Contrast & Compare... (nah man Cro Cro, wrong way brother)

Listening to the words of Cro Cro's offering for the Calypso Monarch 2011 Compare and Contrast, all I can say is that we as a nation must have evolved past this level of racist hate and prejudice by now, hasn't anyone told Cro Cro?

Here is an excerpt from the song in question:

"Shame on Hazel Brown, look how all yuh have black woman head dragging on the ground. If Rosa Parks was alive hear what she'd a do, put you in de back of de bus and spit on you. So...on you Brown I frown, give African back they head tie and gown. I'm so disappointed in you woman, another lick bottom African"

Really Cro Cro? 

So political choice MUST be made based on skin color and no other criteria?

And what of all of this disrespect for a woman who is a long serving activist for oppressed people in this country, is this the standard of your contribution and the level you are stooping to?

Here's more:

"Take example from Indian people, they still have Basdeo Panday on a pinnacle; so Clevon Raphael, Andy johnson and Sprangalang, all ah dem is lick bottom African. All yuh sell we out, look how all yuh have people suffering all about,I waiting for all ah all yuh for emancipation - hypocrite, weak, lying, lick bottom African."

Cro Cro you ought to be as ashamed of yourself for reducing the art form to this.

Regardless of your views on anything, you must know that you cannot sow the wind and not reap the whirlwind; what happens if your East Indain brothers decide to reply in kind or worse?

And what of Dr. Rowley and the PNM, do they support this filth disguised as calypso?

"How come i ent hearing from anybody, how come they don't protest like nineteen seventy, where is Khafa Kambon and Moroko Omay, the so called conscious men ent have nothing to say..."

What exactly is Cro Cro calling for here?

I am not an Attorney, but these lyrics border on the seditious; as a public figure Mr. Weston Rawlins ought to know better and should be made to account for these statements. Like many of my Trinbagonian brothers and sisters I love calypso with a passion, ESPECIALLY social commentary, but to quote my 'judicious pardner' - "dat ent it."

This country MUST observe the contract we sing with and to each other when we sing our National Anthem about every creed and race finding an equal place here, and I call on ALL Political Party and other civic leaders to distance themselves from this obscenity and thinly disguised attack on the country as a whole.

I would like to suggest that if Mr. Rawlins does not like living in a plural, multi-ethnic  society he ought to leave. 

I would also like to suggest that the National Carnival Commission should not in all good conscience promote this filth to the world as our culture unless it is preceded and followed by a disclaimer that this is the ranting of one immature person whom we tolerate and allow because we try to respect our freedom of speech.

That said, we should also understand that freedom of speech does not give anyone the right to yell fire in a crowded theatre for fun, nor does it give anyone the right to use national events to peddle race hate drivel to the population under the guise of singing calypso.

The plight of the Afro-Trinidadian goes far beyond the recent loss of political power and no racially charged calypso is going to begin to address any of those issues. Cro Cro sounds like a spoilt child throwing a tantrum in this song and I daresay he speaks for no one.

It is clear that we will need guidelines at some point if artists cannot be trusted to regulate themselves, and maybe TUCO itself should supply these as no external agency wants to sound as if it is promoting censorship of any kind.

This is a scandal against all of the people of Trinidad & Tobago, and I sincerely believe that were he to win with this racist tripe it would hasten the demise of the art-form and consign calypso to a fringe act where racists and madmen gather to rant.

Something to think about...

My Contribution to Calypso... (Joo-bai)

Some people ask me if I writing Calypso

How is my lyrics they hearing in the fiesta show

And how all of a sudden everybody saying

all the things that they know i used to be writing

I tell them no sah, eh eh, it wasn't me

And i need to say this to everyone categorically

and if all yuh think it so easy to write a song

then next year i coming hard and i  taking the crown

I go sing how Kamla wasting everybody time

and Warner accuse Sharma of tiefing she wine

And Ramlogan couldn't find a piano with a map

How he so duncy they should make him wear a cap

How Cornelis like she really mad for true

And Justice Herbert Volney have a screw loose too

And Ramma De Jamma only like to pose

This will be my contribution to calypso...

