Why Are Smart People so Stupid?

When rational thinkers are lead to believe that TTO can win 10 Olympic Gold Medals by 2024 you must examine why are Smart People so Stupid.

·They think that they can’t be conned

·They have vanities and shortcomings that blind them to the scheme that is really

  unfolding.

·They need to believe in something good about themselves

· They need to believe that they are doing something worthwhile.

·They have to realize that no one is immune from getting conned.

· They must be imaginable enough to know that the victim of a con artist is less

  about who one is than where one is at a  certain point in one’s life

· They fall prey to the human tendency to ingenuousness, the basic decency of

  others.

· Victims are unaware that cons flourish in times of uncertainty and upheaval,

  Especially when societies are in the midst of political, social and economic

  transformations.   

Here’s a simple arithmetic question: “A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”

“The vast majority of people respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs ten cents. This answer is both obvious and wrong. (The correct answer is five cents for the ball and a dollar and five cents for the bat.)”

For more than five decades, The TTOC and NAAA have been privilege to go on all-inclusive vacation plans. That is air, hotel, food, ground transportation. Spending money is extra. What they do is inconsequential .The State pays the bill. No questions asked. The IAAF/IOC regulation states that the State cannot interfere with the Sporting organization internal affairs. What the NSO’s do with this privilege is their business? No record of accountability required? What is damaging about this arrangement is that the recipients are assured of reelection to office. Delegates are in compromising positions to return incumbents to office. This means no change!

No plan. No Data, No research .No proof of having assisted their affiliates.

The TTOC /NAAA have been asked recurring questions to provide information about steps to develop athletics in TTO. Analyzing their answers, their presentation and body language make the effort extremely unhealthy while provocative and futile.

The litigations line of disclosure and evidence seem to be a disarmingly simple experiment which demonstrates how it has profoundly changed the way they think about separating thinking from action; facts from stupidity in the light of glaring data oriented research, while philosophers, economists, and social scientists had assumed for centuries that human beings are rational agents of change . The reason is our Promethean gift. The TTOC/NAAA agents of change have negated this concept.

Research has demonstrated that we’re not nearly as rational as we like to believe. TTO is at its all-time low of quality athletes in the tank. No gas in the fields.  Saying that we have talent is a myth. Saying that we have IAAF certified coaches is a fact. Saying that we have certified and competently qualified trained coaches is a myth. The issue of physical, social, health and technological sciences and their application must be in the conversation. Performance endeavor has to be on the front burner .What about the use of language, body and spoken. What have they done? Is there a resume? Where is the proof that demonstrates their ability to coach anything? What are their club initiatives?   Without the Cuban intervention we would have no claim to sale of local products. Can any local coach claim a product as a brand? Believe it or not, like the budget, this issue must be addressed. Priorities must be set “The oil Barrel leaking”.

The Americans are not recruiting our athletes anymore !The Pundits say we can produce home grown athletes .Well this is the time for our unqualified but IAAF certified  incompetent coaches to bring their “A Game” to confront  the challenge. Where are the athletes to work with? Trinidad & Tobago has the most and best sporting facilities in the Caribbean. These facilities are available but not accessible except by appointment.  The NAAA has no input! The TTOC does not follow this pipeline agenda! “What happens after RIO 2016?” The public has no choice but to wait and see. The TTOC/NAAA are up the creek without a paddle, a plan and also without replacement athletes!

TTO can no longer depend on the clubs when 15 out of 56 registered clubs take part in the national championships. It is a disaster after the 400 meters distance, they can’t fill the lanes.

When people face an uncertain situation, they don’t carefully evaluate the information or look up relevant statistics. Instead, their decisions depend on a long list of mental shortcuts, which often lead them to make foolish decisions. These shortcuts aren’t a faster way of doing the math; they’re a way of skipping the math altogether. Asked about the bat and the ball, we forget our arithmetic lessons and instead default to the answer that requires the least mental effort.

If you are a farmer and you want roast corn, boil corn or to sell your corn to the market on an annual basis, what do you do?

 

Dr. Cliff Bertrand

Olympian

RIO IS NOT OVER!

“People have the right to fail”??

This appears as repentance and an open cry for forgiveness .This is the confirmation of a bad dream in one of Paul’s book of revelation.

