Application to write for Them

To Whom It May Concern

I am writing this letter to apply for the post of Speech Writer under your current DLP administration. I’ve won a few creative writing awards in my days and from all accounts this loans me to your style of politics. I’ve been following the political situation in the country closely and I think I can be of service. The finance minister by his own accord has no time for replies to attention seeking members of the other party. Even if these topics relate to our country’s situation. The Prime Minister is not a man of many words, unless overused and inappropriately big words, and also by his own words cannot be called out to speak willy nilly as he’s a busy man. I however do have time on my hands.

From following the speeches and talks I have realized the style of the higher powers of your administration. There are two distinct speaking styles and despite my lack of economic background other than a first year university economics course, I am positive I can emulate and even improve on the delivery of the messages you produce for public consumption. I am very familiar with the use of green verbs and can talk down and insult anyone I may need to. I also boast an extensive vocabulary which I am dying to endlessly use to confuse people.

Whether I am required to procrastinate on the delivery of poignant and pertinent points by using a proliferation of multi-syllable words to hide information of misguide the public, or if whether I’m to berate and insult someone to hide my errors, I believe I am the man for the job. I will be sure to place several typos in the speeches to provide a safety loop. The misuse of decimal placings when I’m speaking about percentages will be highly used. I will also be sure to use terms that allow me to backtrack on promises and other plans.

In addition to this I am a great party planner and can make sure that for the next election we can once more win the battle of the uneducated masses by holding the best parties. I also have a slight financial background so I can help make sure the budget is in place for handouts and voter appreciation gifts.

I thank you for any opportunity to help fool and misguide the general public and to be a nuisance to the intellectual capacity of any reasonable thinking citizen. I am more than ready to do my part to continue to do nothing whilst sounding the part of an intellectual. Please find my contact information attached.

Them now Them again

Support needed

Close to five years ago I was making my first venture into the training world by assisting to coach the track team of my Alma Mater Harrison College. It was during this time that I met a talented 11 year old by the name of Mario Burke. From that time it was clear that this youngster had a future in track and field. Back then he did the sprints and dabbled a bit in long jump. Whatever event it was it was clear that Mario was a talented youngster but more so that Mario was a kid with heart and I kid who wanted to succeed. One example is an evening training Mario in the long jump event and having to plead with him to quit training for that day whilst all he wanted to do was to keep training because he wanted to get everything right. To me this was the attitude of a champion in the making.

Fast forward to today and Mario is the pride and hope of a nation who desperately needs a sporting hero. Gone are the days of swimmer Leah Martindale, athletes Obadele Thompson and Andrea Blackett, and cyclist Barry Forde. All current hopes for Olympic or World glory rest on the shoulders of former World Champion hurdler Ryan Brathwaite. Brathwaite’s recent form and the emergence of a new batch of hurdle sensations, have many believing that hopes of him repeating his glory are slim at best. So up steps the hopes of many of seeing this talented 16year old being the reason the broken trident is once more flown at international events.

What Mario has accomplished already is no small feat. At his school’s athletic meet Mario broke an over 20 year record formerlty held by Obadele Thompson. Thompson was for a long time the island’s track sensation with his pinnacle achievement placing 3rd in the Olympic finals of the 100m in 2000. He has gone on to win his divisional title at the recently completed Carifta Championships. Something no one from his island had managed for a decade. He went on to finish 2nd in the 200m. it was however his leg on the 4x400m than garnered the most praise by many and showed to others what this writer has known for 5 years. Mario is a kid with a heart too big to explain with words.

Getting the baton in 3rd place with approximately 40-50m between him and the leaders many figured he would be running to secure the 3rd place. No one could predict what was to happen next. No one that is other than maybe Mario himself. As the cameras, commentators and I’m sure the majority of the fans focused on the battle for 1st Mario was doing the unthinkable. Mario was closing the gap and closing it rapidly. For me to try to describe the way he fought back and finish would be to insult the caliber and class of the performance. You can view it for yourself here. Mario stormed from 50m behind to finish 2nd by 2/10th of a second. I for one believe that had he had about 5 less metres to cover that he would have won the race. The look of disappointment on his face despite running probably the most impressive anchor legs in recent history reflected the character of this young man. Watching it seems as though he was upset that despite how well he ran him nor more importantly his team didn't win.

