President Obama, Thank You!

Recently, I was in one of my pensive moods and just reflecting on my life, the many twist, turns and curve balls I have faced in my forty plus years. Some of the concerns were legitimate but I realized I was only making my own situation worse by zoning in on the negatives and I remembered being told once by a lecturer that the single most important aspect of getting and staying happy, is having an attitude of gratitude. Immediately I called her and at the end of the conversation, she said; “even as you face the challenges life will throw your way, remember to be thankful for the things that bring you joy”.

Since then a weird thing happened, I was watching the third and final presidential debate and my son said to me, “Daddy why are you so in tuned with American politics”. In replying, I smiled and told him that it gives me a special joy to witness a black man become the most powerful man in the world and through it all, four years later, he has remained grounded and humble fighting everyday for middle class and poor people who placed him in the White House.

He then says to me, “why then it seems Americans don’t like him”. That was a shock question from a 17 year old but I decided to be philosophical in my answer, “often times we don’t appreciate the things that are best for us until it’s too late”

In addition to fact that I believe President Obama’s policies, intelligence, values and experience is on point with the changing times around the world, he is a rare politician that actually says what he means and means what he says and I hope Americans realize how lucky they are to have him on their ballot. Please go out and vote on November 6 and give this rare politician a chance to continue to change the status quo in not just the United States of America, but the rest of the world, one policy at a time. Please we beg of you, do it for all our sons and daughters and the world they will lead in 20 years.

Thank you President Obama for the path you’ve chosen, lots of young black young lives have been inspired. Here’s to a second term in the White House.

One love… From Jamaica!

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Sports + Jamaica = Economic Opportunity

Well it’s D-Day for the big state planned home coming for the Jamaica athletes who were the stars and no doubt the talk of London 2012. Let me just say out front and early, the Government gets a poor mark on this one in my book.  If you can imagine this, it’s almost three months since the games ended; the memories that thrilled us all have been replaced by the reality of crime and violence, no money for student loan bureau, sliding dollar, declining net international reserves et al; yet we are about to spend $57m of tax payers money on a one-off event.

When I wrote, “What they still don’t get…. Jamaica” on September 3 donovangwhite.blogspot.com I was on a flight heading to the eastern Caribbean and couldn’t resist the need to share my thoughts about how short sighted we have been as a nation in providing the means to truly celebrate the achievements of our sportsmen and women and reward their commitment, not with a few dollars or some homecoming party but by stepping out of the box and thinking big about how we truly harness the blessings that have been bestowed on Jamaica so that we multiply the benefits for all.

With that as the background, it struck me and seemingly most Jamaicans were at odds with this when it was announced that the Government with some private sector support will invest $37m out of a total of $57m in the organization and execution of a national homecoming for the athletes, managers and coaches that represented the nation at the London 2012 Olympics.

This doesn’t need an economist to tell us that while the amount of money isn’t that large in the scheme of a national economy, it is the wrong message to send both domestically and internationally to our citizens, investors and lenders that we use our resources with such scant regard for hardship and suffrage of its’ people.

The response by an overwhelming amount of Jamaicans were stunned and most that I saw on social media or spoke to, gave solid alternatives to the use of $57m for a feel good experience that have no chance of creating long term benefit for the country or the athletes. Some of the ideas shared ranged from, the creation of a athletes pension fund, to health and life insurance to the provision of land and financial aide as part of a structured development program for our athletes. Nonetheless, to date these ideas have fallen on deaf ears because the celebrations are still going ahead as planned.

I want to raise again the points from my September 3 blog because I received so many private calls and messages telling me why they can’t or won't work. Beyond the short sightedness of a few it makes me wonder how many persons are afraid to step out in front and state their opinions irrespective of whose ego maybe bruised. Well friends I am sorry, if you read what I write and you have an opinion, please leave your comments and let the world know what you think, ‘Jamaica Land We Love’ is ours not theirs, hence we are all vested in its growth and development and by the way, it's our right to do so.

