Challenging times for Sport

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The National Sports Council would be unable to meet their targets in terms of the development of sporting facilities across the country. Given Venezuela’s own economic woes attendant to declining oil processed on the world market, the fund
s promised to our government under the ALBA Agreement are likely to experience a slowing in the rate of disbursement and may even dry up in the not too distant future.
Our capacity to have national events would be seriously diminished and that therefore means national representative teams would not be as well prepared as expected nor are they likely to compete at regional and international events as has become the norm for most of the sports practised in the nation.
There is also the likelihood that our athletes may suffer from inadequate exposure to international scouts at major events thereby decreasing their chances of an athletic scholarship or access to a professional contract.

Wellness
The economic crisis is also likely to impact the general wellness of Vincentian society. Declining incomes and increased unemployment and underemployment all combine to leave people frustrated. They are therefore more likely to seek out games of chance, especially those that offer instant gratification. They also seek out cheap but strong alcoholic beverages and/or turn to drugs. The objective is to delude themselves into believing that things are not really as bad as they appear before them.
Economic woes have the impact of higher levels of stress on people thereby giving rise to a host of associated health problems.

Conclusion
In harsh economic times such as we are seeing around the world it is most important that the youths are facilitated with increased rather than decreased opportunities to practice sport. More than ever this is the time to engage them in sporting endeavour lest ‘the devil finds work for idle hands’.
It would be very wise for the government to engage itself in reviewing its approach to sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines and determine just how it would use this critical aspect of life to play a meaningful role in maintaining a stable Vincentian
Society.