However having heart and talent can only take you so far. So with that I’m pleading to the parties involved to get behind Mario and this new batch of track stars that he leads. The likes of Akela Jones, Tristan Evelyn, Rivaldo Leacock and Sonia Gaskin promise so much for our future. In other sports such as judo, badminton and swimming we are seeing many young talents emerging that have the potential to be world class phenomenal athletes. So I’m pleading to the powers that be to stop giving mouth service to these athletes and put the necessary support behind them. Carifta is a great accomplishment but I dream of the day we can watch these stars wearing the blue and gold on the international stage. I would hate to see them fall by the wayside as many have before.

Silly Season in Full Swing

Every time I consider hanging up my writing hat for some reason the urge to speak on a topic overwhelms me. This time it is the fact that we are currently in what I consider the most farcical election campaigns that I can remember. There is so much blind allegiances that I wonder it if makes any sense candidates campaigning. The most prevalent parties now aren’t political but more about what artist will be appearing at a rally. I have no idea who stands for what but I’m being bombarded already with tasteless name calling and slander. Full page advertisements laced with drivel and innuendo now occupy space in the newspaper that could be better used for more comics. At least Garfield’s humor is actually funny and tasteful as opposed to what is being spread.

From young I remember sitting and watching results come in. 1994 was particularly interesting for me because we had 4 candidates. Eventual winner Rommel Marshall won a hard fought victory over Derek Alleyne. The NDP’s candidate was a distant 3rd and Independent Candidate Reverend Gordan Mathews even collected a few votes. This election was interesting because it came on the heels of the 8% pay cuts and strikes. Also I knew that Social Studies for Class 4 would be about what ministry is ran by which minister, I was a nerd as a child so please excuse me. I also couldn’t figure out why a reverend would be involved in politics. There were issues all around to be seen and discussed.

The following two elections were less spectacular in nature because under the incumbent administration the economy appeared to bloom. Enter 2008 elections and the beginning of what we see today. The economy was in a decline due to a global recession. The opposition party capitalized on this and pushed the catch phrase of time for change to the masses. They believed that the then administration had been there too long and as such had gotten lazy and weren’t fit to rule anymore. The use of the most popular artist in the island to sing this jingle rang clear. I dare to say that this endorsement is what pushed the opposition at the time to victory. I listened and read many arguments about why the ruling BLP should be voted out and it felt as if 75% of those who argued for the change simply said “they’ve had enough time, give someone else a chance.”

We fast forward to this election and what do we have now? The same artist who sang for the DLP is now singing for the BLP. No manifestos have been launched yet but I’m bombarded with ads via all the forms of media and my social media site are awash with endorsements for each party. Social media also shows me the farcical and ignorant nature of many voters as endorsements aren’t coming based on points of issues. Issues such as someone’s sexuality or previous time in power are being put forward. What about the plans for healthcare reform? What about the plans to help sports and find us another World Champion or an Olympic Champion? Do plans for pension, education, job creation not matter? To me it seems like many votes will be cast depending on who holds the best fetes or who has the most money to spend on buying supporters.

The buying of supporters is nothing new as we know that many people cast their votes in hopes of being rewarded for it after. this has always been funny to me because you can't see in my voting booth so you have no idea if I did vote for you or not.However the amount of cash I saw or heard about being spread around during the last campaign and already for this campaign is staggering. It's even sadder to think that this money is from the parliamentarians pockets in some cases which means that this is the money that i as a tax payer have paid you in the last 5 years. At least you're giving it back to the people right?

In closing I will give up on caring and put my vote up for sale like everyone else. I’m not greedy all I want is an Alicia Keys concert and piece of land. I will just apply to Urban Development and have them build me a house since I voted for the right party.

Rewarding Mediocrity

As of today I am no longer putting in the effort to be above average. It is fairly obvious these days that mediocrity is the name of the game where success is involved. I look around and society is now bombarded with things of questionable standards but yet we praise them and uplift them. Then in these times where information is easily accessible we wonder why there continues to be a decline in the behavior of the youth around us. In these times being intellectually or morally sound is taboo and leaves you to fade to unknown. Crass lewd behavior is the tone of the day for public acclaim.

A look at the international charts in the past showed artist who were lyrically sound and who you could take the music away and the music was still nice enough to enjoy. Rap artist might have used some swear words but they told stories. These days the likes of Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne are the “gold standard.” Rick Ross is in his words the “boss” and his sales make that hard to argue but look at the lyrics. I got women, I got cars, I’ve got drugs and I will shoot you. Actually talented artist are over looked because they force us to think. No longer are the good singers loved but rather the good performers. Even in the case of our home grown talent many of her fans are quick to admit that her vocals even if improving are not the best. However she puts on a good show.

