Rocks thrown

Yesterday in one of their rare recent good performances the West Indies cricket team beat home team Bangladesh at the Cricket World Cup and then

Angry Bangladesh fans, whose team was bowled out for 58, the lowest total by a Full Member at a World Cup, threw stones at both team buses, cracking two of the West Indian team buses windows. None of the players were injured. 

Now I don't intend to make a mountain out of a molehill here but I wasn't pleased with these comments by International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Haroon Lorgat:

Lorgat played down the incident, calling it "minor," and explained why it was not as serious as had been originally reported. "It was a few individuals who threw pebbles at the bus, and they were pebbles." 

 Well I guess it must have been a whole truckload of pebbles to be cracking the glass on these buses which I assume would have been reinforced in some way.

Budget

The Barbados budget just came down and its pretty brutal. VAT going up, fees, bus fares all sorts of other taxes going up, taxes added. Lashes galore! Going to be a tight Christmas.

Well people, sadly things tight all over the world not just in Bim and with tourism our main money earner not doing that great these days, belts got to be tightened cause ya can only borrow for so long before ya got to pay back right? Unfortunately some of these belt tightening measures will disproportionally hit the most needy in our society like the poor and the pensioners but well star, I don't know what ya can really do about that besides hope that some of these measures temporary.

What I do always find interesting come budget time is how the party in opposition always finds a way to blame the current party when such belt tightening measures are necessary as indeed they do seem to be in this circumstance with the globe still deeply mired in recession. I guess that's the meaning of opposition but in particular today I find some of the comments about waste by the opposition BLP commentators to be rather disingenuous.

The numerous projects at Ilaro Court; the opening of the housing estate at Marchfield, St Philip; the three reshuffles, which necessitated change in stationery, labels and the like; the more than $10 million in summer camps between 2008 and 2009; the launch of the constituency councils; the subsidy to JetBlue and the recent female boxing championship were among the things on the list of “cardinal errors” Forde said the Government made.

Eh eh but allya really believe Bajans have short memories nuh? And maybe they do but umm we can't talk waste in Barbados without referring to the colossal waste of funds used for World Cup 2007.

And yes I tell wunnah from evasince (back when people used to read this blog) that hosting the world cup was going to hurt we financially. Ya doan believe me looka this post from 2006. And that was even before I hear that about half billion dollars spend in Barbados on world cup. And what did we benefit from that massive outlay of funds? And how much a those funds are still owed back to the people we borrowed from?

And who was running government then? Exactly!

So doan get tie up that the new government spend a few dollars for children summer camps to keep the youts off the road, occupied and out of the road this past year when the previous regime spent bigger dollars that haven't really benefited the country.

Folk get tied up in thinking that these financial predicaments that we find ourselves in usually occur rather quickly but if one really studies it, these things occur by a series of mistakes or bad fiscal moves over a longer period of time. How long the whole American mortgage drama was happening before the whole US housing market implode? Same thing here with Barbados, its not like things were great yesterday or last year and we woke up this morning struggling cause of one spending spree. Barbados was borrowing and spending for a long time beyond its means and its just now that it catching up to us.

eediat ting dat!

How the world gone mad! (this is like 5 posts in one so feel free to leave me 5 times the comments)

Chapter 1: All we certain of is that he's dead.
Ya mean to tell me that three months later they are going to come out and tell me that Bob Woolmer wasn't murdered? Chupse! You know how bad that murder business did look on the Caribbean and the World Cup and now you're saying it was natural causes? Chupse! Ya mean people was speculating about betting mafias, Muslim and Hindu extremists, strangulation, secret poisons, hitmen and everything under the sun and all for nothing. You know how many blog posts I waste on Woolmer and how much words other people waste on this case plus nothing to talk about the damage this cause to reputations and the like? And ya know people going say the Caribbean police ain't up to the mark but the pathologist that start the ball rolling on this murder thing ain't West Indian, the Jamaican police inspector in charge wasn't West Indian either plus the Jamaican police had call in Scotland Yard. You know Scotland Yard? Dem fellas that used to link up with Sherlock Holmes and could solve a murder just by looking at the sweat under a hat rim and a shadow somebody left in the back yard. Dem fellas supposed to be good man. How come they couldn't tell we from every since that the man wasn't murdered?

Eediat ting dat!

