The people were never blaming the athletes and volunteers

"I wish the cynics would just focus their negative energy on me, and let the athletes and volunteers have the time of their lives."
-- Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan

Hang on.

Mr Minister, let's just step aback and take a look at what the people have been unhappy about...

• How the government now expects to spend S$387 million on the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) - a three-fold increase from initial estimate of S$122 million in 2008, when the republic won the bid to host the Games.


• How the volunteers were fed sub-standard food, and worse, even escalated to food poisoning.


• How school children are warned not to bring any branded water bottle to the venues, particularly from Nike and Adidas.


• Ho the parents of Daryl Tan, Singapore's first YOG medalist, missed his parents at the match because they could not get any ticket, when the venue turned up half-empty because many of the empty seats were tickets that were allocated to schools.


• How the government suggested and insulted Singaporeans that they are not gracious enough to give way to YOG vehicles, and thus a fine has to be in place.

Seriously, the list could go on, and none of the criticism was ever vaguely related to the athletes and volunteers.

No sir, it is the authority that the people are unhappy with. Not the athletes and volunteers.