The centrality of sports in Vincentian society
But this should come as no surprise to any of us. We did it to Adonal Foyle before heavy criticisms left the organizers of the Awards event no choice. Then we reverted to backwardness.
We did it to Ezra Hendrickson who was an outstanding Vincentian playing in the Major League Soccer (MLS) with distinction, earning the MVP title. He always sought to raise his team shirt to expose his 100% Vincy vest proudly worn below.
We have only considered Sancho Lyttle important enough when she came home, despite her being the first Vincentian in the WNBA.
We are doing it to Kineke Alexander just as we had done it to Natasha Mayers before her. We as a nation have apparently become proficient at almost allowing ourselves and the entire Vincentian community to treat our overseas based athletes as though they play no role in the centrality of sports in Vincentian space.
They seem to have no place, perhaps, other than in the fanciful speech-making of our politicians where they are thrown in almost as an additive to the justification for the ennoblement of the Vincentian component of the Caribbean Civilisation.
Thankfully too, Saboto Caesar knows Hollis Green and appreciated him enough to use his own newspaper column to highlight the sporting exploits of this young man in the sport of rugby.
This comes after John Townend, a former President of the local Rugby Federation, had long since informed us of Greens immense potential.
George Manners thought it worthwhile some time ago to offer his services to the government and people of St Vincent and the Grenadines through the reintroduction of a weightlifting programme.
Having represented England and his native St Vincent and the Grenadine sat the Commonwealth Games successfully and having worked in the school system in England for several years, Manners thought he could help us.
No such luck. His forays into discussions with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the National Sports Council brought him nothing but the usual empty rhetoric and lots of disappointment.
His gift of weight-training equipment, acquired over years of dedication to the sport was dealt with in a manner that truly reflects the place of sports in the development strategy of the current administration out in the rain.
No one seemed to care enough, except perhaps the athletics fraternity and until recently the weightlifting fraternity.
The seeming lack of investigative journalism among local journalists and their telephone-type approach to the craft have allowed the achievements of our sporting organizations to become marginalized in Vincentian society.
Their lack of training is perhaps only matched by their lack of professionalism.