I would sing how they fool we with the exchange

and how de whole blasted bunch sounding deranged

how de country cyah take four more years

because in ten short months dey done have we in tears

How Ish and Ferguson still ent gone nowhere

And if Ramlogan had his way they staying right here

All this extradition talk is to fool you and me

the deal was made with Royal Castle money

I will sing how Anil Roberts really dotish fuh so

How he end he career with de stupid Nicky Minaj show

And that Sandy in the Parliament only marking time

his stint in Government is the real big ass crime

And Nizam get a bligh cuz he and Kamla chummy

A Canadian Commissioner think all ah we chupidy

And how de people think is time he pack his bags and go

That would be my contribution to calypso...

I will tell them Roodal Monilal is a blasted louse

One setta style yet up to now he ent build one house

and since they gave him that Ministry

he flammin' heself all over town for all to see

And how he learning to play benefactor

now that his wife is a big CEPEP contractor

I want to tell him this one for true

be careful what doh meet yuh doh pass yuh too

I want to sing about our modern day Ali Baba

Our teflon don, Austin Jack Warner

How I hear him tell Jennings he go spit on he

I fraid cause I ent want none of he nasty spit to fall on me

but when I hear he sharing contract like peas

and putting Barbie dolls to work wherever he please

I want to tell him clear so he will know

He is my real reason for writing calypso...

They say Phillip sing nah, sing it loud and true

how any topical thing under the sun will do

If I sing I want to sing against hypocrisy

and about what passing for patriotism in this country

how people who doh have no set a qualification

other than to put money in the UNC pan

all of a sudden they jump up and living like Lords

Getting fancy position to sit on State Boards

Tell them if and when I come I go be coming hard

And if I sing at all I singing for Trinidad

I want to call their names for everyone to see

all of the shirt and tie bandits who robbing we

I want to sing against the rabid Party supporters

who not even good enough for dog shit cleaners

who contribute to all the mess in sweet Trinbago

and make me have to come out and sing this calypso

Joo-bai...

Tears for an Angel (For Daniel RIP)

So many tears, glimmering like morning frost

Bitter cold to the bone,

tears for innocence lost.

no tears of joy just tears of pain

hearts break as if in chorus

heaven calls out in sad refrain

We rise with the tides, answering destiny's nod

our mortal tears sing your final farewell

Ride on little one, ride with the angels, ride on to touch the face of God.

In Defense of Louis...

Never in a million years did I think that I would find myself writing in defense of the like of Louis Lee Sing as for the most part I abhor his arrogance in the way he conducts his affairs in much the same way I do not like pit bull dogs for their savage nature and unpredictability.

That said, in the current climate of kill or be killed, there seems to be no better personal defense short of a gun than a pit bull for your property, and in these 'doh care' and lawless times there may be no better man for the job of law enforcement than an arrogant self opinionated man like Louis.

Look, there is no escaping the fact that Trinidad has quickly become the land of 'Advantage,' where everybody who gets a small opportunity uses it over others for their own gain. Further, the break down in the observance of law & order in this society is the fruit of this tree and we are living subhuman lives because of it.

How long must the argument go on as to 'who should make a jail first?'

'when they deal with them big boys and them they could deal with we.'

I say with all due respect that ALL manner of lawlessness needs to be treated with the same degree of tenacity and purpose, and while I (like almost everyone else) would like to see the corrupt Judges, Ministers Police and Public Officials knocked from their perches, prosecuted for their crimes and jailed for the abuse meted out to the citizenry, that should not allow anyone a pass for littering, parking indiscriminately or otherwise breaking the law.