  TTOC President Mr. Brian Lewis with his cunning has been able to convince smart people into believing that 10/24 gold medals is within the landscape of reality. By the way(TTO got 4 “Goals” last night)

Like Jim Jones in the Guyana incident, he has assembled a cadre of dupes who believed!

His leadership capabilities undermine the job of the NAAA. The marathon mistake. Undermines the NAAA.

The Gymnastic mismanagement.  Poor judgement.

The selection of a Rio management team from the office of the TTOC. The pay off.

“The TTOC confirms TTO Chef de Mission to provide television analysis.” Divided loyalty

The deception of RIO’S team performance speech:  “They performed their best”. Not true!

Is this conceived   opinion the start of a dream deferred or the crash of a political intent? What next!

 NAAA president Ephraim Serrette “has a plan” a schematic “athlete development pathway “appendix v. (NAAA .website) a primary school student‘s pet project.

 The NAAA executive believes that supporting the athletes financially only will increase the medal pool. It did not.

 Giving the same team of official’s trips by manipulation of their title position has not produce medals. It facilitates his re-election process!

President Serrette is guaranteed another term of office. He has already laid the foundation to secure his re-election unopposed.

The RIO 2016 results calls for serious investigation.

Though directly affected, the NAAA remains silent on the Chef de Mission Incident.

Money does not equate medals.

 Tokyo 2020 will echo Rio, unless a miracle is performed.

 The Brief issues

The NAAA had a depressing year.

 The Carifta results were unimaginable. TTO dropped from second place to fifth on the medal count after Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, and Grenada.

Jamaica won 42 gold medals .TTO won 3 Gold.

Total medal count reveals that TTO won 14 out of 199 medals

 The TTOC President expects 10/24 Olympic Gold Medals.(Lack of leadership training )

The World under 20 Championships results was more catastrophic than the Carifta. Disaster.

 The NAAA cancelled the Grand Games meet of invited foreign elite athletes.

 The “Grand Games” was not an NAAA’s initiative. But that of Regina Johns. However, as it comes under their portfolio, circumstances surrounding  future approval of meets has to be re-examined.

 The NAAA needs replacement parts. They need help. They do not have the gonads to admit it.

The chief advisor and guardian of the NAAA President is inefficient.

 He should revisit the Tarouba undulations of St. Patrick to find the rooted lessons in Humility and service.

The NAAA President should stand independent of an advisor who cannot even articulate his own thoughts.” Give him a Carib and let him be!”

The Minister of Sports is fishing.The following steps if taken seriously should facilitate athletic development:

Towards Organized Constructive Development of Trinidad and Tobago’s Track and Field.

Planning must be S.M.A.R.T.. It’s all well to dream. It’s all well to wish. However, dreaming and wishing do not constitute planning.

If we are to seriously engage in an effort to promote and develop Track and Field, we must envisage and indulge in an overarching and all-encompassing approach. This involves solid, professionally crafted and implemented structures which, though seemingly separate, are integrated and seamlessly interlocked.

There is need for a management team comprising of sub – managers for specifically mandated modules.

These modules include Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Youth, Juniors and Seniors. This will involve some overlapping under certain circumstances.

There must be a Finance Committee to deal with all areas of finance:- planning, sourcing and disbursing.

There must be a Records Department which will be responsible for faithfully and comprehensively recording Track and Field competitions. This department will be responsible for producing dedicated booklets for each category of competition and maintaining an up to date website.

This will allow for continuous tracking of our athletes enabling identification of possibles and probables.

Placings and times in all sanctioned competitions must be readily available.

There must be fixed dates annually for Regional Competitions leading up to the National Championships catering for each category. This will entail efficiently functioning Regional Committees.

Competition venues must be identified and upgraded if necessary and thereafter properly maintained. Do the TTOC and the NAAA have any input in the planning of new stadia or recreation grounds?

S              The aim is to have in place a system of graded competitions as part of the national   calendar of events in Track and Field. This enables proper tracking of athletes.    

M            Progress could be easily assessed and performances compared and contrasted.

A          aim can be achieved as the necessary components are already present or can be sourced.

R             Expectations do not exceed capabilities. These are realistic and reasonable goals

T              A twelve month period should be allowed for setting up the administrative structure and identifying and preparing venues and attendant logistics.

There must be a Promotions Team mandated to sell this thrust to the stakeholders and population at large.

