Sporting success gives UK reason to take a modest bow

One charge which cannot fairly be laid against this column is that of British boosterism. Here, week by week, you will find much more that is critical of this country and its government, and sometimes its citizens, than anything suggesting all is well in Shakespeare’s “sceptered isle”.

But August gave Brits a rare opportunity to murmur modestly, “Well, that wasn’t too bad, was it?”

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Great Britain won 22 gold medals, coming fourth out of 205 nations, behind only the United States (39 golds), China (38) and Japan (27), but ahead of Russia (20). Good going when set against the populations and athletic resources of the big fellows. Britain’s 67 million people were up against 334 million Americans, 1.4 billion Chinese and 126 million Japanese.

It is hard to believe, and it was a long time ago, but this country once won only a single gold medal, and that by a horse, the show jumper Foxhunter, in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

This national humiliation made clear to all that sport needed help from the public purse, though it was not until 1993 that the National Lottery was established by John Major’s government as a source of funds. From 1997, after paying its weekly prize-winners, the Lottery regularly funnelled income to sporting needs, as well as to health causes and the arts.

The Paralympics

The sum delivered before Tokyo was a record £345 million, and the results suggest it was put to good use, not only by the regular athletes but by the disabled, too. The Paralympics, held after the main games in Tokyo, involve athletes with problems of physique, sight or intellect. They ended with Great Britain in second place, having won 41 golds, again behind China with 96, but ahead of the USA (37) and Russia (36).

Among the most heart-warming sights of the whole Olympics summer was the joy on the faces of men and women without limbs and people we once would have called dwarves laughing and crying with joy at overcoming obstacles which fit athletes could only guess at.

It is clear that lack of significant state support or the personal wealth of an athlete go far to dictating the final results table. Sad, then, that such a powerful running nation as Kenya won only 10 medals in the main Olympics — four gold, four silver and two bronze — and a lone bronze in the Paralympics.

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My complaint last week about the packaging of Compact Disks brought this query from Karongo Mbui: “Why, good sir, would you wish to buy music CDs when all the music you would want to listen to is available on YouTube?”

Karongo makes a totally valid argument, which points up old and new perspectives in the electronic age. I do occasionally go to YouTube to listen to a favourite piece before bed, but systematically to sit upright in front of my computer rather than relax in a cosy armchair would pose a serious challenge to these old bones.

Secondly, and I hope this does not sound greedy, I enjoy physically handling the CDs, putting them in their cabinet in order, checking the spines, admiring the artwork. We do the same with books, don’t we? A small pleasure.

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A sad duty this week is to report the passing of a colleague from the earliest days of this newspaper. Mike Parry finished his education at the Prince of Wales, now Nairobi School, on a weekend in December 1960 and three days later was sitting in the proof-reading room of the newly published Daily Nation.

In those days, the readers were all mzungus, the copy-holders African, the linotype operators Asian.

Within a year, Mike was called up for national service in the Kenya Regiment at Lanet. After six months, he was back at Nation House, a crowded and chaotic former bakery in Victoria Street, now Tom Mboya Street. Soon he graduated to the reporting staff and thus began a distinguished career in journalism.

Hot metal

In a recent memo, Mike recalled that “Like all journalists I had my share of scoops and misses ... we all wrote thousands of words at what I believe was the most exciting time in newspapers, the days of tight deadlines and hot metal.”

Eventually, Mike moved to Australia with his Kenyan wife, Valerie, and pursued his career on newspapers in Perth and Sydney. He died, aged 78, from cancer, on September 2, leaving Valerie and two children, Sean and Tanya. Rest in peace, Mike.

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God bless those with a sense of humour. Herewith a few more church noticeboards:

Come hear our pastor. He’s not very good, but he’s quick.

Now is a good time to visit. Our pastor is on vacation.

That there is a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers.

God did not create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come pretty close.

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