Sports can help too

The continuous decay in our social values, which in some regard can be attributed to an emerging violent Vincentian society, is getting the attention from various spheres locally.

Not that it has reached crisis proportion, nor things are totally out of control, but relative to what our setting used to be three or four decades ago, the scourges of crime, violence and most significantly, the frequency of murders, are topical.

To gloss over the realities of the occurrences may be callous, although Vincentians, in the main, are reactionary and can blow hot and cold when things go awry and against the grain of decent public stability.

The regularity of the way things are unfolding is even getting less than the nine-days talk and in an almost instant we slip back into normal practice, and get vocal again when another spate takes place.

Yes, there are frequent National Days of Prayer; the Peace Marches, public requests for tranquillity and brotherly and neighbourly love and other pleas for tolerance and the like.

But set aside the spiritual warfare that is waged, there must be physical artillery that must be used as part of the national social arsenal.

Therefore, for those who care and those who carry hope in the schemata, sports and recreation, although not the answer, can play a part in narrowing the time frame in which deviances can be hatched and executed.

So, the time is opportune for sports to be used as a means of meaningful engagement of the young, fertile, but gullible minds.

But to do so, our whole mindset towards sports has to change, as of yesterday, if we are to see some indicators of social transformation.

Sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines, whilst with us from time immemorial, is unfortunately generally unstructured.

The currency being gained from the fallouts that St Vincent and the Grenadines is facing can be the fillip needed to jolt the policymakers to redouble their efforts and get sports on a proper footing.

The situation presents itself for national sports associations, government agencies and other stakeholders to knock heads and conjure up a plan, whereby sports becomes a vehicle for national development and not just a pastime.

This is not to say that absolutely nothing is being done for teenagers and young adults to channel their potential energies into productive outputs.

It is, though, the isolated and sometimes reactive programmes that make the overall efforts look shabby, because they are not sustained.

Also, the provision of sporting facilities is an insufficient mobilization tool to help lessen the inclination of our youths to turn to adverse behaviours.

Simply having competitions are not fitting the needs of the pockets of young people; that subset which has been identified as vulnerable to unconformity to the norms and values of the state.

Instead, whatever is done must be backed by holistic programmes, inclusive of parental and school involvement, where possible and where applicable, mentorship, counselling and other supportive undertakings to attempt to fill the missing gaps in the target groups’ lives.

The current emerging situation being experienced should not be viewed as a time to fight fire with fire, but an occasion to see that out of an intent of evil, cometh good.

Our situation is timely to assess all the social structures, family, school, church, community and otherwise, already in place and conclude that there needs a retooling to cater for the present demographics of our population.

And, sports and recreation and their varied activities, can play a part in helping to consume some of the many energies lodged in our youths, thus providing less time for crime.

It cannot be assured of catching all in the safety net, but at least it must be documented that there is something in place to effect change and change for the better.