CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation for all the reasons outline by Honourable friend the Member for Bain and Grants Town and adopt by reference his arguments.

I would like to use this opportunity of this debate however with the leave of the House to speak about some wider themes related to sports support, and youth development in the country.

This legislation can only enhance the programme that we already have in place for sports and youth development.  It is clear that young people are the majority in our country.  They are our country.  They must be the focus of our country.  I have often told my colleagues that it was not until I was in university that I discovered why physical education was a class in school.

You talk to Vice Ferguson and he will tell you that sports and Fred Mitchell did not mix.  To this day, I do not think that I have ever made a successful basket in basketball.  Something you have to admit you cannot do.

In my last year in high school Leviticus Adderley, the late Catholic Deacon, was my P.E. teacher.  He told us that we would have to learn the rules of 50 sports in order to pass the class. So I pretty much know the rules of most sports thanks to him.  But he also said something that I remember.  He told us about the man who invented the sport of volleyball.  He said that volleyball was invented as substitute for basketball, because when men got into middle age, they might not be able to participate in such a vigorous sport so volleyball was invented because it was easier on the body.  Of course, if you know how volleyball is played today, you would not think that is the case.

We were all 16 years old at the time, and like most young people, we thought we could duck bullets so we laughed.  What a joke we thought.  His parting shot was to tell us that sooner than we could imagine, we would understand what it was not to have the same vigour that we had as 16 years old.  And I am sure that many of us 40 years after graduation from high school understand those words today, amongst my classmates Gus Roberts a pilot, Michael Barnett the AG, Teresa Butler, the PM’s advisor, Wayne Aranha, an accountant, Creswell Sturrup, the Permanent Secretary.

I am sure all of us have been told by our doctors that we must do something every day to elevate our heartbeats and get the blood flowing, some form of vigorous exercise.

Do that every day then and watching the youngsters last night playing basketball on the Fox Hill Park as part of the police summer programme, you appreciate what it is to be fit and to be able compete on a world level.

Who can forget the early morning in 2000 when for the first time, people who looked like us, walked like us and talked like us won that gold medal for The Bahamas.

Or the subsequent runs that saw our young men and women achieve success beyond measure in international competition.

This morning I saw an ad in the newspaper about a benefit programme on Sunday for Thomas A. Robinson after whom we have named a stadium. I understand that Mr. Robinson is facing some health challenges today and the country and his friends wish to pay tribute to him in the midst of these challenges.  Being considered an eastern boy, his family and he come from Hawkins Hill, Mr. Robinson figured large in the imagination of youngsters in my age group.  The Ad says that he represented The Bahamas in 1956 at Melbourne, 1960 Rome, 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico as an athlete in four Olympics and it says that he is the only one to have done so.

He did it cleanly, without any steroids, no drugs or artificial support.  In fact, my recollection is that it was sheer grit and determination that got him to where he got and courage.  It must have taken courage to travel far away from home by yourself to hold up the flag of a colony where you were still not considered a whole man and run for your life.

So today’s athletes have no excuse, they have good examples who went before them. Mr. Robinson being one of them.  Sir Durward Knowles being another.

And there are others who have succeeded in the American arena in basketball like Andre Rodgers, Ed Armbrister and Tony Curry and Edmondo Moxey, Wenty Forde, Vincent Ferguson.  Michael Thompson and Rick Fox.  Members in this place like the Leader of the Opposition, the Member for Bain and Grants Town and the Members for St. Cecilia.

And in each of those cases that I name the athletes who came behind them could see people who made it the right way, without drugs and doping and artificial means.

They have a goodly heritage therefore.

You have to then be proud  of today’s crop of athletes who have succeeded in sports far beyond the wildest dreams of those who went before.

One of the best examples is Chris Brown, who is a real scrapper.  An example of someone who just keeps on trying and trying and trying from the humblest of beginnings in Eleuthera.  We are all proud of them; those who take to the field.  Recently Debbie Ferguson was reported as having led the way in a field in overseas competition.  Who can forget Pauline Davis Thompson who kept on trying until the gold medal was hers.

We cannot call all of the names today but congratulations to them all and we can encourage them to stay on the straight and narrow.

Now in our discussions in the caucus, there were some examples given of Bahamian athletes who have fallen afoul of the regulations.  What is clear is that ignorance is not an excuse in these matters.  The standard of international completion is such that the athletes must know all the rules.

Thankfully, we sit right next to the United States and so our athletes benefit from the regime which exits next door and the appetite, which the country next door has for excellence in the field of sports.

Our country must therefore put a greater investment in  sports.

Given the success which athletes can have, the careers which can blossom from it, there is a need to put in place the structures to make sure that these young people see the opportunities and are able to embrace them and that they are protected.

I read yesterday that UNCTAD has warned the Caribbean that it must change the mix of its economy, its approach to development if it is going to survive the round of recession that we now suffer.  That there must be a rebalancing of the  state and private sector relations so that the state plays a more active part in  the development of the country and in the goal of eliminating poverty.

Our country must surely see that sports investment is a key to the development of the country and the personal development of so many of our young people.   This is one of the few things that young men seem to like so we must find ways for them to embrace careers in sports, not only as athletes on the field but in sports administration.

One of the examples that Sir Durward Knowles and Thomas Robinson, the Member for Bain and Grants Town, the Minister For Sports all show is that you can migrate from a career as an athlete, whether as a superstar or of modest success to sports administration and sports policy and work to better the path for those coming behind.

I want to use this occasion of the support for this bill then to make a few public policy points:

The need for greater investment in our young people and their development.  Sports seems key to this. Youth development initiatives are key to this.  Substantial funding is now being put behind these programmes but we can always do more to encourage participation in local programmes.

Further, if there is not one already there needs to be programme to teach the youngsters the potential to migrate from being athletes to other areas of sports including sports administration.

I think it is appropriate then on this occasion.  The Member for Bain and Grants Town has put the position.