Chapter 2: Terror in the skies
I guess by now everybody's heard about this joker with the TB who flew all over the Western world. Andrew Speaker knew he was sick with TB yet he chose to fly all the way to Greece for his wedding. Then even though officials there told him to stay put cause he was infected with a strain resistant to the usual drugs he flew all the way back via Prague to Canada then drove to the US for treatment claiming that he was afraid that if he stayed over in Europe he would have died.

Chupse! You ever hear such stupidness? You know how many people this man could have infected? Bin Laden would be recommending he for awards for the damage he could have inflicted! Speaker is on a bunch of planes with hundreds of passengers going all over the world, then he gets off in Montreal and drives down to the US likely stopping at a couple of Tim Hortons on the way. You know how many people he could have possibly come into contact with and spread his disease? (I mean even the smallest Tim Hortons does have like 200 people lined up for a double double and a donut when the morning come.)

The Authorities always chatting about Al Quida and Iran and Iraq doing biological warfare but this man could have played Typhoid Mary on a global scale and set off a new black plague or super epidemic that could have wiped out a significant chunk of the Western World.

Homeland security running down every man jack with a tan, we worrying bout Chicken flu, and people still ain't coming back to Toronto since CNN & BBC bad mouth we bout the lil SARs outbreak 4 years ago that get blown out of proportion meanwhile this clown running about the place free as a bird with a disease that if it turned into an epidemic could have made 9/11 look like a lil nail juk.

And then on top of that now he got the nerve to talk about he sorry. Sorry! Sorry doesn't begin to excuse your actions. Man if I had been on a plane with him during this affair I would be now looking to lick he down with two big rocks or getting my Chuck Fender on (gash dem & light dem).

Talk about absolutely selfish.

Now he's complaining about why they have armed guards at his hospital door? Well my boy its because you run around the place even though they told you to stay put and you endangered thousands of lives. You my man are a threat to society and if there was any real justice in this world they would lock you away for a good long time.

Oh and the icing on the case is that he's done completely screwed up his father in law cause how it going to look that he had TB and run around so when the father-in-law is a TB expert. Way to get in with the in-laws Andrew!

Eediat ting dat!

Chapter 3: The Rundown
Speaking of in-laws. Then there is this incident. Some sort of Sri Lankan on Sri Lankan violence in Toronto. This high school kid has been seriously targeted. First allegedly some of the guys from his school threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of his home. They missed him but his mother and sister both got injured with his mother still in hospital now with serious burn injuries.

Now as if that wasn't bad enough the father of the girl he's been dating tries to run both him and the girl over.

Sorry to tell you this my yout but you my friend are snakebit. You need to keep a low profile. And if I was someone who knew you I would be trying to keep my distance too cause I ain't sure what will happen next with you. You wearing a target and I ain't want to be anywhere close to you.

The eediat ting award in this story though goes to the father who tried to run down this lad and his own daughter. My man I could understand that you vex that this guy going out with your daughter but tell me how running over both of them solves anything? I mean maybe I might give you a pass if you were the TB fellow's father in law in the previous chapter cause his career might go through the Eedoes because his daughter marry a moron.

I might even give you a pass if you just run down the fella but once you added your daughter into the equation I got to seriously question your logic. Yes running her over gets rid of the dating problem but umm it also gets rid of your daughter. Did you stop and think about that. Hmmmm.

All I can say is that your head got to be bad my man.

Eediat ting that!

Chapter 4: Oops!
So Billy Donovan, former coach of the back to back NCAA champs the Florida Gators signs a big 27 Mil contract to move onto the NBA and coach the Orlando Magic and budding superstar Dwight Howard. Good move Mr Donovan. Lets look at it logically. You are at the top of your game having won two championships so nothing left to prove at the college level. Your star college players have all declared for this years NBA draft so next year in College ball the team will struggle. check! You're heading to the NBA the toppa toppa basketball league in the world and you're getting a pay raise. 27 Mil contact. Damn that's like Lotto money! Way to go Billy!

So you sign the contact on Friday and now its Monday and you decide you have made a mistake? Mistake? Guy they are paying you 27 Mil , to coach in the biggest league in the world. You have one of the better young big men on your new roster and a young team that made the playoffs this year, your old team is going to suck for a couple of years, you get to stay in Florida and if the Magic fire you you probably still get most of that money. Mistake, how could this be a mistake?

