TR EMERITUS

Chelsea Football Club became the 2009/10 Barclays Premier League champions after an empathic 8-0 win over a hapless Wigan side. Didier Drogba scored a hat-trick and the result was never in doubt after Nicolas Anelka found the net after just six minutes of play. Chelsea had only needed a win to ensure that Manchester United would not be able to catch up on the final day of the Premier League season. Elsewhere, Manchester United did the best they could by beating visitors Stoke City 4-0, but goals were celebrated in a muted fashion towards the tail-end of the match, as news of Chelsea’s win filtered through Old Trafford. England fans also had much to worry about, as Wayne Rooney limped off gingerly with what looks like a groin injury. It was perhaps salt to injury for Rooney, as Drogba overtook him to win the Premier League Golden Boot. No English player has won the Golden Boot since Kevin Phillips in 2000. Only the League title was up for grabs on this final day, as most issues had already been settled. Burnley and Hull will play the Championship next season, alongside Portsmouth, who still has the FA Cup Final to look forward. It is fair to say that the relegated sides this season had been quite awful this term, none of them put up a decent fight to stay in the Premier League. There will be substantial parachute payments for the trio next year and the cash handout will particularly be useful to Portsmouth, who are still in administration and looking for a buyer. Back at the top, Arsenal guaranteed a 13th consecutive year of Champions League football as they finished third, albeit 11 points behind Chelsea. The London club had a satisfactory season, though the lack of silverware since 2005 will be of some concern. Arsenal’s North London rivals Tottenham Hotspurs will join them in the Champions League (though they will have to play an additional qualification match) for the first time since the inception of the Premier League. Harry Redknapp won the Manager of the Year for his exploits and the long-suffering Spurs fans finally have something proper to cheer about. Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool will represent England in the Europa League next year though City and Liverpool will not be well pleased by their respective league positions. This is City’s best ever finish in the Premier League, but the fans and perhaps the media were expecting a little more after a spending spree in excess of £100 million in the summer. Looking back, they were perhaps a game away from finishing fourth – had they beaten Spurs in that league game on 4 May, they will be the team in the Champions League instead. Liverpool is the team to have the most disappointing season of all. An early exit in the Champions League, a heart-breaking defeat in the Europa League semi-finals and an eventual seventh placed finish is not what the fans had envisaged at the start of the season. Furthermore, the club is now for sale and latest data had suggested that the immediate financial future is not at all bright. So, with all matters in the Premier League settled, English fans have two more major Finals to look to. Firstly, Fulham takes on Atletico Madrid in Hamburg for the Europa League Final this Wednesday. Fulham’s journey to the Final is some of a fairytale and most English fans are expected to come back this humble team from West London. Finally, to close off the English domestic season, champions Chelsea take on bottom side Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. Chelsea will be going for the double, while Pompey has the chance to end a miserable season with a classical giant-killing act.  Read More →

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong became the latest PAP leader to indulge in generous self-praise after launching the new Human Capital Leadership Institute to spearhead Singapore's drive to become a "global talent hub". Mr Gan claimed that the institute will encourage more innovation for businesses in Singapore and will support companies in nurturing talents into future leaders. “Top local talents will want to remain in Singapore and global talents will want to come here because we have the best educational infrastructures to help them develop their leadership competencies and further their careers," he was quoted as saying in Channel News Asia. However, Mr Gan did not provide any evidence or statistics to substantiate his claims that Singapore is an attractive place for global talents. According to a Gallup poll done last year among China's college students, their top three emigration destinations are the United States, France and South Korea. Singapore was not even featured among the top five. Mr Gan's speech appeared to reinforced the message sent by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during the May Day Rally last week when he called on the understanding of Singaporeans to accept a higher inflow of foreigners. Unlike other developed countries which implement measures to safeguard the livelihoods of local workers, Singaporeans are exhorted repeatedly by PAP leaders to compete directly with the cheap foreign workers they are importing into the country while remaining "cheaper, better and faster" at the same time. “Employers will hire only the best candidates with the right skills and attributes. The workforce needs to upgrade its skills and knowledge in order to remain competitive and marketable," Mr Gan said. With no opposition in Parliament or independent trade unions to fight for their interests, Singaporeans will have no choice but to listen to Mr Gan and "upgrade" their skills to remain "competitive and marketable" never mind the fact that their wages are being undercut by the cheaper "global talents".   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us  Read More →

The Straits Times Forum editor Yap Koon Hong has told opposition politician Chee Soon Juan that he would be denied space in the Forum pages until he withdrew his “serious and unfounded aspersions” on the integrity of the newspaper. He was responding to previous reports on the SDP website which implied that The Straits Times had unfairly edited certain portions of Chee’s letters before publishing them. Chee, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) secretary general, had written to the newspaper on two separate occasions. On 17 March, the newspaper published Chee’s response to Lianhe Zaobao journalist Yew Tun Lian’s claims that he had been evasive to questions about foreign funding in an interview. On 15 April, Chee responded to a forum letter that had condemned his confrontational style of politics.  On both occasions, shortened versions of his letters were published both in print and on the online forums. The original version of the letters have been posted on the SDP website. In an email reply to Yap dated 5 May, Chee took issue with the fact that the title of his second letter had been changed to "PAP just as confrontational, replies Chee", which implied that he was indeed confrontational. In fact, newspapers rarely use the headlines suggested by writers and most readers know that headlines, together with picture selection and captions, are the work of sub-editors and not writers. The SDP website shows that almost half of Chee's letter was deleted before publication. The original text was 635 words long. Forum page letters are generally less than 400 words long. The published version of Chee's letter was 348 words long. Chee also questioned Yap's claims that The Straits Times' integrity had been damaged by the SDP's articles, citing how the Singapore media was already ranked lowly in international press freedom rankings. The SDP website reported that Yap wanted Chee to retract his statements about the integrity of The Straits Times, and that the newspaper would withhold publishing his letters in the forum pages until he did so. Click here to read SDP's report on the issue. Click here to read Journalism.sg's coverage of Chee's interview with Lianhe Zaobao journalist Yew Tun Lian. May 10th, 2010  Read More →