Retired ACP Grant makes call for societal change through sports
Parents are being urged to be more embracing and understanding in order to facilitate a transformational change in society that alters the mindset of youth.
Benefits of this lifestyle were extrapolated by former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Novelette Grant, during the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) Breakfast Forum at Jamaica Pegasus hotel.
In his welcome message, Christopher Samuda, president of the JOA, said: “Let’s speak about solutions and use sport as a community healer, a community builder, a community unifier, a community game-changer. Let’s use sport as a catalyst for moulding character and giving expression to self-value and determination.
“The Jamaica Olympic Association is a repository of solutions for we are not pre-occupied with problems which are simply challenges for us. We look squarely, face on, at the challenges, strategically assess them and then become consumed with overcoming them in the interest of our members and sport.
“Welcome to a fellowship in sport where we, the JOA, engage the mind in commanding, in taking charge and responsibility for, action in a holistic, clinical, yet humanitarian way,” said Samuda.
The issue at hand falls under the theme — ‘Outside Threats, Inside Traps: Navigating for a Better Jamaica’, for which Grant showed the direct correlation of crime on sport, as it is part of a society that is also impacted by crime.
“Sport impacts our lives in many ways,” said Grant, who noted that while “big sporting events act as a unifier”, it can also be a minefield for crime as there are “violent activities that started on the field of play”.
Showing a contrary, she pointed to the world-renown annual high school track and field championships, Champs, where on occasion “schoolboy athletes were a big headache for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF)”, but also made reference to the quadrennial Fifa World Cup, highlighting that during that period “murders
are down”.
The occurrence or possibility of such falls under the umbrella of ‘outside threats’, which encompasses the broader scope of crime and illegal activities taking place in society to which youth, especially boys, are attracted.
Relating to crime statistics collated over the last five years up to 2018, Grant showed the vast disparity and involvement of males, with 5,861 men killed among the over 6,500 recordings; and just over 8,700 listed among the 9,017 people who received gunshot wounds.
“Girls run away more than boys, but boys get killed more than girls,” she noted, and honed in on the direct influence of home and community settings.
“Domestic violence … it’s continuously producing a generation of people who are constantly traumatised… so we’re producing a nation of walking wounded,” said Grant.
This, she reasoned, is cause for many of the “issues that play out on sporting fields”, oftentimes owing to the lack of communication skills.
In part, Grant articulates this inability and general breakdown among the ‘inside traps’ that emanate from youth lacking core life skills to cope with emotions and disappointments.
“Our most important job is education of the young,” she said.
“Promote attitudes that ultimately solves problems without the use of violence … be coaches,” Grant said.
Referencing Spartan society, whose behaviours were specifically channelled with women playing a definitive role, Grant said “they knew the importance of healthy minds and healthy bodies, they knew the minds they were raising”.
Defining that purpose, she argued, was key to some of Jamaica’s problems.
“Who are we raising,” she challenged, adding that “while we decry violence — and there is the ever increasing call for cursive measures of control — we’re not doing enough to change that mindset.”
Noting that we live in a “perpetual state of opposite ways, where wrong is right”, Grant said the “ways we deal with children are riddled with contradiction and injustice” and calls for greater attention in parent-child relationships.
“Children are not the private property of parents, they are members of society. We ought not blame youth… look in the mirror. We need to look at our acts of commission of omission,” said Grant, who also served as acting commissioner of police.
“They believe we’re not coping well with adulthood and we throw our problems on them. Youth perceive that they’re being unfairly dealt with,” she added.
“What they value most is the quality of interaction, us sitting and listening to them and hearing what they say. They don’t want authoritarianism, educate them about what is unacceptable.
“There is a strong desire to be understood, strong need for guidance and support, strong need for encouragement from those involved in our lives,” said Grant.
Ryan Foster, secretary general of the JOA, highlighted the purpose of the forum and Grant’s input.
“This is the second staging of the recently introduced Sports for Breakfast Forum, which was introduced to look at social, economic, and environmental topics that not only affects us, but it’s impact on sports and sporting development, and how it shapes our future,” said Foster.
“Our guest speaker, former Acting Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant’s message was exceptional. She gave us a clear picture of how crime affects and impacts our youth and the role that we all must play in protecting our next generation of youths in general and specifically in sport.
“The JOA will continue to do its part in ensuring that our educational perspective is not just localised around sport, but how these social and economic issues affect us all as a people. We all have a role to play as custodians of our legacy and a vision to chart our own future,” said Foster.