Who’s responsible or who to blame?

A story often has three sides, your side, my side and occasionally the truth. Sadly the latter which is the most important is rare. The admission of guilt, responsibility or standing up as a man or woman to say “I’m sorry”, or “It was my fault”, are scarce occurrences.{{more}}

What then follows are malice, spite, selfishness and a tendency to quickly hack down one another with deeds and words.

This trend that has crept into sports administration in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and has seemingly taken up permanent residence. There is this sense of distrust for one another which is fast developing, while many of our sports are suffering.

The current hiccups in the staging of the national cricket competition are cases that manifest this trend.

Who are really in charge of the Sion Hill, Arnos Vale and Stubbs Playing Fields? With that answered, then to what extent is that authority? In the mix are the National Sports Council and the Local Organising Committee (LOC), which is to be disbanded at the end of the month.

Who is responsible for the problems being encountered with the grass at these fields or who should we blame?

All at once the LOC is distancing itself from many of the undertakings being done at the fields mentioned.

Their continued silence on the date of completion of the Arnos Vale and Sion Hill Playing Field compound my assessment of that body that only a few months ago was “in your face” with information.

Like in many spheres of our Vincentian society many people love authority but hate responsibility and readily shift blame when things go awry. “It wasn’t me”, is often the preferred response.

No one seems humble enough to address situations that require explanations of faux pas. Finger pointing, shifting of blame and personal attacks are the resultants of our failure to inculcate that level of professionalism and maturity in the way we do things.

Reports of one administrator recently receiving violent threats against his life are the depths the situation has reached. Similarly, the fact that the law has had to come into play to resolve matters involving persons connected or at the helm of an association brings into focus the vicious cycle of this divide.

Public “cuss outs”, are the order of the day. The pound of flesh mentality has replaced dialogue and reasoning. We have completely ignored the biblical teaching that “A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger”.

It has become a free for all as public officers are openly critical of other ministries or even their fellow officers in the same ministry.

Or when one ministry completely ignores the policy directives of another.

Who does the buck stop with? What are the root causes of this among our leaders and shapers of sports leaders? I can readily thumb the obvious general erosion of love for one another as a reason. In some cases old personal wounds which were left to fester have become sores and are at stages of malignancy.

The situation is also fuelled by talk radio which in some instances has given people an open licence to malign one another, with no one willing to take the lead to stem the tide. Then there is the party politics that has also gripped sports. Each time we seem to be making headway, we are undone by self destruct.

How long should we continue in this vein? Should we make these differences retard progress in sports? We are all aware that this country does not have the wealth and resources as others, but what we have is untapped abilities.

We have too much strife in other areas of our lives and with sports added to it, then all hell will break loose.

Le us stand up and be counted!