Letters To The Editor

NB: At the recommendation of Longbench, one of my faithful readers, I was advised to send this letter to the local media. It came out of a discussion we had further to the post about "drug taking and the 'Olympic Express..." (see below!). The letter was not published

Long Bench feels that, among others, I should perhaps consider calling the radio stations and shape this discussion, publicly. Though understandable, I do not feel thus pushed. However, I did write to the editor to discover the reasons behind the non-publication of the letter, especially as it was sent before news came that a Jamaican athlete had tested positive for drugs at the recent National Trials. There was no response.

That said, I thought it only useful to return to this topic, given the recent announcement that American-based, Jamaican sprinter Julien Dunkley may have been the athlete who reportedly failed a drugs test. Dunkley was dropped from the Jamaican Olympic Team.

Your insights, as always, are welcome.


___________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Editor,

Notwithstanding his obvious lack of credibility, recent comments made by the disgraced Victor Conte about Jamaican/ Caribbean sprinters and the calibre of our drug testing facilities are still important. This is especially when considered in the context of recent BBC/ New York Times reports, which look at how athletes beat the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) testing systems and whether it is possible to prevent them from doing so.

Though obviously important, it is very disturbing that, we do not seem to have sufficiently addressed the matter beyond vociferous denials that our sportsmen and women are drug cheats. Remember, Marion Jones' very voluble and incessant protestations which eventually turned out to be false?

The ideology of sports as other than competition on a field is somehow not being adequately addressed in this discussion. This is especially in terms of the agendas of those who criticise. Jamaican sports theorists, analysts and onlookers need to get with the programme and determine for themselves what is really going on; not only on the field of play, but also in terms of how sports can play an important part in building / generating national pride.

How far and to what extent might we learn something of significance from our athletic prowess? What are the implications of drug-taking, if ever discovered, for this process? Those, among others, are the serious questions which need to be asked, in my view. It is not sufficient for Conte and others to point fingers and complain, and for us to simply say that.

We have to tell our own story and know, in a very real way, the implications of a doping scandal for our much loved sporting programme vis-à-vis the larger society. Indeed, to the extent that we seem so bent on only seeing fast times is, itself, very telling in this regard.

So, I am agreed with the righteous indignation, however, only up to a point. Let's just hope that sports' key stakeholders get this before it is too late!

I am, etc.,

PS: Pictures courtesy of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) website: www.iaaf.org. They show:

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica beating Shelly-Ann Fraser, also of Jamaica and Kim Gaevert of Belgium in the Women's 100m, at the recent London Grand Prix; and,

Asafa Powell of Jamaica winning the Men's 100m in Monaco.

A Tale of Two Socas: J’ouvert and SOS!

J’ouvert! Drunken Excitement! (Part One)

Jamaica Carnival 2008 had, indeed, splashed its way into the heart of Kingston's unofficial business district! Even now, I can still hear the excitement...

I hurried to the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel from the Oxford Road based Mas’ Camp, where I stopped and waited for the mass of paint covered bodies which swarmed up Knutsford Boulevard like mosquitoes in sugarcane season. I was a little afraid of the crowd. Brimming with all the excitement of entranced mice enroute to their doom at the piper’s behest, they marched up the road, routinely stopping to ‘take a whine’ against some unsuspecting light pole. When that was not available the ground provided a convenient alternative. This was the scene at the J’ouvert fete, on the eve of the conclusion of Jamaica Carnival earlier this year.

I had attended the event, however, only by way of what a friend claimed, at the time, was the need ‘for a stress release!’ Doubtful about whether I would achieve this objective, I played along in the interests of being a good host. My friend is a student here from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It was also shortly after my confirmation (as a practicing Catholic), which you can imagine was a very important moment for me. Occasioned by great amounts of self conflict, I became convinced I would burn in the ‘Hell Fires’ for agreeing to participate in such ‘debauchery’. Truth is, I accepted the invitation because I genuinely love Soca music, though, I was too tired to enjoy the night out.

A riot of colours and sweaty bodies were crushed together behind the music trucks. Their gyrations, coupled with the combination of electric lights and the ethereal glow of the early dawn was surreal. After the all night vigil of partying and drinking (I don’t drink, so this does not apply to me!), complemented by the excitement of the painting part of the ritual, the promoters gave orders to ‘fly de gate’.

Like ghouls let loose to roam the streets of Kingston freely, the revelers were unimpeded in their eagerness to paint the town red in the early morning. They pushed through the gates and made their way into New Kingston. Two silent sentinels wordlessly bore witness to the unfolding bacchanal, their ‘controversial’ nakedness dwarfed by the raunchy displays of flesh and frolic at the gates to the Emancipation Park.

I watched from a safe distance careful not to mingle with the buzzed excitement of the curiously energetic revelers, as they basked in the cool morning air. “How come they have so much energy at this hour?” I wondered.

