Post- South Africa

to be honest, i kinda liked my speech. i thought it had good rhetoric and impact. until i arrived at the conference and everyone's sounded so professional. but i realised there was nothing i could do about it, so i got up there and delivered it.

it was okay i guess. not very helpful (i think) as input for the conference's final statement, but as a consolation, i think i really shone during the audience dialogue and, later, the Youth Caucus, where the 12 young reporters, ambassadors and athletes shared our YOG experience. i was kinda worried about my abilities to think on my feet, but lucky there's always Alan 'Barbados' Harris there to cover any dead air haha.

really appreciate the people who've come up to me and said i did well and was one of the youths who really stood out. the biggest accolade, no doubt, was from Essar Gabriel, an IOC bigwig who was the director of YOG. he said to me pointblank: "You're a thinker. I can see that."

wow.

among the young ambassadors and athletes i worked with, i met some really interesting people:

Devon. this guy blew me away, period. i dont know how to quantify him but if there's a young reporter in his league, it would be Alan. yes, Alan already being such a monster, has an equal. this local kid would be the Alan of the ambassadors. well Alan has his shortcomings; i couldnt find Devon's. he's extremely charismatic, has the ability to make people like him, and has an analytical mind of many levels. as with most people at YOG, he's from a sports background - he's a hockey coach.

Florian. this good-looking Austrian gave one of the best presentations out of ours. if not the best, then the most confident. he presented off-script and yet was on cue throughout. evident that he prepared and rehearsed hard. and he's extremely funny, not just during the presentation. got a humour as dry as asahi. and he's a handball player.

Felipe. this guy's a Brazilian shooter whose last name is, well, Wu. yes, Chinese. his grandparents (i think) were from somewhere Chinese. didnt talk much to him, but he won a silver at YOG.

Joseph. i remember watching this Kiwi boxer at YOG. he's a giant lah. all muscles. was really quiet in the beginning when rest of us mixed, but became the noisiest guy at the end haha.

Danka. this attractive Slovakian ambassador, i later found out, is one of the top female shooters in the world. she competed in Beijing 2008 and was the favourite for the gold, but loss of form dropped her out of the podium. a quick google also surprised me: apparently Danka stirred some controversy during YOG when she was misquoted as criticising Singapore's facilities. wow i didnt know that.

Samantha. "the girl with the lovely eyes" (they're big and when you look in you're just lost) is a South African equestrienne who won a medal at the YOG (unfortunately she was fourth in another event). even cooler: during the conference, when they gave out the latest copy of a sports magazine, on page 5 was a full-page photo of her in action. even cooler: i was looking for her on fb and instead found a fucking fanpage.

i like motion pictures

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Evey: Who are you?

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey: Well I can see that.

V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine - the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

V: A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.

V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Inspector Finch: Why are you doing this? [referring to Evey's intention to finish off what V started, to blow up Parliament]

Evey: Because he was right.

Inspector Finch: About what?

Evey: That the world needs more than just a building right now. It needs hope. [referencing Guy Fawkes' plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 Nov, 1605]