The one week of celebra-tions to salute the athletes, who did all Jamaica proud in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, is now over and while one could applaud the idea behind the gesture, what unfolded, especially here in the west, left a lot to be desired.

While I can't speak to what transpired in Kingston, I think the western leg, which covered the athletes' arrival at the Sangster International Airport, the civic ceremony in Sam Sharpe Square, and their departure to Falmouth was badly flawed, tacky at best, and clearly devoid of proper planning.

unceremoniously ushered away

I went to the Sangster Inter-national Airport on Tuesday morning with my camera, tape recorder and notebook, all ready to capture what I thought would have been a rousing welcome for the athletes.

To my surprise, there was no fanfare, the athletes unceremon-iously ushered away, leaving airport workers fuming that they did not get a chance to meet and greet them.

"Put it in The Gleaner dat dem dis we the airport workers and dem dis the athletes dem too!" shouted a disgruntled airport worker. "Not even a Jamaica flag nuh put up inna de airport. We have to a peep through fence fe see de athletes. Only deportees me se dem treat so."

violence plaguing Jamaica

The ceremony at Sam Sharpe Square was seriously lacking in vitality and had it not been for the contribution of athletes such as Melaine Walker, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Usain Bolt, who used the opportunity to call for an end to the violence plaguing Jamaica, the event would have been devoid of fond memories.

Whoever planned the event and allowed Councillor Maxine Bissasor to be both master of ceremony and the person read-ing all the citations did the city a disservice. Trying to juggle both functions was clearly too much for one person, hence a series of glaring blunders.

In a city blessed with such notable as publisher and radio commentator Lloyd B. Smith, television presenter Marlene Stephenson-Dalley and radio newscaster Barrington Flem-ming, we clearly had high-quality persons to have assisted with the citations, knowing that it was an event that was extensively covered live on radio and television.

As if falling down in the civic ceremony was not bad enough, the lack of organisation that led to a near riot when the athletes were about to leave was as embarrassing as it was con-fusing. Denied the opportunity to get close to the athletes by the barriers erected in Sam Sharpe Square, the crowd converged on the buses, detaining the athletes for almost two hours.

not condoning bad behaviour

While not condoning the bad behaviour of those who crowded the buses, I can understand their situation, as they were not among the chosen few hand-picked for the reception later that afternoon at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, that was their only opport-unity to get close to the athletes.

Had a proper motorcade been arranged from the airport through downtown Montego Bay, follo-wed by the civic ceremony in Sam Sharpe Square, I am sure it would have been a more satis-fying experience for residents of the city and would have negated the need to 'bomb-rush' the buses to get a good look at the athletes.

I believe the entire experience was not a good one for official-dom in Montego Bay. To avoid a recurrence in the future, I would suggest that a bipartisan com-mittee, featuring the best minds in the city, be created to plan civic functions since it is on occasions like these that we should be seen at our best.

N.B. Feel free to send your feedback to adrianfrater@hotmail.com