If we look at it in the local context we can use our most popular blogs as an example. I personally don’t expect more than 20-30 of you to read this blog and that’s fine. It is just me ranting. However look at the blogs we now promote with the bajan tag line attached and are ready to promote at large. The bloggers use a wide array of colourful slang terms to get their point across and regularly attack people. This behavior is promoted as being humourous and we are quick to spread the links to these video blogs. These people are now celebrities and can be heard voicing opinions on airwaves and promoting shows. In this age where Google is boss and information can be found easily consider the behavior we are showing our children as being rewarding? They hear us talking about these bloggers and when they search for them and watch the videos this is what they will see. How then can we correct our younger generations when they see this behavior as being good and welcomed?

Children learn from what they are shown. In this day and age where we are quick to post fights, lewd dancing, perverse songs written by artist who have no control over double entendres like the older performers used to do, what type of behavior can we expect them to see as being acceptable. Songs degrading women and women themselves dressing in sexually provocative ways lead to the sexual objectification of women. The ability to carry on an argument without either cursing or using violence is a thing of the past. Yet we hear the cry time and time again asking why the youth the way they are are? When in short the answer is simply we have made them this way and they will make the next generation a little worse unless some drastic global social change occurs.

We are rewarding mediocrity for the sake of popularity. Society is doomed.

my apologies for the hiatus on the blogs but I promise to be more consistent from here on out. a big thank you for my fans who kept requesting another blog and who support me and my little corner. anyone with topics they'd like to see me tackle can just email me a request and I will try to get to it.

Asafa Powell: Bitter Sweet Symphony

Records are made to be broken but a medal can never be taken away. This unfortunately will mean that one of the greatest sprinters in history will likely find himself a faint memory in the mind of only the most diehard fans. Currently the 3rd fastest man ever to lace up a pair of spikes and a multiple time record breaker Asafa Powell has failed to do the one thing that secures legacies in a sport where support can be as fickle and unpredictable as the weather; win a medal at a big meet. He has run more sub 10 seconds than anyone in the history of Athletics. Yet in 20 years it is heartbreaking for a fan like me to think that Powell will not be remembered for anything more than failing to live up to potential.

Powell first ran under 10 seconds in June 2004. Then one year later he entered elite territory when he broke the world record. Powell then equaled this record in 2006 and then broke it again in 2007. His silky smooth running form wowed many and the ease at which he recorded sub 10’s was impressive. In 2005 despite an early end to his season due to injury Powell had the 3 fastest times in the world. In 36 years between Jim Hines being the first man to run under 10 seconds and Powell’s 9.99 in 2004 there were on 43 men in this elusive group. Powell made number 44. Now in the 8 years since he ran this time 38 additional athletes have joined the sub 10 club. Perhaps the most popular member of this club, Olympic champion and world record holder, Usain Bolt has stated that Powell inspired him and paved the way for him and other Jamaican athletes to want to run fast. For you to inspire arguably the greatest modern sprinter to want to be like you is no small feat.

Powell went on a tear for close to 3 years winning the Gold and Diamond league titles. With the freedom of the pressures of the Olympics and World Championships Powell time and time again dazzled us with impressive times in quite easy fashion. Unfortunately during this time span Powell entered championship after championship as a favorite to win. Each time however despite his impressive times before and during in the preliminary rounds one fact kept reoccurring that has left many fan heartbroken and dumbfounded at the same time. Powell continually seemed to buckle under pressure and lose. Not only lose but lose to athletes that on paper were pale imitations of Powell. In 2007 Powell froze under the pressure of his rival Tyson Gay in the finals of the World Championships. Not only did Powell lose to Gay but finished behind Derrick Atkins. Atkins ran his personal best in this race. Powell had blown a big one.

The following year he had a chance to redeem himself on the biggest of stages. He came in to the Olympic finals as one of the favorites. The race was to be between a young upstart Usain Bolt, World champion Tyson Gay and Powell himself. Gay bothered by injury bowed out in the semis. Bolt and Powell qualified with the two fastest times. It was simple from here we all believed. Powell would either win the gold or silver. We were wrong. Powell was inexplicably tight and finished 5th. Redemption came for him when he teamed with Bolt to win a gold medal in a then record time. However he had failed to win one by himself and had received the baton with a clear lead and merely had to ensure he finished the race. The lack of pressure that came with this lead saw Powell run his leg in what at that time was the fastest split for anyone in a relay.Shortly after these games he went on to run 9.72 in a diamond league race. This added to the fuel that he couldn’t win in a big race.

