“ Usain Bolt-Beautiful Jamaican Athletes and the Untamed Economic Beast” By Donovan Reynolds

Usain Bolt-Beautiful Jamaican Athletes and the Untamed Economic Beast” By Donovan Reynolds

To Read Click into this link

For the past two weeks while the Olympics gain momentum and the Jamaican athletes graced the field I forgot that Facebook ever existed and my Jamaican pride shot up to stratospheric heights. First there was Shelly –Anne Fraser-Pryce winning of the 100 metre event that caused my heart to pound like a racing car. Then Bolt tamed the beast on Wednesday leaving the Americans in a cloud of dust. While Usain Bolt had the Beast close to his heels celebrating Asafa was left lonely on the canvas holding his groin   unattended in agony while they lapped up the adoration of the world. Poor Asafa was taken down by an ungrateful groin injury. He looked like amateur dancer getting a painful fall while doing a difficult’ crotch grabbing’ Michael Jackson dance routine. While the word celebrated the antics of lightening Knights of Jamaican athletics his sympathy fell to three British women of Jamaican decent. While having a celebratory bottle of champagne in my local pub they convinced me that they could have done a better job on Asafa’s groin than his physiotherapist if he had locked himself in a room for a threesome with them before the race 100 metres race for less than 45 minutes. What they would have done to him to whip him in shape is imagination daunting.

 Then came the Thursday 1,2,3  heroics of Bolt Blake and Weir that sealed the Jamaican athletic cult status. It was watched by a record twenty million viewers on BBC and 2 billion viewers worldwide. By the time Saturday came Bolt Blake, Frater and Carter had shattered the world record on Saturday my voice went through the window of my apartment closely followed closely by my British politeness .While celebrating my blood  to alcohol  level was so high that my liver almost  set off the smoke alarms in my flat.

For two entire weeks Jamaica received such global spotlight I almost felt that we were citizens of a first world country but the bubble burst on Monday with a telephone call from a male relative in Jamaica that woke me up with the news that he was indebted and needed a loan as he was so broke and was expecting the courts bailiff to come for his furniture among them the TV that he was watching during the Olympics game. Jamaica is a country of amazing contradiction among the records that we have broken globally is the ability to punch above our weight despite our difficult financial circumstances.

 Professor Trevor Munroe confirmed a long held suspicion of mine s in a presentation to the Rotary Club of New Kingston, Friday the 10/8/12. The Jamaica Observer quoted Munroe saying that: while the performance of the athletes in their different events has literally pushed Jamaica to the top of the world, the country is still at the bottom of the pile based on its economic performance, pushed there by rampant corruption. Professor Munroe opined:"...At the same time as we are at the top of the world in athletics, we are near the bottom of the world in economic performance; in producing and in providing goods and services to uplift the quality of life of the majority of our people. Regrettably, when it comes to the economy, we not only don't qualify for the Olympics, but we don't even qualify for anywhere near the top three in our region," He quoted an article by the Economist magazine in July this year which predicted that based on current forecasts Jamaica will finish the year with the slowest average growth rate since 2000 in the Americas, behind even earthquake-stricken Haiti, Professor Munroe said Jamaica had "fallen behind a whole slew of countries that it was ahead of in 1970".

Figures obtained from UK Sport, the strategic body overseeing performance sport in the UK, detail the amount of money invested in each Olympic sport since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. An Olympic medal won by Team GB at the London 2012 Games cost an average of just over £4.5 million. Boxing was the most cost-effective sport in terms of funding per medal, with hockey the least. This money spent is estimated to be more than what is cost to send the entire Jamaican delegation to the 12 12 Olympics. The British government spent a whopping 12 billion Pounds to stage the Olympic Games yet in the athletic stadium at Stratford Jamaican flags were strung up around the track as if they were co- host of the Olympic Games. As a matter of fact prior to the games when the Olympic Torch arrived in Tottenham famous for the 2011 British Riots -I went out with my family to see it. There were more Jamaican Flag bearers dressed in Jamaican T-shirts chairing on the torch bearers than British flag bearers we are a n extremely clever and proud people. We Jamaicans are clever at high jacking a party and making it our own. Equally are experts at Hijacking other countries success and highlighting how we contribute to it. Yes, the mantra of our boasting of how our immigrant labour build Britain US and Canada is true to a certain extent but it wearing thin in light of the fact that we are unable to reign in our corrupt politicians and Public officials and create our own economic success. Yes, our athletes are famous and rich and they deserve their success but the nagging contradiction is that we are the begging bowl of the Southern hemisphere.

So the party is over and our two weeks of fame has ended. It was a triumphant game with stellar performances from talented athletes from a confident but financially broke country. Bolstered by the self confidence from the games Jamaican Government and Business should get out there produce and innovate. Let us begin the arduous task of find new markets for our indigenous goods and services that will give us a comparative edge is a difficult global financial market. We can’t employ mediocre politicians and Public servants and expect to get good economic result. Jamaica has had more than a dozen Finance Ministers offer the past 50 years who have less economic savvy than the dinner lady at my son’s primary school on less than £2 a day my son return from school so well fed during the week so much that only needing a bowl of cereal to go to his bed. There are too many charlatans in our parliament they remind me of a Bar attendant that I met in Westmoreland she felt that she was more clever that girls her age who had University degrees on the basis that she was sleeping with a judge and two lawyers at the same time and had a wide knowledge of the law.

 As I begin to retreat from the afterglow of the Olympics success and hardly recovering from the over indulgence of my alcohol laced week end Jamaicans living abroad have to join the Jamaica National and western Union lines to stave off a Haiti situation by helping out my country man. It comes on a fortnight that a famous Jamaican politician Facebook accused us of being facitious for wanting parliamentary representation because we are unpatriotic for running away from Jamaica totally oblivious to the fact that remittance is Jamaica’s highest foreign exchange earner. That mealy mouth self-congratulatory politician reminds me of the ungrateful relatives that we take expensive presents for while on vacation that disappears when our money is finished. So the Olympics are now over we have seen the beautiful lightning Bolt and the incredible fast Yohan the beast Blake but after the Olympics is over we know that Haiti is going to perform better than us this year if we don’t get our economy in order. May be I am a hopeless optimist but I believe that we can extend the example of our dedicated and  Athletic Professionals to our economic management over time we can be a great country.

Donavon Reynolds is British Based Social Worker and a Human Rights Campaigner with an interest in Politics, Culture and International Development issues. Readers are invited to give a feedback on this blog at the space provided below or to e-mail him at Dannygerm63@hotmail.co.uk.You may also give your feedback on the Facebook or twitter link on this blog.