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What about Track & Field / Dancing Brave: Sport—our salvation
« on: June 10, 2015, 12:13:55 PM »
Dancing Brave
Sport—our salvation
By Andre Baptise
Published: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 (T&T Guardian)
There is growing discomfort with the administration of sports in T&T, especially as it relates to transparency and accountability. This is not good and is not only applicable to football, but many others sports.
There is a constant belief, that those involved in administration have a template, whether written or verbal that suggests you can do anything once you are not caught, even if it is wrong.
If indeed that does prevail, it is a sad indictment on the country.
Given this lack of trust from the various sporting organisations to the Ministry of Sports and the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago, it is my belief that we need to ensure that certain watchwords—now become essential and critical in the sporting horizon.
With the assistance of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, please read and try to understand.
1 Transparency—open to public scrutiny
2 Honesty—free of deceit, truthful and sincere
3 Accountability—required or expected to justify actions or decisions...explicable and understandable.
4 Fair play—respect for the rules or equal treatment of all concerned
5 Trust—firm belief in someone or something, acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation
6 Fidelity—continuing loyalty to a person, cause or belief
7 Morality—principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour
8 Forthright—direct and outspoken
9 Fortitude—courage in adversity
10 Hermetic—insulated or protected from outside influences
11 Logic—reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity
12 Morale—the confidence, enthusiasm and discipline of a person or group at a particular time
13 Diligence—careful and persistent work or effort
14 Independence—free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority. I would like many of those currently involved in sporting organisations in this country to examine the words above and reflect on how many of them are applicable.
I believe that among the existing organisations, there are few that can realistically say they put into practice the majority of the words expressed here.
We should not be too surprised because several have told me they are only there on a voluntary basis. They are not being paid so how can we expect full commitment. This is absolute “rubbish” and only an excuse to do wrong.
As we examine the landscape that contributes to sporting success, we must never forget the importance of the role of an administrator, which in this country has too often hindered progress in various sporting avenues.
In this regard, both the Ministry of Sports and SPORTT have to share the blame because they are either too short staffed to monitor these organisations or do not care one way or another.
There is even another school of thought that both governmental organisations need to be reorganised and proper human resource checks performed detailing roles and duties.
It appears that in some cases, certain persons have too much power and in other cases, others have no power whatsoever.
However with position and power comes responsibility and that is an area that has been neglected.
There are several persons with good ideas who seem to want to assist sports. But they are sometimes outweighed and out shouted by others who have different objectives.
The good aspect though is that most of the athletes involved in sports, can easily identify those who care, as against those who are there for a “free ride.
So by establishing proper standards of operations, we can weed out these unfortunate elements.
So if you belong to or associate with a sporting body in this country, I would like you to perform this small exercise, and test your ability on the 14 watchwords above.
Assess whether or not you can say that you have lived or are experiencing even half of them in your daily work in sports.
This country has the potential to achieve more but only if those in administration understand their roles and functions, and forget about the prestige (in their minds) of having office.
This power that most of our administrators adore and yearn for must translate to the benefit of our sporting personnel and this aspect more than any other needs to be emphasised on each and every occasion where the opportunity presents itself .
Sport is our salvation. Let no one forget that.
Sport—our salvation
By Andre Baptise
Published: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 (T&T Guardian)
There is growing discomfort with the administration of sports in T&T, especially as it relates to transparency and accountability. This is not good and is not only applicable to football, but many others sports.
There is a constant belief, that those involved in administration have a template, whether written or verbal that suggests you can do anything once you are not caught, even if it is wrong.
If indeed that does prevail, it is a sad indictment on the country.
Given this lack of trust from the various sporting organisations to the Ministry of Sports and the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago, it is my belief that we need to ensure that certain watchwords—now become essential and critical in the sporting horizon.
With the assistance of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, please read and try to understand.
1 Transparency—open to public scrutiny
2 Honesty—free of deceit, truthful and sincere
3 Accountability—required or expected to justify actions or decisions...explicable and understandable.
4 Fair play—respect for the rules or equal treatment of all concerned
5 Trust—firm belief in someone or something, acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation
6 Fidelity—continuing loyalty to a person, cause or belief
7 Morality—principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour
8 Forthright—direct and outspoken
9 Fortitude—courage in adversity
10 Hermetic—insulated or protected from outside influences
11 Logic—reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity
12 Morale—the confidence, enthusiasm and discipline of a person or group at a particular time
13 Diligence—careful and persistent work or effort
14 Independence—free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority. I would like many of those currently involved in sporting organisations in this country to examine the words above and reflect on how many of them are applicable.
I believe that among the existing organisations, there are few that can realistically say they put into practice the majority of the words expressed here.
We should not be too surprised because several have told me they are only there on a voluntary basis. They are not being paid so how can we expect full commitment. This is absolute “rubbish” and only an excuse to do wrong.
As we examine the landscape that contributes to sporting success, we must never forget the importance of the role of an administrator, which in this country has too often hindered progress in various sporting avenues.
In this regard, both the Ministry of Sports and SPORTT have to share the blame because they are either too short staffed to monitor these organisations or do not care one way or another.
There is even another school of thought that both governmental organisations need to be reorganised and proper human resource checks performed detailing roles and duties.
It appears that in some cases, certain persons have too much power and in other cases, others have no power whatsoever.
However with position and power comes responsibility and that is an area that has been neglected.
There are several persons with good ideas who seem to want to assist sports. But they are sometimes outweighed and out shouted by others who have different objectives.
The good aspect though is that most of the athletes involved in sports, can easily identify those who care, as against those who are there for a “free ride.
So by establishing proper standards of operations, we can weed out these unfortunate elements.
So if you belong to or associate with a sporting body in this country, I would like you to perform this small exercise, and test your ability on the 14 watchwords above.
Assess whether or not you can say that you have lived or are experiencing even half of them in your daily work in sports.
This country has the potential to achieve more but only if those in administration understand their roles and functions, and forget about the prestige (in their minds) of having office.
This power that most of our administrators adore and yearn for must translate to the benefit of our sporting personnel and this aspect more than any other needs to be emphasised on each and every occasion where the opportunity presents itself .
Sport is our salvation. Let no one forget that.