In 2009 he finished 3rd behind Bolt and Gay. He also ran on the relay team with Bolt once more and they once more repeated and won gold. He had failed to win the big one on his own again but by now all hopes of him winning one had started to fade and all eyes were now on Bolt who unlike Powell loved the lime light and shone in it. Injuries meant that Powell had low key 2010 and 2011 seasons. With him even missing World Championships. In this time Yohan Blake joined the spotlight and placed Powell in a spot where no one expected him to win. However his long history of injuries saw him pull up in the finals and finish last. Many believe it was his mental weakness and not his injury and that he merely saw how far ahead the others were and pulled up since he knew he couldn’t win.

So what does this mean for Powell? He’s inspired a new generation of speed which in itself has inspired the future to want to go faster. How many of us can remember who came 5th in any Olympic 100m finals without running off to Google? Is he really that great a sprinter or merely shines best as Bolt’s sidekick with the batons involved. To me he is one of the greatest to ever run. Unfortunately without any medals and a less than stellar performance when it matters others will disagree. Powell himself may have summed it up best after his 2008 performances when he said “Maybe if it was just a one-off race without the qualifying rounds I would have done better. Who knows? Maybe I'm not the guy for those big championships but just the guy to compete in the Grand Prix and Golden League meetings. It's just unfortunate.”

Greatest ever?

I’ve waited for almost a week now before I chimed in on this topic and even now I will not put my personal views out there. What I will do however is put all the facts in front of you and let you decide for yourself. I’m sure most of you reading this know I’m a diehard track and field fan and I have even had my girlfriend look at me once and reason “your love for that sport is over the top.” So when two of the biggest names in the history of the sport publicly engage in a war of words it is sure to catch my attention. From this sparring match it has led to one argument coming up time and time again: who’s the greatest Bolt or Lewis? To answer this you would have to look at this from several angles: medals, accumulated impact on the sport and overall legacy.

Carl Lewis has accumulated a medal count at The Olympics and World Championships that will be hard to match. Between 1983 and 1996 Lewis amassed 10 medals at each of these championships. He has 9 Olympic gold medals and 1 silver. These include 4 consecutive gold medals in long jump, a back to back 100m title in 1984 and 1988, 2 4x100m titles and 1 200m title. His silver came in the 200m. it is to note that his back to back gold medal performance was only possible due to Ben Johnson being caught on drugs in 1988 and having his medals stripped. His tally at Worlds includes 3 consecutive 100m titles and 3 consecutive 4x100m titles. He won the long jump 2 times in a row before Mike Powell demoted him to 2nd in what is largely accepted as the best long jump showdown in history. The battle these two men had was so epic that they both set personal best with Powell setting a world record that still stands today. This defeat ended Lewis’s 65 consecutive victories in long jump. This is still one of the longest streaks in any sporting event in history. Many argue that Lewis’ medal tally might have been even higher had the USA not boycotted the 1980 Olympics. He would have gone into those games ranked in the top 10 in Long Jump and on a strong relay team. Lewis equalled Jesse Owen's record of 4 gold in a single Olympics with his 1984 performance.

As it currently stands Bolt has 6 Olympic Gold medals from 3 Olympic appearances. His first Olympic appearance was in 2004 where after a stellar early season a hamstring injury hampered his performance and caused him to crash out disappointingly in the prelims of the 200m. Since then his Olympic performances have been 2 thing, golden and record breaking. His 7 World Championship medals include 5 gold and 2 silver. The Silver came in 2007 in the 200m and 4x100m as Bolt was regaining his form from injury and making his climb up the world rankings. His World Championship medal tally is believed to be 1 short due to Bolt surprisingly being disqualified under the false start rule. Bolt was the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal that year. On medal tally alone it would appear that Lewis is the greater of the two but their impact goes deeper than just winning medals.

Carl Lewis has had a far from controversial-free career. In 1988 he tested positive 3 times for a series of performance enhancing drugs. The US Olympic Committee(USOC) ruled that his intake of these drugs were “incidental” and failed to report them or take any disciplinary action against Lewis. This has led to many Athletic fans placing some doubt on the validity of his records and accomplishments. Lewis was king in an era that saw many champions being caught or believed to have been on drugs. Lewis’ public image has also long been under scrutiny with him losing sponsors after his first Olympic games due to rumours of homosexuality. One sponsor even stated that the face of male athletics should be a masculine person. Lewis’ final gold medal in Long Jump at the 1996 Olympics is also held in some cloud of doubt over it as some believe he only won this due to injury to Mike Powell and Ivan Pedroso, the two leading jumpers at the time. Lewis wanted to grab one more medal and tried to get on the relay team. He had however skipped the mandatory relay training camp and after much debate and Lewis pressuring and trying to coerce public support the USA team decided to stick with their original squad. The team finished second behind Canada who were anchored by new Olympic champion and record holder Donovan Bailey. This would have been Lewis’ 11th medal and possibly 10th gold.

