“Yam man” missed Carifesta

Aug 29, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It is funny, very funny that Guyana never makes the Caribbean proud of it. Guyana is where the head office of the Caribbean integration movement is located.

Guyana is larger than all, yes all, the Caricom territories put together with the reality that some Essequibo islands are larger than many Caricom states. Yet we have not produced a Usain Bolt.

The story of Usain Bolt is interesting not only because of his phenomenal performance at the just concluded Olympics. It is his origins that tell a strange tale of comparative wealth and the success of poor nations.

Bolt was not the recipient of millions of US dollars which he took and secluded himself in an exclusive training camp in Switzerland.

Bolt did his thing in a village in Jamaica which is known for its delectable yams. So the joke is that yams are the secret of Bolt’s success.

This is the lighter side of the Bolt apocalypse. Even though his training ground was very modest compared to the billion-dollar facilities of the US, Bolt did have access to modern facilities in Jamaica.

Trinidad has the same. It is Guyana that has not got even semi-developed venues for its young athletes.

It is quite shameful when you think of our space. For every cricket ground any Caribbean country can produce we can shape one that is ten times bigger. We have the land space.

In this country, we have not taken off as yet because we bask in mediocrity. But there is a more dangerous side to the growth of a second-class mentality here. It is the denial of reality.

When you write or speak about the primitive social and physical infrastructure of Guyana, you are labeled a perennial critic by the Government, its lackeys and the employees of the state that the Government coerces to reply to its critics.

Let us leave out the last category; those people will be dismissed if they do not do as they are told, as with Neil Marks and perhaps Avery Gomes at the Guyana Times.

What the Government and its sycophants refuse to see is that ignoring reality is scientifically impossible, because at some stage your kingdom will come crashing down if you do not want to accept it is made of sand.

I saw the vividness of this truth at the University of Guyana. For years I lamented the vanishing resources. I knew UG couldn’t last without the essential things that made up a university.

I was classified as the permanent cynic. Today, not one single government supporter would even dare attempt to say that UG is doing well.

It is this crude denial of reality that continues to prevent a Usain Bolt in this land. The Government wants you to say that Guyana has its modern face like any other country and we should be grateful. The truth is the opposite.

What happens then is year in, years out, the Government listens to its own propaganda and when a Usain Bolt appears then the Government becomes like the king and his new clothes.

The image of Usain Bolt will hit Guyana, then, as the “yam man” disappears from the headlines, the suppression of reality will continue.

Maybe it is not too late to fly “yam man” to Georgetown and let him describe to young athletes what Jamaica offers its sporting community. Take the National Stadium.

Don’t criticize it. We have one. Let us be thankful. But from my understanding from speaking to people that saw the other structures built in other West Indian territories, ours is the least architecturally attractive.

A few of them have mini-pools and little botanic gardens attached to them. Our parking facilities, I have been told, are terrible when it rains.

Here is an interesting point. I am typing this article on the 28 August and there is a terrible storm in down town Georgetown as I write. I never saw this kind of thing growing up in Wortmanville.

It does not appear that we will have a hot August period as we did decades ago. We didn’t have one in 2006, 2007 and certainly there has been no “summer” in 2008. But don’t criticize the large parking facility at the National Stadium. Be thankful for it.

The only thing is that with the changing weather pattern if they do not asphalt it, it will disappear as the rains dig into it.

Carifesta has two more days and together with “yam man” they have driven home the reality that governments have to spend money on culture, sports and education.

For me the most unforgivable act of Mr. Jagdeo as President is what has become of tertiary education here.