Traffic was everywhere, as the floats lazily wound their way up Kuntsford Boulevard and onto Trafalgar Road. Burdened by their heavy music cargo, they blocked traffic for miles. Police were redirecting early morning motorists. Cars honked their horns loudly sounding their approval, as they vicariously joined in the festivities.

The raucous hedonists were impervious to reality now. They whined and drank their way into intoxicated oblivion, their very audible carousing disrupting the pristine morning air. Camera crews ate it up. They bustled about recording everything in sight. Careful not to be photographed, I kept out their way, as onlookers, revelers, vendors and the ubiquitous taxi-men, all, jostled to get in on the action.

Soon, I gestured to my friend to indicate my readiness to leave. However, not before another friend – a professional dancer, came over to hug me. We exchanged pleasantries, all the time keenly watched by her body builder boyfriend who was in close proximity. Before long they too were gone with the music, drifting 'down de road' behind the Zoukie trucks, ensnared in the wake of their mesmeric tunes. Comatose, from lack of sleep and standing all night, I tiredly drove home for a long day's rest…

Save Our Soca! Saving Our Lives! (Part Two)

My most recent encounter with Soca music came at the invitation of another friend who suggested that I accompany her to the ultra, exclusive Save Our Soca (SOS) party, which was held for the second time this year in June, in what is traditionally referred to as an ‘Upper St. Andrew’ community. Waterworks played host to the evening of jamming by hardcore ‘socaphyles’, who ditched their regular Sunday activities to dance the night away. This was an invitation only party that, surprisingly, started at four in the afternoon!

Several cars dotted the tree lined avenue, which gently meandered its way up a sloping hill to a two storey house nestled in a cul-de-sac where the party was held. The warm Sunday evening air pressed down on us, as we made our way to the venue. A ‘good little Catholic’ like me, I thought, had no place being at SOS, which, incidentally, also stands for “Soca on Sundays”.

Initially, I wondered whether I would get home in time for work which I eventually did. However, after some consideration, I went along for the ride. We covered the distance from where we parked to the entrance of the house in a series of anxiety ridden run-walk-jog steps. Periodically, my friend reminded me to “get out of the road!”

Finally, we were greeted by the pumping sounds of Soca coming from the back of the house. A small group of people met us at the entrance. The man and two women double checked our names on a list and gave us our arm bands. They informed that the bar was all-inclusive and that food was also available at a price. I noted the instructions but decided that they would be of little value to me. I was not hungry and did not drink. Still, I certainly looked forward to the music.

Our hosts directed us to the back where the party was already in full swing. There, several smartly dressed patrons of all ages stood around, drink in hand, chatting to each other. Some seemed to be catching up on random items of news; while others dissected the earlier concluded ‘clash’ between Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell at the National Stadium the day before. (See post below!). Others looked on in silent curiousity. They too seemed eager to see what was in store at the Sunday evening fete.

I threw myself into the party. Sweating and prancing around the dance floor endlessly. The energy of the music was great. The fifties Calypso and Pan Music was certainly a good way to take the edge off an otherwise stress filled day. There was just one problem - Soca Monarch King Shurwayne Winchester was in very short supply! How could that be? I wondered, even as several camera phones, not unlike the paparazzi, snapped away at the revelry…(If any pictures turn up with me anywhere sweating profusely, I am totally professing Amnesia like Shaggy and Rik Rok say in: ’It wasn’t me!’)

One of the evening’s highlights was a guest, dressed in a fire engine red mini dress and black pumps, who decided she would outdance me. Now, you should know that, I have danced for many years in a studio, notwithstanding my recent hiatus from those activities and the obvious weight gain concerns since. Though I do not regard myself a professional, it has been said that, I ‘do not to have any bones (in my body)’. That being said, I took up the challenge to join in the ‘wuk up’. Our excitement was infectious. Soon others were looking on, as we cavorted around the floor, laughing mischievously at our various antics. I left the party soaking wet – literally, my misgivings, finally, banished to outer reaches of my mind!

'SOS' started a little over two years ago for those who had returned from ‘playin’ mas’ in Trinidad and needed ‘therapy’ during the Carnival off-season. It quite possibly saved their lives. As for me, I was just happy to have taken a break! No alcohol needed just good music and a great party with wonderful people…definitely what the doctor ordered!

Picture courtesy of the Jamaica Star shows socaphyles at J'ouvert 2008.

Drug Taking and the 'Olympic Express': Jamaican Sprinting, Victor Conte and the BBC!

Come August 15, 2008 most Jamaicans will be sure to pay special attention when the track and field component of the Games of the XXIX (29th) Olympiad, in Beijing, China, sprint out of the blocks. All eyes will be on the Men’s One Hundred Metres. Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, the current World Record Holder in the event and the former World Record Holder, respectively, will be the major drawing cards. However, American double World Champion in the sprints, in Osaka last year, Tyson Gay has also been billed by an International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) reporter as the last third in the triumvirate of premier male sprinters. He could spoil the Jamaican party.

