Orville TaylorI SAW the circus in Fern Gully. The circus trailer twisted, turned and cartwheeled just like its human performers. Like the acrobats, it landed without any harm to the driver except the traffic ticket that he got for getting lost and being ignorant. Come on 'affisa!' If the foreigner really got lost and was not negligent in any other way, give him a break. There are many here who say the right things and do the wrong ones. There are also those who say the wrong things and do even worse.
Call me ungrateful if you wish but I still feel that we could have got more out of the World Championships in Helsinki. There is no discounting the medals won by our athletes but I first wondered why the contingent was so large. It comprised 42 athletes and 18 officials. This essentially means that there was one official for each 2.6 competitors. We therefore had more coaches than a passenger train. Couldn't we have used one less official and buy thermal (body) suits?
Mark you! The outcome of the expenditure looks good especially against the background of the allegations surrounding the National Solid 'Wastage' Management Authority (NSWMA) and the Kingston and St. Andrew 'Cronyism' (KSAC). Only three countries won more medals than we did, although on the basis of gold medals, we were ninth.
Yet, as we celebrate the medals and lament the 'disa-Bolt-ment' some questions must be asked. First of all, when will someone teach Danny McFarlane to hurdle? No one wants to say it but he won the Olympic silver medal 'despite' his form not 'because of' it. His disaster was bound to happen and if he does not learn proper technique he will 'puppa lick' on the track one day and 'pop him neck.'
BETTER TEAM
Also, did we choose our best 4X100 men's team? While we are appreciative and impressed with Michael Frater's scintillating anchor leg, I believe a better team would have been Frater, Patrick Jarrett, Christopher Williams and Dwight Thomas, who is one of the fastest finishers among 100 metres runners today. I am unconvinced about the ability of Ainsley Waugh and debutante Lerone Clarke was untested. My feeling is that Jarrett and Williams were 'DQed' for other reasons. This reminds me of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic 4X100 women's team that inexplicably excluded a fit Nikole Mitchell who was beating everyone apart from Juliet Cuthbert and Merlene Ottey. The result was unnecessary pressure on Cuthbert who pulled up, dashing Ottey's hope for her surest gold medal.
Anyway, Raymond KC Graham, one of the senior coaches suggested the need for a team psychologist. Like the Gleaner editorial of September 7, 2003, which recommended that "If Bolt has a problem with rising to the big occasion, he should get help." Graham blurted on Tuesday, "...maybe he was scared. And he felt something and because he is so young he didn't have the courage to continue." Well, he is so right about the need for a psychologist because any undergraduate psychology student will tell him that such a comment should never be uttered and would likely be more harmful than positive. Indeed, a psychologist is needed to enhance communication and to resolve conflicts among coaches, athletes and officials. I don't know if they drug-test coaches but no sober coach should make such statements.
Perhaps Graham forgot that Bertland Cameron never fully recovered from that courageous performance in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when he continued chasing Antonio Mackay after pulling up, or that Asafa should not have run the finals in the recent national trials. Still, if an athlete or any other person has problems 'rising to the occasion' there is both psychological treatment and I 'see a list' of approved drugs to take away the 'blues'.
NATIONAL AIDS POLICY
Speaking of positive tests, it is commendable that we are moving to the next step of the National AIDS policy. True, there is the need to have public campaigns about discrimination. However, too many of the private sector companies are simply involved in 'mouth talk.' The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is firmly against discrimination based on HIV status. Countries such as the Bahamas make it illegal to do so. Still, as revealed in an awesome presentation by budding sociologist Lance Gibbs at the Association of Black Sociologists Conference in Philadelphia, many Jamaican corporations test workers prior to employment or appointment. This includes some of the biggest critics of public policy. So I am not impressed.
Recently, Dr Donald Rhodd stood up in recommending debate on prostitution and homosexuality as part of a 31-point proposal to stem the disease. Well let us cut the 'bull' and make it unlawful for employers to force workers to this ignominy. Trade unions where is your voice? When is the Ministry of Labour going to put through the bill or is it going to go the same route as legislation to unmask 'disguised contractors' who are really workers? Real commitment goes beyond fancy speeches and public relations 'champagnes'.
As for the homosexuality debate, I believe that our universal right of freedom of speech allows 'sexual minorities' to say what they feel, however offensive it is to our own lifestyles. After all, I defend the right of dance hall artistes to 'fire bun' their 'livity'. I was recently in Philadelphia and now understand why it is called the 'City of brotherly love', as there were places where I went and felt like 'me and my crew'were the only 'straight people there'. 'Discourse' is not a synthesis of 'disgusting intercourse,' so there is no harm in talking about it.
Nonetheless, whatever my own opinion may be, I am not 'backing' any side in the debate.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
