Icons of excellence

The event and the presence of this distinguished duo were certainly a most timely reminder of the greatness that Caribbean people are capable of, even as this country goes through a period of great socio-economic challenge.

Sir Everton Weekes – one of the legendary “three W’s” of 1950s West Indies cricket with Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott – a sprightly and witty 92-year-old, can surely inspire our region’s cricketers to rise out of their current slump.

Sir Trevor noted that Sir Frank’s greatness went far beyond athletic prowess on the cricket pitch, noting his nurturing qualities and his advocacy of West Indianness. Most of all, however was Sir Frank’s absolute lack of any bitterness and harbouring of no grudges, such as at the inordinate length of time for the region to appoint its first ever black cricket captain, himself.

Sir Trevor said he also saw this similar trait of fathomless tolerance in former South Africa President Nelson Mandela upon release from 26 years in jail.

Sir Frank, Sir Everton, Sir Clyde, Sir Trevor and President Mandela are all icons to inspire us.

Even amid yesterday’s grim news of “100 dead” this year, each of us can be inspired to rise above this era’s challenges of fear, hardship and uncertainty, by crafting a vision that draws on the life-lessons of such icons. We’d be surprised to find any other population of one million people that have produced world-class icons of excellence in such variety and with such consistency.

To name but a few in each category, our better-known icons are in sport (Hasely Crawford, Keshorn Walcott, Brian Lara, Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy), beauty queens (Penny Commissiong, Giselle Laronde- West and Wendy Fitzwilliam), literature (VS Naipaul and Earl Lovelace), music (Machel Montano, Angela Hunte, Heather Headley, Billy Ocean, Haddaway) and Carnival arts (Peter Minshall, Rosalind Gabriel, Len Boogsie Sharpe), and dance (Dai Ailian, the Mother of Modern Chinese Dance). TT produces worldclass practitioners in fashion (Heather Jones, Peter Elias and Saville Row’s Andrew Ramproop), architecture (Colin Laird), steelband (Johan Chuckaree, Mia Gormandy and Liam Teague). The country’s downstream energy-sector was built by the likes of Prof Ken Julien. The late Hazel Ward-Redman, Holly Betaudier, Dr JD Elder and Joyce Wong Sang were facilitators of TT’s performance culture. In journalism, Anne Hilton, George John and Keith Smith (all deceased) helped us understand who we are. Abroad, we boast of the appointments of Los Angeles Times publisher, Davan Maharaj, and Howard University President, Dr Wayne Frederick, among others. The late former president Arthur NR Robinson, Karl Hudson-Phillips and Stokely Carmichael all contributed to human rights at a global level.

As individuals, families, communities, institutions and a society overall, we must each be inspired the stories of our national icons of excellence.

Can we too have the spirit of sacrifice, self-discipline, consistent focus and vision to likewise aspire to excellence in each of our chosen paths? Even at the humblest of levels, excellence can be strived for. The CEPEP worker can be the eyes and ears of his/her community to improve residents’ safety. The doubles vendor can create efficiencies to keep his/her prices affordable. The mischievous youngster can graduate from class clown to being tomorrow’s Learie Joseph or Kenneth Supersad. As we remember the greatness of the “three W’s” as our Caribbean heroes, we’d also encourage our youngsters to research the stories of the legion of icons of excellence who have strode the world stage from their humble beginnings in little Trinidad and Tobago.