Why not for relay team?

THE EDITOR: Why did TT celebrate the release of a Jamaican reggae artist from a US jail with a motorcade through our capital city? For the record, Buju Banton was charged for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and firearm possession and was jailed for seven years.

The street parade took place on the same day our local newspapers broke the story that TT has been officially awarded the Olympic gold medal for the 2008 Men’s 4x100m in Beijing, China.

This is only the third time TT has won a gold medal at the Olympics.

Wouldn’t it have been great if this parade was instead celebrating our own TT sporting heroes – Richard Thompson, Emmanuel Callender, Marc Burns and Keston Bledman?

After all, we all knew for many months this announcement was going to be made by the International Olympic Committee.

How hard could it have been for the Ministry of Sport or SporTT to have planned a street parade leading to the Hasely Crawford Stadium for the people of this country to celebrate our team’s victory?

For the record I like a lot of Buju’s music and there is no disputing the man’s talent. So I won’t stop listening to his music or deny him his right to earn an honest living, but to celebrate a foreign convicted felon while denying our local sporting heroes their right to celebrate is unfair to say the least.

STEVEN VALDEZ via e-mail

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"Why not for relay team?"

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