the SEA games are on now and there was a very nice moment this week: the singapore women’s team had just won the swimming gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and all the medals had been hung around the respective necks and the singapore national anthem is playing and everyone is standing quietly to attention when suddenly, right at the end of the first ‘majulah singapura’, the audio system makes a nasty electronic whine and then goes bust on a loud crackle. there are almost four seconds of awkward silence, our girls looked a little embarrassed and a little disturbed, and from the stands someone can be heard laughing nervously — would the sound come back on? it does not —and then, loud singing rose from the stands where the singaporean spectators spontaneously and very loudly picked up and completed the last five lines of the national anthem.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird