Run up for Jah

Olympic Rant #14 Celebrate Jamaican Independence

OLYMPIC athletes  Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Usain Bolt and  Yohan Blake provided a thrilling prelude to  today’s Jamaican Independence Day with a combined four medals in the marquee 100m sprints.

Fraser-Pryce and Bolt  completed back-to-back golds, an uncommon feat in the 100m dash. Campbell-Brown took the bronze and Blake the silver behind their illustrious team-mates.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: Four names in one: 

no wonder she is so quick

A couple of anomalies turn up when we look at the fastest woman alive compared to the men.

Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive and the world record holder.

Carmelita Jeter of the United States is the fastest woman alive (10.64s) but the deceased Florence Griffith-Joyner of the U.S. holds the world record.(10.49)

Shelly-Ann Fraser is the fourth faster woman alive and not the holder of the Olympic record either, That also goes to the deceased Flo-Jo  (10.62)

Sprinters - Women’s 100 Metres (World Record: 10.49 by Griffith-Joyner at the ’88 Olympic Trials)

1. Florence Griffith-Joyner (United States) – Fastest Time: 10.49 seconds
The 100m Olympic record (10.62) was set by Flo Jo at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.

2. Carmelita Jeter (United States) – Fastest Time: 10.64 seconds
Jeter ran a 10.67 at the 2009 World Athletics Final and a 10.64 at the 2009 Shanghai Golden Grand Prix.

3. Marion Jones (United States) – Fastest Time: 10.65 seconds
Jones won the 100 metre at the 1998 IAAF World Cup in South Africa with a time of 10.65.

4. Shelly-Ann Fraser (Jamaica) – Fastest Time: 10.73 seconds
Fraser, along with her Jamaican teammates, dominated the women’s 100m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

5. Christine Arron (France) – Fastest Time: 10.73 seconds
Arron placed third in the 100m and 200m sprints at the 2005 World Championships in Paris.

6. Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) – Fastest Time: 10.74 seconds
Ottey has won more World Championships medals (14) than any other female sprinter in history.

7. Kerron Stewart (Jamaica) – Fastest Time: 10.75 seconds
Stewart won the silver medal in the women’s 100m at the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2009 Worlds.

8. Evelyn Ashford (United States) – Fastest Time: 10.76 seconds
A U.S. Track Hall of Fame athlete, Ashford set a later broken Olympic record at the 1984 Olympics.

9. Irina Privalova (Russia) – Fastest Time: 10.77 seconds
Privalova is a World Champion in numerous indoor events, and holds the indoor records for the 50m and 60m sprints.

10. Ivet Lalova (Bulgaria) – Fastest Time: 10.77 seconds
Lalova’s best 100 metre time was set in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 2004 when she ran a 10.77.

INDEPENDENCE from Great Britain came to Jamaica in 1962, not long before the rise of the trio Bob Marley and the Wailers, with various backing musicians.

Teenager Millie Small paved the way for the success of the Wailers with her surprise 1964 international hit with a cover of My Boy Lollipop.

In the mid-1990s I wrote my plat Tosh, a dramatisation of the history of the Wailers: Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer.

The play is still to be performed.

With the success of self-publishing over the past decade has put the destiny of novels in the hands of authors. But getting a play up is still in the hands of Jah.

If you drop me an email at bentbananabooks@gmail.com, I will send you a copy of Tosh as soon as I retrieve the disk from Strathpine Library. Don’t ask; it is safe.

In the meantime, let’s hear another song from the play which these days would be called a jukebox musical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqE3M_vK4I

Spoiler alert! What song do you think finishes Tosh?

Bernie Dowling, Jamaican Independence Day, 2012

Bolted in

Olympic Rant #13 It is 9.63 of dousing the doubters

HE was never going to break his own world record but Usain Bolt put his doubters, including me, to the sword with  a blistering Olympic-record time of 9.63s.Yohan Blake is second in 9.75 secs, Justin Gatlin third in 9.79 and Tyson Gay fourth in 9.80 sec

Gatlin has a fast start ... but Bolt rounds him him up up and Blake chases home the champ.Yohan Blake is second in 9.75 secs, Justin Gatlin third in 9.79 and Tyson Gay fourth in 9.80 sec. Seven of the eight finalists break 10 seconds - only Asafa Powell, who pulled up and finished in 11.99 sec - was outside it.

