Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A protest

Having celebrated, it's time to protest. A recent article on the BBC Sports website ("Jamaicans hail sprint king Bolt" by Claire Stocks, 17 August 2008) quoted Mike Fennell, head of Jamaica's National Olympic committee as follows: "Our athletes have been tested constantly. When Bolt broke the world record at the National Championships and at all the championships in which he has participated in between, he and the other Jamaican sprinters (have been tested). They have been tested more times than any other athletes around - what more can you ask?" I suppose there is no point complaining, though I would think being singled out for repeated testing, more so than other athletes, constitutes unwarranted harassment, especially when the tests keep turning up negative. If the testing is in response to the burlap covered package addressed to the Jamaican Team and sent to Beijing, someone needs to have their head examined. Who in their right mind would package and label a parcel with contents of that kind, meant to reach its destination, in that way? Someone plainly wanted to embarrass the team and the country, and so wanted the parcel intercepted and the find publicized. At any rate, having swallowed their spit and endured the multiple tests, the sprinters have the last laugh. They've worked not just hard, but harder; trained not just long, but longer; aspired not just high, but higher. And they've performed not just well, but superbly. What go round, come round. Selah.

15 comments:

FSJL said...

Clearly, someone is grudgeful.

FSJL said...

And Veronica Campbell-Brown took the gold in the women's 200 metres. Four sprint golds for Jamaica at these Olympics! That's remarkable.

clarabella said...

fsjl: Do you suppose we've so shaken the US competitors that they're dropping the baton as a way out of having to compete? I'm not going to go any further here and now. More soon...

Jdid said...

ya aint hear the american man say on NBC that somebody put voodoo on dem?

I find that there is this overwhelming feeling that Goliath should always conquer and that David and his three rock stones should be also rans and keep their mouth shut and settle for 2nds and thirds and let big man from Goliath country win the race.

It seems a combination of grudgfulness, jealousy, envy and the like or as we wold say pure badmindedness.

I always hear the saying every dog has his day and every cat his sunday so if is Jamaica's sunday I really dont like to see all this badmindedness.

FSJL said...

In Jamaica it's 'Every dog has his day, and every puss his four o'clock.' I've long wondered why four o'clock and not, say, six seventeen?

clarabella said...

Hi jdid: I never hear the NBC comment about voodoo, but I heard the one about the 'running protein' that we have more than anybody else. So what happen? We voodoo ourselves, so make the ladies lose the relay? What is wrong with these people? Your comment about David and his three rock stones has me in stitches. They don't know their Bible too good, on top of everything else, eh? The thing is, as my man here commented, since they bring in the consistent testing, the US sprinters not doing so well. That invites certain not so complimentary conclusions about their sprinters. I just keep looking at the Jamaicans and their competitors and it seems to me that they have better form and a better head for running, all except Asafa, this time around, and even he was back on form as he finished the men's relay. Pure grudgefulness!

clarabella said...

fsjl: Yes, the Jamaican version is: 'Every dog have him day and every puss him four o'clock." Maybe that is because four o'clock is the time for high tea? I confess that the image of puss presiding at high tea – especially the Jamaican breed of puss – also has me rolling on the floor!

FSJL said...

Or maybe it has something to do with tea meetings?

clarabella said...

fsjl: I'll see if I can do some finding out about whether there's a tea meeting connection...

FSJL said...

That could lead to your becoming the tea-meeting queen.

clarabella said...

fsjl: I didn't know there was any such thing as a 'tea meeting queen'! Being a republican (SMALL R), I don't believe in queens, empresses, royalties, etc., etc. So please to don't threaten me with that!

FSJL said...

Tea-meeting queens, back in the old days, were democratically chosen. Or so I am told.

FSJL said...

You don't believe in royalties? No wonder you're a poor writer!

clarabella said...

fsjl: Oh, that kind of tea-meeting queen! (Getting old, I am. Free- floating synapses...) I guess the idea of myself as any kind of queen disturbs me. Hmmn. A democratically chosen queen... Hmmn. As for the royalties, I'm actually pretty sharp about those. People consult me, from time to time, in that regard. :)

FSJL said...

:-)