Jackass sey di worl' no level. Jackass sey bway a try kiss Asafa an' Asafa run it whey pan big teevee, but if a man sey dem guy deh fi go whey a yard some bway a come chat bout homophobic.

After that 9.90 seconds run in Italy on Friday, Asafa Powell's place of reverence in the hearts of Jamaicans is secure. It is not only, of course, that he tore the field apart (although we were very glad to see that, after his injury at the National Championships), but how he told a tough face man with moustache to kiss off afterward.

Okay, so he did not so much say it in words, but in action. Imagine, after the big run, Asafa stopping at 85 metres or so, just for the hell of it, and cruising through to be a clear winner, the man is walking back down the track for the accustomed adulation of the crowd. Here comes a white guy, hands up for a double high five. Nothing wrong with that.

Original dutty look

But then he starts to lean. And lean. And lean, like he is trying to cross the tape before another runner.

His face is getting dangerously close to Asafa's and the yardman's expression just changes. He leans back, gives the hands a push off, gives the man an original dutty look and moves on.

And Jamaica cheered. Loudly. (Apart from certain guy, but you know we don't count them.)

But the world is not level at all. Because Asafa told a bway to kiss off with his kissy kissy, because in Rome we do what Jamaicans do, not what the Romans do, but if in Jamaica we tell a guy to go whey wid him fishy ting, the cry is 'homophobic'.

(Now, Jackass does not know where this word 'homophobic' came from because a phobia is an irrational fear of something. For one, we don't fear the act; we just don't penetrate it, to use a distinctly Jamaican expression. For two (yeah, we do not have a 'twoophobia' either), we are perfectly rational about the matter. Two crusty faces meeting and one man standing up behind another (or on top or whatever) is repulsive. Yeah. Just like that. No fear, no irrational behaviour. No 'homo' either, come to think of it, because 'homo sapien' is quite fine.

'Sododespisic'

The correct term is not homophobia, but 'sododespisic'.)

Nobody has to guess or spell, based on Asafa's immediate, instinctive reaction, that he is not into those things. And Jackass remembers a member of the Reggae Boyz, back in 1998 at the World Cup in France, getting patted on the bottom by a member of the opposing team as he lay on the turf. He got up faster than if he was lying down on broken glass and the only thing left for him to do was put some studs in a bway face.

We simply do not play games like that.

So when a Jamaican man says be off with you to a gay guy, it is reflective of the same attitude displayed by these two sportsmen. So why is it that it is something oh so horrible in the streets, yet on the field and track of play a man can express his feelings by his actions and it is okay?

Jackass sey di worl' no level. Jackass sey, like Admiral Bailey sey, we don' waan no kiss. Gu whey!