There is so much that we take for granted. Every life lost and spared sends a lesson we would do well to heed. Last Saturday was a commonplace day here in T&T. A quick glance at the daily newspapers elicited a hopeless cry of: “Oh Lord!” Seven shot dead screamed the headlines. Lord put a hand! What the hell is going on in this place? Can’t someone, anyone, cut the guns off at the source? But you also had to say a hopeful “Thank You God” on reading the news that Athens Olympic Games swimming bronze medalist George Bovell III had cheated death when he was involved in a smash up with a truck in Mayaro early Friday morning. Bovell is a role model for all of T&T—a young man of tremendous humility, class, courage and dignity and a credit to this country. A side effect of the lack of a systematic approach to sports development is that instead of cherishing those who achieve at the Olympic and World level there is the tendency to view them as no more than objects of jealousy and envy.
There is always some illogical utterance or simpleton reason to explain away their success and sometimes by persons you would least expect. If it is not the clock malfunctioning, it is snide rumours about performance enhancing drugs or prima donna behaviour. Everywhere else in the world, stars are cherished except here in T&T. It is amazing the successes this country has got, considering the crap that goes on, imagine what we could do with a clear strategy and vision. If only we would take a break from the concept of “us” and “them.” The sad thing is that a dollop of common sense and honourable behaviour is all that is needed for us to head in the right direction. Uppermost in many people’s minds are the crimes and murders; sport is for many a minor concern. T&T is faced with huge problems and a lot of conflict. How do we turn negatives into positives? What will it take for us to get our act together?
In the absence of an environment where everyone is working together, it’s hard to turn things around.
There is a need to actually start to concentrate on what is important to us all, and that’s the nation. There is a term used in sport parlance “head down” as in head down coaching. This head down approach is stagnating continuous improvement and it is not limited to sport. Head down has infected every domain of life here in T&T. There are many talented people willing to volunteer and work within our communities, and yet all they are doing is talking politics instead of doing what needs to be done. Our young people need nurturing. Adults need mentoring. Our old people need somebody. We all need each other; we can’t do it by ourselves. Bovell is still with us and a bright light for some to follow, sadly, however there are others for whom the darkness brings joy. Then came Sunday and the announcement of a limited State of Emergency aimed at rounding up the foot soldiers engaged in the criminal activity. Sporting activities will suffer some inconvenience but that is a small price to pay for the greater good. The only wish would be that at some time during the next 15 days the big money people and facilitators of the guns and drugs would be caught along with the foot soldiers. If we could only see the forest through the trees.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt
By Brian Lewis