Now you are saying you want out and the Magic are saying if you want out they can sue you for breach of contract. So you're going from +27 Mil to negative money. Way to go Billy, way to go!

Eediat ting dat!

Chapter 5: Trini to the Bomb
Saturday at one of my myriad social events (and yes in case you wondered I hit up every last one of them and survived although at one event I was repeated attacked by a small child with a balloon sword) I heard about this alleged terror plot targeting JFK being perpetrated by some West Indian people. Guyanese and Trini apparently not that it matter which countries cause all a we is one and this is going to reflect badly on the region as a whole.

Apparently they had some plan to blow up something or the other at JFK and disrupt the flights. Serious business that!

Anyway two things about this alleged plot got me. First off one of the suspects is a former MP from Guyana. MP? You mean as in Member of Parliament? An elected official? I'm going to have to ask Guyana Gyal what kind of people them voting for down there cause I was really shocked that a fellow with them sort of credentials would do something so. I mean I know a lot of politicians aint really that bright but you really don't expect a fellow once he been involved in electoral politricks to turn terrorist.

Yes the Caribbean full of crooked politicians but most a them just trying to line their pockets quick before they get vote out they ain't trying to blow up nobody.

And then the other thing was that to show how stupid these wannabe terrorists were the biggest joke is that homeland security say that the plot wasn't even technically feasable. Chupse! So you mean you was plotting for a good long while, long enough for people to put you under surveillance, collect evidence and arrest you, and it turn out that the whole thing wouldn't even have worked if you had had the chance to execute it? Chupse! That is insult added to injury. That is like me sitting down here and get blueprints and safe cracking tools and hire getaway car and come up with a plan to go rob the bank on the corner and when ya hear the shout the bank on the corner been closed down for 5 years. Waste a damn time!

Shame on allya wannabe terrorists! Not only wunnah mek West Indians look bad but wunnah mek we look stupid stupid too! Before y'all start this thing somebody should have sent one of wunnah that email that been floating around about why West Indians cannot be terrorists.

Eediat ting dat!

Its just a game

Or is it?

I kind of wondered about that today after reading that Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer died in Jamaica this morning. One can only speculate as to what really happened until official statements are made but you've got to wonder.

Pakistan one of the supposed stronger teams in world cricket go down on St. Patrick's day (Saturday) to the Irish in a shocker. Knocked out of the Super 8's barely a couple of days into the Cricket World Cup tournament. Oh man! Who, even if you were Irish, would have imagined that outcome?

The first thing that popped into my head yesterday whilst following the games online as Pakistan lost to Ireland and India another powerhouse team lost to lowly Bangladesh was wow cricket truly is a game of glorious uncertainties as its often billed. The second thing that popped into my head was I really feel sorry for those Pakistani and Indian players and coaches. I mean us folks in/from the Caribbean take our cricket seriously but no way near as fanatical as those from the sub-continent. I think the only thing that can compare to their zeal for cricket is the South American passion for futbol.

Yep, I was thinking, those players may be in some trouble at home. Heads will roll and knowing of some of the previous reactions by fans when those teams have lost games well I figured I wouldn't want to be any of those players or their families right about now. Indeed reading the news today where one player's home was attacked in India and there were protests in Pakistan calling for the arrest or death of the coach and captain I just wasn't really that surprised by the reactions. Yea those reactions are a bit over the top but similar have happened before.

Still I thought yea its all just a game isn't it? Its just some stupid fans really don't get that point and realize that its really not about life and death.

But in this case with coach Bob Woolmer it looks like it was about life and death. His death. I mean I can't say definitively that it was the stress of losing and seeing his team knocked out of the competition, or the thoughts of facing the music back in Pakistan that killed him but on first glance that would seem to be the case. One day he's a loses a game, the next he loses his life. Life... and death sure are funny ain't they. Puts a lot of stuff in perspective. When you lose a game you always have a chance to bounce back somehow although it may take some time. However when you lose you life? Well ain't no real bouncing back from that one I suppose.

Its all fun and games until someone gets hurt they say. Well someone did get hurt, hurt so much they died so have the fun and games stopped?