This thinking is precisely where Commissioner Gibbs made the most foolish of blunders in his bid to be crime stopper extraordinaire, when, presented with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate fairness and firmness in his deliberation and the exercise of his authority, he did the complete opposite, capitulated to power and let Nizam Mohammed off of the proverbial hook.

What message do you think he sent to the criminal element in society and those who would contemplate breaking the law?

With a Commissioner in the like of Louis we may have had resolution to all manner of crime already and a cessation of arms and gang violence. When I hear my friends reminisce on the type of Commissioner Burroughs used to be I think to myself maybe that is the damn post for the man self.

The laws at his disposal to enforce are the very laws we should be obeying, and it is time we the people put an end to this culture of entitlement to do whatever the hell we want and contribute to the type of society that deep down we all want to live in.

We are too lawless a society and this free reign to do as we damn well please has led to abuses ratcheting beyond human reason as manifested in the murder of an eight year old child over the weekend.

There will always be a hue and a cry when the screws are tightened, but at some point we Trinidadians have to learn to behave at home the same way we behave when we go abroad, with a certain level of discipline in all affairs and respect for the law.

We have been planting the seeds of the very breakdown in society we decry and lamenting the crops for too long. Farmer Louis has come along to pull up the weeds and I dare say he ought to be emulated in his approach and respected for having the fortitude to do what none of the other vote seeking politicians can or are prepared to do.

At the end of the day, we have to stop this foolishness of making laws just to break them; with all the people pulling together in the same direction, who knows what we will harvest.

Something to think about...

Re-inventing Trinidad & Tobago

My friend Gregory Wight (himself a prolific and serial writer) has given me what I consider the missing piece (and the counterbalance) to my initial concept of redeveloping Trinidad & Tobago into a society that works and works well, and I would like to share them both here.

These ideas were exchanged in something like a 'council' aimed at the title of this piece, and my contribution to the discussion was the idea of excellence based on the belief that if we all aimed for excellence in every endeavor then we would have no choice but to rebuild a better version of ourselves and by extension our country.

My favorite author Khalil Gibran said it best in his thought provoking work 'The Prophet' - 

'And what is it to work with love? 

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. 

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. 

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. 

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, 

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.'

In my opinion, deliberate, purposeful excellence is a major pathway to re-development, but based on these discussions (apparently) not the only one.

The sad truth is that many of our problems are based on people making poor choices or deliberately wrong choices in pursuit of their own objectives at the expense of who or whatever obstructs their path, and we live in a country where most of our citizens wake up already feeling advantaged; almost every transaction wants to leave a sour taste based on poor value for money or service offered, and worse, should you encounter one of those people who believe that the end justifies the means, then it is literally you 'to catch' as there are no real avenues here for recourse or redress.

Taking a bribe, giving a bribe, looking the other way when corruption occurs, littering, speeding, littering, breaking major roads, providing deliberately shoddy service, misbehavior in public office, murder, disrespecting others all share a common bed.

They all require the same break with social norms and a fall away from decency whether learned or not.

Based on this realization at the most basic level, the government ought to be creating mind-space for this concept before attempting to remake the wheel and this is my/our advice.

We need to get back to basics.

Watching each successive Government wrestle with the breakdowns in society without taking the time to find out what exactly they were fighting is (in my opinion) the root of their collective failure.

This situation cannot be legislated away and calls for us to literally come up higher, or as Einstein said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

The idea Gregory put forward was the concept of 'personal responsibility,' where individuals are asked to make the best choice available regardless of situation and to be guided by their conscience when tempted to do otherwise.

Simply brilliant.

Taken collectively it could be referred to as 'social responsibility,' and social responsibility combined with excellence in all endeavors naturally shifts the country as a whole from a place where 'who dares wins and who vex loss' to a place where we become a community of one people living in harmony under one flag.

Imagine waking up in Trinidad & Tobago where the words of our national anthem are not hollow sounding and wishful thinking 'isms.

