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No worse than Jimmy Cliff, Sobers
Published: Tuesday | June 28, 2011 5 Comments
Cliff
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Emotions usually get the better of reason in controversial Jamaican issues. The latest example being the Jamaica Cricket Association's (JCA) decision to name the players' pavillion at Sabina Park honouring former Jamaica and West Indies batsman Lawrence Rowe.
Your newspaper and its daily competitor have strongly criticised the JCA move, based on Rowe leading rebel West Indian teams to apartheid South Africa in the early 1980s. Former senator Delano Franklyn has also been critical.
I agree with all parties that the JCA should have been more sensitive.
Indeed, it would have been more appropriate if they honoured Jeffrey Dujon or Allan Rae, two Kingston Cricket Club, Jamaica and West Indies giants.
But let us not get carried away. Jimmy Cliff, universally more popular than Rowe, performed in South Africa three years before the West Indies cricketers were in that country.
There was no outcry when Jimmy Cliff toured there. No noise was made when he was awarded the Order of Merit, Jamaica's third-highest honour. No outcry when he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of the West Indies.
Like Rowe, I cannot recall Cliff apologising for his South African sojourn. So, based on arguments posed by Mr Franklyn and editorials in both newspapers, he should never have been awarded the OM or a UWI honorary degree.
Garfield Sobers coached in racist Rhodesia during the 1970s and was never sanctioned. He remains a hero in Barbados where several institutions are named after him.
Another hero, Nelson Mandela, emerged from prison after 29 years and was willing to forgive and move on. South Africa is the better for it.
Robert Mugabe, in neighbouring Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), chose the path of revenge which has left that country in the doldrums 31 years after independence.
As far as Lawrence Rowe is concerned, we should follow Mandela's lead by forgiving and moving on.
GREYSON GIZMORE
St Andrew
Published: Tuesday | June 28, 2011 5 Comments
Cliff
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Emotions usually get the better of reason in controversial Jamaican issues. The latest example being the Jamaica Cricket Association's (JCA) decision to name the players' pavillion at Sabina Park honouring former Jamaica and West Indies batsman Lawrence Rowe.
Your newspaper and its daily competitor have strongly criticised the JCA move, based on Rowe leading rebel West Indian teams to apartheid South Africa in the early 1980s. Former senator Delano Franklyn has also been critical.
I agree with all parties that the JCA should have been more sensitive.
Indeed, it would have been more appropriate if they honoured Jeffrey Dujon or Allan Rae, two Kingston Cricket Club, Jamaica and West Indies giants.
But let us not get carried away. Jimmy Cliff, universally more popular than Rowe, performed in South Africa three years before the West Indies cricketers were in that country.
There was no outcry when Jimmy Cliff toured there. No noise was made when he was awarded the Order of Merit, Jamaica's third-highest honour. No outcry when he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of the West Indies.
Like Rowe, I cannot recall Cliff apologising for his South African sojourn. So, based on arguments posed by Mr Franklyn and editorials in both newspapers, he should never have been awarded the OM or a UWI honorary degree.
Garfield Sobers coached in racist Rhodesia during the 1970s and was never sanctioned. He remains a hero in Barbados where several institutions are named after him.
Another hero, Nelson Mandela, emerged from prison after 29 years and was willing to forgive and move on. South Africa is the better for it.
Robert Mugabe, in neighbouring Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), chose the path of revenge which has left that country in the doldrums 31 years after independence.
As far as Lawrence Rowe is concerned, we should follow Mandela's lead by forgiving and moving on.
GREYSON GIZMORE
St Andrew