‘Blood thicker than water and politics makes the thickest mix of all.’ — local folklore
A ULP candidate in the next general election told me that politics and sports should never be intermingled. I asked him if he was sure of his conviction, and he replied, “Without a shadow of a doubt.” I told him that if we take his views on sports and politics to their most logical conclusion, apartheid South Africa should not have been isolated to pressure the racist regime into submission. He said that it is different.
I asked what about Attorney General Grenville Williams leading the AG’s chambers while actively campaigning for a seat in the Parliament of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He replied that it was different.
I questioned him about his views on Dr. Grace Walters contesting on a ULP ticket while collecting a salary as manager of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. He said that, too, was different.
I circled back and asked him if Kishore Shallow was president of Cricket West Indies and announced his intention to contest the next election on a ULP ticket. He lowered his head and fell into a sheepish grin before eventually saying that it may pose a problem.
In law, that kind of questioning is intended to build what’s referred to as a ‘Chinese Wall.’ By the time you realise where the questioner is going, you are completely boxed in. However, whichever way you answer, you tend to raise eyebrows.
Any so it is with the ULP propaganda machine. It collapses onto itself. The keenly observant citizens get to see that the emperor has no clothes. It all boils down to a case of “do as I say and not as I do”.
That’s the level of small-mindedness that the governing party has displayed since Dr. Kishore Shallow, president of Cricket West Indies, declared his alignment with the opposition New Democratic Party. The respected son of the soil, true representative of our education revolution and Caribbean civilisation, swiftly morphed into the small, shallow man who is so corrupted that Cricket West Indies must fire him. A full-scale forensic inquiry should be launched in the entire affair of this “private entity that threatens to usurp a public good”.
Tribal politics at its worst. Disagreeably, vulgar and divisive, which no one serious about the proper development of our nation should countenance.
Sports
This is the context in which citizens should view the so-called Emancipation Cricket festival. To attempt to put a national unity, emancipatory spin on this misadventure is outrageous as it is mendacious. It is almost sacrilegious for Gonsalves and his clansmen to involve our legends of yesteryear in our partisan political milieu. The legends of Caribbean cricket made us proud and gave meaning to the words “rally round the West Indies, now and forever”. The “festival” is an attempt to use our legends as mascots. Cricket lovers must not reward such a disgraceful manifestation of mockery.
Here’s a first. Never in living memory do I remember a time when there was cricket and the authorities had to mobilise an advertising motorcade across the country to drum up publicity and support for the event. This is a clear sign that the government realises that its “cricket festival” lacks authenticity.
So, it is forced to resort to gimmicks. Children free! Wear your Monday Mas t-shirt and occupy the party stand for free! As one renowned newspaper man in SVG famously says, “Way allyo get he from?”
And there is more, the expense of Gonsalves’ extravaganza! Last Tuesday morning, compelled to respond to the reputational damage inflicted on his governance as the national elections approach, Gonsalves took to the BOOM FM airwaves to peddle his worn-out yarn. PM Gonsalves dropped a bomb that should destroy what is left of the ULP’s election chances. Asked how much the “cricket festival” will cost, Gonsalves disclosed he does not have a final figure, but $750,000 was a back-of-the-envelope number.
First things first. If Gonsalves says $750,000, we can safely assume that the actual figure is closer to twice that amount. The $750,000 was more like a trial balloon to gauge the response of the people.
The most reasonable response to this announcement is that this expenditure is unjustifiable. We knew this was coming because Gonsalves and his clansmen began playing defence, claiming that “some of us knew the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
Ask Vincentians whether they preferred that money to be spent on Gonsalves’ cricket festival rather than efforts to create more jobs, purchase drugs in the hospital and clinics, lower poverty rates, more assistance to the poor and vulnerable, for better schools and a safe security environment? The answer would be overwhelming and obvious. No to Gonsalves’ reckless misuse of the public purse.
Therefore, when faced with the collapse of the public infrastructure, the government’s emphasis on the cricket festival demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the demands of the moment. The festival amounts to a misplaced priority. It disclosed that the ULP is out of touch with the pressing needs of the people.
Education
Vincentian policymakers and educators should pay close attention to a radical change in the education system in Jamaica. When the new school year begins in September, students in Jamaica will no longer be automatically promoted to the next grade level regardless of their academic performance — a major shift aimed at tackling long-standing issues in literacy and numeracy.
Dr. Adrian Stokes, chairman of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC), said, “Students who are not at the requisite level will be placed on a pathway that allows them to remediate the learning challenges they are experiencing. Individual learning plans will be developed for these students to ensure proper targeting of learning challenges.”
We have similar problems here, where a significant percentage of students are either unable to read or read way below their age level. Here again, the upwards of $750,000 that the ULP regime is wasting this weekend on its cricket festival could have been used to hire a cadre of remedial teachers aimed at correcting the serious problems confronting our students.
The foregoing offers undeniable proof that the ULP has long outlived its usefulness and should be kicked out of office whenever PM Gonsalves calls the next elections.