Bolt on the other hand has been the poster boy for drug free athletics in recent times. Bolt came about in an era when drugs were linked to all the stars. The sport had been rocked to the core by several world champions and Olympic champions being caught and the poster girl Marion Jones being involved in a huge drug scandal. Bolt however continually raised the bar and is yet to be caught doing anything wrong. He pushes the line with what is acceptable behavior for athletes. He’s seen by many as cocky due to his jovial and care free antics on the track. He’s been known to party and fool around and this has led to him being in 3 car accidents in recent years. However, in a sport crying out for a savior due to all the tarnish pelted on its name Bolt has stepped up and done just that. His signature “to the world” pose is 1 of the most recognizable and copied poses in modern times. All of a sudden there is fun now in athletics with his fellow Jamaican athletes joining in. English distance champion Mo Farah has even developed his own signature pose and even found the time to do sit ups after his win. Bolt found time to do pushups after the 200m and to even copy Farah’s signature “mobot” pose after the 4x100m. Bolt has broken the 100m record no less than 8 times in 5 years. He was once considered a lazy athlete due to the fact that he hated to run 400m but since the switch to 100m and 200m his work ethic has come in for high praise and the performances reflect this.

Are either of these men legends? In my views they both are. As it stands both Lewis and Bolt have set the bar high for all to follow. Despite what others may argue they are both living legends in the sport. Lewis retired in 1997 and since then the International Olympic Committee has voted him Sportmans of the Century in 1999 and the IAAF has voted him Athlete of the Century. Bolt is still actively participating so no comparison can be made at this time in those regards but on mere influence on the sport Bolt’s contribution is immense. will he be able to compete and medal in 4 Olympics like Carl did? Highly unlikely as it stands but we can only wait and see. So I leave it to you, the readers, who do you think is the greatest between the two?

Things Brown in soca prison

I would like to start a musical prison for those who continually destroy our ears and airwaves with trifling contributions to society they callmusic. It’s July so that means that Crop Over is in full swing . The climax is in just over 2 weeks and music is in quite abundance. With so much music in circulation there are some good, some bad and some Captain Sawyers that are so bad they go beyond description. With this plethora of music one eternal question keeps coming to mind? How does Ramases Brown and the like get so much work? There are artist such as Bobo who are lyrical geniuses and have more respect than a Ramases Brown amongst the general public but yet Ramases is at every fete, show and now party monarch. He is the first inmate I want to lock away in Soca Prison.

I’m a soca fan and this time of the year is immensely fun for me. I get an excuse to behave like a little boy in a toy store and no one cares. This juvenile debauchery is fueled by the music. Music that is known to make you have to tap your feet, know your head and in local vernacular “pelt waist like I mad.” No matter what even I go to with Mr. Brown performing I find myself driven to do two things when his set starts: either go to the bathroom or go to the bar to help numb the pain of his music.

The man has been responsible for such atrocious nursery rhymes as Operator, All Circuits Busy and Stamina but yet he keeps coming back every year. worse yet promoters keep bring him to shows every year. Someone asked if this is because he works for a sponsoring company and wonders if they are so drunk that they push for him to be at shows. To make matters worse he aligned himself with 2 even less talented individuals in Styles P and Malcolm X meaning we get a triple threat of ear ache. There are those who would state that “ramases is a good writer, look what he did for Alison Hinds?” to you I say that he needs to stop giving away the good stuff then. I dare you to find 10 people who like Ramases’s music. If you can I show you 10 people never to trust.

Some people try to be nice and say that Ramases is better than a Contone or a Pong. I say this is untrue. Contone and Pong know they are humourous and they set about to sing “entertaining music.” This Saturday I have the displeasure of interacting with Mr. Browne and realized that the man actually thinks his tunes are world class. Next thing we’ll be hearing about a Ramases Brown in concert or a Greatest hit compilation. That’s sure to sell at least 4 copies.

I originally wanted to sentence him to death but his writing contributions have brought some leniency. I would instead like him to spend life in Soca Prison with no possibility of seeing a microphone again. All in favor say “I”