Tweet
Shameful decision, JCA!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Often you will hear people say there is apartheid existing in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean because of class, race and colour discrimination. That kind of talk betrays a basic ignorance of the essential nature of apartheid.
Invented and practised in South Africa decades ago, apartheid involved a body of laws passed by a fascist government and strictly enforced by the police and courts to separate the races and ethnic groups in every respect.
The law of the land elevated whites as the superior and ruling group. It subjugated all other races with blacks at the very bottom -- virtually sub-humanised.
Education, the universally accepted method for human upliftment became a tool to dominate black people in South Africa. That's because the government systematically attempted to train and condition blacks to serve as a labouring class -- nothing else.
Blacks were deprived of South African citizenship and arbitrarily declared by the government to be citizens of so-called homelands. That way they could be legally deprived of the right to vote and other rights normally accorded in any democracy.
It is in that context that Nelson Mandela and many others became involved in various forms of protest. Many were imprisoned, some tortured and killed.
My considered view and that of many others of my generation is that the apartheid system ranked alongside Adolf Hitler's Nazism as the most grotesque of the 20th century.
European and North American governments did their very best to sugar-coat apartheid for economic reasons and also out of a desire to protect "kith and kin".
But by the time of the arrival of Lawrence Rowe and his band in South Africa in 1983, even those governments had, for the most part, come to the conclusion that apartheid was no longer tolerable.
By then, United Nations-mandated sports and cultural bans against South Africa had been enforced for many years and increasing economic sanctions were also having a serious effect.
The move by the powers that be in South Africa to pay huge sums to bring the so-called 'rebels' was part of an effort to put a human face on a most inhumane system.
Despite the pleas of Mandela, who had already been in prison for 20 years, the African National Congress (ANC) which led the fight against apartheid, regional leaders and well-thinking Caribbean people, Rowe and his band went for the money.
Up to not too long ago, 28 years after a most treacherous act, Rowe remained unapologetic.
They say better late than never, so I for one am happy that Rowe — among the most artistic batsmen of our time and a genuine folk hero of the 1970s — has now apologised.
But how is it, that with all that history, Rowe could have been considered, much less chosen by the newly elected executive of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) to be the person for whom the players' pavilion at Sabina Park should be named?
There are far too many outstanding Jamaican cricketers, for Rowe — whose apology did not come until Monday's naming ceremony — to have even made a long list.
Even had he apologised a long time ago, Rowe by any rational reasoning would have been behind the likes of Alf Valentine, Gerry Alexander, Jackie Hendriks, Jeffrey Dujon and James Adams.
The decision by JCA president Lyndel Wright and his executive reflects a worrying, even shameful, lack of consciousness and political awareness. We are told that henceforth, a special committee will decide on such honours following consultation. A pity the thought hadn't occurred to our cricket leaders before now.
Without awareness you can't be expected to have vision. And visionary leadership is what Jamaica and West Indies cricket badly need.
As Trinidadian cricket writer and philosopher CLR James asked decades ago: "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1Q15WVv5o
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Often you will hear people say there is apartheid existing in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean because of class, race and colour discrimination. That kind of talk betrays a basic ignorance of the essential nature of apartheid.
Invented and practised in South Africa decades ago, apartheid involved a body of laws passed by a fascist government and strictly enforced by the police and courts to separate the races and ethnic groups in every respect.
The law of the land elevated whites as the superior and ruling group. It subjugated all other races with blacks at the very bottom -- virtually sub-humanised.
Education, the universally accepted method for human upliftment became a tool to dominate black people in South Africa. That's because the government systematically attempted to train and condition blacks to serve as a labouring class -- nothing else.
Blacks were deprived of South African citizenship and arbitrarily declared by the government to be citizens of so-called homelands. That way they could be legally deprived of the right to vote and other rights normally accorded in any democracy.
It is in that context that Nelson Mandela and many others became involved in various forms of protest. Many were imprisoned, some tortured and killed.
My considered view and that of many others of my generation is that the apartheid system ranked alongside Adolf Hitler's Nazism as the most grotesque of the 20th century.
European and North American governments did their very best to sugar-coat apartheid for economic reasons and also out of a desire to protect "kith and kin".
But by the time of the arrival of Lawrence Rowe and his band in South Africa in 1983, even those governments had, for the most part, come to the conclusion that apartheid was no longer tolerable.
By then, United Nations-mandated sports and cultural bans against South Africa had been enforced for many years and increasing economic sanctions were also having a serious effect.
The move by the powers that be in South Africa to pay huge sums to bring the so-called 'rebels' was part of an effort to put a human face on a most inhumane system.
Despite the pleas of Mandela, who had already been in prison for 20 years, the African National Congress (ANC) which led the fight against apartheid, regional leaders and well-thinking Caribbean people, Rowe and his band went for the money.
Up to not too long ago, 28 years after a most treacherous act, Rowe remained unapologetic.
They say better late than never, so I for one am happy that Rowe — among the most artistic batsmen of our time and a genuine folk hero of the 1970s — has now apologised.
But how is it, that with all that history, Rowe could have been considered, much less chosen by the newly elected executive of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) to be the person for whom the players' pavilion at Sabina Park should be named?
There are far too many outstanding Jamaican cricketers, for Rowe — whose apology did not come until Monday's naming ceremony — to have even made a long list.
Even had he apologised a long time ago, Rowe by any rational reasoning would have been behind the likes of Alf Valentine, Gerry Alexander, Jackie Hendriks, Jeffrey Dujon and James Adams.
The decision by JCA president Lyndel Wright and his executive reflects a worrying, even shameful, lack of consciousness and political awareness. We are told that henceforth, a special committee will decide on such honours following consultation. A pity the thought hadn't occurred to our cricket leaders before now.
Without awareness you can't be expected to have vision. And visionary leadership is what Jamaica and West Indies cricket badly need.
As Trinidadian cricket writer and philosopher CLR James asked decades ago: "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1Q15WVv5o
Comment