The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 05:09 PM PDT

JULY 26 — It's been a great few weeks for Uruguayan football, and now it's time for the rest of the world to give them the credit they deserve.

Firstly, Montevideo-based club Penarol came close to being crowned continental champions last month before suffering a narrow 2-1 aggregate defeat to wealthy Brazilian side Santos in the final of Copa Libertadores.

Now Uruguay's national team has gone one better by deservedly becoming South American champions, completing their impressive campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory over lacklustre Paraguay in Sunday night's Copa America final.

And, don't forget, this follows on from Uruguay's successful showing in last year's World Cup Finals in South Africa, where they beat the hosts, Mexico, South Korea and Ghana (albeit in controversial circumstances) to reach the semi-finals — progressing further than any other South American nation — before being edged out by three goals to two against the Netherlands.

Despite these achievements, Uruguay remain largely unheralded and underrated, rarely featuring in discussions about the strongest nations in world football and possessing a group of players who fail to attract the fame and fortune routinely bestowed upon their neighbours from Brazil and Argentina.

The close geographical proximity of those two giants of the game, Brazil and Argentina, is probably the biggest reason for Uruguay being so often overlooked.

Although Uruguay can boast a long and glorious footballing history, it's largely in the distant past: they might have won the first ever World Cup Final in 1930 but their last triumph was way back in 1950, while their last victory in Copa America, prior to Sunday, came in 1995. Their relative lack of recent success means they are almost entirely overshadowed by Brazil and Argentina.

They probably don't mind it too much that way: While the rest of us stay fixated on Argentina's gifted but unpredictable superstars and Brazil's supposed samba style (which is actually a thing of the past), Uruguay can quietly get on with their stuff, slowly but steadily developing into the best team in South America.

Diego Forlan has been Uruguay's most inspirational player for the best part of a decade — further adding to his legendary status amongst supporters by netting twice in Sunday's final — even if he is grossly underrated by followers of English football after a markedly unsuccessful stint at Manchester United earlier in his career.

Forlan only managed ten league goals during his two-and-a-half year stay at Old Trafford, but that was a strange aberration to what has otherwise been a magnificent career. He has consistently averaged a goal every other game — largely regarded as the benchmark for top-class strikers — during impressive spells with Independiente in Argentina and Villareal and Atletico Madrid in Spain.

The biggest single factor behind Uruguay's current renaissance is the emergence of Luis Suarez to provide Forlan with a genuinely world class strike partner. Whereas previously opposition defences knew that if they could stop Forlan, they would effectively stop Uruguay, now they have the equally potent threat of Suarez to deal with.

As I stated in my last article, I believe 24-year-old Suarez is a truly excellent player with the potential to become one of the best strikers in world football. He has got every quality you could wish to see in a centre forward: quick, inventive, good in the air, goalscoring instinct and an excellent work ethic.

It's a shame that Suarez is probably still best remembered for his deliberate handball on the goalline to deny Ghana a place in the semi-finals of last year's World Cup Finals, but that will change before too long as the Liverpool striker's goalscoring exploits start to overshadow his role in Uruguay's contentious progression into the last four in South Africa.

Indeed, he took a big step along that road with a series of superb performances in the recently concluded Copa America, which saw him score four goals and earn the player of the tournament award. Much more will surely follow.

But Uruguay's biggest strength — the hugely effective partnership between Forlan and Suarez — also presents their biggest long-term challenge, because Forlan is now 32 years old and unlikely to still be an effective regular starter when the next World Cup Finals roll around in Brazil in 2016.

Replacing a player of Forlan's stature will be an almost impossible task, but a fair amount of expectation is being placed on the shoulders of 24-year-old Edinson Cavani, who finished second-top scorer in Serie A last season after netting 26 goals for Napoli. If Cavani continues to fulfil the potential he showed last season, Uruguay could remain a force on the world stage for a few years to come.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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He has a big?

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:58 PM PDT

JULY 26 — On the mahjong paper taped to the board, we asked them to each write a sentence. Today's mission was to form a connection, to build bridges between what they knew to be true and what their friends knew to be true. The theme was family.

The English language, well-spoken, was an elusive entity there. Many had a sketchy idea of vocabulary, some grammar, and some comprehension of good stories, but there were gaping holes where the lack of practise, or indeed lack of knowledge to fill these gaps, left them all wanting.

And then we saw it. One of the sentences on the paper said "My father has a big ??"

A big what? We said. A big house? He shook his head, frustrated. He motioned with his hands. A big bag? A big computer? More frustration. Then finally someone said "A big car?" He froze and turned around and nodded furiously. "Car! Kereta!"

Surely you'd agree that the fact that a normal 11-year-old child cannot come up with a basic sentence in English by himself is worrying.

Whenever thoughts like this enter my head, the same thing always happens. My heart fills with dismay as I realise how this child is not alone, there must be many thousands like him, and there is so much to do to bring all our wonderful Malaysian children up to the right standard of education. My mind rebels against the thought that there is nothing much that can be done about it, and tries desperately to find something I can do to help.

Many people I know fight it by trying to pin the blame on someone. But from personal experience working with these incredible children, I can tell you that it is not what you think it is.

It is not for the lack of teaching – the teachers work tirelessly to try to improve the children's liking for languages, undeterred despite the enormous workload they must have. The government has been generously running teacher training courses and employing skilled trainers to help modify the teaching methods for the English language.

It is not for the lack of interest – the children themselves are hungry to learn, always on time, always obedient and respectful when we tell them things, always ready to try something new, even when they're not very good at it. In them you can see so much resilience, so much courage, that you want to do everything you can to be resilient and courageous yourself, for their sake.

It is not for the lack of parental support – the parents approached us after our workshops, asking if they too could join the workshops, knowing that their child's new interest in the language would require a lot of naturing and honing, and with their command of English being quite shaky themselves, wanted more instruction on how to teach their children better. It was heart wrenching to have to explain to them that we just didn't have the resources to do this for them. Perhaps next year…

There is no something or someone to blame for it. The seeds of change are there, and people are ready to give it a try. We are just going to need a lot more help in making it happen, and a lot more awareness that life is not all rosy for many people out there. While you read this article and scoff at my methods, and comment about the politics involved in education, I want you to realise that many of the young children that I have met in the past week may never be able to develop their skills in the language to be able to understand this simple article, much less be able to communicate their thoughts on the subject as clearly as some of you may be able to.

This makes you fortunate. This makes all of us fortunate, because now that you know, you can reach out and help somebody, whether young or adult, to get better at the international language that may be an important ticket to a different type of life.

The creativity, the ideas, and the thoughts are all there. From the activities we did with the children, from the stories they created, from the things they wrote for us, it was clear to everyone that all they needed was some practice with this new tool that they wanted to use to communicate their thoughts to the rest of the world. There were many moments of frustration when they knew the word in Bahasa Malaysia or Mandarin or Tamil but just could not find the right word for it in English; but they always got there in the end. Most of the time they refused help until they were really stuck. Watching them do their best gave us all so much hope.

So hope, for the younger generation of creative and undiscovered talents; for the older generation who have the gift of knowledge to share it; for the nation to know that while there is a long way to go to make a huge difference, everyone is on the same side.

* Angeline Lee is the Director of UKECharisma, a volunteering network that brings students studying at United Kingdom universities and their affiliates together to volunteer in Malaysia for a chosen cause. In this article she refers to Project Education 2011, wherein volunteers taught reading and comprehension, creative writing and literature appreciation as well as speech and drama during after school workshops at a primary school in Kuala Lumpur.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Selasa, 26 Julai 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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