Time to honour CDC members

Ah won’t want to go on record as one who persistently bashes Carnival. But Carnival is our biggest cultural display, in ah cents, Carnival is ah reflection ah de state ah de country, ah representation ah way going on or way not going on, de good, de bad and de ugly go on display: Our Cuisine, Arts ‘n’ Craft, Music, Mas, Kaiso and Pan, even Crime and Violence. {{more}} De Kaisonians sing it like how dey see it; dis year, de Pan reflected de beginning ah good tings teking place among de youths; while de Mas-men display dey creativity and de lack thereof in de costumes, still too much ah “seen dat before” though. When one examines de attendances at de Shows, de $1000 question is, how come de big shows, dat CDC now piggy-back on, Soca Monarch, Glow and Fire Fete, non traditional Carnival Shows are massive sell-outs, while de shows wid de most dismal attendances continue to be de traditional Carnival Shows run by CDC, Mas, Kaiso and Pan? Senior Panorama dis year, had to be sheltered and subsidized by de “Fire Fight Show”, de entrance fee was $45, more expensive dan Miss Carival or Soca Monarch, what ah way to bury Panorama. Imagine Pan, dat uses to be de heart-beat ah Vincy Mas no longer has ah place on de two big days, neither on de street nor de stage. Yuh begin to ask yuh-self if de leaders ah de components ah Carnival as well as de CDC have not gone bank-corrupt when come to I-dare. What ah mess wid de “Mas on de Move Show”, nobody taking blame, not even CDC dat got total control ah Carnival, down to street bars. But den again, way yuh expect, some ah dem people on CDC since in de 1980’s. Ah think is time Minister Baptiste check de register and those people on CDC foh more dan ten years, and come In-deep-an-dense day, Honour dem and thank dem, dey will get de message. Time foh dey go!

JOY C IS AH ROLE MODEL

Reigning Kaiso monarch “Joy C”, ah Cancer survivor, ah fighter too, is an inspiration to all, ah reminder in song, dat whatever problem we face in life, health, wealth or whatever, Joy C says “we can bounce back”. She not only bounced back from her illness but bounced back to de Kaiso Monarchy she once held. She deserves ah special prize foh “Most Inspiring Kaiso” dis year.

Her second song was well written and rendered as she gave ah balanced opinion of de Cuban situation, nuff praises foh Cuba’s Health and Education program and in de same breath, she repeatedly echoed her call in de chorus foh Freedom of Speech in de process. Lie-Za was reminding me dat when Princess Monique won de Crown wid ah master-piece on Carry-Come, our Prime Minister took copies of her song to de Carry-Come Some-hit dat year. Now she expects dat de PM will take copies ah Joy C’s second song on Cuba to de next meeting ah de OAS. She even suggesting dat Joy-C autograph ah copy of her song, and ask our PM to present it to de President ah Cuba, but ah would not write dat! Zion-I came in second place, he deserves ah special prize foh “Most Humorous Kaiso” foh his song “I am ah Bad John”.

Vincy Mas (Bands) as usual was good, especially de bigger costumes, Individuals , Kings and Queens, our lads can hold dey own anywhere. I am always critical ah de sections, dey seem like recycled designs and colours every year, ah believe ah see too much ah Mas in my time, is over sixty years ah bin watching Mas in SVG. SVG Players won “Band of de Year” four times in ah row. Mention must be made of de Shine-knees section, in particular de presentation on stage way de masqueraders moved thru ah simple choreographed Shine-ease dance routine. We continue to come-plain bout how de kids behave vulgar in de streets and on de stage, maybe de new CDC can impress on Band-leaders de need foh de young masqueraders to practice choreographed movements foh stage presentation while displaying dey costumes.

How could CDC justify ah 900-member band competing wid ah 100 member band. Dey killing de spirit of small band leaders like Melbourne and Owen Ralph. Let dey be two categories. And ah give up come-plain-in bout Bands reaching de Park too late and de despicable vulgar behave-yah of our female folks, women and kids in de streets and on stage. Patrons are fed up, and dat is why attendance at de Mardi Gras Show is getting smaller and smaller every year. The stands were MT when de last four bands appeared on stage dis year. Vincentians are very tolerant, but when yuh see we fed up, dat’s it! Mas-men are dey worse NME.

KAISONIANS SHARED BLOWS

In de Kaisoes De Police came in foh dishonorable mention ah few times. I however want to recognize de good job de Police did on de streets, keeping law and order. Ah saw ah fight in de Bottom town area, some serious bottle throwing, but de Police quickly broke it up, and guess what, we ain’t hear bout no Police Brutality, ah record. De Police Band continues to excel at Kaiso Finals, ah saw/heard some young brass men wid very clean, developed tonal quality, excellent.

And de Prime Minister got his regular bashing too from some ah de Kaisonians, dey didn’t spare him, Patches cry “Shame” on him, Scakes reminded him how ah King or PM should behave, and De Man Age bluntly told him “Go, get out ah here”. But dat is Kaiso, most ah dem who bashing him today, was bashing NDP yesterday, dat helped to get Gonsalves in office. Dat same Scakes, before he became mentally lazy, writing his song two days before competition, did write ah stinging Kaiso years ago “What goes around, Comes around”! And wid dat, is gone I gone again.

One Love Bassy