SOMETHING'S MISSING!
Several patrons at the Powerade Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium had that feeling today, but it took some of them well over two hours to figure out what it was.
The customary drum beat, which fuels the excitement of students and spectators, and often times gave the athletes that extra burst of energy at crucial points, was nowhere to be heard.
Following reports of bad behaviour on the streets and in The City after inter-school sports, the Barbados Association of Principals and Public Secondary Schools (BAPPS) took a decision to ban drums and other instruments from the meet.
President Jeff Broomes told the NATION the issue was not with the instruments themselves.
“I really don’t have a problem with drums or with music. I have a problem with how they were used and the kind of behaviour that it illicited; people seemed to have been worked into a frenzy. I had banned my senior children from coming. Other principals had obviously seen other things relating to the sports. We as a collective banned the drums and took a decision to ban the drums,” the Alexandra School principal explained.
That decision did not go down well with former games master of The Lodge School, Mac Fingall, who led the cheering squads for many years at that level and is a champion for the drum.
“Instruments don’t cause bad behaviour. A person [who] behaves badly will behave badly. I realise that something missing and didn’t know that’s what it is. I’m really disappointed that that’s what they thinking. These headmasters like they don’t remember when they were young,” Fingall stated.
He said rather than banning the drums, principals had to learn how to control their charges, and the children had to believe in them.
Another spectator, who is a familiar face and voice at the meet, agreed that the lack of instruments had left a void.
“Yuh missing de drums. No, no, no yuh gotta do something ’bout that. That is not fair. It give yuh a chance to dance and ting,” she said, adding that it had put a damper on the entire proceedings. (YB)
For more on this issue, please read tomorrow's WEEKEND NATION or NATIONnews.com.