Volunteers for Beijing 2008

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said China had expressed its eagerness for Malaysian youths to help out as volunteers at the next summer Olympics in Beijing - as reported in Star newspaper.

I really hoped that the newspaper or Youth & Sports Ministry would do some homework before blurting anything out just to fill in the empty space in the newspaper. The newspaper stated that volunteers were required for the 14 days during the Olympic Games. Please note that all volunteers were required to be in China (at designated cities/venues/stadiums) for training/briefing prior to the Olympic Games. Therefore, more than 14 days are required. Importantly, age requirement - not younger than 17 years old as at 30 June 2008.

China has started the recruitement of volunteers since end of March 2007 and according to their website, recruitment will end by end May 2007. Yet the Deputy Minister mentioned that he would hold further discussions on the recruitment. More discussions with whom and on what? Deadline is end of this month!!! Volunteers could have applied on their own via the Beijing 2008's official website, don't need government's assistance.

The following was extracted from the Volunteer Recruitment page:-

Volunteers should meet the following basic requirements set forth in the General Policy for Volunteers for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. They should:-
1) be able to serve voluntarily for the Beijing Olympic and/or Paralympic Games;
2) have been born prior to (or on) June 30, 1990, and be in good health;
3) be willing to abide by China's laws and regulations;
4) be able to participate in the pre-Games trainings and other required activities;
5) be able to serve continuously for more than seven days during the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games;
6) be able to hold a conversation in basic Mandarin, if their first language is not Mandarin; native Mandarin speakers should be able to communicate in at least one important foreign language;
7) possess the professional knowledge and skills necessary for their posts.
Applicants fluent in both English and Mandarin and competent in a special area will be given priority, especially those who can speak minor languages and are skillful in certain trades.

It would be great if I get to go. Would be able to blog about the extraordinary city of Beijing, its food (slurp!!), the great athletics that will congregate in China, plenty of pictures, get to travel in China (never been there yet) ...... sadly, unable to access the particular site to register myself ........ maybe have to rely on the government......maybe this was the reason the government has to assist people like us.

If any of you from the Beijing 2008 organising committee is reading this blog, please do consider me!!!!! FYI, I meet all the above requirements. Informal application but strong enough.
Tags: Beijing, China, Beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, Volunteer Recruitment, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games