Following the news, first reported in the 10-16 Feb. Cayman Compass [‘Sports figures angry over cash for overseas sponsorships’], that the Cayman Islands government had contributed $500,000 to various sports teams in the United Kingdom, athletes in the community have taken to social media to voice their indignation.
Well-known local sports figures, like Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, and Craig Merren, former president of the Cayman Islands Cycling Association, shared their disappointment with the Compass last week. Joining the disapproving chorus were retired Caymanian athletes Ronald Forbes and Charles Whittaker.
Ronald Forbes
To this day, it is amazing, yet mind-boggling, the hassle and persuading a local must go through to obtain support like what is highlighted in this article, but yet when anyone else drafts some form of request letter for support, it is signed off with lightning speed and almost zero accountability.
That 500K could have been used to start that national aquatics center that has been talked about since I was in the 7th grade… I’m now 37 and 20 years out of high school. It’s only when you call it out that it will change… sort of.
What we must remember is that [in] a week’s time, they gamble on the fact that the issue will be forgotten, and we just move on. Keep speaking up on such issues. It would be helpful if these sporting-related issues are brought up and discussed in the local media outlets.
Charles Whittaker
These kinds of things will keep happening as long as Caymanians continue to remain wilfully ignorant, by continuing to fail to enlighten themselves on the importance of who they vote for.
Until we become a nation that wants justice for everyone, no matter who that person is… We will never be concerned about the things that happen that should not happen.
There will never be an outrage about this kind of disrespect toward our Caymanian athletes, until the day we become a nation where the majority is no longer concerned about me and mine alone… but stand for the common and greater good of the nation.
This is a damn shame. There is just no way that this should [have] happened.
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