Guyana is doing well in the world of sports. Lady Jags have done well on the soccer field; the track and field athletes have set records at the various games. The male football team has also given a good account of themselves.
A closer examination would reveal that many of the players actually reside outside the country. They train in their foreign or adopted country but make themselves available for Guyana in sports. This is because if a parent is Guyanese then the child also qualifies to be a Guyanese.
There is nothing wrong with this. This happens everywhere. When Obadele Thompson won his Olympic bronze sprint medal for Barbados it could have been a medal for Guyana had he chosen to run for Guyana. His father was Guyanese, a Queen’s College student to boot.
Anthony Nesty, the first Surinamese to win an Olympic gold medal in the swimming pool, was residing in the United States. So too was the Grenadian 400-metre gold medalist, Kirani James.
In fact, he also secured all of Grenada’s initial Olympic medals, including the gold (2012), silver (2016), and bronze (2020). St Lucia’s Julien Alfred also won an Olympic gold medal while living and training in the United States. She beat Sha’Carrie Richardson of the United States.
Trinidad is not without its Olympic medalists. Two have been Hasley Crawford and Ato Boldon. There are others dating back to 1964 when that country fielded an Olympic bronze medal 4 X400 metre relay team that included Wendell Mottley who later became a government Minister.
For Guyana to claim any international fame outside of Commonwealth gold medalist Troy Doris who was born in Chicago to Guyanese parents and Aliann Pompey, it would have had to borrow Dr. Philip Aaron “Phil” Edwards who won Olympic medals for Canada. And one is not forgetting Olympic bronze medalist Michael Parris.
June Griffith was a home grown Commonwealth medalist. James Gilkes had moved overseas when he won the Commonwealth 200 metre gold medal. He would have beaten Jamaica’s Don Quarrie for Olympic gold in 1976.
The Jamaicans are a different kettle of fish. They are homegrown. Of course some trained overseas but the majority lived and trained in Jamaica. The first medalist was double gold medalist Arthur Wint, but that was pre-independent Jamaica.
Jamaica recognized that it needed the facilities to compete on the international stage so it built the National Stadium way back in 1962. It was modified to an international facility with electronic timing and photo-finish cameras not long after.
The government recognized the benefits of sports. The country became an international name. Guyana got its first track and field facility not so long ago, decades after the other Caribbean countries. The surface was not the best for an international facility but it allowed Guyanese to run on a synthetic surface.
Guyana never focused on sports. The athletes and other sportsmen had to develop themselves without national assistance. Even when they left these shores to represent the country the government’s financial support was negligible.
One is left to assume that the government knows precious little or pays little attention to sports. And this is because it is not sports oriented. It does not see personal financial benefits. Everything must benefit somebody in authority.
Just the other day some 50 large television screens bought for the Providence Stadium for an international cricket event disappeared. There was no report nor was there an investigation. We now see that the Olympic Swimming Pool has problems. Maintenance must be an issue.
There is a video circulating of some Common Entrance children sitting on the floor of their classroom having to brace their backs to the wall. How could this be allowed to happen? How many other classrooms like this one exist? Surely the education system is devoid of inspectors.
No one would lose a bet if he or she bets that schools are not visited by education administrators. Teachers are not checked for improved performance. In fact, many classrooms are without teachers to the extent that fights have occurred in the classrooms.
In one video I saw one boy strike another with piece of wood even as the victim sat in his bench. That was bullying to the extreme and no teacher was there. But large sums have been voted for the education sector. Where this money is going is anybody’s guess.
Some say that there is a school feeding programme where substandard meals are given to the hungry children. There is no word of the facilities to prepare these meals and the preparation of the meals being inspected.
And this is because the government is reactive. A woman makes a video critical of the President and within a week she is being ordered to vacate a spot she has been occupying for years. Others are denied contracts despite their bids.
Promotions are denied to those who are overtly critical of the government. The result is that even when people see a shortcoming they remain silent because they are afraid that they would be made to pay.
Mediocrity is allowed to pass unnoticed.
No country has been known to succeed under such conditions. Imagine that when foreigners come into contact with an English speaking Guyanese he or she raises eyebrows and then offers comments such “You are so well spoken.” That angers me.
It also angers me when I hear my leaders mispronounce words. But that is a part of national life. Just listen to the various radio and television stations. Mediocrity is the given and criticisms are punished.
It would do well for the government to make use of the qualified people in the society rather than first seeking to have them become supporters of the ruling People’s Progressive Party. The country is not being developed.
