My life is full of disappointments

Aug 17, 2008 Features / Columnists, My Column

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There are some things in life that just wouldn’t go away. For me, one of these is the habit to plan and execute that plan.

Years ago I vowed that I would not miss the 100 metres final at the Olympics because that is the event that makes the Olympics. It is the event that determines who is the fastest man on the planet.

Of course, there was a time when the man who won the 100 metres was not recognised as the world’s fastest man and the Americans were the people who decided to make that determination.

Donovan Bailey had won the 100 metres in world record time (9.84) in Atlanta but then Michael Johnson had made mince meat of the 200 metres in a blistering 19.32 seconds.

The analysts calculated that he had to be travelling much faster than Bailey to achieve that feat. Of course, if you divide the 19:32 seconds by two you would come up with a fantastic 9:46 seconds for the split.

Of course the analysts went even further. They concluded that if Johnson had run the first hundred in 10 seconds flat then he ran the second 100 in 9:32 seconds.

The Americans decided that there was some problem deciding who the fastest man on the planet was. In the end they opted for a race-off between Johnson and Bailey. They set the distance at 150 yards.

That determining race was a farce because Johnson pulled up injured and that was that. But for all that I don’t think that Bailey was ever considered the fastest man on the planet.

Then there were the Olympics of 1972 when the Russian sprinter Valeri Borzov beat the American favourites to become the world’s fastest man.

Well, if the truth be told, the Americans, Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, turned up late at the track and were disqualified.

The records notes, “The top two US sprinters and medal favourites in the 100 m, Rey Robinson and Eddie Hart, won their first rounds. But they were given the wrong starting time for the next round by their coach and missed the race, eliminating them.”

So Borzov went on to win the Olympics double. The Americans were not happy so they set out to prove who was the better in the 4 x 100 relay.

There was no television in Guyana but the word is that Hart, who ran the final leg, clashed with Borzov.

He reportedly waited on Borzov having collected the baton ahead of the Russian and gained his personal victory by outsprinting Borzov to the finish.

Anyhow, I knew that the 100 meters final would be run Saturday morning and that is the time when I do some domestic chores but vowed that nothing would keep me away from my television.

My mother used to say, “Man appoints; God disappoints”. GPL has no regard for man or God.

A few days ago, people in my neighbourhood reported sparking wires that sent surges coursing through many homes.

I simply told the girl at my home to turn off the main switch which she did. This was Wednesday.

It was no different on Thursday because during the night there were fairy lights or perhaps someone at GPL sending Morse messages and using the lights in my house to do so. Off went the main switch.

All this while people were calling the GPL complaints line—226-4016. I called and got a recording advising me to press one if I had an outage within the past hour. I pressed one and heard some mundane recording.

I hung up and redialed, then pressed two. This number ran out and a voice told me that the party was not there. I then redialed and pressed zero for the operator. I got none until late Friday.

The girl told me that there was need for a tree trimmer and that some had been procured and that power would be restored by five that afternoon.

I got a rude awakening when I got home shortly after midnight. There was no power and it was the same with my neighbours.

I got up yesterday morning to the same situation; watching the sprint final was out of the question.
There was another time when GPL did this to me but my car radio saved the day. Brazil and Italy were clashing in the World Cup finals of 1994.

There was a penalty shootout to determine the champion. At the height of the shootout and the excitement, GPL removed the power from my home.

It happened again when the Cameroons were playing some team. They were the hot team that year and with Roger Milla, they were beating a lot of people. During one of the matches GPL removed the power.

But GPL was not always responsible for my disappointments. There was the time when I planned to go visit my sister and her husband in the States.

It turned out that the airfare was out of my reach and all I could do was sit and mope. I had planned this holiday since last year.

So I am not going to plan anything in the future, not even my funeral. That would be a disaster if it should be that the undertakers have a programme and I disappoint.

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