True to form, most Bahamians gave thanks to the Almighty for the good times and the bad, and rightly so. Experience and faith have taught them that you must take the bitter with the sweet, and that there is a time and season for everything.
So as this bittersweet year slouches towards its end, people everywhere are praying for better days. They are making resolutions, and fervently hoping that their lives will be a little better in the days, weeks and months ahead.
This has been a year of great challenge for Bahamians and their neighbors, as they struggled to cope not only with the vagaries of a world economy over which they wield little or no real control, but also as they continue to strive and struggle against the double whammy effects of two terrible hurricanes, Frances and Jeanne. More than one thousand people perished in Haiti. Grenada was left devastated. The Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Jamaica were hit hard, and every island in The Bahamas was touched. Grand Bahama and Abaco got the brunt.
As one year ends, and another begins, the talk everywhere is about renewal, second chances and resolutions. This thought comes to mind as we reflect on some of what we recently experienced.Just this past evening, we had occasion to revel in the stellar achievements of some of this nationﾴs finest athletes. What struck us as particularly significant was the fact that success for each was hardly ever the question. Each knew the importance of discipline, focus, and hard work.And for sure, not one of them would have ever thought that anyone owed them anything.
Quite evidently, too, these fine athletes would have also recognized that their achievement came in part from the dedicated attention they would have gotten from any number of people, inclusive of parents, family, neighbors, and mentors. In other words, these elite athletes would have been taught the importance of community, and the power of shared commitment to the achievement of excellence.
Without equivocation, it is clear that none of these winners is so focused on self that they are not prepared to acknowledge the helping they received as they moved from success to success.
As important as these matters are, reference must also be made to the power of example. Each of these stellar athletes would have patterned themselves after other success stories.As we all know, success breeds success. This is not to say that they would not have experienced the defeat. Each did. And each will again.
What distinguishes them from the rest is their conviction that a defeat was not a failure but that it was a stepping-stone.
We are today quite convinced that there is much to be learned from the example of athletes like Tonique Williams-Darling, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, and a host of others. The main lesson is that when discipline, focus, and hard work come together, success follows.
This is what the nationﾴs schools should be about. This is what the nationﾴs homes should be about. This is what the nationﾴs mosques, temples and churches should be about. And quite evidently, the government has a large and crucially important role to play in this process.
More concretely, we believe that the time has come for the government to recognize the power inherent in sports, and that it use its enormously important influence to see to it that every school in The Bahamas has a functioning athletics and sports program, as an integral part of the school curriculum.
We are today quite convinced that most of the problems currently being experienced in this country derive from a culture of indiscipline, and plain old slackness.When a desire for instant gratification is added to the mix, society gets what it is currently experiencing, namely crime, distress, and anomie. In their entirety, these are the symptoms of a community in the throes of collapse.
It need not be so.
This time ﾖin that moment when one year is ending, and another is set to begin- is as good a time as any for serious Bahamians to renew their commitment to come on over and heed the call to assist in building this wall, which is the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
We thank you all for your support and encouragement this past year.We wish for The Bahamas and all of our readers and advertisers a happy and prosperous New Year.
Editor, The Bahama Journal
December 31, 2004