This is not a bashing of the Government of the day because their predecessors did the same thing in 2008, yet our athletes and sports people continue to struggle to make ends meet and they give their heart and soul to make us proud every time the bright lights come on; isn’t that reason enough for us to see the writing on the wall?

So here we go with my top five long-term suggestions to jump-start the development of sports in Jamaica and the perspective for which each should be viewed initially.

• A national policy for the development of sports in all major discipline tabled in parliament by January 2013

1. All major discipline in the Jamaican context refers to: Track & Field, Football, Cricket, Swimming, Golf and Boxing all other sports in my mind are secondary.
2. Policy should address the need for sporting academies, the first of which should be GC Foster College and later should address the conversion of curriculum for some of the small teacher’s colleges to sports institutions for advance studies, research and scientific developments.
3. The policy must see to the urgent development of world-class facilities – large and small, which will prevent our patch of golden brilliance from becoming another period of brief appearances.
4. The policy must address issues concerning the need to nurture, protect and care for our men and women who choose sports as their way of representing Jamaica. To do this we must address the need for their health care, pension fund (especially for those without super talent), special tax relief on their incomes from competing etc.
5. Oversight committees made up of the best minds on: health, infrastructure development, finance, domestic planning, international relations, tourism, marketing all galvanized behind a single-minded proposition: Creating Economic Growth through Sports.  
6. The policy must be factored into the national budget at the expense of some of the pork barrel spending we now carry as albatross around the neck of Jamaican taxpayers.

• Creation of a Centre of excellence in speed training that is marketed around the globe for clubs, institutions and individuals to come to Jamaica for off-season and/or specialized training.

1. This is our gateway to immediately bring much needed spending in our overall economy through sports tourism.
2. Usain, Shelly-Ann, Mills & Francis should all be the standard bearers of this Centre.
3. This should be the place where sportsmen and women from around the world come every off-season to take advantage of our climatic conditions and superior technical depth in speed training.

• We are yet to realize the true value of GC Foster College as an institution and yet we continue to pay lip service to it; is there no international investors that want it? Heck we could give it to them free in exchange for them to re-develop the institution and it’s infrastructure and make it marketable internationally to students wanting to study sports in many and varied facets.

1. Already I indicated this should be a centerpiece of the national sports policy and the reasons are self-evident. The next Glen Mills or Stephen Francis is waiting to be educated and trained.
2. This facility houses one of maybe three Olympic size swimming pools in the entire English speaking Caribbean; guess what it has never been used because it was never made operational.

• Three major international track & field meets per year; we already have one in Jamaica International Invitational, Gibson Relays can be upgraded similar to Penn Relays and there is no reason we cannot have a Diamond League/Grand Prix Meet if we seek a partnership with North America and strike the right sponsorship deal. Here is where the big ideas really start crystalizing if we think out of the box.

1. The USA is looking for opportunities to leverage the sport and bring funding via sponsorship back into it. Jamaica is perfectly positioned to host two-diamond league (early and late season) competition.
2. Between global TV rights, sponsorship, direct revenues, tourist inflows from North America and the Caribbean, this would be the single largest step we would have taken to use brand Jamaica as a major revenue earner for the country.
3. Penn Relays is probably the single largest T&F event on the US calendar annually, without the Jamaican support it falls flat on its face. Why can’t we leverage this pull with USAT&F to get a greater influx of US and Caribbean High Schools to come to Jamaica in February for Gibson Relays?
4. The cost and format of Gibson Relays would change but the long-term benefit to our domestic development would out weigh the costs, and I am sure the Kingston College family of which I am apart and who are organizers of the meet would not mind revolutionizing the meet for the greater good.

• Commence a plan to make a serious bid for either the 2023 Commonwealth Games and/or 2021 World Track & Field Championships. In between it would be great if we could get the World Netball Championships and the World Junior Championships to return to our shores.

