Ah Cattle Boil foh dem

Something like it bud-ah-ring P.R. Campbell. Ah does try and listen to as much of his programs as ah could mek, but lately he dropping lickle hints, tink he’s saying who got ears to see let him smell. Last week he laboured on de Rights ah Reporters taking photographs in public places. He was strong and firm. Dis week he laboured on another aspect ah people’s rights when dey are required by de Police foh questioning.{{more}} Whereas ah Police in SVG will invite you to accompany him to de police station, in some countries he said, people are taken from dey homes by Police, widout warrant, locked-up foh years, and in some cases nothing is ever heard of dem after. And den he took pains to remind us again of de Democratic Rights and Privileges we enjoy here. PR is ah man of great vision, wisdom and experience, some bad experiences he had too. Dat same PR was ah target foh de ole Labour Regime who had de police harassing him and all ah dem young University Graduates, search dey house foh common-is-books. Ah lot ah dem got fired from Guv-ah-mint wuk. Today after forty years, just when we tink we have gone pass dat, bow! there goes Andrew Simmons, hired today fired tomorrow. Ole people say when yuh give ah person ah ting, and bad mind mek yuh tek it back, yuh would get ah Cattle Boil! Why are we not listening to people like President Obama who is calling foh “ah politics dat focuses on bringing people together across party lines to wuk foh de common good”. Just wait and watch and see how all ah dem skin go soon itch wid Cattle Boil all over, if ah dead, Ants go bring de news.

DE JEWS STILL WID MOSES LAW

Ah want to support Ann-Marie John’s letter last week way she chastise me Cuss-in, Pastah Clarke foh what I assume is his uninformed position in de Middle East Israeli/Hamas dispute. How could we as Christians hide behind de scriptures to defend murder? Yuh mean to tell me dat de Christ dat took up de soldiers ear, replaced it and told his disciple, Peter to “put away de sword” is now telling de very people who rejected Him unto dis day and murdered Him, to go ahead and kill all de innocent women and childrem of Hamas, saying to dem “yuh have my blessings”! Moses people, de Jews say eye foh an eye, but God’s chosen people, de Christians say leave vengeance to God. Man Left to dem wicked Jews, Christianity would ah dead on de cross, but thanks to Peter, James, John, Matthew and Paul de great believer who never had de privilege of meeting Jesus in de flesh, yet he believed dat He was de son of God. Ley me lef dat topic alone eh.

AH TEAM WID POTENTIAL

Our Under 20 Football Team made us proud last weekend, dey won dey matches against de Dominican Republic and Haiti. It took de might ah de Jamaicans to stop us. Quite frankly our standard is not up to dat of Haiti and Jamaica, and de reasons are clear, de Haitians train in Miami and de Jamaican Guv-ah-mint is serious about sports, we in SVG still meking sport. Ah look at de Haitian style and ah was reminded of an interview ten years ago wid former national player and now US based coach, Pete Morris. He spoke den of ah style of Soccer called “Touch Football” dat was being taught to de kids all over de US, he wanted to introduce it to de kids here. Sad to say, his program was never treated wid any seriousness, actually he was snobbed! De Haitians Under 20 team gave us ah lovely display of Touch Football, dey played all over every opponent dey met here, and are unfortunate not to have won. SVG won Haiti but had no answer to dey style. Ah tink we are ten years late.

Happy to report however, dis Team SVG, amidst all de odds, displayed some raw talent, but as ah always say, “to do dey best, athletes need proper food, training and rest”. Dat team could mek us proud again in de early rounds ah de next World Cup, but dey need help, real sponsorship. All de talk bout Rev-all-yuh-shun in Dis and Rev-all-yuh-shun in Dat, tell me how much money was voted directly to de development ah football in SVG. We talking Stay-dum too, but don’t even have ah home foh football, former president Senator Leacock posed de question some time ago: “ Are we ah football nation or ah nation dat plays football?” We are neither. We play football wid people’s livelihood.

Shouldn’t de Guv-ah-mint be allocating specific monies in de budget to each sporting organization? Or do we prefer to play poly-ticks, let de Associations run up de bills in de thousands, embarrass demselves when dey can’t pay, den we tek it mek pull-it-tek-all Football in Par-liar-mint: “Not ah Red cent foh football”. It bordered embarrassment to hear Executive member Earl “Cabba” Bennett on TV, appealing to football fans to come to watch de recently played games because de Association has to find 120 thousand dollars to cover expenses foh dis tournament. Ah tink de crowd responded and it looks like dey made some money, but ah will bet dat de Association would have gone deeper down in death, trying to promote de country’s image. Is anybody thinking about de players and coaches, what are dey getting? “Not ah cent fo Dem either” dat was foh Leacock, same ting foh Delves? If we intend to move up to de next level, we got to put some serious money into de sport, starting wid Guv-ah-mint.

DE LAST AH DE TRI TRI

Now dis Tri Tri prediction is getting critical. Usually harvesting is during de months ending in ER, ah still want to predict ah late harvest come Whens-day foh Pah-trick Free-are-we, dat’s if we get rain. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.