'With boundless faith in our collective destiny we could solemnly declare that side by side we would stand come what may, and pledge our lives in defense of these principles and in our native land, a place where every creed and race would find an equal place in all manner of pursuits and representations and share in the same freedoms to express themselves religiously, culturally and otherwise.

Combined with excellence, personal responsibility would become guiding rails on which, if we were to run all our endeavors, would work to re-invent Trinidad & Tobago for the benefit of and in the best interest of all.

Of this I am absolutely convinced and sure.

Not Everything is Black & White... (and not every skin teeth is a smile)

While I do my best to ignore rabid Party activists on both sides of the divide, some topics seem to force me into conversation and debate with people who have no need for points or objectives and who, armed only with their emotional reaction half cocked and loaded, charge full speed ahead.

There is no getting away from the fact that elected officials and those appointed to high Office are held to a much higher standard than the rest of us, but it comes with the territory if one wants to be considered 'Leaders' of the country.

Before we go on to the substance of this piece we need to at least accept the inescapable truth on the ground, the truth that this country's politics has forever been mired and continues to be mired in racial issues simply because the country is predominantly bi-racial and almost equally divided among racial lines.

As I fit into neither camp naturally except for a little blood here and there I am accepted everywhere, and while I never feel excluded from anything, I cannot say I ever feel fully included either.

This unique vantage point however has allowed me the opportunity to see things from both sides and to try to guide my position or comment on issues in the way that I think would bear the most fruit for the nation, as always my position is Country First.

Take this apparent 'visit by vapse' for example.

The Prime Minister uncharacteristically reacted to the tragic death of an eight year old child by going to Gasparillo to console his grieving family, and I (and others) expressed surprise that she would choose this case out of all the others that have gone before on her watch to demonstrate personal sympathy for survivors of horrible crimes and I believe her 'handlers' should have noticed the glaring misstep prior to it being made.

To many outside of the East Indian community, Kamla showed a clear bias by choosing this suffering family over previous suffering families and no real reason or explanation can or has been put forward so far as an explanation for the choice or a reason why.

Now, regardless of connections to the area, the family or otherwise, she ought to have known that as Prime Minister her actions are ALL subject to scrutiny, and in circumstances where she must err, she should err on the side of caution.

In this instant sadly, that was not done, and her good intention has had the effect of paving some otherwise unplanned roads and dividing the nation over an issue we were formally fully united on, the tragic loss of a child.

To my mind it is better that we tell the Emperor when her clothes do not fit 'just right' than to leave her demonstrating herself for others who may not be blinded by tribal, political or other biases and see something different to what she intended.

Her actions, while laudable, demonstrated an almost juvenile misunderstanding of the role of Prime Minister and I call on her to take whatever steps are necessary to remedy this unfortunate faux pas, and more importantly, take steps to prevent it from occurring again.

I suggest again the dismissal of all of her advisors 'in toto' and the wholesale reconfiguration of something new.

In a plural society one must take steps to make sure that as leader one represents ALL of the people ALL of the time, or one may find oneself at a loss as to the defeat at the polls over nothing more than a hug and a kiss, best wishes of half cocked supporters notwithstanding.

Something to think about....

Finding My Way Back home...

Tonight I stumbled upon a talk show with Peter Minshall, Pat Bishop, Mungal Patasar and Dennis Sprangalang Hall being interviewed by Renee Cummings, and out of the mouths of these stalwarts and giants I found hope and shame all at the same time.

 Hope that such knowledge still existed and could be discussed and conjured and released into the ether, shame that it was being thrown like pearls before a people who, if not yet swine, properly well on our way.

 For a brief moment I fantasized about being back at school and having these four for professors, thinking how enraptured at class I would be, the fountain of learning gushing forth history and promise.

Imagine Minshall having the bold faced temerity to suggest to the nation that children should be taught to read music at the same time they were learning ABC's, so that Wagner could be interpreted on the Harmonium and the sitar and the pan could be integrated into orchestras.

