support for the Azzurri

Being a fan ever since Roberto Baggio played in the World Cup 1994, I will continue to support the Azzurri. My bet is on the Italy to play to the final.

tennis over football

Everyone is talking about World Cup. Even people who knows little about football or its players. My mind is on football too but my heart is at the French Open.

Many tennis fans including myself are expecting the battle of the century in the French Open final between Federer and Nadal. As a Nadal supporter, I definitely hope Nalbandian will conquer Federer on the clay court today. Seriously, I couldn't handle the pressure anymore watching Federer and Nadal playing in the final for the fourth time this year. Eventhough Nadal has the advantage based on their head-to-head series, I believe Federer is very confident and ready more than ever before to take on Nadal if they play in the final.

Hopefully Nalbandian will put up a good fight against Federer and I'll have a peaceful night watching the opening ceremony of World Cup. As for the match between Nadal and Ljubicic, which followed after that, I'm pretty confident that Nadal will have an easy win.

first time lucky

Last week was the first time I really sit down and watch the show Samsung Sports World on AXN channel 17. The hosts were analysing the World Cup teams and I find it pretty interesting. Then there were contests with attractive gifts. I thought one of the prizes was a trip to watch the World Cup quarterfinal. I didn't really listen carefully and I decided to join all three contests on their website.

Yesterday, while waiting for dinner, suddenly I was awaken by the announcement of my name on the show. My sister was with me. And I told her I could be the winner of a trip to watch the World Cup quarterfinal. However, I still wasn't sure what I have won and decided to wait for the repeat at 12 midnight instead of online and check the result.

So, the truth is, I have won Samsung Sports World merchandise and no World Cup trip. There is only a party and all paid expenses to Club Med Bintan to watch the quarterfinal. The contest is still open and I've submitted my entry last week. Now, I'm still not sure what merchandise I have won but at least I have something to cheer about before the World Cup starts tomorrow.

when languages become excuses

Blaming employers for hiring people with proficiency in Mandarin is not the right way to tackle unemployment issue in this country.

Instead of labelling Mandarin requirement as discriminatory, our politicians should take action and encourage the learning of the most widely-spoken language in the world.

I truly agree that we should prioritize Malay language and English. However, Malaysia, after gaining independence for almost 49 years and all races living under one roof, we are still not learning each other languages. How many Chinese know how to speak Tamil? How many Indian able to speak Mandarin? And how many Malay know how to speak Mandarin and Tamil? How about Chinese and Indian who can speak fluent Malay language?

How can we talk about globalisation, peace and harmony when we are making excuses of not learning each other languages?