Hartley Neita

When the world's people come to Jamaica in the future, and they have been doing so in increasing numbers, they must be reminded that this is not a 'pyah-pyah' country.

They must be told so before they arrive, when they arrive, and as long as they stay in our country. And they must be seeing and hearing day and night that we are not common fowl. We are Rhode Islands and Plymouth Rocks.

So, shout it loud. We are a great people.

Just tallawah!

Which other country of two million plus a little can grow and produce two world champions in the 100-metre dash at the same time in its history?

Which other country of our size could produce three finalists in the same race at the Olympics, over and over again.

We are just tallawah!

We can, however, miss the boat and it will leave us at the wharf.

My daughter, Karen, told me once that if God gives you a talent and you do not use it, he takes it away and gives someone else.

Now, God has given us the potential opportunity with the Olympics in Beijing to achieve more glory than at any other time in the past. If we do not capitalise on it now, He will give the glory next time to The Bahamas.

I happen to know the man who will be in The Bahamas promoting that country then and it is an opportunity which will not pass him.

Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga said this week that "no country, save the United States, has ever accomplished what Jamaica has the possibility to do with the world's fastest men and possibly, women" in the next two weeks.

He asks: "Are we going to be taken by surprise and then scramble around to programme the publicity to catch up with the event?"

The Jamaica Tourist Board, he said, should be lining up billboard sites at the airports, arranging interviews on prime time shows, et cetera. I agree, 100 per cent.

'Jamaican Dream Team'

The most creative minds in Jamaica should have been meeting from weeks ago, planning a national and international pro-gramme to take advantage of what Seaga describes as the 'Jamaican Dream Team'.

Michael Manley, Seaga and P.J. Patterson would have pulled together the JIS, Tourist Board, JAMPRO (or whatever it is now called), other government promo-tional agencies, and the private sector public relations and adver-tising agencies and there would have been a 'Jamaica Dream Team' campaign on the drawing board ready to be implemented if the glory came.

We should be taking a leaf out of the University of Technology's proud boast with its sign 'Home of World-Class Athletes' on its campus. And while mentioning this young university, will someone tell me if there is any other university in the world whose athletes represent 21 per cent of its national team at the Olympics?

Whatever plans the Government has in the future for sports, I hope that one will be to provide modern training facilities and accom-modation which can be marketed to other countries for their athletes to come to Jamaica to be trained by our coaches.

Too many of our athletic tracks are grass tracks marked out on cow pastures. That is not good enough for the Jamaica Dream teams of the future.

Protect Bolt

This is my humble advice to the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Asso-ciation. Please protect Usain Bolt from the news media and other exploiters and predators. They will try hard to divide and rule.

Remember to beware of the Greeks bringing gifts as well as the Trojan Horse. It has been done in the past.

In 1957, the attention was on Collie Smith and the West Indies lost the Test series against England dramatically. More recently, the focus was on Marlon Samuels.