Sports: Jamaica's misplaced priorities

[Don1]

BBC America cable channel did an extensive feature on Champs & Jamaican high school athletics last night in a news segment...very nice piece....especially so since one of the 2 schools featured was the track program of a certain College on Old Hope Road.

This nice feature & the recent global recognition of Champs (of which we are all justifiably proud) inspires a re-focus on some core issues.

We all love sports and know that it is an important nation-building activity.... and vital to Jamaicans, me included. However in today's Knowledge Age ... the Info Age having passed..Jamaican's emphasis on sporting excellence over and above academic excellence is ridiculous given our current state of backwardness.

Not saying this is an either/or zero sum game...yes both CAN be pursued....but Jamaicans seem to be more interested in sports rather than academics....to our detriment. It's a matter of prioritizing...starting first with our thinking of the relative importance of different elements in the nation-building matrix.

Our over-emphasis on sports may be a case of..where there is no bread, give the people a circus.... a self delusional cultural fantasy distracting us from solutions to our real problems of development...or rather lack thereof.
When there is no bread we should apply ourselves to learning how to make it....which means an emphasis on STEM education... Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.

What if we and our children had the same excitement about academic excellence that we do regarding sports? The answer can be seen in nations like Israel, South Korea and Denmark... all sports-loving but who seem to love smarts more than sports...so they develop faster and create more value.... so they can AFFORD to watch the entertainment creators in athletics from countries like Jamaica perform on the world stage. Problem is...we return to our backwardness and they to affluence.

Will we ever learn to create a culture of academic excellence... celebrated and promoted with the same fervour as we do sports?

Since development of our smarts will be the ONLY way we can progress in the 21st century....where are the voices demanding academic development & excellence? Where are the banner headlines in newspapers with that message? What are the stakeholders willing to do... to first plan for academic excellence and second.... achieve it? What is GOJ doing? What are parents, teachers, alumni and us as individuals doing?

Not much....except hollow chat.

Pathetic.


Selah

[Jawge]

Yuh on track; but memba say edication cyaan nyam.

[Sir X]

What do you think of the principal they interview , .....obviously its genetic from slavery we were bred to be the strongest and you know the slaves always tried to run away......

So other slave colonies werent bred to be the strongest ? and they didnt try to run away?

Those words are coming from an EDUCATOR!

So we have heard so far
1)aggressiveness.
2)slavery
3)hills
4)genes
5)stength

We are so unique in that no other slave colony were bred to be aggresive, strong and didnt try to run away to the hills , so we came out faster.Let me throw in 1/3 of the population from west africa have that special gene and a large % is based in Jamaica forget that it is diluted with chinese, indian, caucasian blood among others.

Fi get champs , it just happened over 100 years accident.The BBC presenter and Shelly Ann gave a better presentation of the significance of champs.

BTW you are right we are more than just champs , but its the only thing thats working , producing World Class products in Jamaica to showcase to the world.

Educated ignorant fools are we , presented to the world.Well its the norm nowadays so forgive me for beating up my gum.

[Don1]

Yuh on track; but memba say edication cyaan nyam.

so yuh cyan nyam a reordering of priorities and thinking? If you read the piece you should realize that is my thesis...ie prioritization.

think before you type

[Jawge]

satire and sarcasm is lost on you. I understand fully though: When weaned on a society that is rife with division (pnp/JLp, east/west, north/south, red/green, uptown/down town, country/ town, back/front et al) it's very hard to come to terms that an opponent in one area acan actually agree with you in another.Carry on though.

[Don1]

What do you think of the principal they interview , .....obviously its genetic from slavery we were bred to be the strongest and you know the slaves always tried to run away......

So other slave colonies werent bred to be the strongest ? and they didnt try to run away?

Those words are coming from an EDUCATOR!

So we have heard so far
1)aggressiveness.
2)slavery
3)hills
4)genes
5)stength

We are so unique in that no other slave colony were bred to be aggresive, strong and didnt try to run away to the hills , so we came out faster.Let me throw in 1/3 of the population from west africa have that special gene and a large % is based in Jamaica forget that it is diluted with chinese, indian, caucasian blood among others.