In fact, a noticeable pall came over a group of revellers at the Save Our Soca (SOS) event in Waterworks, St. Andrew, at which I was in attendance, two weeks ago Sunday when news broke that American double World Champion Tyson Gay had run 9.68 seconds at the United States (US) National Athletic Trials. I became instantly worried by this ‘troubling development’, notwithstanding my later discovery that Gay had not broken Usain’s World Record. I tried my best to hide my concerns, at the time, by ensuring that my clothes were soaking wet when I left the fete. But that is for another blog…!

Of immediate concern is what will happen when the showdown happens in the Men's One Hundred Meters in Track and Fields in Beijing. Most are likely to be on the edge of our chairs even in the aftermath of Victor Conte’s very disturbing comments to the Los Angeles (LA) Times newspaper, at the weekend, that drug cheating is rampant in the Caribbean. We will not immediately concern ourselves, however, with the ‘warnings’ of the disgraced, United States (US) based, scientific nutritionist and founder of the defamed Bay Area Laboratory (BALCO), which was at the centre of sports largest doping scandal in 2003.

All the signs of a keenly contested battle between the three stars have been in the making for some time now. News of Tyson Gay’s injury at the same US Trials sent tremors fthroughout the US Track and Field circuit, as it did here and elsewhere! What would this mean for the outcome of the Olympics for the American and what of the American sprint relay team? Then, Asafa Powell pulled out of the finals of the 100m in Paris, recently, due to the flare up of a groin injury. An audible gasp was heard across Jamaica, as many wondered whether this meant that Jamaica would get only one medal in the premier sprint event at the Olympics, as well as our World Record ambitions in the Men’s Sprint Relays (4 X 100m).

Despite news from Powell’s press agent Paul Doyle that the injury was minor and that the Jamaican would rest for a few days before running again, shockwaves not unlike the recent earthquake which disrupted our Sunday evening routines on July 13, were coming fast and furious. Finally, the Powell-Bolt clash today (Tuesday, July 22, 2008) confirmed the hype, after the bust of the Jamaican National Trials, where both athletes literally jogged to tape, denying fans the much anticipated 'showdown'. Today, Powell got the upper hand of his countryman and the current record holder Bolt, by one one-hundredths of a second. They were timed in 9.88 and 9.89 seconds, respectively.

As you can imagine, excitement is more than fever pitch! And, that is only on the men’s side ; certainly, just in the shorter sprint. Bolt’s recent 19.67 seconds over 200 meters has clearly marked him as the man to beat in both events in Beijing. In that regard, the British Broadcasting Corporation 's (BBC) current coverage of doping violations in sports, which it is looking at as part of the run up coverage to the Olympics and Conte’s LATimes comments, only serve to train the search light even more on Jamaica.

Do not forget also that, Bolt’s May 31 World Record at the Icahn Stadium in New York was downplayed because of similar concerns about doping, at the time. Both Bolt and Glen Mills, his coach, were clear in highlighting that there was no likelihood of them failing a drug test as they are a hundred percent clean. Powell and his Maximum Velocity and Power (MVP) training camp partner Sherone Simpson, the fastest woman in both sprints in 2006, have routinely insisted that they do not take drugs and that they are tested all the time, both during as well as out of competitions. If true, Conte’s remarks about the notoriety of Caribbean athletes for missing out of competition tests would not apply either to Powell or Simpson, indeed, the entire MVP camp.

Mike Fennel, President of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) solidly defended Jamaica’s testing capabilities, which Conte suggested was sadly lacking in the LA Times report. Quoted in the same story, Fennel said: "[a]ll our top athletes who are continuously performing abroad are tested every time they compete in these big meets abroad . . . so anybody who wants to make comments about our attention to testing, our anti-doping measures are doing that with malicious attempt and are just being bad-minded because we are good. And people don't like [you] when we are good." Fennel was speaking to Jamaica Observer, last Friday on the same matter.


So what, if any, can we learn from the Conte’s remarks and Jamaica’s sprinting prowess, especially as our Olympic Express targets Beijing in less than three weeks? If, indeed, the Jamaican sprinters are as clean, as Fennel maintains, then there is need to urgently question the integrity of the international agenda in its seemingly unusual focus on Jamaican/ Caribbean sprinting. Regardless of how you feel about Conte and his remarks, if ever proven to be true, they would most certainly implicate our much loved sporting traditions; our administrative capabilities; as well as, some of our revered heroes including current Olympic Champion Veronica Campbell-Brown (from the Athens Games) and the late, great Herb McKennley and others. The untold damage to our illustrious history as a small but potent sporting nation is obvious.

