What Exactly is Ownership?
Not so long ago In this very Caribbean, people owned slaves. That right was so deeply entrenched that it was fully supported by political, legal and economic systems. Until the right to that ownership was challenged.If someone asserts ownership over something, does that necessarily bestow moral rights then? Too often we fall into uncritical compliance in the face of such assertions. The notion of taking ownership over our destinies and the associated rights and responsibilities is far too alien to us for comfort.
The World Cup is upon us and many still complain about what they see as rigid International Cricket Council (ICC) rules that are sucking out the rich cultural flavour associated with cricket in the West Indies.
The whole arrangement between the ICC and any of its member nations for hosting a World Cup is based on contractual obligations. Such contracts need agreement on both sides. People seem to forget that the ICC is essentially the combined boards of its members, and a business organisation with a profit motive.
If the ICC chooses to be a hard negotiator, fine; but can it really be a non-negotiator? Ask the BCCI.
So when people say that it is the ICC's World Cup, shouldn't we ask what part of it belongs to the West Indies? What is in it for us?
The idea of dedicating the World Cup to Frank Worrell's memory was deemed out of order on account of it being the ICC's World Cup and heavens, what would happen when other nations want to do the same?
So what if they do? What would be wrong with a host nation having the right to determine a theme for the World Cup being played in its territory at tremendous cost to its people? What could be wrong with questioning the extent of the ownership of this World Cup? The ICC cannot be entirely impervious to the host nation's needs and desires. But the host nation is not going to get an inch until it asserts a claim to it. It is up to the host nation to jostle just as hard to secure its interests.
The issues emerging over the Worrell proposal range wider than seizing a fortuitous moment to invoke ancestral memory. It covers the question of ownership and how easily we surrender it, how unwilling we are to claim it, and how often we prefer to unshoulder its responsibilities.
Look around at what has been happening throughout the West Indies. Are we asserting our rights to the land space, to industry, to control of our economies, to our culture? Who owns these assets? Have we been too busy selling them off to outside interests to notice that we have left ourselves without protection from the gigantic multinationals who proliferate our markets and other spaces?
Perhaps it has been going on for so long that we have become acculturated once again to the idea of absentee owners who merrily traipse in to vacation and check that things are running smoothly on their behalf. We don't question anyone's claims to ownership rights once they are big and powerful.
We submit easily; we ask no probing questions, we seem content to bow and scrape and be grateful for tossed scraps – a disturbing image of times past.