Success and failure

By Peter Espeut

Competition has already begun, but the Games of the XXX Olympiad will be formally declared open today. All Jamaica hopes - no, expects - several medals from our countrymen and women who have entered. And it is not an unreasonable expectation: In the Games of the XXIX Olympiad held in Beijing, Jamaican athletes won 11 medals (including six gold) and ranked 14th in the medal tally of the 204 'countries' which entered.

Our Olympic profile is much larger than our size or population would suggest, and books are being written about why this is so.

If Usain, Shelly-Ann, Yohan, VCB and Asafa win medals (should I have said 'when' they win?) in London, Jamaican chests will be held high and national spirits will soar as our anthem is played before a global audience of billions. And all over the world, persons with any sort of Jamaican connection, however tenuous, will beam with pride and boast of 'our' success.

But what is the source of 'our' pride? And in what sense is it 'our' success? We didn't help them to train, or guide them through the years of self-discipline that will have led them to their world-beating success. True, they are of our blood, and their sweat is mixed with the same soil as ours; but we share very little in common with these physically fit, highly trained and disciplined men and women.

Taking credit

Most of us are overweight, tardy and dilatory, operating well below our physical and mental potential. You cannot procrastinate, habitually turn up late for everything, and be loose with your various appetites, and then break world speed, strength or endurance records.

Yet the victories of our athletes are still a source of personal pride, and we still take some credit (if undeserved) for their success.

And horror of horrors! I am sure we are going to see politicians taking completely undeserved credit for the medals our Jamaican athletes win in London!

The 50th anniversary of Jamaica's political Independence will occur during the 2012 London Olympics, and on verandahs and in the media we are trying to decide whether we have anything to celebrate. Only party hacks and the party public-relations practi-tioners masquerading as columnists still claim that, politically, the last 50 years have been a qualified success.

Most of us are only too aware of the decades of missed opportunities in education, the sluggish performance of our post-Independence economy, while other countries did much better, and the negative socio-political culture which has defined what Jamaica has become. I speak of garrisons, the links between politics and criminality, and the alliance of mutual patronage and support between politicians and the private sector, to the detriment of the vast majority of Jamaicans.

Take the good and bad

But if we want to (vicariously) take some credit for the success of our athletes in London (not only in 2012, but since Herb McKenley and Arthur Wint won medals in London in 1948), should we not equally be prepared to take the blame for the failures of our politicians over the last 50 years? After all, either we voted for them, funded them, or failed to get the point across to them strongly enough that we are not happy with their performance.

Not registering to vote, not voting, or simply withdrawing from the political process is a start, but it is not enough. I think that instead of just beating up on the politicians, we should start beating up on ourselves too. We deserve it, to have persisted with these two non-performing political tribes for so long.

Maybe part of the problem is that, as Jamaicans, we are too overweight, tardy and dilatory, operating well below our physical and mental potential. A nation of highly trained and disciplined men and women like Usain, Shelly-Ann, Yohan, VCB and Asafa would have chucked out our self-serving politicians long ago.

So as we look back, let us look forward. Let us set higher standards for ourselves in our personal lives, and for those who serve us. Just as loudly as we cheer for our athletes who represent us, let us make ourselves heard by the politicians who represent us.

It is an unpatriotic Jamaican who fails to applaud our athletes; and it is an unpatriotic Jamaican who continues to prop up the corrupt and inefficient political system we now have which has all but wasted the first 50 years of our Independence.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.