Note, I am not suggesting that Conte’s remarks, by themselves, are the only reason for this comment. After all, Conte, himself, has very little credibility. He recently spent time in prison for selling steroids to many highly decorated US athletes, including disgraced sprint sensation and former Olympic champion Marion Jones, who had constantly denied taking drugs. Last year, however, news broke that she had lied to government officials about drug taking and had also committed cheque fraud. Her connections with Conte and her former coach Trevor Graham, himself a Jamaican, effectively, made her a prime suspect in the case - a classic case of 'show me your company and I will tell you who you are'! Graham was convicted, after all, on one count of lying to federal investigators, recently, after reportedly sending a syringe with performance enhancing drugs to authorities.

'Secrets in the Blood'

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in its new radio series Secrets in the Blood, is also committed to ferreting out drug cheats in sports by calling into question anti-doping mechanisms used by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). According to the BBC, WADA's current technology are not properly calibrated to catch all who try to beat the system. The programme looks, specifically, at the legitimacy of claims that substances like ‘EPO’ (Erythropoietin) are being widely abused by many athletes, especially those who will be competing in Beijing and what can realistically be done to address this. EPO which is also called hematopoietin or hemopoietin is produced by the liver and kidney, naturally. It is the hormone that regulates red blood cell production and also has other known biological functions. EPO plays an important role in the brain's response to neuronal injury and is also involved in the wound healing process.

It is fair to assume that athletes gain an edge on the competition by administering, in controlled doses, substances like EPO as way of ensuring that their endurance and performance levels are at peak. Less time spent recovering from injuries and such like means more which is devoted to being on the track and or in the gym training. This is necessary for the career defining moments like Beijing and before that, Osaka, Japan last year. Only yesterday the BBC’s World Have Your Say Blog looked at whether athletes should be allowed to use drugs. Though not in the majority, a vast number of respondents seemed in favour of this. Why?

According to some: very little is, actually, known about the effects of drugs and how to appropriately test for them. Most notable among the views expressed were those of one blogger who goes by the moniker Uncomfortable Reality. In his/ her view, performance ehancing drugs have been given a (very) bad wrap. Athletes should only be disqualified from taking drugs because the rules say so and not because they are, necessarilly, bad. By allowing athletes to use drugs like EPO, THG (also known as ‘The Cear’) and others, more athletes get a chance to push themselves to their 'real' limits. Such views, as you might imagine, only creates the impression that drug taking should be a 'natural' part of sport. Never mind actual talent. Indeed, never mind fairness, all that matters, according to the bloggers like Uncomfortable Reality, is that athletes are able to showcase their ‘talents’ for all to see - with the help of performance enhancing drugs, of course!

On the other hand, officially, the BBC maintains that, whereas the implications of the indiscriminate use of performance enhancing substances are known, very little information is available to determine their effects when carefully administered in a laboratory or medical setting. Both China, who will be staging this year’s Olympics, and India have been identified as the primary sites for purchasing these drugs at fairly cheap prices on the Internet. According to the BBC report, they were able to purchase knock-off EPO on the Web for approximately US$50. In the process, arguing that, WADA is only able to test for and catch those who use the standard versions of this drug. However, it fails abysmally in the cases of knock-offs.

Beyond the obvious issue of the questioning of WADA's credibility and the integrity of the Beijing Games, there is another worrrisome development here, as well. The possible conflation between suspicions about India and China, as outposts for criminality, and the reading of ‘Third World’ as a generic category to read as ‘not white and Western’ could, quite possibly, lead to the less than promising view that athletes outside of Europe and America are likely drug cheats. ‘Third World’ athletes like Jamaica's sprinters and others might, therefore, be viewed as indiscriminate abusers of said drugs. After all, Jamaica is neither, predominantly white nor, truly, Western. There can be no doubt, then, that Conte’s remarks are, somehow, connected to these claim, if even by way of coincidence.

Questions about our standards for testing athletes of the calibre of Usain, Asafa, Veronica and Sherone, are naturally counter productive; that is, in the absence of evidence to stake the credibility of such claims. They shift focus away from the commendable achievements of these bright, young Jamaicans to highlight instead fear and embarrassment. That Fennel’s defense may also be read as a forceful rebuttal of Conte’s smear campaign speaks volumes about what to expect when the Jamaican Olympic Express rolls into Beijing. Even Dr. Herb Elliot, a Jamaican member of the International Amateur Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) Medical and Anti-Doping Commission and top enforcement official here, was quoted by the LA Times story. He is reported to have told the Christian Science Monitor last month, "We are far in advance of the U.S. record for [preventing] doping. We preach, cajole, and test. . . . Sports is such a part of our culture that the disgrace [of doping] is so great that the Jamaicans that live here wouldn't even consider it."

While, I am not suggesting that the BBC is complicit with the obvious nastiness of the Conte remarks, there can be no doubting the anti-Chinese sentiments embedded in such narratives which call into question China’s legitimacy as a growing world power. As a matter of fact, several weeks ago the Olympic Flame, the ultimate symbol of the goals of the Games, had been attacked several times in Paris and other parts of Europe. And that was only the start. There were reports of protest marches and several other incidents in which Chinese Secret Service personnel were called in to defend the Flame against further attacks. Why?

