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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

A sports-base approach is needed to help the youth

by

Brian Lewis
1695 days ago
20200707

Last week, Trinidad and To­ba­go faced its own Black Lives Mat­ter (BLM) day of reck­on­ing. The lives of PC Allen Mose­ley, Joel Ja­cob, Noel Di­a­mond, Is­rael Clin­ton and Or­nel­la Greaves had all the el­e­ments of our na­tion on edge. Guns and bul­lets.

Guns, Guns and more guns.

Many have skirt­ed around the is­sue while oth­ers have in a de­lib­er­ate, in­ten­tion­al and sim­plis­tic nar­ra­tive, sought to put the blame square­ly on the black youths from at-risk com­mu­ni­ties.

The re­al­i­ty is Black Lives Mat­ter is rel­e­vant to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

How do we deal with un­em­ploy­ment and alien­ation of the black youths from the at-risk and de­prived com­mu­ni­ties?

The ques­tion is, who is try­ing to un­der­stand the be­hav­iour of those who feel short-changed be­cause of the lack of em­pa­thy for the chal­lenges that black youth face to­day? Who is ad­dress­ing their is­sues from their per­spec­tive, as op­posed to talk­ing down to them from the lec­ture lectern?

The youths feel that the po­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic sys­tems in Trinidad and To­ba­go are un­car­ing and preda­to­ry. Per­cep­tion is re­al­i­ty - it is said - but not for the black youths from at-risk com­mu­ni­ties. To sug­gest that the prob­lems are all their fault is dis­hon­est - to say the least.

Are they wrong to feel that brown and white Trinidad and To­ba­go care more about Black Lives in a for­eign land than right here on home soil? Or is it that black lives mat­ter every­where else but here?

As ten­sions flared, I dis­cussed with a friend, dur­ing a Chan­cel­lor Hill morn­ing walk, some of the so­lu­tions. We fo­cused our at­ten­tion on the so­cial, eco­nom­ic and en­vi­ron­men­tal is­sues to which sports can con­tribute and in a mean­ing­ful and very sig­nif­i­cant fash­ion. It is im­por­tant to fo­cus on the in­ten­tion­al­i­ty of sport-based ap­proach­es and cre­at­ing the right con­di­tions to bring about change through sport.

There are dif­fer­ent de­vel­op­ment is­sues all around. The po­ten­tial of sport-based ap­proach­es to con­tribute to de­vel­op­ment out­comes has been rec­og­nized in the 2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment. There are im­por­tant fo­cus ar­eas.

Sport for health and well-be­ing of all - The Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) cre­at­ed pro­grammes that have, as the main tool, sport-based ap­proach­es. in­clud­ing #re­place­gunswith­medals, #next cham­pi­on, #fu­ture is fe­male and #10golds24.

These pro­grammes con­tain an out­reach el­e­ment that tar­gets at-risk youth and com­mu­ni­ties, cre­at­ing and fos­ter­ing in­clu­sive ac­cess to sport, phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty for all youth and young peo­ple.

There's no doubt that Black lives mat­ter right here in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We must have a sense of de­ter­mi­na­tion as it comes down to crunch time for our coun­try. If we do not face up to the re­al­i­ty of our sit­u­a­tion the black youths who feel de­prived, left out, left be­hind and with­out hope will fight for their piece of the pie the on­ly way they know.

If, as it is said, per­cep­tion is re­al­i­ty, so let us lis­ten to those who feel left be­hind, frus­trat­ed or those who ex­pe­ri­ence a sense of de­spair and take them very se­ri­ous­ly.

Black Lives Mat­ter in Trinidad and To­ba­go and sport can con­tribute to the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment and peace in Trinidad and To­ba­go so­ci­ety. Give sport a chance to make a dif­fer­ence.

Ed­i­tor's note:

Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and the views ex­pressed are not those of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.


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