Over the years I have been mystified by the respect and support that have totally eluded Ronald “Suki” King in his native Barbados.
A fellow writer once summed up Suki’s dilemma in the land of his birth in the following words: “Why is it that he has to continue to wash cars to fund his many trips overseas to defend championships? Why is it that he continues to have to knock on the doors of corporate Barbados to beg for money?
“Why is it as a National Sports Council employee he has to “pull his pocket” to buy draughts boards which he freely gives to schoolchildren or anyone interested in playing draughts?
“Like the prophet referred to by Jesus in Matthew 13:57, Suki is a living example both in name and international achievement of a king who enjoys great honour everywhere except in his own country.”
I was one of the first, if not the first, journalists to highlight the unique talent of a young Ronald “Suki” King when, in the early days of THE NATION, I travelled to his then modest home in St George to interview and write about the man who was destined to travel the world beating the best of the best and promoting the game of draughts from the Caribbean to the United States to Britain to South Africa and other distant places.
Along the way he would be crowned English Open champion several times; Irish Open champion several times; British Open champion several times; and most significantly, both World Go As You Please champion and World Three-Move Restriction champion probably more times that he has fingers and toes.
It is true that Suki King has been named Sportsman Of The Year in Barbados on more than one occasion, has been awarded the Barbados Service Star for outstanding service and achievement, and has been honored at a CARICOM Heads of Government meeting as one of the top 25 sports personalities in the region.
What is also true is that as soon as Mr King, as he is referred to with the deepest respect and admiration across the world, steps down from the dais he returns to being Mr Nobody in his own country.
Then out of the blue last week Suki King became the talk of every Bajan tongue. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with prowess as a world-beating draughts genius but with his getting into trouble taking a swim and being rescued by a lifeguard.
In this unexpected twist of fate, Suki attracted headlines on radio and television, in newspapers with his photo splashed across front pages, and across the Internet with everybody happy that Suki had not drowned.
But to me the real story was not in his being saved from drowning but in what he attributed to his decision for venturing into the sea that day. For he told reporters that his “dire financial situation” and inability to get assistance or a hearing from the powers that be contributed to his state of mind.
Although insisting that suicide never entered his thoughts, he said: “I was feeling really, really depressed. So out of the depression I just went in dey (the sea) to try and get myself together, to study how to come out and attack, because I sitting down and I still waiting on the answer.”
I truly wish, hope and pray that the King get his answer very soon.
