Hartley Neita

Jamaica's pre-Christmas gift in 1946 was the performance of our track-and-field team at the Caribbean and Central American Games held in Barranquilla, Colombia, in 1946.

The team returned by ship and landed at Victoria Pier at the foot of King Street. Members of the team were dressed in white, from Panama straw hats to white calf-skin shoes.

There was a massive crowd at the pier, and thousands lined the sidewalks from there to the Ward Theatre where there was a civic reception.

It was spectacular. The noise of the welcome was spirited. The crowd was orderly. No member of the team got scratched by fingernails.

Records and medals

Arthur Wint won gold medals in the 800 metres, the 400 metres and the 4x100m with Herb McKenley, George Rhoden and Clinton Woodstock.

Carmen Phipps won a gold medal in the high jump. It was a record. Vinton Beckett who came second also broke the previous record. Cynthia Thompson also won a gold medal and set a new record in the 100 metres.

The second time our sportsmen were honoured was in 1950, when the executive council decided to designate a public holiday to honour the West Indies cricket team's success in its tour of England when for the first time, it defeated England at Lord's, the headquarters of international cricket.

Public celebration

The date was not designated until after the three Jamaican members of the team, Allan Rae, Alfred Valentine and Hines Johnson, returned.

A public holiday was also declared when we qualified for the finals of the World Cup.

We began to officially celebrate our victories at the Beijing Olympics when Usain Bolt returned home this week.

The tarmac at the airport, which is a high-security zone, was packed with everybody who knew some-body. What should have been an orderly welcome and motorcade bordered on chaos. Prime Minister Golding seemed pleased with the response.

"What it does say to you," he told Bolt, "is that you have captured the heart of the Jamaican people. You have captured their love and attention. The last time I saw people come out like that along that route was when Nelson Mandela was here."

That occasion should best be forgotten. It was almost similar to the chaos on the arrival of Haile Selassie in the 1960s.

I am sure many readers saw on television the welcome given to the Trinidadian medal winners when they arrived at the Piarco Airport this week. It was enthusiastic and exuberant. But orderly.

I also found on the Internet the welcome given to the Panamanian medallist when he returned home last week. Like Trinidad's, there was nuff respect for the occasion.

Now, please do not tell me that I do not understand the Jamaican culture. I am going to hear:

"That's how we are."

"That's how we show love!"

I hope our girls will be better protected when they arrive.

High standards?

Finally, I do not know who was responsible for the presentation to Bolt of a painting of himself at the welcome held at The Jamaica Pegasus.

Usain Bolt is a gold-medal winner, not once, but thrice. To present him with a painting based on a photograph by an artist whose only claim to fame was that he was a bronze medal winner in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Festival competition in 2007, and who could only receive a certificate of participation this year, is an insult to our artistic community.

I thought we had high standards. Are we going to present paintings of themselves to our female athletes?

I will not use Rex Nettleford's favourite phrase to describe this present.