Family and Friends Remember Jizelle - Pt 5
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TriniView.com Reporters
Recorded: January 07, 2009
Posted: January 19, 2009
TRINIVIEW.COM: We are here with Curtis Joseph, adopted father of Jizelle Salandy, and Molly Boxill, former member of the TT Boxing Board. What can you both tell us about the life of Jizelle Salandy?
CURTIS JOSEPH: It was short and I feel she could have done better. I don't know but each one has to ask God for long life and strength and if she did ask it wasn't granted and I don't know for what reason, and we cannot question God.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What would you say are some of the significant contributions of Jizelle Salandy?
CURTIS JOSEPH: She has been able to inspire the youths based on what they see and I hope that the youths and adults alike can take it up from there and look through her career, what she was able to achieve, and deal with what she wasn't able to achieve and see if we can go beyond that; beyond Jizelle Salandy.
TRINIVIEW.COM: You knew her from a young child to a young woman. What can you tell me about her as a person?
CURTIS JOSEPH: One of the things was that she was very determined. Whether it was right or wrong, once she made up her mind she was very determined, but of course, you had to be more determined than her to get her to do the right thing. And if it's boxing and she makes up her mind, you have to kill her in the ring or she would just go at you and be determined to win. That determination was one special thing in her life. I don't know if that led to her insisting that she must get the keys for the car to drive on that fateful day. We need to take what we have heard, sift it well and try not to make the mistakes that she possibly made.
TRINIVIEW.COM: She had a short life but she achieved a lot. What can you say the nation can learn from her life?
CURTIS JOSEPH: It is what we consider a lot. Yes she achieved a lot in boxing but, in my view, any athlete who wants to really reach the top should really be a well-rounded athlete and that is a good education, be good at your sport and also recognize you cannot fool God.
MOLLY BOXILL: What I think I can say here is that from fourteen to nineteen years, those seven or eight years, people have left out those years in Jizelle's life and that fourteen to nineteen years, this gentleman Mr. Curtis Joseph had adopted Jizelle. Her name is Jizelle Joseph - adopted by this gentleman and his wife - and this is what was left out in all these interviews. That seven years that Jizelle spent with him, he could tell you about the seven years of her life with them. They are God-fearing people and Jizelle grew up with them with the fear of the Lord. She went to church on Friday and Sunday with her bible. Mr. Joseph you can take it from there.
CURTIS JOSEPH: To make it very short, I became Jizelle's neighbour since she was two years old and I have seen her grown up from a baby. And when her mother died she came to live by us and it was no problem because, at that point in time, she was thirteen going on fourteen so we decided to adopt her and make her a part of the family. In fact, she lived in that house next door. That is where she was born and grew up and everything went well. When she won the first title, she was living with us. In fact, we gave the trainer and the manager a letter of permission to take her out of the country to go to Curacao. She got one hundred US dollars for winning that first title and from there on I changed management and I decided I would manage her because they didn't want to sign a contract. We trained for two years, fifteen to seventeen. We could not have obtained a license to fight in Trinidad until she reached seventeen. She was disciplined and I like the old school of discipline. We were able to mix that with the education and a good church life; you maintain the balance in your sport and all that was in order.
I ran a free Maths class here for a hundred students and she was part of that Maths class back in 2005. She got a two in Maths. I had a gentleman come here for two years to teach her English and she was able to get three subjects. Once she left here, she turned nineteen and she was influenced by other people to leave because we were too tight on her and they felt that she should get more freedom. My position was books, bible and boxing. Three B's, books, bible, boxing; boys will come after. She left, and from that she went down hill generally, as a person. As she rise in boxing, she went down otherwise as a person. They took her but they did not bring her back and that's the fact of life. But you tell the nation that; you tell people to take a close look and everybody will say maybe sour grapes, but you have to understand why she was cut off at this tender age of twenty-one.
When we pray - you know, as I keep telling people - you ask God for long life, health and strength. You thank him for what he has done for you in the past. Why did God not grant her long life, health and strength when she was moving up and on? I am the church administrator and her adopted mother is the church secretary so you have to understand how her discipline had to be. I stand by it because we cannot tell people about living upright lives and our own children falling short. That additional pressure possibly forced her to make the decision when she was influenced. But my position was she was already nineteen and she should have understood certain basic principles in life. The lost years from thirteen to nineteen I am not hearing anything about it. Those handlers were only interested in money.
