Steve McCabe: from island to island

Dominica boxer Lennon Bannis was denied a chance to qualify for the Bejing Olympics at the recent qualifications in Trinidad when his opponent delivered a low blow that was missed by the referee, who then stopped the fight and awarded the bout to the opponent. What was also sad was that the chance for an appeal was missed for lack of funds... why it costs to lodge an appeal I don't know!

"Now I know what it's like to be a travelling England fan". For a long time we had hope - the first half ended 0-0 and though chances were few, we knew a goal was possible. But then it all went pear-shaped in the 59th minute: a straight red card for our captain (at least one of their players was sent off for a second yellow at the same time). Without him - arguably our next best player after the awesome goalie - we were prone to the increasingly confident Bajan attacks... Then in the 75th minute their number 14, Standford, who came on a as sub in the 62nd minute, got the goal that put us out, and set Barbados up with a June meeting with Team USA. But well done our boys! And the highlight of the game - the announcement over the PA asking for a Richard X, whose girlfriend had just gone into labour at the main gate... What's the betting the baby will be called Stanford?

More footballing news, and another astute 'signing' of a UK-based player into the Dominica team ahead of The Big Game: Ross Jeremy, from Massacre, who said "It was 30 degrees every day and the ball bounced twice as high as I'm used to," he said. "I expect it will be pretty warm in Barbados as well." Full article...

10 days till the big game - the second leg of the 2010 World Cup football qualifying game v. Barbados on the 26th. I had a chance to speak with the manager, Erickson Christopher, recently, who was upbeat about our chances. He and the team fly out on the 22nd, and are joined by the English players a couple of days later. Remember in UK-based Richard Pacquette we have a guy who's scored against mighty European Champions Liverpool, and given his impressive goal against Barbados in the first leg, must be the biggest threat. Heartening new is that in recent friendly games Barbados have struggled to score. The prize of course is the USA in the next game. What a way to showcase out new stadium!

A recent article talked about Dominica's 'grinding poverty'. Like another from someone else who'd done cursory research on the web (but never been anywhere near here), it emphasied how poor we are. Before I go on, let's quickly look at the UN's Human Poverty Index . Dominica ranks 71st, the top of the Medium Human Development group of nations, above many of our Caribbean nations (inc. St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent). And even above our new partners, China and Venezuela! And above another 84 countries in the same group. Below that are the Low Human Development group of another 20-odd nations. But along with the other indices that rate us highly in quality of life ( 4th happiest in the world , no less!), they are ignored in favour of a sweeping generalisation. Certainly, if the author of the article were to visit, for every ramshackle home they'd pass, they'd also be passed by a SUV. Yes there's poverty, but it's not 'grinding'. The author...

Dreadhawk [ dred -hawk] [ ] noun - a hairstyle consisting of dreadlocks shaped into a mohawk. Taken from http://www.fauxlogism.com/, Fauxlogism is "an ongoing project to document false words. It appears to be heading mostly in the direction of portmanteaus , but all fraudulent or phony words are acceptable. Why is any given new word a fauxlogism and not a neologism, you might ask? There’s no good answer to that question so let’s just shuffle our feet a little, tug at our collars, and move on...."