De making of diamonds

Ah was part of ah Jewel Celebration dat took place last Sunday afternoon at de Kingstown Met-dis Church, where De New Kingstown Chorale hosted a “Service of Thanksgiving, Celebrating 60 years of Joyful Singing.” Backtracking, from de word go in 1956 when de group was formed, Chorale struck Gold at SVG’s First Music Festival, and has maintained its Golden image until last Sunday when pure Gold turned to Diamond.{{more}} So good to see my Classmate Clifford Edwards, still young and active after 55 years of uninterrupted commitment as ah tenor soloist. Clifford at age 13, also won ah Gold medal in 1956. Don’t tell him De Love Vine say he, Lennox and John Horne nex zero is 80, magnificent guys! I am so proud of my classmates and school mates who, in addition to having excelled with contributions to de development ah SVG in various fields, have kept de musical banners of SVG alive in Concerts foh all Seasons! Ah don’t know how dey manage to continue performance after performance, faithfully, year after year. What is most commendable about De New Chorale is its versatility and repertoire, ah didn’t hear my fare-for-it piece,: “ Ding Dong! Ding Dong!” And note, dey don’t ever use Song Sheets during performances.

Sunday’s presentation was Diamondite, Rev Adolph Davis and Bro Monty Maule had great fun as host energizing de audience wid dey own version of singing. Monty has ah good vice oops, Voice. Yes he preached ah good sermon. As he himself put it on Sunday, “Take away preaching from me and I am nothing!” And de Love Vine says: “Take away de New Chorale from us and SVG has nothing!” Ah think ah heard ah touch of Barbara Streisand voice, when Andrea Gaymes did her solo, she is mellowing and mellowing!

De Group remains as sweet as ever. Pardon me, but like Dr Care-not John, I am ah choralight, so in our keen and critical ears dey could do no wrong on stage. SVG’s pride foh years gone, and to come. Dey was de welcomed appearance of some youths wid beautiful voices, nevertheless de average age of de Chorale is ah youthful and vigorous 40 plus 20, Diamonds of course. As usual my eyes remained fixed on de energetic Conductor Jean (Jan) Horne. Ah think she getting out ah hand wid her movements: “Smooth Rhythm! Groovy Bounce! LOL Jan!

Fred Prescod, Pat’s younger brother spoke at de Service, he was instructively short in ah very informative recapture of de Group’s early history, starting wid Gold to Diamond. But my simple scientific over-standing of Diamonds, is dat dey are formed miles below de earth’s surface at very high pressures and temperatures above 2000 degrees F, (close to hell ah suppose!) Diamonds are den delivered to de earth’s surface during deep source volcanic eruption. Folklore tells me dat it was in dat environment of Diamond Dust emitted from our La Soufrere Volcano, dat SVG’s first Maestro of Music, Pat Prescod, de lickle black boy, born in Georgetown got his musical genes. Thank you Chorale! Thank you Pat!

WHEN AWE-POSITUION TUN NAH-POSITION

Ah done write say dat all beaches in SVG is public, and de “G”in SVG stands foh Grenadines which includes de island of Can-One. So if dey’s ah problem wid locals having access thru infestors private lands to get to beaches, den de Go-venom-mint must mek de corrections. De Law of Acquisition permits de Go-venom-mint to acquire at “market value” any property “for public use.” De ULP knows dat law well. One ah dey first spiteful act dey did in Can-One was to acquire land from de X-Commissioner 2- Cent to mek ah community centre that is now ah white elephant Wickedly, dey offered 2-cent nex-2-nutten, he had to reach de Privy Council to get his justice. Lie-Za is correct when she says dat de Can-One sit-yuh-here-shun stinks. She says on one hand we have one ah de weakest, spitefulest and wickedest, “one seat” majority Go-venom-mint in de world; while on de other hand we have on paper, de strongest “one-seat” minority Awe-position in de world dat prefers to function like ah Nah-position outside ah Par-liar-mint, where it matters least!

We hearing foh de first time, dat ULP sold another 40 acres ah prime, treasured beach lands in Can-One. Dat disclosure came only when de angry, far-rain infestor challenged de unhappy, concerned citizens of Can-One, saying dat he will give way, but he wants back his 60 million dollars. Lie-Za say dis is info dat any Nah-position should have bin first to know, but dey didn’t. Seems like de ULP finally manage to silence, bribe and kill off all de Nah-position “white angels.”. If ah far-rain infestor could enter dis country, secure ah Lie-sins to own property, purchase 60 million dollars lands, EC or US whatever, gets his title deed registered, all done in secrecy; means either de whole thing is ah Lie or de whole trans-act-shun took place on de Beach! Whatever, de Nah-position needs to wake up, go to par-liar-mint and get cracking. Last week Doc Fraser in his article wrote : “Nero fiddles while Rome burns” he has to write again: “Ralph giggles while de Nah-position burns!” Remember “What goes around, must come back round and meet yuh!”

And wid dat is gone ah gone again

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.