| MARK WIGNALL Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
In early August the sons and daughters of Africans, kidnapped from their homeland and forced into 400 years of making Europeans and their ethnic offshoots in other lands rich, made the trip from Jamaica to the hub of the Orient - this time on their own steam and far above the surface of what is a watery grave for hundreds of thousands of their kin thrown overboard while en route to Babylon.
In 2008 Western European countries and the larger land masses they had made into colonies have done well with the riches they had brutally extracted from our labour. They have become industrial giants and wield enormous economic and political power and have demonstrated, most painfully, the force of their military might. Meanwhile, many of us in Jamaica have still not awoken to the reality that those countries who once ruled us either politically or economically have long signalled that they owe us nothing and nothing is forthcoming.
In the interim, with too much backwardness demonstrated in how we have managed our own socio-economic and political affairs since the "attainment" of independence, our past masters have seen it fit to dole out money to us in the form of grants and soft loans, sufficient enough to keep us in hock to them forever.
That fact is painfully recognised by our home-grown leaders, but they themselves are enslaved by the people whom they lead. At this time the umbilical cord of economic dependency cannot be broken if policemen, teachers, nurses, doctors, street sweepers, etc, are to be given a salary. Michael Manley paid the political price for attempting the trek down that road.
Because so much of what we do is dictated by the money of rich outsiders who are well aware of the gap between our rum pockets and whisky appetites, we are always aching for a chance to demonstrate to the rest of the world that there is a better side to us even if its manifestation is in the form of physical prowess. We began it in 1948, and 60 years later Usain Bolt has caught the arrow and has aimed it for the heavens.
And so when our Jamaican young men and women departed our shores for Beijing, soon to be the world's capital city, we saw in them all of our dreams and aspirations. As their physical bodies jetted off to China we sent the deepest part of our spiritual sides with them. They were our front-line warriors, the cream of the crop, and they had trained extremely hard. Politicians needed them, businessmen needed them. Every poor Jamaican being passed over like human chaff needed them. Brand name "Jamaica" needed a lift.
Some of the very omissions and evil commissions of our political leaders have produced some of our athletes. Some of the stars whom we now acclaim are the products of zones of exclusion in political garrisons. Others are from humble circumstances in deep rural areas. It therefore pains me to find out that the parents of one of the athletes have been told by a criminal don that he "wants his piece of the action" when the athlete returns. My source is very high in the JCF.
One of the questions we may be forced to ask one day is: Should Jamaica's economic picture change to, say, a Singapore in 40 years from now, with the focus on creating and maintaining wealth, will we still be able to produce our stock of world-beating athletes?
That said, we went to China and, courtesy of Usain Bolt, we "colonised" it. Michael Phelps in swimming was more than awesome, but where he was brutally efficient in how he executed his wins, Bolt did all that but added magnetism, brashness and "cool" to his craft.
With 2.14 gold medals per million population, Jamaica topped the world. What a country! And what a man like Usain Bolt!
The president of the IOC has decided that his personal view of what he sees as Bolt's showboating must trump the unwritten rules of the protocols involved. Even though it would not have gone any better had he uttered his views after the game, Mr Rogge, in his inbuilt inflexibility had not in the least considered the scope of Bolt's Olympic achievement.
His 100 metres was no mere world record. It was Bolt beautifully, confidently and defiantly bettering himself, and it had never before been done in quite the same way. It was no mere three wins. It was a devastation of the field in the 100 and 200 and the relay. At 22, Bolt has demonstrated that he fully understands the other side of competition - that ability to psychologically tame the competition and at the same time, sell his brand of charisma to the huge crowd, dancehall Gully Creeper, Nuh Linga- style and all.
Is the son of a slave not allowed to celebrate the epitome of his true freedom - his triumph and standing atop the world? Plus in his post-race interviews (unlike some Olympians before him), Bolt has proved himself to be a highly intelligent, articulate young man, and very business savvy too.
Did Rogge not see that it is the very state of mind and adrenalin rush that helped Bolt to the magnificent win in the 100 that was in operation - before and after the race - that he would have liked the youngster to tame? I agree that the Olympics is about the "gentlemanly art of competition", but Rogge has forgotten that in reality it is a series of spectator-driven events and people have paid money to be entertained.
Seeing a superstar athlete in the full throes of his celebratory humanness is a part of that very entertainment.
One hopes of course that no influences from a certain large and powerful country were brought to bear on Rogge for the sake of refocusing attention on another superstar athlete.
Holiday, etc.
What Usain Bolt and our other track and field athletes have done for this country in one week will take our politicians 50 years to attain. And the politicians know it.
For this reason, they will be forced to give the people what they want. The best day to declare a public holiday is on the day of their return. Usain Bolt is now Jamaican public property and he is at the top of the superstar ladder.
And please, this time around, do not rename any seedy street or lane in honour of any of our athletes. We took Brentford Road and named it after a pioneer of Jamaican recorded music, Coxone Dodd. Well, it is still as seedy and dirty as it ever was.
The stadium in Trelawny should be renamed the Usain Bolt Sports Complex. Either the Chinese or Puma should be approached in the process of inking a mutually beneficial deal that will see that complex through years of economic viability.
Again, congrats to all of the athletes, the coaches and the Jamaican Olympic officials. We could not have asked for more.
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