Taekwondo tragedy

A reader wrote to the ST forum online on the tragedy concerning the participant who died in a taekwondo competition recently.

MR LIM Teong Chin, general manager of the Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF), argued in his letter on Monday, 'Taekwondo tragedy could have been avoided if only...', that the unfortunate accident could have been avoided if the People's Association (PA) continued to engage instructors from the STF only. However, he seems more interested in preaching non-safety-related merits of being a member of the STF.

At no point in his letter did Mr Lim point out any specific lapses in safety or procedures that led to the tragedy specifically because of the absence of STF instructors. Instead, he dwells on the importance of being a member of the STF in getting recognised grades and having the opportunity to represent Singapore in high-profile tournaments, and takes the PA to task for engaging non-STF instructors.

Liew Chin Wen
ST forum online, 4 Sep 2009

I sent my son for taekwondo training when he started Primary 1 because, being a boy, I wanted him to grow up tough and fit and have some knowledge of self-defence, not only that, but also to instill discipline and train his reflexes.

Recently, the papers reported about the death of a participant in a competition after his opponent kicked him in or near his head. As usual, after such incidences, the relevant authorities will talk about the guidelines and safety rules and stressed on adherence to these rules.

When my son saw the article, he said, "b.s., when we went for competition, our instructor told us to aim for the head as that would help us to score points". There was no such thing as matching opponents with same belts or same age groups. In one competition, he was up against an opponent, who was not only several belts higher than him, but was also older and bigger than him. My son was kicked in the mouth and they only stopped the match when they saw that he was bleeding.

Every so often, we come across situations where guidelines, safety rules and regulations were put in place without much foresight. When things go wrong, sometimes these rule setters not only do not admit to their lack of foresight, but also turned round and started shifting the blame.

Sometimes, I wonder how much does it take to admit to a mistake. Do saving dollars and reputation (face) matter more than having a clear conscience?

Value of 'face'

On Wednesday and Thursday, I passed by a private house where a funeral wake was ongoing.

The first thing I noticed was the dozens of floral wreaths displayed - an indication of prominence and social standing.

In my opinion, sending a wreath or scroll to the family of a deceased is only a public showing of support and contribution to the deceased's family. It does nothing to help the family in monetary terms, like defraying the cost of the funeral, or in case the deceased was the sole breadwinner, help the family with the unexpected financial crisis. On the other hand, if the family is financially independent, monetary contribution could give them the freedom to re-direct the funds to other meaningful causes.

The only people who gained from this form of contribution are the giver itself, in terms of 'face', the florists and the nurseries, and the maker of scrolls. Unfortuantely, this practice is the norm, especially in the business world, where 'face saving' is of paramount importance.

I am not saying that we should all do away other forms of contributions and stick to monetary ones only, as it is a matter of preference. And for businesses, this gives them publicity too. I just feel that it is a waste as all those stuff are on display for a few days only, until the funeral, and the cost of those wreaths and scrolls could come to thousands of dollars. From my guess, those that I saw from this wake alone, could easily come to $15k to $20k. Imagine what one could do with that kind of cash.

Once in a while, I do notice the obituaries of some prominent people requesting for 'no wreaths or scrolls', and the monies collected would be donated to charities. What a nice, final parting gesture this would be. Unfortunately, not many people in the business world would like to take the initiative to send cash instead of wreaths/scrolls for fear of offending the family of the deceased, unless the family indicated so.

LY's wake and funeral were done according to Buddhist rites. When I was at the wake, I saw a set of guidelines encouraging prudence and simplicity instead of extravagance. The extravagance that was discouraged included placing an obituary. A small, semi-display obituary usually starts from a few hundreds of dollars. Accordingly, LY's son had informed us through smses.

I'd been contemplating on this, and maybe when my time comes, I could send a personal, final good-bye message to all relatives and friends via sms. But, I am sure this is going to freak out a lot of people. (lol) Perhaps those who do not wished to be freaked out by such a notification should let me know so that I can remove them from my list. I understand that not everybody talked of death as openly as cancer survivors do.:)