THE EDITOR, Sir:
Last night I tried to watch a television replay broadcast of the football match between Jamaica and Honduras at the National Stadium the day before. At the start I felt proud to be a Jamaican as I watched our national leaders and Ambassador Courtney Walsh shaking hands with members of both teams against a backdrop of several thousands of persons bedecked in our national colours, and I told myself that the occasion was important enough to warrant the re-scheduling of the Prime Minister's budget speech which was to have been delivered that day.
However, at the end of this introductory phase of the event I was somewhat turned off and lost interest in the exercise. The Hondurans paraded their patriotism and their respect for their national anthem by their disciplined posture and while the anthem was being sung, Reggae Boyz did not sing. One of them was biting away on chewing gum, another had his eye fastened on the ground as if he was searching for something he lost and the posture of some of the others was somewhat indifferent.
I expect that, in their defence, there will be those who argue that a number of the Boyz are based overseas and therefore do not know the anthem, and my response to that is that if they felt Jamaican enough to represent their country they should know their national anthem. If the Hondurans could sing theirs away from home why couldn't our team sing theirs at home? I must also ask why didn't everybody in the stadium stand for the anthem?
Did some people think that we would have been seen as selfish since we also did not stand for the Honduran anthem?
I am open to guidance here.
Sir, our national anthem is very beautiful both lyrics and tune. To me it makes more sense than "God save the queen" which focuses on the person of the monarch rather than on the nation. In our colonial status when this song was foisted upon us as our anthem we sang it with zest and reverence. Let us do the same with what is really ours.
Don't diss it.
I am, etc.,
ALFRED J. FARQUHARSON
Pepper P.O.
St. Elizabeth
