was not only a sports event, it was also a family affairs.

To those athletics who participated in the Athens Olympic and did not get a medal, they had by themselves achieved gold in their own way, being having successfully trained and competed against the world’s best. The world’s spectators do appreciate their effort and participation. My congratulation to them too.

The 28th Olympic Game was declared opened early today at Athens with a spectacular opening ceremony featuring both the ancient and the modern Greece spirit and aspiration. This event again rekindled the Olympic flame and the Olympic spirit. Despite all odds and criticism, Athens managed to rise to the occasion to show to the world that they were capable of hosting this international event. Their determination and hard work had paid it off.
Well done Athens and all who contributed to the success of this event. May the world uphold the spirit of Olympic in ensuring fair competition in friendly atmosphere. May the world refrain from competing with military might. Together, lets embrace the Spirit of Olympic and make the world a safer place.

A young man once asked me a question on an issue. So I replied him with an answer based on my understanding on the issue and the information that I had. When I finished, he then asked me whether I was sure of my answer. I told him that based on what I knew, I was pretty sure about that. He then further asked me whether I would bet my life on the answer I had given. As I have only one life and being a non-gambler, I told him that I would not bet my life on the answer nor would I bet my life on anything else. The young man then said that since I could not bet my life on it, what I said was not the truth and that I must be lying and giving him the incorrect answer.

The incident left me pondering. What is actually the truth? When we say something or when we provide certain information, we do that in good faith believing that what we say is the truth or a true version of an issue. This depends on the amount of information we have, and how details these information are. Sometimes, over a period of time, events happened long ago become blurred in our minds and we cannot recollect the exact details in total complete accuracy. So when we recount those events, are we telling the truth or are we lying?

Most of the times, we say something believing that it is true based on the existing believe, policy, rules and regulations. But these believe and rules are subject to change with time. So what is true yesterday may be wrong today. For instant, it was true that we must pay our vehicle registration by queuing up at the Vehicle Registration Department yesterday. Today, it is no longer true, because we can now pay over the Internet without queuing up. Six hundred years ago, it was true that the sun revolved around the earth because everybody could see it was the case. Today, we believe that the earth rotates around the sun.

For some people, when an imagination is played too often in their minds, the dream and imagination appears to be true. So when a person speaks the truth, it cannot be certain that the truth is based on established facts and events or based on a firm set of believe. Over times, information, data, details, dream, believe, rules, guidelines, expectations, and all the rest become blended as one. The boundaries among them are blurred. Therefore, in a true version of event, there are bound to be some details that are not true. It would be up to the listeners to analyse and judge the extent of truthfulness in any event.

Jef is an officer working in another division of our organisation. Well, Jef had been constantly whinging about the high cost of making overseas calls. Obviously, he referred to his home telephone calls to his relatives overseas. I have personally heard Jef telling this sad tale him on many occasions. Well, Jef must be suffering badly from constantly receiving high telephone bills.
So one day, I introduced Jef to the wonderful world of prepaid telephone cards. Well, Jef used to pay around $2 per minute for his phone call to India. With the prepaid phone card, which had a local access telephone number and a password, the cost was a mere 5 cents per minute. This worked out to be about 2.5% of what he previously paid. There were so many brands of phone cards being sold at that Newsagency and Jef a considerable amount of time looking at the features of each card. Even that, it took a lot of explanation from the shopkeeper to convince Jef to buy a $10 prepaid phone card. The shopkeeper also handed him a brochure explaining the use of the card.
Three weeks later, I asked Jef about the phone card trying to find out whether the quality of the sound transmission was satisfactory. It was not uncommon to find sound interference during telephone conversation when using a certain type of cards. To my surprise, Jef said that he was yet to use the card as he was still reading the brochure to ascertain the exact meanings of the terms and conditions. He said that it appeared to him the charges would be higher than the 5 cents per minute if used during peak hours but the period designated for peak hours was not very clear from the brochure. In addition, there was really no urgent issue that he needed to talk to his relatives overseas.
I felt sorry for the man. It took him three weeks to deliberate on the best way to get the best value out of an item worth $10. How much times would he need to deliberate on buying a car or a house? I am doubtful as to how a man who is unable to make up his mind on simple issue can contribute to his organisation effectively. How he managed his everyday life would be a greater mystery to me. Well, Jef was lucky that he had worked for the last 30 years in an organisation which a no-forced-redundancy policy, where union was playing a crucial role. He retires next month and remains a bachelor.