Woolmer was a coach so sports was his job and maybe we can chalk this up to job stress. Wouldn't be the first chap to die from that nor will he be the last. Still for all the money and prestige and endorsements and pride involved we still just think of sports as just sports. Its supposed to be intense but not that intense that you die. Its still supposed to be about fun. You give your all on the field and in your preparation to be on the field but its still just a game isn't it? We don't think too much about the folks who take it that much to heart. The folks who lose sleep and weight, and whose blood pressure rises or whose health suffers from sports do we.

I still say its all a game but damn if a game, its results and its repercussions don't put life in perspective.

March Madness

What can I say this March is a great month for sports.

Not that March isn't usually a great month for sports but this March is made even better by the Cricket World Cup. Look! West Indies won yesterday over Pakistan so forgive me for being slightly happy for a moment. Tomorrow I can get back to cussing the islands for wasting money on this event and robbing patrons with outrageous prices at the concession stands but today........

Well today I'm trying to follow Australia vs Scotland and Kenya vs Canada. Yea not the stuff of sporting legends but every game counts towards the big picture. Thank God for the Internet which makes it possible for me to get ball by ball scores and even radio coverage and sometimes video feeds of the matches. I still remember back in the days, before the Internet, having to call home or use that Toronto Star phone service (Can't remember the name. Was it Star Phone?) which gave you match updates all at its own pace just to find out how my team was doing.

Anyway besides cricket the other great thing about every March is the NCAA March Madness tournament. To paraphrase Dick Vitale or in the immortal words of Austin Powers. Yeaaaaa baby!

You don't understand my love of March Madness do you? How often to you get to watch 32 basketball games in two days or any sporting event where in every game played each team is literally playing for their tournament life? Its win or get the bleep outta Dodge. Yea the NBA is cool especially a nice game 7 of a playoff series but March Madness that starts off with like 32 game 7's in 2 days. Now that's fantastic!

I usually take the first two days of March madness off. Why? Well its just an exceptional time of year and a great time to veg out. You don't understand my fanaticism do you? Why I'm still trying to plan how I'm going to get a decent lunch tomorrow and not miss any games from my couch.

I mean March Madness just sucks me in. This is the time of the year where I just tell people I'm ignoring them; family, friends, children it don't matter. Don't mess with my March Madness focus.

From the time the brackets are announced I'm on it. Scouring the Internet for info, entering as many free pools as I can find (the days of putting money on this thing are long gone with my College days), chatting with anyone who may have actually watched more of the season unfold than the annual Duke, UNC game and thereby is ahead of me in terms of actual knowledge of what to except from the selected teams.

Trying to answer questions like whats the record of the top ranked teams? Who are the Cinderella teams? How many number 5s will be beaten by number 12s this year? Should I choose Number 9s over Number 8s? Which lower seeded player has the most NBA ready player? Where are those cursed Duke blue bas...... ummmm I mean devils ranked? Who or where exactly are Gongaza, Creighton, Holy Cross, Xavier, Old Dominion and George Washington?

And yes it is imperative that I watch as much of the games as possible. Its intense, its dramatic, its heartbreaking, its exhilarating, its big man crying over sports whether they win or lose, its 40 minutes of pure action down to the last second.

Plus how else can I, a few months hence, objectively sit and cuss NBA teams and GM's on draft day as they overlook proven College stars for long shots and European nobodies. How else would I have known that Dwayne Wade should have gone higher in the draft or that the Raptors should have held onto Kareem Rush instead of trading him for Chris Jefferies a few years back. With any luck I'll see the NBA stars of the future and make my predictions on not just the hyped ones like Kevin Durant and Greg Oden but some more obscure small forward or super quick point guard leading a mid major with grit and determination through the first round.

It gets no better than this folks.

Now to get back to my biggest dilemma. How do I follow cricket scores when the computer is upstairs but the TV and couch are downstairs.

Mmmmm ....... Food

Well World Cup cricket is starting Sunday in the Caribbean. Well actually it has started already but so far just warm up matches are being played.

Last year almost a year in advance I blogged about this event and questioned whether we, the people of the Caribbean, would actually see the highly touted economic returns from this event. That question remains I guess, we'll see in a few months or so.

Back then when I wrote that blog though, I was just thinking about the financial issues but now as things get going I'm starting to realize just how much more there is to this thing than I ever really thought about.

I mean yes the Caribbean isn't made up of first world countries but lawd ave mercy how far were we or did we go to accommodate our guests?

