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Sorry, guys — losing canna cross-I
BARBARA GLOUDON
Friday, September 02, 2011
REALITY CHECK: One thing we Jamaicans cannot deal with is losing. We don't like it. When we're on the winning side, we have the world's record for bragging rights. When it comes to chest-beating, it's strictly gold — gold — and more gold, When things are not exactly going our way, we don't mek joke. Losing is serious business.
Losing is not even supposed to be a word in our book. When it happened last weekend at Daegu, our "bragability" was sorely tried. Who tell Usain to go false-start and have to drop out of the 100 metres? I wonder if he knew how many bar bets were lost? What happen to De Man, sah? Whoever heard of lightning losing? Dem tings mek thunder roll!
Until last week, I don't know if 10 people could point it out on the map. Now, Daegu is the biggest word round town. En route, so confident were we of our prospects that some pundits had predicted the exact number of medals which we "mus and bound" to bring home, with nothing but gold from Bolt, of course. After us, "no dawg would bark". Alas, and also alack, (whoever they are), we forget at our own peril that "man a write and God a rub out".
When we woke up early Sunday morning to watch Bolt win (of course), it was a mere formality. Victory, post to post. We "canna" lose. We always "cross-i". Jamaica all the way! Unfortunately, whichever god of good fortune was supposed to be on duty that morning didn't get the message that....
JAMAICANS DON'T LOSE. Nobody... yuh hear wi... nobody suppose to beat Usain. Certainly, not he himself. The lickle hundred metres was nutten... a stroll in the park, a temporary distraction before we kick back and chill. Nobody said anything about the possibility of "false start". The medal tally was down pat. No problem. Medals, medals and more medals. Yuh nuh. Then before you could say "Go!", the whole world came crashing down. False start tek wi.
Our golden warrior and all of us were left to watch the rest of the field run away, leaving him standing like Sunday morning coming down. (A wah dis, Fawdah?) But give thanks and praises for Yohan Blake. In other countries I believe it would be spelt "Johan" but don't forget -- this is Jamaica. Young Missa B was in the right place at the right time. This was his turn to shine and shine he did... gold all the way.
We owe the "yute" a debt of gratitude, but unfortunately we've been fixated more on the failed start than Yohan's tremendous achievement. Never mind. He's now enshrined in the history books. They say when opportunity knocks, you must be prepared to answer and so did the "yute" from Bullet Tree, St Catherine, via Bogue Hill, St James, son of Miss Veda and Maas Shirley Blake. He never waited for opportunity to call twice. He did us proud. Asafa and Usain will live to run another day. Today it was someone else's turn. You can't win them all.
AS USUAL, the mob has been pecking away at those who were heroes up to last week this time but have now become the subject of "kiss-teet'. Asafa is having the hardest time. Nobody seems to believe the injury report. Nobody seems to care. His no-show is credited to fear of competition. The piranhas went for the jugular yet he remains calm. There has been no word too mean, too derogatory, too bad-mind to hurl at him. Small axes have come out to hack and chop at the tree. It was all well and good when he was winning medals — for Jamaica, of course, but to pull up again, to say that he had muscle problems? "Gway wid dat."
One particularly vitriolic media attack came from a newspaper column which outdid itself with insults, concluding with the ultimate dismissal "Loser". (We like only winners, understand, bwoy?) As a matter of interest, how many of us would challenge him to a race, even when he's injured?
There has been some criticism of the IAAF and a demand that the false-start rule be changed. While that was being debated, Usain didn't escape the put-downs. The social networks crowd went wild on Sunday, I'm told. Words like "too boasie" and "clown too much" were all over Facebook. That Usain has brought home more gold than our banks was suddenly forgotten. Where was the loyalty? Some knew (after the fact, of course), that he was going to crash. "We could see it from the beginning." And if he didn't, we'd find something else to brag about.
THE PAST WEEK was to have offered opportunity for redemption for our team and catch up on lost gold. It hasn't been all that hot, however, in terms of our expected medal haul. Even our girls have not sparkled like they did at Beijing, but give thanks for Veronica and Melaine and their silvers. Elsewhere, detractors who have been eyeing our success since Beijing are convinced that our victories have come too easily.
That nasty four-letter word (starting with D) is being bandied about, explaining why our athletes have been subject to more testing than any others. Don't be surprised if all kinds of spurious connections are being made between the vigilant testing and our lukewarm showing. Let us hope that that is all there is and Team Jamaica will get back on the horse (to mix that old metaphor) and ride on to victory... Of course, there's the lesson of the week -- even winners lose sometimes. We have to learn to "tek de tick wid de tin".
PS I see where one athlete has complained that he didn't like the food at Daegu and so he didn't eat, which affected his performance. Others also have culinary disaffection. Are we to assume that that is why so many didn't medal? Check what the French say, "Qui s'excuse, s'accuse." Being translated, it says: "He who excuses himself, accuses himself". Eat up and gwaan go run. Nobody promised us the rose garden. Next time we'll bring the chef.
IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, other young athletes are turning up determined to beat us — and doing it too. In the spirit of Caricom, let us congratulate the 18-year-old Grenadian KIRANI JAMES for bringing glory to his country. I love the report that fire trucks sounded their sirens across Grenada and two rounds of canon fire echoed as in days of old when invaders were put to flight. Respect!
CYBER COMESS: A 14-year-old girl in Trinidad placed a post on Facebook, threatening the life of her country's prime minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar. Not long after the T and T attorney general said that "The law should take its course", the girl, with her parents, went to the police. She gave a report and was allowed to go home. She posted another statement, apologising. A political opponent of the PM then accused the attorney general of traumatising the teen. Huh? Down So, they call such a thing "a comess". Mix-up, mix-up, we would say in our lingo.
gloudonb@yahoo.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1WoZ5CPEt
BARBARA GLOUDON
Friday, September 02, 2011
REALITY CHECK: One thing we Jamaicans cannot deal with is losing. We don't like it. When we're on the winning side, we have the world's record for bragging rights. When it comes to chest-beating, it's strictly gold — gold — and more gold, When things are not exactly going our way, we don't mek joke. Losing is serious business.