The longest journey starts with the first step.

Dr. Cliff Bertrand / Olympian

Trinidad & Tobago, the nation, is at the crossroads of its sporting capability

The problem : gathering information and defining the problem. What prevents you from reaching your goal? You may need to state the problem .Problems are not policies. It requires a mental process that involves discovering and analyzing a potential problem and then coming up with the best possible solution.

While the trade deficits and inflation are the principal problems that worry Trinidad& Tobago policy makers, actual policy is concerned with more specific questions.

Do you understand what is going on? (Consumers don’t care)

The budget deficit, the interest rates, the fluctuating dollar that has a bearing on these problems but need to be addressed in their own right.

A description of Trinidad& Tobago economic policies is inevitably messier than a description of its problems.

For example the behavior of NSO’S

Policy is rarely a coherent response to perceived problems.

More often it represents the outcome of meetings, negotiations and collaborations   between groups who not only have disparate interest but also desperate perceptions of reality. (10/24 Gold!)

Think about recent mismanagement occurrences affecting: the cycling federation, the TTFA, the Gymnastic Federation, the TTOC, the NAAA, the cricket association. The Sports Company.(They need to talk.)

Trinidad& Tobago are at the crossroads of its sporting capability to attract and maintain challenging elite athletes, a curse that was imposed upon them by their misunderstanding of the IAAF policies and their own constitution.(Seek help/don’t’ refuse it)

This is very problematic!  A national sports catastrophe is imminent; this situation was created by a few egotistically oriented parties in the quest for identity. The perceived reality is that no one has the impudence to question the veracity of leader’s response action to: what, why, how, when?

  Generally good “ intentionalist and low behinders” are common place in TTO. They are well-designed, crafters of persuasion and exploiters of people’s emotions and trust bias to their own agenda.

 The relationship between the “advocate” and the people is an unrecognized   con delicately designed dance of duplicity, ambition, desire, and greed. (Seize the moment!)  

As a people, we believe unquestioningly of each other’s motives. Because of this flaw in the basic human landscape we are rendered uniquely susceptible. The deception begins with our need to believe in a world of wonderland.

The incompetence of a few to self-promote leads sensibilities into an age of a diminishing sense of realistic expectations. (Ambition over leaps itself.)

Realizing this as being critical; realizing that there is no apparent plan to salvage this emptiness.

Survival strategies began to emerge -walks, runs, ego investments; political infusion manipulates the countryside and appeals to the emotional sensibilities of the people.

 The NSOs violate their constitution by enforcing their own rules and regulations without the infusion of morality and ethics.  

These are the facts believe it or not. You are in the confirmation bias sport zone.

In the animal kingdom you’re categorized as Homo sapiens with a perceived rational mind. Therefore, you are capable of evaluating data, after which you should make decisions based on the strength of the evidence presented. (Familiarize yourself with statistics)

 However, the issue is that you belong to culture which practices skepticism with an uncomfortable code of silence. That means you are not used to sharing information which makes you appear incapable of collaboration. (This concept makes you a fool.)

Again, although you preach  an open mind. The mere fact that you are human suggests that you do not function without an element of bias. (You must acknowledge this element in you)

You are constantly searching for information that supports your preconceived ideas. You then become skeptical of new information, unless it confirms your previously held beliefs. (Self-examine)

This bias makes it humanly impossible to be rational. The result is that you continue without a procedural plan or blue print.(No legacy)

 The relationship between such entities and the public is a delicate dance of duplicity, ambition, desire, and greed. (It’s not my money!)

We as a people believe in truth, and this basic human ingredient renders us uniquely susceptible to temptation. The sporting leaders who try to con theirs affiliates by media moguling must realize that when a “fool speaks he thinks that he is speaking only to damned fools” (Check body language).

The deception begins with us and our need to believe in a world that is similarly dispose and supports the idea that the grass is greener on the other side without question.(Try critical thinking).

This optimistic illusion applies not only to the fool and his belief itself, but the way we think once we believe in the credibility of the fool who is not Touchstone.

The questionable thought is that everything is possible in Wonderland. However, is this remotely possible for TTO?

When the relative role of certain NSOs are coercion, obligation, persuasion, and inducement. The answer to those poignant questions  in a real world situation is in “The Fifth Discipline.”

 

DR. CLIFF BERTRAND

OLYMPIAN