Singapore barred by own NOC from competition in Asian Games.

[Javaness]

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

[Harleqin]

I simply cannot imagine what they are thinking. It reminds me of the nigerian president.

[schultz]

:shock:

I simply cannot imagine what they are thinking. It reminds me of the nigerian president.

So sad.

"Let's ban our players from being able to participate, because that will make them better."

[topazg]

My only comment is, shocking that this sounds, every country is culturally different and sees fairness in different ways.

I don't know how this decision is viewed by the relevant parties within Singapore itself, and that seems more important than the petitioner and our Westernised view that the situation is terrible.

I would only sign it with a belief that the "ruling party" (for want of a better term) is making this decision in the minority, and that the players / athletes that they are supposed to represent are unhappy with the situation.

[Hushfield]

<cartman voice>lame!</cartman voice>

Also, the petition to support these players doesn't seem to be going all that well, only 245 people signed so far. I'm a little hesitant to sign it myself because, as Topazg pointed out, there might be some background to this decision I am missing. With the info I currently have, though, it just seems like an unfair ruling and an incomprehensible mistake by the SNOC. So I'm signing it anyway.

[tapir]

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

There is at least one contributor from singapore at L19, I would be very interested in his comments. Yee Fan?

[Bantari]

My only comment is, shocking that this sounds, every country is culturally different and sees fairness in different ways.

I don't know how this decision is viewed by the relevant parties within Singapore itself, and that seems more important than the petitioner and our Westernised view that the situation is terrible.

I would only sign it with a belief that the "ruling party" (for want of a better term) is making this decision in the minority, and that the players / athletes that they are supposed to represent are unhappy with the situation.

I fully agree with the above.

I don't understand this decision, but it seems to me that no attempt was made to understand it by anybody, or at least no details are given rather than 'they rejected it' and then people get outraged. I can think of quite a few good reasons such decision can be made... monetary, for example (we can only possibly finance and send X teams, and some just have to be left out), and so on. So, until further details are given, I do not see any reason not to assume that 'they had good reasons'... or not. In any case - too little info to start condemning.

[Hushfield]

I don't understand this decision, but it seems to me that no attempt was made to understand it by anybody, or at least no details are given rather than 'they rejected it' and then people get outraged. I can think of quite a few good reasons such decision can be made... monetary, for example (we can only possibly finance and send X teams, and some just have to be left out), and so on. So, until further details are given, I do not see any reason not to assume that 'they had good reasons'... or not. In any case - too little info to start condemning.

At least some of the info you say is missing was present in the text Javaness linked to. So the monetary reason is not valid:

The team’s offer to pay for all their expenses has also rejected by SNOC.

[Bantari]

I don't understand this decision, but it seems to me that no attempt was made to understand it by anybody, or at least no details are given rather than 'they rejected it' and then people get outraged. I can think of quite a few good reasons such decision can be made... monetary, for example (we can only possibly finance and send X teams, and some just have to be left out), and so on. So, until further details are given, I do not see any reason not to assume that 'they had good reasons'... or not. In any case - too little info to start condemning.

At least some of the info you say is missing was present in the text Javaness linked to. So the monetary reason is not valid:

The team’s offer to pay for all their expenses has also rejected by SNOC.

Monetary reason was just an example, and even if not valid, there might be other reasons.
We have only heard one side of the story, as far as I can see.

But then, I am really not invested in all that, so should probably have no opinion. Or at least keep quiet. Sorry.

[kokomi]

Given these results, SNOC (Singapore National Olympics Council) has rejected the application by the Weiqi team to compete for the upcoming Asian Games based on their guidelines that a team must be among the top 6 in order to qualify for a place to represent Singapore.

The reason of the rejection was said on the petition

[kokomi]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/07/12 ... game-2010/

Some comments from local people that we can see how they think.

[Hushfield]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/07/12/snoc-no-to-national-weiqi-team-competing-in-the-forthcoming-asian-game-2010/

Some comments from local people that we can see how they think.

There are some very, very disturbing comments on that list. Seems like competitive go has a long way to go before it will be accepted by some of these people as an actual endeavor worth pursuing.

Regarding the denial by the SNOC, there seems to be a political issue involved. A lot of the comments mention the government's preference for importing foreign talent in other competitive disciplines besides go. Apparently, some of the people posting there feel like an all-Singapore team would disprove the government's policy of looking for talent elsewhere. That is a pretty serious accusation, but governing bodies are made up of people after all, so I would not be surprised if this decision is an instance of stubbornly denying one's policies are not valid (in a particular area).

[topazg]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/07/12/snoc-no-to-national-weiqi-team-competing-in-the-forthcoming-asian-game-2010/

Some comments from local people that we can see how they think.

Thanks for posting this, very interesting. It has reinforced my desire to stay out of this one, talk about politically hot.

[Hushfield]

It has reinforced my desire to stay out of this one, talk about politically hot.

You can say that again. Though I don't think that just because a situation is politically hot go players should turn a blind eye if their fellow players are being treated in this way. Get informed, develop an opinion, then act accordingly. Doing nothing is moving backward I say.

[topazg]

It has reinforced my desire to stay out of this one, talk about politically hot.

You can say that again. Though I don't think that just because a situation is politically hot go players should turn a blind eye if their fellow players are being treated in this way. Get informed, develop an opinion, then act accordingly. Doing nothing is moving backward I say.

Maybe you misunderstand my reasoning for staying out of it. This is not only a hot topic, but one which I, as an outsider, clearly understand a very small fraction of the cultural picture behind it, and have little easy chance of being informed further from a non-partisan source. Therefore I cannot be sure that any involvement I would take would help rather than hinder, therefore I choose not to get involved.