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Rise To The Occasion - The Jamaican Kingdom
Rise To The Occasion - The Jamaican Kingdom
Hailed as maybe the greatest Olympic game ever, and at the helm of this greatness are the Jamaican athletes and their dominance in the sprints.
With Jamaica boasting the undisputed golden boy of the 100 and 200 meters, smashing both world records and contributing also to the 4x100 metres relay with his compatriots Michael Frater, Usafa Powel and Nesta Carter, taking another world record.
We must also hailed our sprint queens, Shelly-Ann Frazer, Sherone Simpson, Kerron Stewart, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Melaine Walker, who equally matched pound for pound in their individual events. This has proven that Jamaica is a kingdom with many undisputed kings! Bob Marley - the king of reggae, Boogle – king of the dancehall and now Usain Bolt – king of the sprint doubles.
The surge of Jamaica’s culture has long being a force to be reckoned on the world stage, whether Rastafari, its music and in this sense, our dominance at the Olympics will serve as a living testament of which we all should be proud. The Island however has being overshadowed by negativities, due to the history of crime and violence, which has kept the country in the world’s spotlight. Only recently the country was smeared by a daunting report by Amnesty International on it’s Human Rights Abuses but like a phoenix we rose from the ashes.
The Jamaican athletes have instilled a sense of great hope for our nation and the continuous role that our citizens and artisans must play to build a positive nation.
We may not even dream of hosting an Olympic game in the distance future but we can safely say that we commanded the games of track and field in Beijing China and we’ll be doing the same in time to come.
We still however cannot escape the negative connotations, with the latest coming from the President of The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Jacques Rogge, as he openly criticized Usain Bolt’s celebration of his world record performances. To him it was unsportsmanlike like to show a bit of the dancehall culture, with a few steps of ‘Nuh Linga and Gully Creeper’!
Should we also criticize the footballers doing their special dances at the edge of the field when they score a goal? I think not Mr. Rogge.
It seems as if it doesn’t matter what we do, wrong or right negative criticisms will follow. There’s a simple term for that in Jamaica, “dem bad mind, dem grudeful and dem envious”! I guess he didn’t know that Jamaica is a nation of proud people and we make no apologies about that and yes wi show aaf wid it!
With a grand celebration planned for the Jamaican Olympic team on their return to home soil, this with there immense achievements should no doubt inspire each and every Jamaican to take on a sense of responsibility to self and country, which will serve as a world model. It is therefore important to translate these achievements to the youths at large and use it as a positive element to deal with the growing issues of crimes and violence. The ripple effects of these achievements I believe will impact greatly on rebuilding Jamaica’s social structures, which we must admit is in some state of disrepute.
The Jamaican athletes has opened up a new chapter in our history of track and field, dating back to Don Quarie in Montreal Canada, in the 1976 Olympics when he took goal in the 200 metres. We have again showed the world, “dat wi likkle but wi talawah”, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
As Sizzla puts it in one of his albums title, Rise To The Occasion, Jamaica in the true sense of the word, is nothing more than a kingdom that boast many undisputed kings, with Usain Bolt the golden boy of The Kingdom of Jamaica. The overall credit must also be given to the entire Jamaican athletics squad including its coaches, officials, sponsors and the continued support of the Jamaican people who knows what it takes to be truly Jamaican.
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