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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 09:41:49 AM
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Jamaica Observer: EDITORIAL
PJ Patterson, Simpson Miller and sport
Monday, April 03, 2006
We are aware that sport is very close to the heart of Mrs Portia Simpson Miller. It therefore comes as no surprise that as prime minister she has chosen to retain the portfolio first handed to her by the late Mr Michael Manley and subsequently by her immediate predecessor, Mr P J Patterson.
We welcome her decision. For, as we have indicated before in this space, sport is not a side show. Rather, it is one of the fast-growing service industries, worth billions of US dollars worldwide. Even in Jamaica's underdeveloped and still very amateur environment, sport has great economic potential - not least as an ally to the lead foreign exchange earner, the tourist industry.
Economics apart, it has much to do with the psyche of the Jamaican. The national pride and sense of upliftment following successes such as the Reggae Boyz's qualification to the World Cup of football in 1998, the tremendous achievements of our athletes at the Olympics and World Championships and most recently at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, tell the story.
Even the public anger and depression caused by the West Indies cricket team's poor showing in recent years reflect the importance of sport to our people.
And it goes without saying that at the local and community levels, sport is among the best ways to keep young people out of trouble, focused and aware of their social responsibilities.
It is in that context that we fully expect Mrs Simpson Miller's government to continue and to expand on the efforts by the Patterson regime to increase sporting opportunities for Jamaicans, particularly through the improvement of facilities.
The considerable budgetary constraints notwithstanding, it will be to the eternal credit of Mr Patterson that he and his government were consistently friendly to sport and its development.
We need only ask Captain Horace Burrell who in the Desmond Allen interviews of May 2004, told the fascinating story of how he was initially laughed at by leading businessmen when he went to them for funding to finance an ambitious programme to qualify Jamaica for the 1998 World Cup.
Undaunted, Captain Burrell found a believer in Mr Patterson, who initiated discussions with the Brazilian government that triggered the arrival of the Brazilian coach, Rene Simoes. The latter guided the Reggae Boyz to an unlikely place at the World Cup finals in 1998. Mr Patterson's government, with Mrs Simpson Miller as minister of sport, was to continue to play a major supporting role in that qualifying campaign and the others to follow.
The Sports Development Foundation (SDF), first set up in the Manley administration, grew and evolved in the Patterson years and in 2002 we saw the setting up of the CHASE (Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education) Fund for the organised channelling of tax revenues from the gaming industry to the various areas, including sport.
Also, it was under the watch of Mr Patterson and Mrs Simpson Miller that Independence Park, including the National Stadium, was modernised and a number of other sporting facilities improved with funds flowing as soft loans from the preferential San Jose Oil Accord first agreed with Venezuela and Mexico 26 years ago.
But there remains much to be done. Coaches and administrators continue to complain about the poor quality of too many of the venues at which our sports men and women compete.
And, as Dr Carlton Davis, chairman of the CHASE Fund, has gone on record as saying, more help is needed from corporate Jamaica because the Fund simply cannot be stretched to meet all the demands.
We are optimistic that the goodwill currently being enjoyed by Mrs Simpson Miller will allow her to strengthen the long-standing partnership between the public and private sectors in the development of sport.
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Karl |
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PJ Patterson, Simpson Miller and sport