Losing is not even supposed to be a word in our book. When it happened last weekend at Daegu, our "bragability" was sorely tried. Who tell Usain to go false-start and have to drop out of the 100 metres? I wonder if he knew how many bar bets were lost? What happen to De Man, sah? Whoever heard of lightning losing? Dem tings mek thunder roll!
Until last week, I don't know if 10 people could point it out on the map. Now, Daegu is the biggest word round town. En route, so confident were we of our prospects that some pundits had predicted the exact number of medals which we "mus and bound" to bring home, with nothing but gold from Bolt, of course. After us, "no dawg would bark". Alas, and also alack, (whoever they are), we forget at our own peril that "man a write and God a rub out".
When we woke up early Sunday morning to watch Bolt win (of course), it was a mere formality. Victory, post to post. We "canna" lose. We always "cross-i". Jamaica all the way! Unfortunately, whichever god of good fortune was supposed to be on duty that morning didn't get the message that....
JAMAICANS DON'T LOSE. Nobody... yuh hear wi... nobody suppose to beat Usain. Certainly, not he himself. The lickle hundred metres was nutten... a stroll in the park, a temporary distraction before we kick back and chill. Nobody said anything about the possibility of "false start". The medal tally was down pat. No problem. Medals, medals and more medals. Yuh nuh. Then before you could say "Go!", the whole world came crashing down. False start tek wi.
Our golden warrior and all of us were left to watch the rest of the field run away, leaving him standing like Sunday morning coming down. (A wah dis, Fawdah?) But give thanks and praises for Yohan Blake. In other countries I believe it would be spelt "Johan" but don't forget -- this is Jamaica. Young Missa B was in the right place at the right time. This was his turn to shine and shine he did... gold all the way.
We owe the "yute" a debt of gratitude, but unfortunately we've been fixated more on the failed start than Yohan's tremendous achievement. Never mind. He's now enshrined in the history books. They say when opportunity knocks, you must be prepared to answer and so did the "yute" from Bullet Tree, St Catherine, via Bogue Hill, St James, son of Miss Veda and Maas Shirley Blake. He never waited for opportunity to call twice. He did us proud. Asafa and Usain will live to run another day. Today it was someone else's turn. You can't win them all.
AS USUAL, the mob has been pecking away at those who were heroes up to last week this time but have now become the subject of "kiss-teet'. Asafa is having the hardest time. Nobody seems to believe the injury report. Nobody seems to care. His no-show is credited to fear of competition. The piranhas went for the jugular yet he remains calm. There has been no word too mean, too derogatory, too bad-mind to hurl at him. Small axes have come out to hack and chop at the tree. It was all well and good when he was winning medals — for Jamaica, of course, but to pull up again, to say that he had muscle problems? "Gway wid dat."
One particularly vitriolic media attack came from a newspaper column which outdid itself with insults, concluding with the ultimate dismissal "Loser". (We like only winners, understand, bwoy?) As a matter of interest, how many of us would challenge him to a race, even when he's injured?
There has been some criticism of the IAAF and a demand that the false-start rule be changed. While that was being debated, Usain didn't escape the put-downs. The social networks crowd went wild on Sunday, I'm told. Words like "too boasie" and "clown too much" were all over Facebook. That Usain has brought home more gold than our banks was suddenly forgotten. Where was the loyalty? Some knew (after the fact, of course), that he was going to crash. "We could see it from the beginning." And if he didn't, we'd find something else to brag about.
THE PAST WEEK was to have offered opportunity for redemption for our team and catch up on lost gold. It hasn't been all that hot, however, in terms of our expected medal haul. Even our girls have not sparkled like they did at Beijing, but give thanks for Veronica and Melaine and their silvers. Elsewhere, detractors who have been eyeing our success since Beijing are convinced that our victories have come too easily.
That nasty four-letter word (starting with D) is being bandied about, explaining why our athletes have been subject to more testing than any others. Don't be surprised if all kinds of spurious connections are being made between the vigilant testing and our lukewarm showing. Let us hope that that is all there is and Team Jamaica will get back on the horse (to mix that old metaphor) and ride on to victory... Of course, there's the lesson of the week -- even winners lose sometimes. We have to learn to "tek de tick wid de tin".
PS I see where one athlete has complained that he didn't like the food at Daegu and so he didn't eat, which affected his performance. Others also have culinary disaffection. Are we to assume that that is why so many didn't medal? Check what the French say, "Qui s'excuse, s'accuse." Being translated, it says: "He who excuses himself, accuses himself". Eat up and gwaan go run. Nobody promised us the rose garden. Next time we'll bring the chef.
IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, other young athletes are turning up determined to beat us — and doing it too. In the spirit of Caricom, let us congratulate the 18-year-old Grenadian KIRANI JAMES for bringing glory to his country. I love the report that fire trucks sounded their sirens across Grenada and two rounds of canon fire echoed as in days of old when invaders were put to flight. Respect!
CYBER COMESS: A 14-year-old girl in Trinidad placed a post on Facebook, threatening the life of her country's prime minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar. Not long after the T and T attorney general said that "The law should take its course", the girl, with her parents, went to the police. She gave a report and was allowed to go home. She posted another statement, apologising. A political opponent of the PM then accused the attorney general of traumatising the teen. Huh? Down So, they call such a thing "a comess". Mix-up, mix-up, we would say in our lingo.
gloudonb@yahoo.com
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1WoZ5CPEt