MOLLY BOXILL: Another lie they were saying was that Jizelle was a street child. Jizelle was never a street child. She was never on the streets. These people took care of her even before her mother died. I went with Jizelle to all West Indian islands where she fought. She was decently clad and everything from her adopted parents. People can't say that Jizelle was a street child; that is bad. She came from this home and from this home... she went to Buxo's home. She grew up in this home; from the grandmother's home to here. They (the Joseph's) adopted her. Mrs. Ragoonanan was the magistrate that sat in the case with Jizelle to get their name as Jizelle Joseph.
CURTIS JOSEPH: In fact, if you watch one of the shorts (pants) that she had on with the national colours you would have seen 'J.J.' and that 'J.J.' is Jizelle Joseph, and the boxing name was supposed to be J.J.
MOLLY BOXILL: I gave Jizelle her license as a professional boxer and her boxing name is J.J. Jizelle Joseph. Salandy is her grandmother's name. Her birth name is Joenette Toby.
Her life was a fast life. With the three years, one year went smoothly but the other two years were very fast in Jizelle's life. The thing is, she had nobody to tell her to come back. Everybody was going ahead because they want the almighty dollar. Everybody would just go ahead, "Jizelle go bring money for we!"
CURTIS JOSEPH: Boxing is just one part of her life; she reached that level but the other supporting areas were absent. And the thing about it is that if you are among people... the pastor today spoke about the snake and if you know it is a snake you have to know how to deal with a snake. That's a parable for those who know the situation. You know certain people before you went, in that they are cut throat and out for the mighty dollar. They are still walking on the promise that they will get a little more. And they carry you and destroy you because all of a sudden you lose respect. She lost respect for Buxo and used to cuss Buxo at will and he had to accept that because she could always walk out on him and he would lose dollars. The fact that you are driving down to a beach and she could tell you, "Ah feeling sick" or whatever [when she speeds]. You have to submit to that because of the fact that if you fail to submit she could just walk away from you. Do you know how many people, with her death, fall through the crack? All those money hounds, they fall through the crack. You are seeing all the negatives because they did not have Jizelle's holistic development at heart. From the time she left here she finished with the studying. If she had gotten in the accident and let's say she did not die and she survived, what was going to be her portion? Buxo is broken more than anybody else; it's a fact.
She left here on a promise that the government will shower money on them and it appeared that way from the first year the way the government started to contribute. All through the time, the Minister of Education promised assistance. Not one cent; not even to buy a lead pencil. But these things don't worry me. I am teaching seven years now and I used to work Petrotrin. I don't charge a cent for tuition fee. I have forty something students who wrote CXC Maths exams yesterday and every exam is with distinctions. I tell them when they pass, give the church a donation whether its five dollars, ten dollars or one hundred dollars that's up to you. Make your own decision but say thanks to the Almighty for having me around to impart that knowledge unto you. I feel if Jizelle had not taken the decision to go out, she would have been alive today because I know and I believe my God, if you call upon him. If you know the truth and you depart from the truth and you start to study the glamour and the fame; you see, you have to be able to handle the publicity and the earthly fame that comes with it.
MOLLY BOXILL: What I have to tell the youths of Trinidad and Tobago is to get themselves involved in sports. Sport is discipline; especially boxing. Even if they don't like boxing, they should get into it because when you get into it you will like it and you would see the difference in your life as a young person. I would ask the young people of Trinidad and Tobago, instead of going out there partying and gang business, get into sports like basketball, cricket, football or boxing.
CURTIS JOSEPH: I want to make it quite clear that Jizelle started boxing in Mr. Felix 'Wamba' Jones's gym and then she was encouraged to move from the gym by Kim Quashie and Fitzroy Richards. They took her, opened a next gym and she went there. When I took over as manager and I fired Kim and Richards, I went back to Mr. Jones and she stayed there, won the IBERO, then returned to Chaguanas under Felix Jones. He and a guy named Joseph Charles played an instrumental role in Jizelle's development and style of boxing. But I just want to close this off by saying that this is a real life situation where you see the promise land. The promise of making a set of money, the promise of being so famous, fighting on HBO television and all these nice things that Buxo was saying; you see all those promises but you did not enter. Why?
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
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