On Target
July 13, 2012

Sporting melodies

It may be coincidence or an act of unwitting wisdom that many of this year’s calypsoes and soca songs have a direct correlation to what is happening with sports here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

Looking at what is going on, our sports administrators by themselves can host their own Soca Monarch, Ragga Soca and Calypso Finals, using cover of songs aired in the 2012 Carnival celebrations.

One does not have to ‘Read between the lines’, as the happenings are glaring and have been documented and immortalized in song.

The most popular rendition has to be ‘Sit Down and Wait’, as many associations and others can bear testimony of this.

Many are simply taking the advice, as they wait on some tangible progress in the realization of the much promised and anxiously awaited indoor facility, which would house mainly Volleyball, Netball, Boxing and Basketball.

Doing background vocals to this one are members of the Football and Track and Field fraternities, who are slowly dropping off their chairs, having endured years of patience, as nothing seems forthcoming for the National Stadium.

The over dubbing for this rendition is done by those Track and Field athletes who are being side-stepped, while Team Athletics SVG, and by extension the National Olympic Committee,

continuously expend monies on athletes who have passed their best or those who have only beaten casual participants at our annual Inter Schools meets.

Similarly, the local coaches are exercising their vocal chords, as they too must wait for four more years to see an Olympic Games, while a Kittian sits large and in charge of our two athletes in the London extravaganza.

Also getting regulation rotation is the popular self-appointed monsters, which are an apt description for those who are engaged in the fight for turf and to see who is the best saga boy in the war between the two ministries responsible for sports in our schools across St Vincent and the Grenadines.

And, indeed they are proud to repeat the hook line “I am a Monster”, an apt noun complement, as they are for real, mashing up everything, ripping everything and nobody can’t tell them anything.

These cold hearted personnel have no pity in destroying the cradle of sports here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, having many of the youngsters giving up hope of going further and just be happy to repeat the refrain ‘Whining, Whining’.

Also doing a road mix to this popular song are some of the agencies and policy makers who find delight in flexing their muscles and ego, whilst the very disciplines are ever regressing.

The normally prim and proper St Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association must have helped penned Brother Ebony’s creative piece of ‘Nothing at All’, as the lone ranger in that organization can readily relate to the plight expounded in the song.

After all, the national Tennis set-up has nothing at all to show over the past months. X -Cel has had in-house tournaments, while the Grassroot Tennis Club has had several and is having a ball, but Mc Kenzie has nothing at all.

Others are making sure they are not omitted from the gig, with ‘Woodlice in the pocket’, being the tune of choice of their main donors, in lieu of the National Lotteries Authority, which was primarily set up to support sports and culture.

Not that vociferous and audible, many organizations are lip-syncing, as the NLA is finding it difficult to meet the needs of its main causes of operations.

It may seem that everything is wrong with sports here, but it is not all gloom and doom, as there are some glimpses of hope, as the struggle continues.

So, as we clear the road to reach the success ladder, let us move forward with ‘Oneness’, by ‘Building Relationships’, and accepting the ‘Reality Check’ that we endlessly work.