Dear Editor,
Marcus Aurelius once wrote: “Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so”. It is a belief that comforts me in challenging times.
I decided to submit this note after watching a basketball game where Half-Mile Bulls of Linden defeated Pacesetters in a hard fought semi-finals at the Cliff Anderson National Sports Hall. The game straddled two days and ended in the very early morning of Sunday, August 30, 2015.
It was a marvelous victory for the young Bulls from Linden over the highly ranked Pacesetters team from Georgetown. As Anaïs Nin noted: “Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one’s courage”, this courage was exemplified by the Bulls.
From Seneca we have: “The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today…. Live immediately”. The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) arranged to host the Inaugural Forbes Burnham Memorial Basketball Championship from August 22-30, 2015 as evidenced from August 18, by our media and public advertisements that included banners, posters, flyers, tickets, along with radio, television and social media ads and interviews with the press.
As I write this letter, the National Sports Commission has contracted out for a fee; use of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on August 30th to Petra Organization for a few of Petra’s preliminary Futsal games in the Sports Hall that was built primarily for basketball; in the late 1970s, when Forbes Burnham was Prime Minister of Guyana.
T. Boone Pickens on leadership: “Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality as a leader”. A wrong decision is better than no decision, mistakes are the father of leadership and innovation. Seneca: “Many things have fallen only to rise even higher”.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham played a colossal role in the development of our nation.
The analysis paralysis from some office holders was “puzzling”; then add the absolute disdain from the promoter organization, with the self-righteous promoter gripping a penalty free contract from the National Sports Commission.
Alice Walker, the great American author and activist expressed the view that: “The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any.” We have to believe in our ability to get the job done and act accordingly.
We have too many lackeys and flunkies from a bygone era; who now act as paragons of virtue and advice-givers. When in fact they have no credibility, no integrity and should not be trusted with holding high office. The problem is some of our new leaders listen to them, and some even seek the lackey’s guidance.
Coming from Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States: “These are the times that try men’s souls”. Charles Dickens expanded this thought, thus: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…, it was the spring of hope…”The irony of it all is that GABF will now host the Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham Memorial Basketball Championship finals in Linden on September 5, 2015. Things have a way of happening exactly as they should; it is an unalterable fact.
Howard Zinn, an American historian and social activist with a passion for civil rights, endowed us with this inspirational script: “The future is a great succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Linden did indeed achieve a marvelous victory both in substance and spirt.
I close with Sophocles: “Fortune is not on the side of the faint hearted”.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
