One foh de Lord, one for Santa

Pastor Errol Daniel is my fair-foh-hit Pentecostal Pastor. Ah does all time watch ‘Direction,’ his Sunday after-lunch TV programme. He is de John de Baptist among Pastors, de only one bold and fearless who comes on TV or Radio and challenge de status quo. To date, he is de only one dat took issue wid de state on de HVP Vaccine.

‘Pastah D’ and I have bin friends foh years, except foh de one time ah did spread-out sinner-man Jimmy Swaggart, calling him ah Tele-vandalist. In de same article ah tried to big-up ‘Pastah D’ saying we have we ‘Nice Nice’ Televangelist hey in SVG; dat did not go down ‘Nice Nice’ at all, because de lady who proof-read my article, changed Televangelist to Tele-vandalist. Murder wuk! Ah went straight to his home to apologize, only to receive ah good religious cussing from Sister D. He rebuked her and told her dat “Bassy is my friend and he will never do dat to me!”

Our next run-in was in de early days when we were looking to de Church foh help wid Devotions foh Nine Mornings. De RC Church and Salvation Army were first to get on board, den de Rev. Doctor, Pastor Pope of Faith Temple, den my one-quarter cousin Rev Noel Clarke. But when I approached Pastah D, he told me he heard we were conducting ‘Nine Mornings’ wid ah set ah vulgar behaviour, say we “Putting Jesus in de Christmas.” Anyhow he promised to come by one morning and see what we doing. De next morning, midway thru de program, he came back-stage and asked which morning ah would like to have him, Ah wanted to tell him ‘go bout he business’, but we were scrunting foh Church participation, so ah told him “Come tomorrow!” Dat morning de whole “Streams of Powerr Church” including Sister D, de band, de choir and dancers took over de concert. Ah great program dat was.

How Nice, 25 years after, ah see ‘Pastah D’ is about to ‘set de pace’ at Heritage Square, as de first among de churches to conduct Nine Mornings Devotions on de Lord’s Day, ah Sunday, Christmas Eve.

Lie-Za say de reason why de other Pastahs won’t have ‘Open Air Service’ pon ah Sunday morning, is how dey go collect ‘de Tithes and Offerings’; but she hope ‘Pastah D’ passes around his Offering Plate twice: “One foh de Lord and one foh Santa!”

DE ARABIAN NIGHTS REACH

My girl Lie-Za say she’s no longer amused when she see de Pry-minister wid Far-rain Infestors: Palestinian, Jew, Gentile, Canadian or who. It’s now de turn of de Arabs, de Jihad Mohammad Investors (JHI) who made de Front Pages bIG time last week. Lie-Za calls dem ‘ her Arabian Nights’ and since dey nah like to be called Investors, so she call dem “We Infestors” like de rest. Dey all come, promise de Moon and de Stars or de Key, tek we land foh next to nothing, and de rest is his-story, sorry, we-story.

Where is Infestor Nano? Where is Infestor Wise? Where is Infestor Aims of Buccama Five Star fame? Aimes was allowed to leave “legally” owing de wukers, NIS and de Tax Department. Look way still ah go down in Can-One, it gone to Far-rainer; locals can’t even go near de Beaches. Another Christmas, where is Botttlers wukers severance pay! Where is de Venezuelan who did not pay severed Ottley Hall wukers? Where is de Canadian Infestor who was on Boom Radio saying, he had de cash-money to build ah hotel in Mount Wynn, dat will provide jobs foh students at de Community College. Where is everybody.

Lie-Za loves how her Arabian Nights promise to ‘write success story of Sin-vin-sin, and even want to learn Our Nah-shun-all Anthem. She say wait till dey have we learning to sing our Vincy Anthem in Arabic. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

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