#9 -- Feel no pride for the country lah! Or maybe she forgot. Thought she was actually holding a bamboo with her bedsheet out to sun!

#10 -- C'mon. Be realistic! You think our Chinese paddlers so noble to represent S'pore if not for the monetary rewards? Since gotta pay them $$$ to fly our flag, so must also reward the Paralympians with a little money lah! That's the real reason for the disparity. 'yi-shi,yi-shi' only!

Paralympics should be banned. It is a cruelty of first order. It is a heartless person's menial mentality to watch and enjoy handicapped, disabled people run, jump or swim. The organisers should be sent for religious teaching.

More or Less Singaporean?

I was elated by the success of our paralympians at the Beijing Paralympic Games. Laurentia Tan and Yip Pin Xiu have done Singapore proud by winning the nation’s first medals at the Games. The Majulah Singapura was played for the first time ever when Yip Pin Xiu snatched the 50m backstroke gold medal in style. I couldn’t agree more with the other forum comments about the unequal treatment given to the paralympians in terms of monetary awards and media coverage. I believe this has to do with the economics underlying the popularity of the event and the amount of sponsorship that it can attract. But what occurs to me is the pride from within that I have for these Singaporeans. There was minimal media coverage of the Paralympic Games in the first place. There was no visual news of the public gathering around at coffee shops or students from sport schools watching the finals together. No national identity crisis, reassurances, or reinforcements whatsoever. No ‘live’ coverage of any sort. Yet, the sense of ‘Singaporean-ness’ was intense when news of the athletes’ achievement appeared, albeit silently in the form of footnotes on the television screen. Are Laurentia Tan and Yip Pin Xiu more Singaporean than the Singapore women table-tennis team? But aren’t the members of the table-tennis team who won the silver medal at the Olympic Games more or less Singaporeans? Well, at least that is what they say. But for now, let us cheer the Singapore paralympians. Never mind the lesser media coverage or the monetary awards. Most importantly, you’ve done Singaporeans proud! And that is priceless.