Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
- 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings wlike eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
- Isaiah 40:30-31

¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. - 1 Peter 5:5-11

Hi Juleat

Pls find Christopher's eticket

Cheers!

Why hello peoples of the round earth (for it is round indeed!).

I think it's really interesting the number of times you can come across forums where perfectly innocent articles get turned rather quickly into flaming! Be it flaming the subject matter (for the subject matter cannot flame back what the subject matter knows not of, which works for the poster), or flaming -each other- (oh yes that personal favourite), temperatures do tend to rise as people get up close and personal. Such unbridled intimacy.

Anyway, might I just interject with a preposition that perhaps, just perhaps, it is impossible for any one person to be entirely unblinded in his or her viewpoints. Objective objectivity is perhaps a job best left to God, for we fallible humans tend to grapple unsuccessfully with it. I know I'm guilty many times, and deep down, I'm pretty sure you guys know you are too. At the end of the day, IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER does it? For a topic reserved for dear Ms. LJW, we've certainly come a long way, just like Singapore has.

Off the cuff, be brutally honest about it. While you type cool words and phrases which speak superficially of not caring what others think, of being objective, of not needing to justify what has or has not been said, you sit at that same terminal with your blood pressure rising slightly (or not so slightly), entertaining thoughts of "that person needs to get a cup of stfu", and the likes. Do you not notice that posts regarding the subject matter have tapered off, leaving only posts reeking of angst and a strong need for justification?

Now, let's see why this see-saw exchange of whispered love letters has proliferated to such an extent, each post essentially trying to argue the one or two same points that seemed to have been covered approximately 23960201 posts before that. Gentlemen, let me introduce the issue of PRIDE! Woo hoo, that great stumbling block of (almost) great men and women. Each post tells me this: I must win this argument. Here's how it goes.

A: I win.
B: NO I WIN, LOSER *makes loser gesture*
A: HA! See right here, I win!
B: LOL! Pay some attention here, yes right here, in fine print. I think it says, i-w-i-n.

Right. As you can see it could go on forever, and who's to say who's right and wrong? Well, we're all guilty if you think about it. It has been written that we should avoid pointing out the speck in our neighbour's eye while ignoring the plank in our own. The thing is, we should probably be taking the positives out of others statements and ignoring the negatives that do not exactly contribute anything to anyone. Look beyond your nose and you might see the other's viewpoint. Take a step into those shoes and you might just see how right you've been all this while.
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LJW, revered silver medallist.

Being a celebrity of sorts is not easy. Your life is subject to public scrutiny by everyone and their grandmas right down to the microscopicest detail. However, her underlying intentions and motivations hardly differ from any one of us. If your intentions and motivations are founded on the wrong things, then you run the risk of running into the wrong situations. If she marries for money, then love she has not of. Right from the start, to mine blinded eyes anyhow, for I do not know her, it would seem like Susilo was always the more genuine person, someone who would be more likely to want a real relationship in a relationship. It is my personal belief that it is for his greater good that he saw it himself in the end and pulled out before more than his hair got singed.

A relation between a man and woman are so complicated and intimate that surely there are more factors to consider than whether they are compatible on the sporting field, or whether he is rich and she is poor. Therefore, it is with great regret I would have to agree that the materialistic society that is Singapore would probably not bode very well for some girls and guys who get together for the wrong reasons.

There was a point made about Susilo being a poorer sportsperson than LJW. Who's to say what that constitutes? In absolute terms, I guess medals are what counts at the end of the day. So I guess that would work for you if you only think materially. In that respect, LJW definitely shines on more than Susilo. What is the definition of a sportsman? Is it only about medals? Maybe. Is it about who trains harder? Perhaps. How about character and attitude, the whole package? Hmmm no idea. What if I was the world champion of lawn bowling? Am I a better sportsman than LJW (lowly silver-medal minion muahaha)? Is my chosen sport of lawn bowling inferior to say, table tennis or badminton? Subsequently, how do badminton and table tennis measure up to each other? It all depends on your definition of sportsman. I would be loathe to propose either Susilo or LJW as a superior sports person.

But I digress. and I am about to digress further. =D I agree that Singapore should not be cheating and pulling all these talents in to train. As a small nation, it is natural that our gene pool is not as hardcore as that of say, China. We should constantly seek to improve our fighting chance of medals, but without 'cheating'. Employ the foreign coaches sure, spend the money on sport science! But just bringing them in defeats the whole purpose of the journey. Sure, if these talents happen to have taken up residence in Singapore and are proud to represent us, by all means (like Susilo). Do successful x-country schools like Chinese High and Victoria School or netball teams like St Margarets Primary get super talents every year, enabling them to win year after year? No. They have some decent talent, and they do what it takes to develop that talent into something that wins. That's what we should be doing here, humbly working to constantly bring out the best in the best that we've got. It does not matter if we do not win a medal for the next 35030825 years. What matters is we try! Placing more emphasis on a sporting society would definitely help us discover more talent as more kids start out in sport and discover areas that they've been blessed in. Beautiful.

Anyway, coming back to dear LJW. As has been stated numerous times, it matters not to us what she does, though some actions might be more damaging to her reputation than others because of the visibility that our country affords her. It is after all her life, and she can do whatever she wants to that she deems the best way forward for her, and just like the next humanoid, we are hardly in a position to judge her for behaving that way. It might be bad bad behaviour, but the fact we're guilty on a daily basis as well only helps us identify better with that which we criticise people with. Anyway, the China man looks to be a hamsum kid, and if they really are in love, AWESOME. If they aren't, uh, allllllright. May her life be a sweet fragrance unto her and all those around her, haha. There's a lot that I wanted to speak on but I realise I typed a good amount already + I do forget some points. Forgive me. And please kids, play nice! kthnxbye.