How do we get to the next level, and stay there, at least before moving on up again?

Inevitably, the follow-up question after answering the first one is whether or not we are prepared to prioritise the pursuit of sporting success on the regional, and then international stage, ahead of other demands on our country's resources, as plentiful as they may appear at the moment.

Of course, wealth, at least the material variety, isn't everything, although it may appear to be that way. If that were the case, then the Arab Gulf states would be undisputed world champions in something other than the construction of record-breaking skyscrapers and fabulous man-made islands.

By the same token, Argentina would have no right being the dominant forces they are in so many sports in the Americas.

While the hosts were again left to ponder on what could have been (it should be a national pastime by now) after finishing seventh in the 11-nation event, the Argentines thrashed their fierce rivals and neighbours, Chile, 3-0, in Sunday's final of the Junior Men's Pan American Hockey Tournament to maintain their absolute stranglehold on the competition.

Maybe the disappointment of the senior squad failing to make it to the Beijing Olympics had something to do with it-they were stunned by Canada at last year's Pan American Games final in Rio de Janeiro which doubled up as the Olympic qualifying decider-for the young men in the famous pale blue and white stripes celebrated after the final whistle at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua as if it was a first for their country.

But they have now won the tournament nine times out of nine, and, as sportswriter Lasana Liburd wrote in yesterday's Express: "Their obsession with winning, matched with their technique and ball movement, should not be quickly forgotten by the host nation..."

Look at their rugby programme, which, again, is the best on a continent that stretches almost from Pole to Pole. At last year's World Cup in France, they had their best-ever performance in the 20-year history of the Cup, thrashing the dispirited hosts 34-10 in the third-place playoff at the Parc des Princes.

While it is manifestly unfair to compare our status and record with theirs, the fact remains that we don't have to look very far (although for some, just diverting even slightly from the northward obsession is unconscionable) to get an appreciation of a system that produces world-class results, especially after the present Trinidad and Tobago senior squad was so disappointing in being eliminated at the second round of 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying by Brazil earlier this month to a combined scoreline of 55-20.

Argentina's status as a global power in football, at all age-groups, obviously goes without saying, although they have consistently failed to live up to expectations since a horrendously defensive performance in the 1990 senior World Cup finals that took them all the way to the final, which more or less confirms that Italia '90 (which we should have been at) was the worst World Cup ever.

In basketball, the United States redeemed themselves by taking the gold medal in the men's competition in Beijing, but the latest rankings of the sport's international governing body, FIBA, place bronze medallists Argentina as the number one men's team ahead of the Yanks, and most fans of the sport would be aware that Manu Ginobili is the unmistakeable face of the Argentine game as a star player for the San Antonio Spurs of the American NBA.

Please be reminded that this is not an attempt to compare them (more than 40 million people) to us (1.3 million or thereabouts, seeing that reliable statistics are not really a big thing around here) dry so. That wouldn't make any sense.

But there must be something about Argentina and sport that we can borrow and adapt to our template for sporting excellence, assuming that we are really serious about achieving such standards in the first place.

Don't leave with the impression either that the South American nation is the equivalent of heaven on earth. Just six years ago they were in the midst of an economic crisis much worse than what so many of the so-called First World nations are bawling for murder about right now. It brought down the government of the day, an administration held accountable for the crisis by slavishly following the dictates of the International Monetary Fund to resolve its financial woes.

Not so long ago Argentina was a pariah state, ruled by the military for seven years (1976-1983) during which an estimated 30,000 people (9,000 actually confirmed) "disappeared".

The same unpopular junta chose to invade the British dependency of the Falkland Islands in 1982, triggering a war that ended in Argentina's defeat and the eventual demise of the humiliated army dictators.

These and other traumatic experiences over the years have shaped attitudes and deeply influenced the psyche of that nation, whose sporting representatives almost always seem to reflect a desire to prove the rest of the world wrong about the negatives-whether real or perceived-portrayed about them.

So, do we have it too easy to acquire the collective desire and desperation that drives Argentina forward in so many team sports? Maybe, but then again, consistent global sporting success is hardly justification for social upheaval.

Still, there must be more than a few positives we can take from them, unless we're content with the very occasional bursts of glory and a lifetime of ifs, buts and maybes.