More development – less talk

The heady season of electoral politics is now over despite the ugly rumblings that continue in small clusters around St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Christmas season, once a celebration of the birth of Christ now transformed into near-hedonism is also at an end.
The year, 2006 is with us and there is every reason for us to want to go forward with some sense of direction based on critical analysis of where we have come from and where we are.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines the continued approach to sports seems almost estranged from the concerns usually associated with genuine development. Politicians love to talk, all too often paying little attention to the aspirations and expectations of the people.
It seems most opportune here to suggest that we in St Vincent and the Grenadines expend less energy on talk and more on the requirements of genuine development.

No priority
Clearly sport is really not a priority in St Vincent and the Grenadines as far as national governments are concerned even though it features prominently in the manifestos of political parties and on their political platforms at elections time.
The reconstruction of Arnos Vale in preparation for the Cricket World Cup 2007 (CWC 2007) is not really reflective of a governmental commitment to sports development but more consistent with the megalomania type modus operandi of the current administration. It is ideally suited to the strategy of image building on the part of the administration and less about sport. This reality is exposed in the failure to this day of anyone involved in the undertaking to hold discussions with all of the stakeholders of the Arnos Vale Sports Complex. Unlike what obtains with the national stadium where stakeholders and forever informed, involved in discussions on developments and the like, the Arnos Vale Sports Complex reconstruction and reconfiguration is an apparent fait acompli. No national discourse has been held or even entertained and it is now too late for this to happen. The die has already been cast, the plans accepted by the International Cricket Council and the work is already behind schedule.
So much for consultative democracy in sport.
The decision to forgo work on the national stadium which received consideration long before the Cricket World Cup came into governmental focus, is fraught with political bias and a fair amount of myopia. The national stadium project is part of the image building machinery for the administration and not so much a commitment to sport and the youths of this nation involved in sport.