Bolts in with the name game

Olympic Rant #12 Fast men are gone in well under 10

THE power of words is more than a casual contribution to the living mythology that is Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. He might not go Gaga on Twitter but he is the biggest name in Ol’ London Town as he defends his 100m Olympic title.

Usain Bolt sets the fastest 100m time ever 

in Berlin on  August 16 , 2009

Bolt is no good thing to win. It is three years since he set the extant world record of 9.58s. The field includes the second, third, fourth and seventh fastest men alive – Tyson Gay, U.S. 9.69s; Asafa Powell, Jamaica, 9.72s; Yohan Blake, Jamaica, 9.75s and Justin Gatlin, U.S, 9.80s.

Gatlin is a remarkable athlete who recovered from a four-year doping ban (2006-10) – innocent he says – to run his 9.80s on June 24 this year. Jamaican Blake also set his best time in June, while Gay ran his in 2009 and Powell set his PB in 2008.

Rank	Fastest time (s)	Wind (m/s)	Athlete	Country	Date	Location
1	9.58	+0.9	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	16 August 2009	Berlin
2	9.69	+2.0It is three years since he	Tyson Gay	United States	20 September 2009	Shanghai
3	9.72	+0.2	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	2 September 2008	Lausanne
4	9.75	+1.1	Yohan Blake	Jamaica	29 June 2012	Kingston
5	9.78	+0.9	Nesta Carter	Jamaica	29 August 2010	Rieti
6	9.79	+0.1	Maurice Greene	United States	16 June 1999	Athens
7	9.80	+1.3	Steve Mullings	Jamaica	4 June 2011	Eugene
	9.80	+1.8	Justin Gatlin	United States	24 June 2012	Eugene
9	9.84	+0.7	Donovan Bailey	Canada	27 July 1996	Atlanta
		+0.2	Bruny Surin	Canada	22 August 1999	Seville

Asafa Powell is a mellifluous name befitting the world’s fastest man from 2005-2008.

Asafa Powell: 3rd fastest time and 2nd best name

Then along came Usain St Leo Bolt. On May 31, 2008, fellow Jamaican Usain Boly  ran a time of 9.72s at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City. Bolt not only had a better time but also a better name.

Usain Bolt sounds like it burst from the pages of a private-detective thriller, but it is his real moniker. I believe the name has added zest to his performance in the track. Coupled with his playful warm-up antics, the name Usain Bolt, the Thor of our times, is revered around the world.

The concept of the fastest man alive helps, as well. It is something of a misnomer in that Bolt would have to be faster than all the dead man, too.

I achieved my only gold medal at the final Goodwill Games in Brisbane in 2001. It was through the then Fastest Man Alive, Maurice Greene. Injury prevented star attraction Greene from competing but he was an ambassador.

He gave a media conference and I asked a question which led to my gold medal. I maintain to this day it was a good question. Before me was the fastest man alive, a man with an English surname and a French first name.

I knew Kansas had French settlers before and after the United States acquired most of the territory through the Louisiana Purchase. One Frenchman Ernest Valeton de Boissière was a fascinating homme who came to the U. S. in 1852.

Although he was a former French army engineer, he was of an idealistic bent and, in 1870, set up what he hoped would be a utopian commune in Kansas. He called it Silkville, planted mulberry trees and produced high quality silk. The enterprise hummed along sweetly and Silkville soon had a school, winery, silk factory and a three-story 60-room housing complex.

Cheap overseas silk imports and community members re-joining the rat-race took its toll financially Sticking resolutely to his dream, de Boissiere and his communards diversified into dairy cattle and livestock , but with little success. In 1892, de Boissiere, gave the property to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he sailed back to France, where he died in 1894.

Some might say he wasted the last had 25 years of his life but the utopian commune survived for 22 years. By most comparisons with  similar ventures, the Frenchman did well.

In 1972,  the extant  buildings of the ghost town of Silkville  were added to the National Register of Historic Places. If you are in the area of Williamsburg Township, Franklin County, Kansas, you can  pay Silkville  a visit.

Why Maurice  Greene was given a French name might not be as fascinating as the saga of Silkville. But we would never know unless someone asked. So, at an international media conference, I asked the  fastest man alive how he got the name Maurice. ‘My mother gave me that name,’ Maurice Greene replied. It was not the answer I was looking for, though it seemed to please my media colleagues who laughed heartily.

Six months later, an anniversary of the Games was held in the swank Brisbane Polo Club, a place no one had thought to invite me to, before.

