SL, it would seem that the Jamaica Observer agrees with you!
www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20090812T200000-0500_157335_OBS_SLACKNESS_IS_A_SLIPPERY_SLOPE__JAAA_.aspEditorialsSlackness is a slippery slope, JAAA
Thursday, August 13, 2009
There's a phrase in Jamaica - never see come see - that aptly applies to those who, having lived their lives in the jaded belief that they'd never make it big in life, simply cannot come to grips with reality when they do.
Consequently their behaviour comes across as inexplicably bizarre, crass even.
We'd hate to think that this is the explanation for the spectacle which played out in Berlin between the MVP athletes and the management of the Jamaican team which is getting ready to contest the 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships starting Saturday.
But can you blame us for supposing?
As far as we understand, the six athletes at the centre of the controversy - Mr Asafa Powell, the former 100-metre world-record holder; 100 metres Olympic champion Ms Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400 metres hurdles Olympic gold medallist Ms Melaine Walker, 100 metres hurdler Mrs Brigitte Foster-Hylton, 400 metres sprinter Ms Shericka Williams and 400 metres hurdler Ms Kaliese Spencer - were supposed to be at the Jamaica team's six-day camp in Nuremberg.
Why weren't they?
After all, it was mandatory, and according to the rules as posited by Mr Howard Aris, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA), those who missed it wouldn't be allowed to contest the event.
So by a process of simple reasoning, having missed the camp these athletes should have been withdrawn from the event.
And for a while yesterday, it seemed as if they were going to be excluded, as the JAAA had asked that the offending athletes be withdrawn from the entry list. An Associated Press report pointed out that "the request could be rescinded because the final entry list has to be with the organisers 48 hours before the opening event".
So we were bitterly disappointed, albeit not totally shocked, at the swiftness with which the first report was followed by a second informing us that the JAAA had 'changed its mind'.
What mind? we ask.
According to the second report, the IAAF had put pressure on the JAAA to 'change its mind' because the exclusion of the six prominent athletes would reflect badly on the championship itself.
This from the mouth of none other than IAAF secretary general Mr Pierre Weiss, though understandable, is nothing short of scandalous in our opinion.
Understandable, because a lot of hype has been riding on the ongoing theme of rivalry between Jamaica and the USA and ideally the organisers would want to see the strongest complement on both sides competing.
Otherwise, the championship wouldn't be as exciting or as financially lucrative.
Scandalous because allowing the athletes to compete after clearly defying the rules represented an elevation of a dangerous breed of indiscipline that Europeans would not otherwise tolerate from underprivileged black people.
Of course, we'd like nothing better than to stomp all over our competitors in this latest round of rivalry. But not at the expense of the spirit of discipline which this country so desperately needs.
For right-minded people are well aware of the damage that this type of unruliness and disregard for rules have brought to so many aspects of the society.
And the last thing in the world we need to do is to affix an international stamp of approval to local slackness.
Good sportsmanship, the type that we want our youth to emulate, is just not compatible with sloppiness and weakness of character.
And while we believe in discretionary rule-bending to facilitate special circumstances, we don't believe that this particular spectacle qualified, or that what happened yesterday was in the best long-term interest of Jamaica's track and field.
But unfortunately that - at least from the perspective of those who are responsible for safeguarding our interests - does not seem to be the point.
