A part of the utility of television is the private viewing box that it affords the audience to the dynamic, ongoing cultural evolution in our world and in our communities. When we flip to the channels that air movies or music videos from a past era, for example, we can vividly appreciate how much things have changed in short periods of history. For sports fans, this evolutionary narrative is especially poignant. The versatility and strength of Lebron James make Larry Bird seem shackled. Navratilova literally plays in slow motion if watched alongside Venus and Serena.  

Switching scenes to Belize, our sporting evolution appears to be in reverse gear. Thirty years ago our softball girls stunned the world by taking the gold medal in the Pan-American games, upsetting the mighty United States of America. This week, our sports regression is stark and painful as our ladies take a shellacking at this year’s edition of the Panam Games in Venezuela. From the public’s viewing box, the golden girls of the ‘70’s seemed conditioned and committed, as opposed to recent national teams patched together at the eleventh hour, with minimal sponsorship. While the rest of the region, nay the rest of world, has elevated its quality of performance, our teams, to no fault of the athletes, find a way to underperform.

While the bad softball news drifts in from South America, basketball fans at home learn that only one or two local players will likely qualify for the basketball national team that is currently preparing for a regional tournament to be hosted in Cancun later this month. In the early 1990’s, at the crest of semi-pro basketball, the flow of talent was in the opposite direction: skilled Belizeans were being scouted to play in Mexico and at colleges in the US.

Even “blind-eyed Jamesy” can see that in every major sporting discipline, the Belizean athlete (and the Belizean artist) is neglected and undernourished. The country has neither a track nor an indoor stadium. Physical education in our primary and secondary schools is what masquerades as sports training. In many instances, our most qualified coaches have walked away, unable to suffer the disrespect and neglect. In other cases, these worthy enablers have reconciled to just hanging around the remaining carcass of their sport, settling for decay and defeat. Our athletes have come to believe that this is just the way things must be. But, things can and should be different.

The responsibility for this sporting crisis cannot be fairly framed in only blue or red borders. Both parties bear a portion of the blame for the pitiful state of athletics in our country. What makes the UDP sin more grievous is firstly, that, as the government, they are the owners of every national team; and secondly, that they have absolutely no roadmap to restore the lost luster of Belizean athletics. “Champions are made of something they have deep inside them – a desire, a vision, a dream,” proclaimed Muhammad Ali. This desire, this vision, this dream is nowhere to be found in this UDP administration.

            To settle a petty political score, the Prime Minister dumped his youthful Minister of Sports, replacing him with Hon. Elvin Penner, the Mennonite Belizean who represents the Cayo Northeast Constituency. Penner has achieved national notoriety in the past few weeks, not for the unveiling of a national sports plan but rather for his role as real estate agent for big business interests. Penner admitted to being the agent for an Indian businessman who gained ownership of nine acres of the Krooman Lagoon Reserve in Belize City. Penner was also fingered as the agent who secured one thousand acres of riverfront property for two individuals whom he claims are fronting for Mennonite villagers from Barton Creek. Both transactions, presumably with Penner’s shield, were consummated in days. Why is our Minister of Sports busied with land speculation?

 Until our country prepares funds and implements a national sporting program, thereby creating a vibrant farm system in our primary and secondary schools, sports will be a source of disappointment rather than discipline. The sacred garland will continue to adorn the shoulders of a foreigner. Until the proper training, facilities and coaches are in place, Belize should cease participating in regional tournaments, where our athletes are routinely humiliated and our national pride ravaged, time and again. Our sense of national self, our collective esteem has been sufficiently violated.

Mr. Penner and the UDP are now a third of the way through their term of office, having squandered 18 of their allotted 60 month term. They owe us a national sports plan that will revitalize sports in our schools and our communities. Jamaica, for all its fiscal and criminal handicaps, has produced the likes of Merlene Ottley and Usain Bolt. Mr. Penner must be held accountable in Cayo North East, not just for his odious land deals but for his discreditable performance as Minister of Culture and Sports.

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