I was presented with a gold medal. I do not remember what the event I won was officially called but it was little doubt it was meant to be for the dumbest question of the final Goodwill Games anywhere in the world. I still maintain it was a good question and a lot better than Greene’s answer which sank my credibility.

After all my years in journalism I have only two small pieces of advice for novices: it is not a popularity contest and never be afraid to ask what you think could be a dumb question; you might win a gold medal from it.

So who will win the gold in the 100m.? Like most of the world, I would like to see Usain Bolt win. But I think the gold will go to Yohan Blake. As soon as I post this rant, I will contact my internet bookie to have a modest wager on Blake.

Yohan Blakei looks for gold 

If I am wrong, that’s alright. You have to back your judgement in life, or wait for others to tell you what you think.

Bernie Dowling, August 5, 2012 

Games people play

Olympic Rant #11 Games reputation on the chopping block

WHEN I heard the IOC had booted out a referee and the coppers had lumbered an Olympic tweeter, I thought it best to turn my attention to an alternative spectacular, the annual Pine Rivers Show.

No axes in the back at the Pine Rivers Show

In the noble sport of bashing, referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov of Turkmenistan was punted from the London games after he failed to stop a match despite a fighter from Azerbaijan being knocked to the canvas six times.

Amazingly, judges awarded the fight to the Azerbaijani Magomed Abdulhamidov, but that decision was soon reversed amid allegations of a $2 million bribe by Azerbaijan. Wow, who would have thought bribery and match fixing would have crept into the pristine sport of bashing?

Outside the bashing ring, police arrested a 17-year-old for tweeting “negative messages” with reference to Olympic diver Tom Daley’s dead father. Wow, who would have thought an offensive message would be posted on Twitter? Police throughout the world are now investigating 45, 762, 811 people over possible similar offences.

Some journos have taken to referring to these London Olympics as the Twitter Games. In my day job, I tweet a bit about the Olympics among posts on more pressing local matters. (I work for what used to be called a suburban newspaper but we have rebadged ourself as a community newspaper.) In these rants, I have quoted a couple of people's tweets. I am far from an astronaut in the tweet universe but I am not a black hole, either.

On our papers Facebook pages, I posted the discussion point of whether the gun Chinese swimmer was Ye Shiwen or Shiwen Ye. The topic was bubbling nicely when my posts and its attached comments disappeared. Our IT guru assured me the posts were there on the Faceboook page but nobody could see them. This seemed like a great metaphysical conundrum along the lines of “if a tree falls in the forest…" But it curtailed one of my more promising social-media adventures.

One positive thing I will say about my Twitter universe is all the stars in it are rarely negative or insulting. I will just check my Twitter account to see how many stars there are.  I have 22 followers and I follow 30 people. I try to keep parity between followers and followees, but it seems I have slipped up a bit lately.

I read everything I can lay my screen on about social-media strategy. Bent Banana Books is a professional publisher, after all. We need to go into the marketplace and kick arse, ass in America, though I do not get the metaphor of booting a donkey, in the bum, or anyone else, for that matter. I vow to follow hundreds of people hoping some will reciprocate.  But I find it a bit contrived. Then I start getting picky about whom to follow. Those I choose do not follow me back. It’s a mess. One woman – not one of my stars – tweeted anyone with fewer than 100 followers –she actually tweeted less than 100 but I have cleaned her grammar for her – was a cyber stalker. For some reason, her tweet made me feel better.

I believe I should have 2000 followers because what I tweet is really really relevant. Others seem to disagree. They could be right.

After reading depressing reports from the London Olympics, I decided to go to the Pine Rivers Show.

Pine Rivers is a district north of Brisbane. This is its 108th show and the showground is just across the road from where I live.

Pine Rivers has a population of about 130, 000. More than 30,000 people attend the show each year. Per capita, the Pine Rivers Show is far more popular than the London Olympics. No-one watches the show on TV, but.

I tweeted and Facebooked some of my observations to our newspaper accounts. It is my day off, but what the heck, what are a few lousy tweets between friends. I will share some of the tweets and posts, but only the ones which set the scene or demonstrate how wily I am in linking the Pine Rivers Show to the London Olympics.

'1. #pineriversshow This is shaping as the best Pine Rivers Show ever. If you like leisurely strolls head down in the next few hours before the burst of the late afternoon crowds.

#pineriversshow Check out 3-month-old alpaca named Short Circuit and 10-month-old miniature long-hair goat Twiggy. They are in the farmyard.