I mean I'm not saying don't accommodate people but at certain points you have to say no that cant fly and make the guests accept your policy too. Instead it just looks like we say to them in advance do whatever you want, we will accept whatever laws you see as fit without question after all don't mind us, is just we live here but you can act as if this is your own place.

What am I talking about? Well I wont even get into the silly story about bajan policemen getting searched at the cricket stadium in Barbados by cricket security people cause that one just too embarrassing to me. I had to hang muh head in shame when I read that.

No what I'm talking about is I see alot of us, as Caribbean people, giving up parts of our culture to host these games. The way we usually watch cricket was deemed not appropriate by the authorities and changes were/are being made.

Cant have all those horns and conch shells making noise in tourist ears. Cant say this, cant say that it might be offensive.

Then there is this whole issue with food. A fella cant even bring a drink of water into a stadium , cause they treating you like the airlines these days, searching you like immigration and nothing cant bring in ya hand or handbags. I guess they are worried about terrorists but still things seem mighty heavy handed.

Plus it seems like with these new security restrictions also applying to the immediate areas around the ground you cant even find a place outside the stadium to buy food or a drink so your only option is the concession stand.

How could we allow this? Ok I mean I understand to some extent the you cant bring in your own food point as the event coordinators want to sell you their expensive stuff from their concession stands and they will point out well you cant bring food into an NBA game or a NFL game or the like. True, good point but cricket could be seen as an exception here cause a cricket match isn't some three hour basketball game its a whole damn day. You go to cricket like you go to work. You get there at 9 or 10 in the morning and don't leave til after 5. Cricket is an outing. You need three squares at cricket, why ya think the players duz have water break, lunch break and tea break? Its not just for fun, its that its a long game and just like the players need their nutrition I think the spectators need theirs too.

Plus lets look at this culturally. Anybody at all who knows traditional West Indian cricket knows that cricket is an outing, a picnic, a lime even and people go into a cricket ground with a picnic basket, or a cooler with a whole heap of food for not only them but in most cases to share with others. Anyone who has heard Paul Keens Douglas' Tanti Merle at the Oval and been to a cricket match knows that his humorous tale contains only slight exaggerations on the girth of the picnic baskets and coolers that people used to bring to cricket back in the days.

Look even a small bony man like myself would walk with two or three hamcutters, a litre a Pine Hill juice, some fish cakes and some other drinks and that is just for me alone. Plus ya done know that if the spirit hit me that food didn't seeing lunch time at all. It might not even mek it past water break.

Ok I'm just joking but the point is Cricket in the Caribbean has always been more than a game Going to an international match is a social event alot more so than say going to a basketball or hockey game in North America. Why? Because you are at cricket the whole day, plus the islands are small and chances are you will definitely see somebody auntie or cousin that you know or somebody that used to work with you 10 years ago and you will get to chat and converse with them at the game. Its hard to make friends at something that you're just going to for for two intense hours like basketball but a cricket match you have ebbs and flows in the on field action so you might sit down next to a complete stranger in the morning and start chatting during a lull in play and by tea you are buying them drinks or borrowing their transistor radio to find out exactly how the commentators say the man was lbw when you see clearly he play bat and pad.

Also at cricket sometimes the play in the stands duz be more exciting than the play on the field too.

Cricket is a social event, a chance to make friends, to cuss, weep, jeer, praise, even chat up the odd woman or two. It is also a chance to eat and drink and eat and drink you must cause you're there for an entire day, you really don't have a choice unless you're fasting.

So no you cant just expect a fella to sit down in a stand for 6+ hours and suck on air or alternatively pay really exorbitant prices every couple of hours to get something to eat. Man that will get very expensive and annoying (as the patrons line up) for the patrons real quick.

Now look I'm not saying let a guy bring in enough food to feed the 5000 but did the planners think about the absolute and draconian measures they were instituting regarding the entry of food and drink and how it affects the fans. Surely some allowance could have been made for even say two bottles of water or a couple of fish cakes to be brought in. Cuhdear!

To me it just feel like we Caribbean people, or whoever it was at the table representing we when they were negotiating the event parameters, just sit down and nod their head to every proposal that was given by the International cricketing bodies without expressing any sort of issues they might have with the parameters.

Ya know what I'm saying?

But then again who am I to complain, ya cant live in the old times. I guess this is the price of progress.