How interpretive dance should be primary school learning so that when we produce 'Soca Warriors' it would mean so much more than just a catchy marketing slogan and would embody the spirit of a people.

 Ahhh, Minsh, if you only know what you did there to this dreamer, this idealist, this romantic.

The vision you conjured for the people were so ethereal, so holy, that it caused Pat to buff you, to tell you that since the last time you bring a mas the mas stop dead.

Imagine Professor Hall chimed in on that, saying that we are a nation of copycats, so development gets stunted in re-invention and mimicry.

Lord Father I was dizzy.

Truth to power?

Please, this was truth to truth.

I know of what they speak; I was alive when Sting Ray pranced onto that savannah stage and stop Trinidad dead in its tracks, only to be eclipsed by the Midnight Robber, then the experiments with grand sails that had everyone else making sails for the next five years, and then Tan Tan and Saga Boy, which caused the rest of them say "ahh fuck it, bring the glue gun and some beads yes."

I wanted to stop people passing by and say "shhh, listen to what is being said here, magic is being woven, listen, you will almost be able to understand what God himself meant."

Mungal Patasar talking about collaborating with Tanker to deconstruct calypso and birth it again with an East indian flavor, and contrast that with the rape of the senses that was the Chutney Soca Monarch tomfoolery and you would need to restrain yourself.

Sprangalang said that the people who in charge like all of them on vacation, that thing looking like what it supposed to be but nothing there and I say yes, I am not alone.

The Professor went on to say how Manning made a fool of everybody with skyscrapers that kill the essence of the country, causing Minshall to chime in how foreign shoes cant be as good as locally made shoes, and if you understood the analogy of giving a woman the right pair of shoes and she could conquer the world you would understand that it is the very identity of a people they were talking about.

Look thing. Patasar said let the young people experiment with the music and Hall ask him how far you prepared to let them go? If music have the ability to soothe the savage beast, we making music that could wake up 'alstation.'

Way sah.

Gih Dem.

How the music in a frenzy, and if that is the rhythm of our nation then our nation in trouble.

They all agreed in the most part that the culture was not being saved or preserved and only what could get money for was developing while the other half dying and I sitting there shaking my head in disgust talking back to the TV like if they could hear me telling them I telling people that long time now.

Pat Bishop said a country that does not know it's own culture deserve a coca cola wake, which was saying in twelve words what I meant when I wrote 'Culture in Yuh Pweffim.'

Minshall said that we cannot find our identity in any 2020 foolishness, how third world don't become first world just so, how the people have to grow into their own expression and the only place to look for us is in us, to which Professor Hall added that from the moment the Trinidad Flag was flown for the first time we were already in trouble and I felt like if I could have paused it I was going to get a drink, this was too much truth to take in and process all at once.

How Christ and Buddha were symbols, not to divide the people, but to inspire them to greatness.

Pat spoke of an understanding of dance from the position of musical interpretation, and all agreed as do i, that our culture is being destroyed by competition, sponsorship and moneytizing.

I switched off when the callers started calling because I selfishly did not want to dilute the seed knowledge I just received with drivel, regardless how good the intention, no disrespect intended.

In my not so humble opinion, when the giants are speaking hush, you might learn something.

I want to thank Renee for assembling this pantheon of experience and I want to ask that this be moved from the confines of a studio and into a classroom and a lecture series of greats.

I would pay all inclusive prices for that.

I came away from this experience bigger, not only did I know more, I dared to take what I now knew and dream it further.

This more than anything is the end result of this sort of experience; That if you drink what is offered, you yourself become transformed, and you not only appreciate your own artisitic self, you believe once more in your own authentic expression.

In every material way I know in my heart that I am an artist, my canvas being words.

I also know (didn't I always though?) that I have been using my canvas with the best of intentions for the wrong purposes for far too long.

This experience, this conversation has inspired me to find my soul again, and I am going to pursue my masterpiece.

I send this into the heavens tonight and hopes it finds each of you - thank you.