Categories: Sports

The ICC World Cup is little over a week away. Preparations are almost complete for the greatest sporting event to ever hit the Caribbean. Though we are only going to host the opening portion, a few warm up matches and the semi-finals, the Jamaican government is taking this thing very seriously, something they very rarely do. They’ve left nothing to chance. They’ve got police to guard the patrons, bought new police cars, gotten new amubulances, fixed broken-down schools and roads around the venue, cleaned up beaches and drains, constructed stop signs, put commercials on radio and TV promoting national pride and Jamaican values, a clever way to say, “Leave a good impression on the foreign people.” I’ve got one thing to ask them. WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

I think this is good and all, but that’s what I hate about the Jamaican government (among other things), the fact that they only maintain the nation’s resources and infrastructure when the world is watching. It sickens me. Your own have been asking for these things for years, waiting for sometimes decades for you to do something about it. But when the foreigners come, “Oh, we don’t want Jamaica to look like the broke down, hopeless, poverty-stricken wasteland that our people, thanks to our negligence, view it as. Let’s spruce it up for the white folks. And when they leave, we can let it run down and get back to the business of betraying our people’s trust in us.”

I mean, where did all of this money come from? When teachers, policemen and other civil servants ask for raises, the Government gives them single digit ones. And that’s when they’re feeling generous. Most times they get nothing. When education, health and other sectors need money, the answer most often is, “There’s no money left in the budget.” Yet now they can find the money to build an elaborate, 25,000 seater stadium and lots more. I think this Government acts more like a corporation, because they only invest in the country when there is money to be made. No wonder there is constant talk of corruption, mostly involving shady deals with contractors and others in the private sector.

I have seen the changes myself. I live next to a main road, and midweek (Wednesday I think it was), I got up to go to school and lo and behold, the road had the white lines repainted. All finished overnight. Just like that. I had no idea the National Works Agency was capable of such competence. I guess I’d better quit being angry at the Government and thank the organizers of the Cricket World Cup for choosing Jamaica, else none of this would’ve been done.