People were upset about the award of the Summer Games to the Peoples’ Republic of China, largely, because of its less than impressive human rights and even trade record. Note, sports and, most certainly, the Olympics which had their roots in Ancient Greece are supposed to represent the highest expressions of human courage, grit and determination, to say nothing of joy and celebration and the anguish of defeat and the disappointment of failure. In the words of CLR James, Trinidadian scholar, academic and philosopher, sports, definitely, go ‘beyond the boundary’. Under the label “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster, Higher, Stronger), the Olympics represent the crowning achievements of our highest human selves.


One has to be prepared, then, to expect some sort of backlash if Jamaica wins any of the premier sprints events in greater numbers than the occasional one or two reserved for non-American athletes. Our Olympic Express rolls into the Orient, as a result, under what appears to be a cloud of suspicion a-la Victor Conte, et al.

Sunday Night at the Fights: A Crisis of Leadership in the PNP?

From all appearances the sitting President of the Peoples’ National Party (PNP) was to have expected a challenge from her former arch nemesis Dr. Peter Phillips, the most senior Vice President in the Party, despite previous claims to the contrary by him. He challenged her in 2006 and lost in a narrow defeat which brought the, then, very popular Party Leader to power and, ultimately, Prime Minister of Jamaica. In this regard, Mrs. Simpson Miller has always been in, what Frantz Fanon calls a “nervous condition”, in large part because so many of the Party’s top executives were said to be in opposition to her Leadership. That, however, did not change the fact that she became Prime Minister, though it did impact the extent to which she was able to perform successfully in that role.

With history against her, as it is felt that she did not live up to expectations, Dr. Phillips’ supporters are now licking their chops in preparation for what is perhaps felt to be a sure defeat for Mrs. Simpson-Miller, a sort of Cinderella character at the Jamaican political ball. However, is the timing of the challenge of the Party Leader a good move, especially considering that most people are of the view that the sitting Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are failing miserably in their role as state administrators?

Indeed, on Sunday night when the dramatic announcement came during the Community Vision Media's (CVM) 8 o’clock newscast that there was a meeting at the Harbour View Primary School in St. Andrew, most people had expected to hear that this was to be the ultimate announcement. We were not disappointed. This leads us now to consider the implications for the timing of this announcement, especially as there may be a real (?) chance that the PNP might yet again take control of Jamaica House.

One cannot help but feel; however, a sense of deja-vu in relation to this auspicious announcement and how the PNP’s political machinery was handled in the weeks leading into the General Elections, last year. Mrs. Simpson Miller was eventually relieved of the post of Prime Minister and her Party declared runners-up in the very closely contested political battle. In the final analysis, there were only so few seats which separated the two which then ushered in current PM Bruce Golding to power.

Though, still considered a very popular woman, politician and leader, there is no doubt that the heady days of the near god-like charm and charisma that followed Mrs. Simpson-Miller to the helm of the PNP and, ultimately, the nation’s top job has now been significantly altered. By all appearances, her defeat at the September polls, in the aftermath of a very unpopular State of Emergency and a very devastating hurricane (Dean), from which many are only still recovering, has left the Party Leader a sitting duck in dangerous waters. Dr. Phillips and his supporters have bided their time and are now driving the final nail in the coffin of Mrs. Simpson-Miller’s political fortunes, almost as a means of ensuring that her campaign for being the first female head of state in Jamaica to take office, twice, will be effectively sealed off.

Indeed, one cannot help but feel that this is part of the “Drumblairites” efforts to deny the likelihood of a PNP Government headed by Mrs. Simpson-Miller, again. So, annoyed they appear to be that they are seemingly prepared to sacrifice the Party for the long term objective of keeping Mrs. Simpson Miller out of power. Remember the furore over the announcement of the second date for the elections when it was said that both Mrs. Simpson Miller and then Minister of Education Mrs. Maxine Henry Wilson engaged in a physical scuffle after the Education Ministry announced a date in keeping with the late reopening of schools? This was after the previously mentioned hurricane affected the first date of August 27, 2007.

Surely, there is no denying that the PNP stands a real chance at the polls, money issues aside. On the other hand, some pundits argue that, the PNP are cash starved and will remain so for as long as Mrs. Simpson Miller is head of the Party, as there are many who refuse to support her as leader. If the Jamaican proverb: “if fish come outta wata bottom come tell yuh sey dung deh dutty, believe im!” (If a fish comes out of the water bottom (of a river) and tells you that down there is dirty, you had better believe him!) is true and, political rumours of this kind are to believed, then efforts were made in the last campaign to starve the Party of funds. The Comrades Against Portia (CAP) group, it is said, had much to do with diverting funds away from the campaign and, quite possibly, into the coffers of the Jamaica Labour Party. At any rate, monies not received for the PNP, at that time, would naturally be a boost to the JLP, even if those funds did not go to the JLP.

