It hit like a ton of bricks. Two of Jamaica’s medal-winning athletes in international competition have defected to Turkey, with others to follow. Money is a powerful lure to talented athletes from a country where turkey neck and chicken back are staples in the average person’s diet.

A couple of months before, one of our celebrated athletes, Asafa Powell, went public with his views concerning loyalty to country versus the need for athletes to secure themselves financially. This is what he said, in part, in a social media post. “If the support system don’t change, my kids not running for Jamaica… I remember in 2006 I was offered millions of US dollars to run for a different country… If I knew what I know now, I would have taken up that opportunity… I ran for free my entire life, I ran for Jamaica on just country pride… I’ve never gotten anything from the country.”

Powell’s remonstration came across as if he had an axe to grind and was out of character for one whose patriotism, until then, was not in question. In my opinion, it damaged his brand. But maybe he was really sounding the alarm that an avalanche that could sweep away many of our less-accomplished and not so financially secure athletes was heading towards our shores.

The root cause of the problem is more fundamental than, as some would have us believe, athletes’ mercenary desire to be paid for representing their country and the home country’s inability to pay. There are two underlying factors to consider.

First, let’s admit it, Jamaica does not approach sports, generally, and athletics, in particular, as an industry to invest in and from which it hopes to make a return. We were on the right track, pun intended, when in 1995 the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) commenced operation as an independent body with a clear mandate to undertake sports development and oversee an ongoing stream of investment through a cess levied on earnings from the gaming industry in lieu of taxes forgone.

In 2002, the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund was incorporated to receive, administer, and distribute earnings from the gaming industry, ostensibly cutting the pie into many smaller pieces. With that inauspicious move, the SDF became a 40 per cent beneficiary/dependent of resources that should be wholly its own. The result: not enough funds for large project undertakings, such as replacing the almost-70-year-old National Stadium and piecemeal approach to athletes’ development, welfare, and long-term financial security.

Second, our governments do not take seriously Vision 2030, which states: Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business. In a release, Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) programme director of Vision 2030 Peisha Bryan-Lee announced that Jamaica’s first national strategic plan was nothing more than a “guiding framework” for the country. To quote her, “Our data does suggest that the goals and outcomes and, particularly, I would say, the targets that were benchmarked against developed country status standards, most likely will not be achieved by 2030.”

One, therefore, should not be surprised that in a recent Don Anderson poll on attitudes towards migration, published in the June 19 edition of The Gleaner, 71 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds, considered to be among the most productive age groups, said they would leap at the opportunity to leave Jamaica in search of greater opportunities.

We are not just losing athletes, we are losing teachers, nurses, scientists, actuarial professionals, every category needed, “so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship, and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race.

When President John F Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” it was in the context of the American Dream, which promised each citizen invested in the vision a better and more prosperous way of life.

Is there a Jamaican Dream compelling enough to make our best minds and talents want to stay and contribute to nation-building, knowing that in the end it will pay off?

Dr Henley Morgan is founder and executive chairman of the Trench Town-based Social Enterprise, Agency for Inner-city Renewal and author of My Trench Town Journey — Lessons in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Transformation for Development Leaders, Policy Makers, Academics and Practitioners. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or hmorgan@cwjamaica.com.

Henley Morgan