1. This requires a task force to look at the potential in its totality, understand the cost and evaluate the benefits physically, strategically and economically.
2. We keep hearing there are investors wanting shovel ready projects to set up shop in Jamaica, why not use sports as the vehicle to economic prosperity by putting regular Jamaicans back to work?
3. We will need to build new hospitals, houses, roadways, new public transportation system, hotels, entertainment venues, offices and maybe even a Kingston waterway. These as you can see are major legacy projects that would be wise investments for the next 100 years.
4. If we are looking for an economic boost to get people back to work, reduce crime and violence and alleviate human suffrage; this is definitely a rallying point.
5. These may all be primarily track & field events, but having the facilities in place readies Jamaica to bid for just about any global and/or regional event in any of the major sporting disciplines.

Of course, these initiatives should not be seen as a replacement for other ideas that may have already been in the works if in fact there are ideas being worked on. The Government should be encouraged to move speedily to create this framework for the creation of venture-capital opportunities out of what has evolved as probably our most marketable natural resource at this time in our history and is capable of supporting a mass overall of our physical landscape and in the process effect positive economic change.

Only through bold action by the Government will private enterprises both domestic and international will see how these ideas can flourish to the benefit of an entire nation.

One Love!

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Hold their feet to the fire... Scrap Metal Trade

Since the Government of Jamaica through Minister of Industry, Commerce and Trade - Anthony Hylton indicated the pending reopening of scrap-metal industry, scavengers have again begun their assault on the Country’s infrastructure. Telecoms, road signs, billboards, train-lines, bridges and electricity equipment have become the target yet again.

It is ridiculous that after all the mayhem the scrap metal thieves caused on this country before, if is hard to fathom why we are seriously considering reopening this as a trade sector yet again. If this sector is to be resumed, it should be under the collective responsibility of every Minister of Government, because for too long leaders in this country make decisions that they have been warned not to by the people of Jamaica and when they fail miserably, it cost this country billions of dollars that only the taxpayers pay or feel the consequences of these ill-advised decisions.

If by some miracle, the scrap metal trade actually works out successfully this time around, then we will hail the government and particularly Anthony Hylton – Minister, Industry, Trade and Commerce as geniuses. However, if the scrap metal trade begins to pull this country apart again, the Jamaican people should form a class action case against the government for knowingly and recklessly placing its' citizens and infrastructure at risks.

It is about time we exercise our right to question the decisions of those we have elected to govern in the best interest of our country’s future. Madam Prime Minister, you’ve had my vote now do your job and put Jamaica first!

One Love!

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What they still don't get... Jamaica

It is perhaps deliberate of me not to have jumped on the bandwagon of post London 2012 to heap praises onto our athletes. Personally, it is because we have, as a nation, said so much and not really done enough to truly lift up, honor and cherish the enormity of the herculean task we ask these men and women to do when they put on the Green Gold and Black on the world stage. It is truly an honor to represent ones Country and it gets particularly hard when you have a bulls-eye on your back and the rest of the planet is gunning to serve our super beings a dose of kryptonite.

While I wasn’t personally there in the London Olympic stadium, all my friends who had the privilege of witnessing our men and women shell dung London, tells me it was a sight to see people of all class, color and nationality stand in reverence of our awesomeness; on and off the track. For those who know, Miss Lou would have said, “Wi Likkle but wi Tallawah”. If you don’t know, you better ask somebody and of course you could Google it… lol.

Earlier I spoke about bulls-eye and I wasn’t trying to be cliché or colloquial by any stretch of the imagination, in fact I was very serious. What was Carl Lewis, Dick Pound and NBC trying to achieve by downplaying the achievements of our Jamaican athletes in no lesser arena than that of the games of the Olympiad. How much more mean spirited can you actually get.  Lewis is just a Dumbo and doesn’t qualify to be mentioned really, but what the hell was Dick (Pound) thinking, wasn’t he the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), if he had these concerns why voice them after the games and not before? Aren’t his utterances libelous? I hope they are and I hope we have the balls to take action sooner than later, it’s about time we stand in defense of the men and women who represent this proud nation against all foes – foreign and domestic!