So, what has Mrs. Simpson Miller done that has warranted this very serious crisis of support inside her own Party? Some have claimed that she is very clannish and does not listen to (good) advice and also that she talks too much! Indeed, we will not soon forget the credit card saga or even the “doan draw mi tongue” (don’t draw my tongue!) episode which both Dr. Phillips as well as the JLP used to full advantage in their respective campaigns. In the case of the latter, it helped cement a JLP victory whereas in the former the cracks in the once formidable armour of the much loved Party Leader were opened up for all to see. She has never recovered since. It was only a matter of time before it was widely reported that she was “out of her depth” and “could not manage the job of PM”.

This most recent challenge has caught both Mrs. Simpson-Miller and the Party under different circumstances. She is now Leader of the Opposition and the PNP has been out of power for the first time in eighteen years. The likelihood of another bruising battle, this time against a sitting Leader of the Party presents all other sorts of implications and possibly complications, especially considering that Mrs. Simpson Miller may have chance of winning the next elections; that is, if we are to believe the word on the street.

My barber tells me, for instance, that as a staunch supporter of the JLP and Mr. Golding, specifically, the “Cassava Government” as they are now widely referenced is not liked by the majority. He claims that an election at this time will mean sure defeat for the same Party that was touted as the answer to the corruption of the PNP and the only solution to poverty which stalks the land. As a matter of fact, it was in that same barber shop that I was pointedly advised that my, then, support for Mrs. Simpson Miller would not result in success as the PNP was on its way out. In the barber’s words: “Sista P cyan manage!”

If we are to invest faith in these pronouncements, bearing in mind that barber shops are the meeting places for all sorts of people from different walks of life, as well as that some of the predictions given in this barber’s chair as well as elsewhere have come to pass, can we realistically believe that the JLP will loose? That, of course, depends on whether Mr. Dabdoub succeeds in unseating Mr. Daryl Vaz as the duly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for West Portland and, therefore, forces PM Golding to call an election.

One friend and a business owner advises differently. In her estimation, the Appeals Process has the likelihood of dragging on for years, which will mean the JLP will serve out its term. This will possibly make way for the PNP if the JLP continues at the current rate. In that regard, the challenge to Mrs. Simpson Miller could not be better timed. After all, if Dr. Phillips wins the leadership race, as he is expected to do, then, the JLP would basically be campaigning for the return to power of the PNP under his leadership. The timing of the announcement and eventual challenge of Mrs. Simpson Miller, therefore, seems to have taken account of more than just a matter of a short term victory for the PNP at the polls but to look seriously at rebuilding the Party around certain core ideas about leadership, one of which is, undoubtedly, class privilege.

That, of course, has been a common theme in my entries here, in large part, because I feel it is not always sufficiently acknowledged in Jamaica and is taken for granted by those who have it. As a result, privilege is generalized to the rest of the populace to suggest a fictional equality which does not really exist for all. It is in that context that that Mrs. Simpson Miller’s failings as leader are to be understood.

You cannot be an average or even good leader when you are not born of the privileged social, political and economic elites in Jamaica, certainly if you are female. On the contrary, you have to be twice as good and twice as "nice" to make it for any length of time. Just ask the African-Americans in post-Civil Rights America and they will tell you an earful in that regard. Even then, it is said that you are still not allowed to excel to top positions whether in government, business, or some other area of industry.

We in Jamaica deny that these are real considerations in our constructions and, ultimately, the performance of identities on the socio-political landscape. Those who receive immediate support are those who come closest to embodying the ideal – white, upper-class, educated, Christian, heterosexual masculinity, or who can successfully appropriate it. Any projects which vary (too far) from this ideal, as in the case of the former PM Simpson Miller, will have a significantly harder time rallying support, especially from these social and political enclaves. These, unfortunately, are the realities in which we live in Jamaica.

Who will bell the cat and who will insist that projects of equality must be exactly that – equal? Who is going to demand for real development of all areas of the society through meaningful, lasting and appropriate policies; not just by responding to every criticism made in the public domain and certainly not just for the political ‘poor’? Who is going to include young professionals and ‘young people’ into the frameworks of governance, beyond the simplicity of platitudinous maxims like: “our youth are the future”? What is their role and is that defined in such a way as to appropriately reflect the commitment and mobilization of real resources for their integration into the development frameworks of the society?

Where is the parity in a system which awards heritage, colour and class over and above talent? Where is the justice which ensures that, those detained and placed in state lock-ups and are allowed to languish for years without trial or ever being seen by a judge, yet alone a lawyer? Where is the moral centre needed to understand the significance of adhering to core values of determination, trust, credibility, fraternity and respect for all? And, who will be the champion of this cause?

Where too, is the conviction of character needed to put an end to political corruption and various vices, nepotism, unfair systems of privilege and the scourge of crime that continue to undermine the fibre of the nation? What even is the ‘nation’ and how important is that in raising the profile of citizenship issues and rights throughout all sectors of Jamaica? Is this what the leadership bid of Dr. Phillips represents, at this time? If so, sign me up!

