Talking about Calypso the art form. Whatever happened to our social commentary? Calypso’s death is also something that contributes to my permanently sour face. Time was when we, you, I could depend on the bards to bring us up to speed with the status quo, what was happening in Whitehall, and what was stinking in the nation’s closets.
Odds are if we examine the demise of calypso we will find similarities to explain why everyone in sweet T&T now sports a grimmer visage than even the Mighty Lingo and why we suffer the same handicap as he. For those coming in late - he won the extempo trophy twice but never saw it.
In 2014, although it may have begun the year before, our government effected a coup de grâce on one of our most trusted Quality of Qife barometers. They began to subsidise calypso.
Whether it was a strategy to muzzle the public voice or merely an expedient attempt to buy some votes we may never know, but it all came about in a fairly simple manner. The chutney variant, exuberantly financed by its indigenous supporters, literally forced conventional calypsonians to court the crowds attending what used to be purely Indian variety shows. And since no performer in his or her right mind will want to bite the hand that can literally feed him (or her), mainstream calypso became more of the chook and wine variety rather than the voice of the man in the street. Exit Lord Funny enter Machel and the other insipids. Not one of them with the gonads to provoke or stimulate thought for where the nation is going.
That this development suits the government of 2014, largely perceived as all-Indian despite having the once Mighty Gypsy onboard their ship, goes without saying. This is because ‘real’ calypso has always featured mightily in the prospects of the political sector. Now, as the season of 2015 emerges it goes without saying. If calypso, bought and paid for by a benevolent state can be harnessed (as they showed it could in the 2010 election) then there is even less reason for the discerning and erudite lover of sharp lyrics and biting innuendo to look to the tents for poltical update. There will be none.
That the present government intends to manipulate my, yours and our neighbours thoughts is not earth shattering news, just look at the recent billboard fiasco. They’re performing they say, but government is not performing proactively where it matters. I’d start to smile a bit if more money is allocated and spent (a big qualification is needed here) on issues that attend to T&T’s sustainable development.
In February of 2014 Roger Hosein was downright pessimistic about T&T’s chances (that’s mine, yours and our kids) to survive even ten more years at our current rate of spending given our collective inability to produce anything except petroleum derived product. Oil and its downstream are items, he casually denounced, are more curse than boon if we cannot improve quality of life to where someone living in Trinidad or Tobago thirty years ago will feel we have it better now. Those of us who are actually able to remember daily life way back then may smile - wryly perhaps. But when the reality hits, any sane man woman or precocious child, might want to hold their heads and cry.
So. Is 2015 going to bring better things Roger? I know I know, you cannot rightly say and you do not have a crystal ball. But I’ll tell you one thing man. If the normal election madness plays off and the government insists on spending where spending is not due, me and a few other people will have do more than mourn the loss of a sense of humour. We’ll have to do like the Mighty Sparrow says and bury it in a cemetery.