Ugandan drummer Joseph Matovu is conducting free drumming workshops. The kids from Pine Rivers Special School (for disabled students) really pounded out the beat for Old McDonald Had a Farm. "They are fantastic," Joseph said of the kids. Joseph is fantastic, too.

The variety of food is amazing. You have the old standards of Dagwood Dogs, burgers and chips, as well as the scouts' sausage sizzle and the Rotary sangers. But there are also wood-fired pizzas, American-style burgers, Teppanyati noodles, Turkish gozleme which is beef cheese and spinach on pita bread and yakitori, Japanese chicken skewers. From the Taste of Greece stall I bought the spanakopita (spinach and feta pie) Yum-eee! The vendor said I pronounced spanakopita so well, he gave me an extra pie free.

#pineriversshow I don't know what school it was but props for the kids who waited patiently in a 50-metre line to get into the show. They spent the waiting time pointing out to one another all the wonders inside.

                                                      '

Pine Rivers was only settled by the White invaders in the mid-1880s and the district only began to become (sub)urbanised 30 or so years ago.  (In 1966 the population was fewer than 14,000). It has nowhere near the rich cultural history of the London and the local council refuses to heritage-list significant sites and buildings in Pine Rivers district. Yet Pine Rivers can host a friendly show of competitions – cooking, horticulture, beef cattle, poultry, arts & crafts, photography, wood-chopping, needlework, school work, colouring-in, show jumping, a rodeo and some I cannot recall – as well as exhibitions and entertainments, many with an international flavour.

I loved it when the Greek man gave me an extra pie for showing the respect to try to pronounce one of his national dishes as best I could.

On that positive message, let’s play the Australian National Anthem for London 2012.

Bernie Dowling, August 3, 2012

Badminton should be good mittens one of my favourite things

Illympic Rant #10 Do those Commie bastards!!!

IN an earlier rant I portrayed the efficiently murderous missiles being developed by a  Russian-Indian partnership as shuttlecocks for the impending Illympic sport of water badminton. Little did I know that badminton would become the focus of a Sino-West showdown at the London Games.

Life follows art in the world of badmimton

These shockin’ awful Illympic Games have become a political nightmare with China accused of progressing from drug cheats to all-round cheats.

It is as if the final medal count between China and the U.S. will be reflective of whether the American or Sino economy rules the world.

Great American author/ essayist/ polemicist/ all-round wordsmith Gore Vidal invariably showed impeccable timing throughout his lifetime. Vidal did not help matters by dying during what will become known as the Chinese Badminton Crisis, named after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Vidal scandalised the U.S by suggesting China would become the new Superpower, sending care packages to Washington, New York and San Francisco. He had the temerity to die in the midst of the crisis, reminding everyone of his prediction.

China was one of the four Asian teams disqualified from the badminton competition. Their transgressions were gloriously oxymoronic: they were losing games in order to win medals. Cheating it was, according to OIC officials.

Now, in most sporting contests, losing to win is a futile exercise. After preliminary contests, the best performing sides are seeded against the worst performing sides. Apparently this is not the case with Illympic badminton and one Chinese side had to throw a game in order to be in the medal fight with another Chinese side.

A casual observer such as me might think the structure of the sport is wrong.

Not so according to the esteemed English popular newspaper the Daily Mail. It’s simply the Chinese are cheats and they have been at it for a long time.

“ Chinese players had been scheduled to meet 99 times in 2011: on 20 occasions the game was either not played, or not completed. When China played China, 19.8 per cent of games did not reach a conclusion."

In case you do no get it, 20 out of 99 = 19.8 per cent

Now I suspect, for many badminton competitions, this is the way to work your way through a flawed system when you want to win,

Apparently, the Daily Mail thought it was nefarious, which is obviously evil, being a multisyllabic word you reluctantly have to put in your paper.

“China were expected to win every gold medal at the London Olympic Games and all reasonable evidence suggested that the athletes and coaches at the pinnacle of the sport were behaving in a nefarious manner. Instead, a blind eye was turned. Today, the reputation of badminton is in tatters."

I believe that should have read “China was expected to win” but the image of invading red hordes was better conveyed by “were”.

Other reports likened the Chinese selection and training processes to human rights abuse. The best of them have the Buddhist/ Daoist/ Communist medal winners being downright unchristian.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/london-games/a-case-for-sympathy-not-condemnation/story-fne39r9e-1226440451125

Welcome to the Brave new world of Illympic Games.

Bernie Dowling August 2, 2012.