However, if it is simply to undermine “woman time now” sentiment and “teach Sista P a lesson” as a way of reminding her that she “does not belong” and “cannot cut it”, as a result, I will pass. Thank you very much!

The shifting tides of the political fortunes of the PNP Leader and the PNP, itself, are a source of extreme fascination for all, both inside as well as outside of Jamaica. After all, Jamaica is said to be “PNP Country”. Whether or not that is true or whether this new fight for power inside the Party will return it to its “soul”, as many claim, remains to be seen.

One thing is certain, however, the battle for supremacy announced on Sunday last by Dr. Phillips, at the Harbour View Primary School, throws open the door for another round of bloodletting from which the Party might not recover in time for a “snap election”, if one is, indeed, called.

Sunday Nights at the Fights, anyone?...Just curious!

Talking Sex…Jamaica-Style!

I had the most amazing reaction to a presentation I made last week when I spoke at the ACS Cross Roads (Cultural Studies) Conference at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus. My paper which was entitled: “Enforced Heterosexuality and the “the fear of a Gay Planet”: Critiquing Contemporary Narratives of Masculinity in Jamaican Popular Culture” examined the current Jamaican sexual politics. It was located in the larger context of Adrienne Riche’s concept of a Western enforced heterosexuality and ‘the fear of a gay planet’.

I focused, however, on how Jamaican national identity is constructed, historically, by ancient, colonial jurisprudence which seek, in the main, to criminalize certain expressions of sex; in the process, enshrining a culture of sexual violence, hatred and gendered and racial discrimination. My presentation highlighted how race, class, colour and gender are subsumed under the sexual lingua franca of the modern West, with its great preoccupation with ascertaining and locating personal and cultural identities and subjectivities through sexual practise. The overall intent was to question the impermanence, albeit the seeming illogicality of applying labels like homo-, hetero- and bisexuality in our current Caribbean/ Jamaican realities.

In the post presentation discussion, a member of the audience – a Jamaican woman, who I later learned was also a Ph.D. and a film maker, announced that she was ‘queer’. Her comments came as part of a very heated exchange with another male member of the audience – an American, who originally challenged my contentions about the politics of sexual labeling here.

The Jamaican woman ‘came out’ as a way of shutting up the, apparently, obtuse American, at least this was how I read it. He, cynically, queried whether or not there were gay people in Jamaica. His comments were directed at me. The woman, however, demanded that he clarify his use of the word ‘gay’ as he seemed to have missed my point. He responded that, the distinctions were ‘semantic’.

Needless to say, this further ignited the woman’s already excited passions. She stated very loudly for all to hear: “I am queer! I am Jamaican! I live in Jamaica!...What do you mean by gay?” Her last question trailed off into an anguished appeal for more than just clarification, but also reflected what I thought was the pain of having one’s identity erased from the discussions. Incidentally, this was the very point I was making, at the time.

Discussions about sex here have been hijacked by an extreme focus on male homosexuality which, basically, denies the experiences of everyone else in the debate. The American, obviously, missed this nuance, in his blithe disregard for these apparent complexities which, in part, explain sex and sexuality in Jamaica as well as the woman’s own placement in that dialogue.

The ACS Conference was, certainly, living up to its billing. It was more than ‘filling a gap in the international cultural studies community’. By all appearances; it was also therapy. At one point, I wondered whether I was in church. After all, the audience’s contribution had an eerie feeling of an ‘altar call’ in which I was, fortunately or not, placed in the role of high priest.

Yes, all bets were off. It was open season and sex was the target! Indeed, this was only one panel. I heard there were others where the responses were even more dramatic. Pity, I only saw one other. I was preoccupied with professional work and church commitments as well as the need to catch up on needed rest.

For my part, I had never witnessed this much passion expressed in relation to a topic by any audience of this kind. But, then again, this was the start of a long weekend of ‘academising’! Plus, we were talking sex – the very stuff of our beings and, incidentally, the title of today’s entry which I thought would have made for interesting reading, especially with the "Jamaica-style" added!

The other panelist, herself, a Jamaican who teaches at Brandeis University in the United States expressed ‘concern’ that the Jamaicans might not have demonstrated the appropriate levels of meekness which it is claimed come so ‘naturally’ to us. According to her, we/ they (the Jamaicans) were in a rabid, no nonsense mood, causing fear and disquiet amongst the foreigners.

Indeed, the Jamaicans (in the audience) seemed eager to divest themselves of the ideological baggage of foreign imposed labels, with their narrow, taxonomical definitions authored by the West. Admittedly, I did not know what to expect or even how I was to dress for the occasion. One friend/ colleague had earlier questioned whether my jeans and blue striped polo shirt were appropriate. Notwithstanding that I had presented at other conferences, both here and overseas before, I was still uncertain because of the sheer magnitude of the ACS Cross Roads Conference.

