Let’s pray for brother Al Miller

Reverend Al Miller is a man whom I love and admire.

His life in religion has been quite colourful, at times humorously controversial; and lately other notes have hit the stage that again command our attention.

The announcement of Rev Miller’s selection for a national honour, and his comments regarding children being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus are the latest irritants that have popped up.

The Rev’s court convictions, particularly the matter which involved then fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke, were unfortunate. His lesser conviction of negligence when he reported losing his firearm after he decided to exit his vehicle and pick plums, he said, in a volatile inner-city community, which led to his pistol vanishing, ended in him having to pay a fine of $80,000 or serve three months in prison after he was convicted in February 2011. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction two years later when it heard the matter.

The more pronounced case — that of perverting the course of justice while Coke was in flight, saw Rev Miller being fined $1 million, or alternatively to serve a year in prison, when he was found guilty in July 2016. That matter remains under appeal — an action filed reluctantly, but with all that has transpired so far, he and his legal team may not want to get too comfortable about the prospects of a reversal.

With an appeal pending it was surprising that the selection committee of the National Honours and Awards chose him to be a recipient of the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) to be presented on a day in October when local heroes and heroines are honoured, and nationally named ones remembered.

What happens if the second conviction is also upheld by the Court of Appeal? Would the quality of the awards not be further diluted? And would it not automatically disqualify him as a recipient, considering that one should not have a conviction as a criterion for getting a national honour?

What was also strange coming from the man I have admired and continue to love is how he came by his recent utterances of linking the administering of vaccines to teenagers as some kind of ‘experiment’.

All the studies have overwhelmingly concluded that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe. So for Rev Miller to come now and be bad-mouthing the vaccines in a back-handed way is like a vicious left hook connecting to the jaw.

He is a man of considerable influence, and there are many who will now say ‘See it deh, even Reverend Miller a say wi nuh fi gi the vaccine to wi pickney dem.’

If Rev Miller had a medical background he would be worth listening to for much longer. But he does not. And the practice of running with hearsay has to stop. Science must rule.

Some of us need prayers… to achieve a spectacular purge that will end in the achievement of the ultimate rejuvenation, if not redemption of the body, mind and spirit. I am not exempt from that category of people. Neither is my brother, Rev Merrick “Al” Miller.

The struggle to convince non-vaxers

When Jamaicans make their minds up, it is one of the most difficult things to convince them to the contrary, even if the evidence points to positives.

The matter of whether or not vaccines to tackle the novel coronavirus should be taken lingers like a persistent sore and at this stage, despite the compelling evidence that vaccines are a nation’s limited hope, many among us refuse to budge, showing no interest at all in becoming vaccinated.

So what happens next? Well, my view, as expressed before, is that vaccination should be mandatory. Argument done! And especially when you hear what some ill-advised people have to say, the land of doom is where we will be headed if serious action is not taken.

My average weekly visit to Coronation Market in west Kingston last week convinced me that if we do not act decisively some among us will railroad any tangible gains that would have been made.

There were hundreds of people there — in the mud and rain. I would bet that more than 50 per cent of them were without masks. And then, one vendor insisted that COVID-19 was just a figment of our imagination.

“Dem cyaa get mi tek no vaccine,” she said aloud. “All a dem jus’ waa people fi get jook an put all kinda evil tings inna dem body. Mi a God pickney, an God nuh tell mi seh fi tek no vaccine,” she went on.

We are in trouble.

Why not Lawrence Rowe on Sabina wall?

The Government has been boasting about the picturesque nature of a section of the wall outside Sabina Park in central Kingston, which now accommodates a mural depicting the images of some of the people who have made cricket in Jamaica the success it has become.

Some of local cricket’s ‘big’ names like Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding, Chris Gayle, Jimmy Adams, Easton McMorris, Jackie Hendriks, Maurice Foster, Alfred Valentine, Collie Smith, Jeffrey Dujon, Marlon Samuels, and Patrick Patterson are there, and while it can be argued that others could make the list, one glaring omission stands out — Lawrence George Rowe, one of Jamaica’s most prolific, but easily the most stylish of batsmen to have walked onto the park.

Now, this could not have been an error or oversight. Not even if you were to name some of the finest cricketers of the region on a West Indies Wall of Fame in any country could you have left off the name or image of Lawrence Rowe.

There has been no explanation, and I am forced to wonder if the fact that Rowe visited then apartheid South Africa during the 1980s as captain of a West Indies rebel team, for which he was pardoned, had anything to do with it.

Remember too, that there was a furore a few years ago when then Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) President Lyndel Wright sought to have the Players’ Pavilion at the venue named in Rowe’s honour without the approval of the JCA, or the Government. Wright’s plan was eventually scrapped.

But this is a different thing. Although I disagreed at the time with Rowe and company visiting South Africa, he has performed for Jamaica and the West Indies and that cannot be disputed. Indeed, if anybody were to name an all-time Jamaica XI, only a mischievous individual would leave Rowe out of the equation.

Maybe, just maybe, Rowe was contacted and he declined to have his image placed on the wall as part of a project that, in my estimation, is first class in terms of its quality. But that information has not been conveyed.

Naturally, cases can be made for people like RK Nunes, the Wolmerian and Kingston Cricket Club man who led the West Indies for the first time in Tests during the 1920s; the legendary JK Holt, and Gerry Alexander, who both also represented Jamaica in football; and Roy Gilchrist.

But on the surface, and with no clear explanation, Rowe’s omission from the mural project is an act of gross disrespect and should be corrected, forthwith. You just cannot change facts.

Tonic needed for Windies Test team

It is sad that those who can do something about improving the performance of the West Indies Test cricket team appear to be content with the mediocre returns.

The 1-1 series draw with Pakistan at Kingston’s Sabina Park did not tell the true story of how dominant the visitors were. So, at the end of it, we can all expect to see business as usual, with no clear signal that a revamp of the Test team must be a reality, if the West Indies are to be as competitive as the region’s One-Day, and Twenty/20 teams.

It is disgusting to those among us who love cricket and remain loyal to the sport that we continue to be fed a diet of shortcomings, in particular in the area of batting, where Kraigg Brathwaite, the so-called captain and the ugliest and most boring batsman to watch, leads Kieran Powell, Jermaine Blackwood as vice-captain (still hard to believe), Nkrumah Bonner, Roston Chase, a now lacklustre Kyle Mayers, and Joshua Da Silva as among the men charged to get runs for the team.

What they have over Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Shai Hope, Nick Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Shamar Brooks, and Andre Fletcher is beyond me.

The Test cricket championship is important, but it appears that Cricket West Indies is not too concerned about putting the Caribbean’s best team forward in the longest version of the game, to show all that this once dominant part of the world can be competitive again.

Shouts went up for Brathwaite when he led the team to victory in Bangladesh recently. The selectors ill-advisedly recommended and the Board accepted him to lead the team over Jason Holder, the only man to consistently represent the Windies in all three versions.

It was a rash decision that Cricket West Indies will regret for long.

Cricket is simple. Just follow arguably the world’s best team — India. Of the familiar Test 11, sometimes up to eight players represent the T20 team as well. What does that tell you? One thing: the best XI must be on show for the country at all times, whether they are perceived to be sprint or long distance cricketers.