Is anyone listening?

Trinidad and Tobago’s best track and field medal prospect at the 2024 Paris Olympics had a lot to say in yesterday’s Express about our bandwagonist culture.

Jereem “The Dream” Richards was spot on in his assessment.

But is anyone listening?

Richards is hopeful the “Fill the stadium” article “helps just a little bit” in changing the narrative, spurring us on to evolve into real supporters of athletes, sport and, by extension, our country.

This is an Olympic year so expect the “experts” to crawl out of the woodwork, expounding on all that is wrong. They have always been around. In this generation, though, social media has provided an additional outlet for their opinions. Criticism can be useful. But the venom often spewed from these “experts” is hardly ever constructive.

Richards is passionate in his call for Trinidad and Tobago to be full-time lovers of track and field. When someone of his stature speaks out on an issue of national importance, we need to listen.

The way we support is not an issue surrounding sport only. It is who we are. This is a national cancer. The late great Black Stalin focused on our treatment of culture in the 1986 calypso hit, “No Part-Time Lover”. Richards zoned in on sport, specifically track and field, on Page 40 of the May 31 Express.

But is anyone listening?

We should all be taking note. You sow what you reap. It may not be in the area of sport, it may not be related to culture, but each of us needs support of some kind. If, as a people, we do not change our outlook, we will continue to be sorely disappointed in our time of need.

“In January you is meh lover,” Stalin sings, “come on and be de same in September.”

Richards is saying the same thing, minus the music.

“Some T&T citizens are part-time lovers. When we do well, they give us all the praise, but when we don’t do well, they have the most to say. It doesn’t add up when we think about the support given to the athletes … They’re not there in the stadium supporting us when we compete locally, but yet we are judged so harshly,” he said.

The photo that accompanied the “Fill the stadium” story is worth many more than a thousand words.

Richards, raising his right arm in triumph as his chief rival, Kyle Greaux leans for the line, speaks to an exciting duel on the track. But what is seen in the background of this 2019 Dennis Allen photo is of much greater significance—thousands of unoccupied seats in the uncovered section of the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Later that year, T&T went medal-less at the World Championships for the first time since 2007. Not surprisingly, there were many with much to say, mostly negative, about the country’s athletes. But where were these critics when Richards and Greaux were squaring off in front of thousands of empty seats?

What Richards is saying about T&T’s culture of support is of great significance. Sadly, as a people, we are often unable to discern what is important.

Richards is speaking to the Government, the media, corporate T&T, sports administrators, everyone.

But is anyone listening?

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