Then there was NBC, yes the great American media conglomerate that decided because the United States were again getting a whooping in the sprints by little Jamaica, they refused to televise the events live or even in primetime television. Just imagine, NBC paid billions for the broadcast rights of the games and opted not to air it for their largest audiences because little Jamaica was running rampant in London… Talk about David slaying Goliath!

I need Jamaicans home and abroad to take proper note of the power of Brand Jamaica and the value of your culture because the rest of the world, whether they are for or against us, is wide eyed and taking notice.

Now let me go back to where I started, we keep talking about the prowess and spectacular performances of the Jamaican athletes, it is time for action by the Government and the private sector to get on board or shut up for good, the days of tokenism through big celebration parties and one off advertising campaigns ought to be over and done with. Sports in Jamaica still lack serious development, which requires investment in infrastructure, human resource, facilities, serious marketing and a solid commitment to making excellence the standard for achievement.

What the adoring world doesn’t know is how we produce this prodigious talent year on year with a poor cadre of facilities, no real national sports policy, a struggling national economy and no major investment by the private sector. Well my answer is simple; talent, hard work, dedication and a commitment to excellence by the athletes and their coaches. Thats it, nothing more or less!

That said, my argument is this, the powers that be in Jamaica must seize the opportunity to rub salt in the wounds of the Carl Lewis’s and Dick Pound’s of this world and continue to force NBC to block us out of their broadcasts, by pumping far more into sports development and open their eyes to the bigger picture.  We must treat our athletes (not just Bolt) like the true superstars they are and give them the support they need to continue to work hard and inspire more youngsters coming up that they too can stand atop the medal podium one day.

Here are some big ideas for us to stew on and put our money where our mouth is:

• A national policy for the development of sports in all major discipline – January 2013
• Four mini multi-sports facilities complete with gymnasiums, running tracks, football fields, hard courts, aquatic facilities, spectator seating, parking – June 2014
• Creation of a centre of excellence in speed training that is marketed to the best athletes around the globe to come to Jamaica for off-season and/or specialized training.
• We are yet to realize the true value of GC Foster College as an institution and yet we continue to pay lip service to it; is there no international investors that want it; heck we could give to them free in exchange for them to re-develop the institution and it’s infrastructure and make it marketable internationally.
• Three major international track & field meets per year; we already have one in Jamaica International Invitational, Gibson Relays can be upgraded similar to Penn Relays and there is no reason we cannot have a Diamond League/Grand Prix Meet if we seek a partnership with North America and strike the right sponsorship deal – February 2014
• Commence a plan to make a serious bid for either the 2023 Commonwealth Games and/or 2021 World Track & Field Championships. In between it would be great if we could get the World Netball Championships and the World Junior Championships to return to our shores.
• Racers and MVP Track Clubs need major help to manage the influx of local talent because there is already a huge bottleneck. Why not give major corporations that want to invest in the development of new Clubs/Institutions long term tax breaks to invest in this development, it is a win win situation for all the stakeholders.
• Why aren’t the best Golfers on the PGA tour not coming into Jamaica every year for a tournament, isn’t Tryall and Caymanas still two of the best if not the best courses in the Region.

Just thinking about this makes my skin tingle with excitement even though our sports administrators and the private sector is fast asleep at the wheel, the economic and social windfall from a coordinated and carefully organized plan like this would be unimaginable. Just to name a few of the upsides: Job creation, reduction in crime and violence, creation of opportunities in sports as a career, sports tourism, creation of sports medicine wing to the University Hospital or better yet, building of a brand new sports medicine hospital, expansion of the service industry, redevelopment of the Kingston water front and let’s not forget sports men and women need recreation too; Casinos would be a touch of brilliance.

Let’s get to work Jamaica and stop this small thinking, we need big ideas and bigger dreams… soon the naysayers will realize what the rest of the world has long seen and accepted; we may be small in size but we are big of heart aka “wi likkle but wi tallawah”!!!

One Love!!!

Follow me on twitter: @maninja2

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