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.