Fi get champs , it just happened over 100 years accident.The BBC presenter and Shelly Ann gave a better presentation of the significance of champs.

BTW you are right we are more than just champs , but its the only thing thats working , producing World Class products in Jamaica to showcase to the world.

Educated ignorant fools are we , presented to the world.Well its the norm nowadays so forgive me for beating up my gum.

This is not the point I was making & I hope the thread doesn't dwell on this issue. I saw those comments from that principal... that slavery theory is crap we should stay away from.... only to acknowledge the fast twitch muscle advantage we got from our ancestors vs non-West Africans.

Our success is due to hard work, dedication, organization & intelligence..... plus a liberal helping of fast twitch muscles.


My main point is about our backward thinking process.

[Jawge]

that's a load of crap. Better the principal had said welocme to ja.

[Don1]

satire and sarcasm is lost on you. I understand fully though: When weaned on a society that is rife with division (pnp/JLp, east/west, north/south, red/green, uptown/down town, country/ town, back/front et al) it's very hard to come to terms that an opponent in one area acan actually agree with you in another.Carry on though.

I guess when sarcasm is as clumsily constructed as yours it can be misconstrued.

[Jawge]

It's all relative: What may be an idol in one town is wood for fire in another.

[Sir X]

I agree and the principal buttered your arguement in that , what would make a man or educated individuals voice theories that were used to justify slavery as an oppourtunity to justify ones superiority.

Instead of looking at the 100 years of organization and excellence an institution has played on the psyche of a nation to make it World Class.

Backward thinking is putting it mildly , it oozes out of our success, Champs , with this continuos verbal garbage .

It drives me crazy, I will be honest after hearing Babsy make that comment , I feel she should be removed from office and never be close to a microphone.

Dem tink a garrison people dem a deal wid in the international media.

[Don1]

It's all relative: What may be an idol in one town is wood for fire in another.

ok American Idol. LoL!

[Jawge]

internaional media? Dem bring the same crap Govts (US) too.

[Historian]

An Excellent Post!!

We all love sports and know that it is an important nation-building activity.... and vital to Jamaicans, me included. However in today's Knowledge Age ... the Info Age having passed..Jamaican's emphasis on sporting excellence over and above academic excellence is ridiculous given our current state of backwardness.

Not saying this is an either/or zero sum game...yes both CAN be pursued....but Jamaicans seem to be more interested in sports rather than academics....to our detriment. It's a matter of prioritizing...starting first with our thinking of the relative importance of different elements in the nation-building matrix.

Don1, I fully agree with every word you’ve written here! In fact, I wish that you would decide to submit it to one of our daily newspapers, not as a letter, but as a “guest commentary” (that is, if you do not already write for one of the papers under your real name).

You could also add “entertainment” alongside sports in this critique.

I tend to post most often on sports and on music and culture, but at the same time I’ve always been very concerned at the primacy of sports and entertainment (over that of education) in the minds and lives of my people. Certainly education should take pride of place but, unfortunately, this has not been the case!

Once again, your thread starter here is an excellent discussion, and a most relevant look at an urgent need of Jamaica at this point in our history !

[Jawge]

No boss mi nuh idolize, mi juss recognize.

[Don1]

Don1, I fully agree with every word you’ve written here! In fact, I wish that you would decide to submit it to one of our daily newspapers, not as a letter, but as a “guest commentary” (that is, if you do not already write for one of the papers under your real name).

You could also add “entertainment” alongside sports in this critique.

I tend to post most often on sports and on music and culture, but at the same time I’ve always been very concerned at the primacy of sports and entertainment (over that of education) in the minds and lives of my people. Certainly education should take pride of place but, unfortunately, this has not been the case!

Once again, your thread starter here is an excellent discussion, and a most relevant look at an urgent need of Jamaica at this point in our history !

ok boss..

respek