I sought the advice of an older, female colleague on the matter. She, however, wasted no time in informing me that she had other, more urgent commitments. Left, then, with the full brunt of my anxieties, I was forcefully reminded that I had volunteered to bell the proverbial cat. The troublesome issues had been placed squarely on the agenda – sex in Jamaica! How very interesting! How very intimidating! The opportunity was clearly now mine to ensure that I saw my own way. After all, a presentation with a title like “enforced heterosexuality and the fear of a gay planet….masculinity…popular culture…Jamaica” was bound to ruffle more than some feathers.

Allow me a few indulgences, if I could, to share my position on some of these very troubling issues; that is, in the context of my presentation. Firstly, I make no special claims on the issue beyond a simple effort to argue that the limitations of sexual labeling, especially, in Jamaica are symptomatic of a society fundamentally vested in racist, colonial elitism. I wished to suggest that this be considered as a legitimate premise for rigourous academic interrogation of sexuality in Jamaica. As a result, traditional approaches to theory and methods must, by necessity, be reconfigured.

The standard academic practice of excluding rather than including the voices of those without conventional theoretical platforms or ‘authenticity’ on which to make their voices heard must be urgently revisited. Any efforts to read sexuality as a purely physical act is, largely, aimed at disregarding the likely nuances suggested by my position as well as to reify traditional systems of oppression in the society, as a result.

Rewind to the earlier mentioned confrontation and my presentation. With my recent encounters with some members of the ‘progressive liberal (pink) media’ (read the entry before the previous one!), uppermost in my mind, as well as the Jamaican Prime Minister’s now infamous remarks to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): “Not in my cabinet”, I eagerly anticipated the discussion. I was, however, completely surprised at the point at which the confrontation erupted between the American man and the self-declared ‘queer’, Jamaican woman.

Vainly, I tried to intervene by way of reiterating that the matter was not semantic, as the American had claimed. I stated, in between, the face-off, that the Western, white, male, intellectual, elitist agenda which is primarily responsible for demonizing Jamaica as ‘the most homophobic place on earth’, was vested in constructing the debate purely around sex. In so doing, other critical issues which were in need of being ventilated were suppressed such as the importance of desire in constructing fear of the ‘other’.

I argued that, if the matter was purely a question of sex, then, there was need for explanation of the phenomenon of ‘gay parties’ in Jamaica which do not sit well with the constructions of the country as either the ‘most homophobic’ or even a mildly homophobic place on earth. It also did not explain the vast numbers of ‘gay paraphernalia’ which complement this phenomenon, specifically the Jamaican media’s fascination with ‘gayness’. If sex were the only consideration, in other words, there would be no need for the trafficking and wholesale consumption of videos of gay parties, many of which have been circulated here in the last year.

Indeed, the fascination throughout all levels of the society with this state of affairs would cease to be, primarily, because the tapes were not explicitly sexual. If they were then surely the repugnance (?) of it all, (to strictly heterosexual sensibilities, that is) would result in a boycott. However, there was clearly more at stake than meets the eye, as reflected by media reports, on this issue last year.

It is possible that, the mostly upper- and upper-middle class owned and controlled Jamaican media have very real investments in maintaining ideas about ‘gayness’ as a purely ‘effeminate’, largely garish and definitely offensive. By so doing, they direct attentions away from some of the more problematic areas of sexuality and its relationship to constructing the national identity as well as citizenship issues, by forcibly placing it into the realm of ideological conjecture and, therefore, beyond the reaches of the so-called ‘common man’.

The collective commitment to maintaining ‘homophobia’ as part of the popular set of ideas which discursively govern the performance of masculinity in Jamaica begs questioning in the wider context of the complexities of the race-colour-class triad which originated in plantation hierarchies, historically. Though real for many, these are often difficult issues to explain in clear and precise terms.

The conflation of ‘uptown’ with ‘brownness’ and the transference of values of respectability to that group automatically renders its inverse – ‘downtown’, oppositional. The binary created means that to be black, at the very least to be perceived as black means that one starts from a place of deficit.

The anxieties of the brown, upper classes of Jamaican society, therefore, demonize the black under-classes, for the most part, the vast majority of whom exist outside of the reaches of privilege. Constructions of Jamaica as 'the most homophobic place on earth' locate these concerns squarely at the feet of the mass of black, disenfranchised bodies who populate Jamaica's underclasses. In so doing, further alienating black, lower-class Jamaicans from the 'nation' as an ideological construct.

It might even be reasoned that this is but another of the manifestations of the complex and disabling triple jeopardies of race, class and gender at work in post-independence Jamaica for many. The international gay lobby is in many ways, then, complicit with and exaccerbates these imbalances in the society's internal class logic and, therefore, further exposes vulnerable black youths to greater risks.

Obviously, talking sex 'Jamaica-style' is hardly sexual. No titilation and racing pulses here, at least, not in sense in which we traditionally consider sex. We are more likely, it appears, to come to blows rather than to make love on this one!