Bless our president for masking her painful unease while being encircled by half-naked youngsters bouncing up and down in a ritual that involves yelling and chants.
Without any context, this would have been cause for confusing concern for President Halimah Yacob’s security team. But it’s nothing to worry about — it’s just Singapore’s national swimmers greeting her with a cheer at the OCBC Aquatic Centre on Tuesday. The lady had dropped by during a training session to offer her well wishes to athletes who’ll be representing Singapore this August for the Asian Games in Indonesia.
Still, that doesn’t alleviate the bizarreness of this video clip published on Facebook by TODAY Sports. Sure, the president’s grinning and laughing, but it’s the very same awkward reaction you would have if everyone’s singing a birthday song for you. Like, what do you do other than keep quiet, smile and nervously look around?
Adding to the surreality is how the lady’s small, elderly stature compares to the big, toned — and exposed — figures of the swimmers. We’re not even going to get started about how its Ramadan right now and that the president may be fasting.
Fortunately, we weren’t the only ones who thought the high-spirited jollification was… wacky.
