Bri­an Lewis

There are many peo­ple who look to the fu­ture of T&T and don't like what they see. They sug­gest that the in­abil­i­ty of the so­ci­ety to find in­cor­rupt­ible and ef­fec­tive lead­ers sin­cere in plac­ing first the na­tion­al in­ter­est and cause, the de­struc­tion and de­cay of our in­sti­tu­tions and per­va­sive bobol are signs that the fu­ture is not a bright one.

The cyn­ics, re­al­ists and prag­mat­ic amongst us hold the view that the per­for­mance of civic du­ty is dis­cour­aged giv­en the mi­lieu of de­stroy what can't be con­trolled, vin­dic­tive­ness, col­lu­sion, ma­m­aguy, hypocrisy, dis­hon­esty and in­sin­cer­i­ty.

In­de­pen­dent, strong, ef­fec­tive or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions aren't a de­sired ob­jec­tive .

Self re­straint, con­ven­tion, pro­to­col and ethics are damned. Cat­e­gor­i­cal de­nials seem more ma­nip­u­la­tive than sin­cere.

Sport is caught in the cross­fire.

The dooms­day pun­dits and naysay­ers are hav­ing a field day. Is the hope­less­ness fu­eled by a dis­re­gard for his­to­ry? Do we take the strug­gles of our pi­o­neers and in­sti­tu­tions for grant­ed?

Have we for­got­ten that la­trine pits and bar­rack yards were once dai­ly re­al­i­ties while tele­vi­sion, elec­tric­i­ty and mo­tor cars were lux­u­ries for the mass­es?

Have we al­lowed the ma­te­r­i­al wealth and con­spic­u­ous con­sump­tion of an oil and nat­ur­al gas econ­o­my to lull us in­to a false sense of se­cu­ri­ty and an over reach­ing sense of en­ti­tle­ment?

Cyn­ics and cyn­i­cism aside. How do we forge the val­ues, dis­ci­pline, at­ti­tude and for­ti­tude that will fos­ter the qual­i­ty of life and peace of mind that all right think­ing hu­man be­ings crave?

No mat­ter how we dis­sect, dis­cuss and de­bate the need­ed trans­for­ma­tion process. It falls to the youth of the na­tion and youth de­vel­op­ment.

It's the youth of the na­tion who hold in their hearts and minds the peace, progress and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of T&T.

Those who care about the wel­fare of T&T and the na­tion­al cause must act with a sense of ur­gency and fo­cus their minds and ef­forts on the youth of the na­tion.

There is need for a deep­en­ing of com­mit­ment in re­spect of youth de­vel­op­ment.

In­vest more time, mon­ey, en­er­gy and ef­fort in the youth of the na­tion. Meet them at the point of their need and hurt. Hear their cries and feel their pain. They are the fu­ture lead­ers and na­tion builders.

In this re­gard it was heart­warm­ing to wit­ness first­hand the joy and ex­cite­ment of some 400 chil­dren from pri­ma­ry schools, homes and com­mu­ni­ties at the Chagville Beach fa­cil­i­ty dur­ing the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) Olympic Day event on Sat­ur­day.

The TTOC with the help of its cor­po­rate part­ners BPTT and the Guardian Group of Com­pa­nies trans­port­ed the chil­dren to Chagville and back, pro­vid­ed re­fresh­ments dur­ing the day while the na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions in­tro­duced them to a di­verse menu of sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties.

All aimed at giv­ing the chil­dren a fun filled ex­pe­ri­ence that will plant the seed of life­long health and well­ness.

The hard work­ing and ded­i­cat­ed TTOC staff re­ceived in­valu­able sup­port and co­op­er­a­tion from the Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty, Po­lice Ser­vice, De­fence Force phys­i­cal train­ing in­struc­tors, Buzz Con­cepts, na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions, coach­es, sport ad­min­is­tra­tors and ser­vice providers.

The fo­cus of the TTOC's an­nu­al Olympic Day cel­e­bra­tions is on the youth.

Just as all oth­er ar­eas of na­tion­al life–the fu­ture of sport, health and well­ness and healthy lifestyle choic­es, de­pend on the youth of the na­tion.

Cyn­i­cism will not solve our prob­lems. An un­wa­ver­ing be­lief in the po­ten­tial and tal­ent of the youth of the na­tion is the recipe for a bet­ter, safer, health­i­er, hap­pi­er and pro­gres­sive T&T.

Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC).

For more in­for­ma­tion on the Olympic move­ment, Olympic val­ues and Olymp­ism vis­it http://www.ttoc.org.

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