Rwandan president’s visit an insult to journalists

The secrecy that surrounded aspects of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s visit to Jamaica two weeks ago only served to add more fuel to the inferno of speculation that has marked the handling of the information portfolio by the Holness Administration.

Before the visit speculation was rife that Kagame would be in Jamaica to, among other matters, attend to activities related to his country’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the end of June, which will also decide the next secretary general of the Commonwealth. It is known already that Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith will be challenging the incumbent Baroness Patricia Scotland — a Dominican-born Englishwoman — for the well-paid job with attractive perquisites.

Now, Prime Minister Holness had said that the matter of Jamaica’s candidacy would not be discussed during the Rwandan leader’s visit. Does anyone really believe that? Instead of insulting people’s intelligence, the Government could have at least said that Jamaica would be seeking Rwanda’s support, because, that it did. Honesty is always good, and it wins you more support than if you withhold information from the people, or tell them something that is far from the truth.

Holness insisted that the visit had to do with the fulfilment of his extending an invitation for the African to tour. The trip, he said, would see both countries pursuing bilateral matters that they had pencilled out long ago.

Strangely, journalists covering the three-day visit were prevented from questioning the president, which suggests that there were clearly things to hide. Maybe the Holness Administration thought that the esteemed visitor would be backed into a corner about the former military leader’s terrible human rights history, and allegations of corruption in the three presidential elections that he has won since he assumed power in 2000. Here again is the Government’s handling of information showing its skirt tail.

Yes, there has been real economic growth in Rwanda following the terrible genocide, but that’s not the issue. Every leader should be able to stand up, defend his ground, and not be diverted into the channel of cowardice that results from a course of action like the one we saw whereby Kagame was either told to, or forced to play hide and seek with Jamaica’s media practitioners.

We are clearer now that there is a mad rush for Johnson Smith to push her head further into an election ring and take up her new role. Coming so soon after Kagame’s visit, and with Jamaica’s foreign minister so deep into the activities, tells a story that consultation of no mean order went into that final decision to go after the job of Commonwealth secretary general.

Time will allow us to see just how Jamaica will benefit from the new circus that has entered town.

Champs, Carifta and Penn Relays

The performances over the past two weeks by Jamaica’s junior athletes were remarkable, considering that athletic preparations at the school level had been choked by the novel coronavirus pandemic, and that since last year there had been great uncertainty surrounding the sport.

From the Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships to the regional Carifta Games, there were some mind-boggling displays that put Jamaica and the Caribbean in a position of promise for the more elaborate global events. Now is the time, though, for athletes in the region to be better prepared to make the transition from top juniors to world-beaters at the senior level.

Sadly, many fell by the wayside in that dark tunnel of uncertainty as they tried to make the transition from youth to adult, which is one challenge that the region faces…many young ones do not go on to greater things.

The next major event is coming up in May. That’s the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has become Jamaica’s stomping ground since the first team from the island — Kingston College — not only entered the competition as pace setters, but struck gold in 1964.

It was the vision of athletics coach and sports master of KC at the time, the legendary Donovan Davis who masterminded the breakthrough for KC to become the first non-American team to participate at the relays. It was not easy getting KC accepted, but it worked out. The challenges were numerous, one of which included little or no money to fund the six athletes and officials for the relays. It was left to KC old boy Eli Matalon, who later became minister of education in Michael Manley’s Cabinet of 1972, to fully sponsor the team.

That squad of Rupert Hoilette, Tony Keyes (now Dr Keyes), Alex McDonald, Lennox “Billy” Miller, Jimmy Grant, and Lennox Tulloch — the last three all deceased — made history by claiming gold in the 4×100 yards, despite a hamstring injury to Miller close to the finish. They also secured silver in the 4×400 yards event, even with a patched-up Miller in the team. A year later, KC took gold in both events.

Of the group, Miller was most outstanding on the international scene as he won Olympic silver and bronze in the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, respectively, in the 100 metres.

They laid the foundation. Many have taken the baton and have darted with it. Surely, we will see more of that next month from schools like Jamaica College, KC and Edwin Allen, among others, to continue a marvellous season for the younger ones.

Pollard passed his peak

There is no doubt that now-retired West Indies One-Day, and T20 Captain Kieron Pollard knows cricket, and reads the game well.

Perhaps, just maybe, he still remains regional cricket’s best brain, but in recent matches things have not gone well for the veteran shorter-version man — and it was no surprise that he had to throw in the towel.

I believe that Pollard did not retire on his own volition. He was told by officialdom that the time had come, and Cricket West Indies wanted to end the unholy marriage.

His own performance has left a lot to be desired…averaging 26 and 25 with the bat in One-Day and T20 formats, respectively, which are not inspiring numbers for any leader and highly rated cricketer.

Interestingly, his performances for Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians have been more glittering. At least he has a 29 batting average for Mumbai. What do you make of that? Well, while Pollard can afford to put flimsy scores on the board while wearing West Indies colours, he dares not skylark when he represents Mumbai — for that US$1-million plus per two-month season is nothing to play around with.

Cricket West Indies does not have a dilemma on its hands. It would be tough if Nick Pooran is not installed as the next T20 captain, having already established a decent record as stand-in skipper. But as for the One-Day leader, well, it comes down to Shai Hope and a former team head, Jason Holder, who would have felt cheated out of the captaincy of all three formats.

So, Pollard will not be missed with bat or ball, or even in the field where West Indies have similarly competent professionals. His departure, on the face of it, is a blessing in disguise.

Doubts over relaxing COVID-19 measures

A gamble it was that Jamaica’s Government took when it relaxed COVID-19 measures earlier this month.

While Jamaicans had been largely living in a kind of bondage over the last two years the move to open up was a huge risk, and hopefully will not return to haunt the country.

I have no real issue with relaxing most of the measures, but for a country that has a mere 26 per cent (according to officials) of its eligible population vaccinated, that’s a real chance it is taking by going into relaxation mode.

My position remains the same for compulsory vaccination, because you cannot allow a few to railroad the gains made by the people of this land. Interestingly, despite the educational programmes specifically related to vaccines and the scientific evidence that they are better to have in your system than not to have; in this case, a majority of natives have decided to do the wrong thing and stay far from the needle.

For that reason alone, the Government should have insisted that unless and until at least 60 per cent of the population had been fully vaccinated, restrictions would remain in place.

Naturally, as soon as the gates were unlocked entertainment events, potentially among the main spreaders of the virus, ballooned like crazy. I suggest that, without any scientific evidence, many of those, if not a majority who attend entertainment events, have declared the needle persona non grata. This is not good for a country that wants to reach greater heights.