Trinidad: A Society Of Spectacle, Lip-Service And 'Gran Charge'

In 2005, I was doing research in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) for my doctoral dissertation titled: Commodification and Distribution of the Steelpan as a Conflicted Tourism Resource. Once more, I was privileged to assess T&T, a society of spectacle. Just as it always was, I saw six young men hauling out stuff (refuse) from a garbage truck; literally raping and ravaging the truck on the Beetham Highway as it approached the Port of Spain dump or what we Trinis call the La Basse. I couldn't believe my eyes and questioned myself:“Displace still so boi?”

Like a flock of corbeaux (Cathartes aura) they pounced on the truck as though it was a dead dog. It was an unbelievable sight; so characteristic of the real guts of Trini lifestyle in certain enclaves. This pitiful image was present when I was much younger, but how could this be? How? I must be a dotish (stupid) man to worry about that scenario. Then again, how could these people be allowed to become so destitute? Where were the several governments and all the social workers? Have all the plans and programs disappeared? What became of the political kankah, kuchoor, and bacchanal and all the money spent to alleviate poverty, crime and deprivation in oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)?

Calypsonian Winston Bailey (Mighty Shadow) asked all of us in his song Poverty is Hell,

“Who leave the condensed milk open?”

“Then cockroach gone in the condensed milk

Mama get vex for she condensed milk
Who leave the condensed milk open?
“Come here you picky head, good for nothing!”
Mama get vex and she blood get hot
She buss some lash in they you-know-what.”

And truly my friend, poverty is hell for many of these people who live on the fringes of Port of Spain in the flood plain of the Caroni River. There is a rumor that the Port of Spain La basse would be going out of operation. This leaves me to wonder where would young people from that area find new employment? You do not have to go far for an answer. Just make sure that your car is working properly when you are driving on the Beetham Highway. Don't stop there lest the bandits and their associates leave you without your clothes.

If you stop because your car stalled, leave the car and run to town or the nearest place of safety; head out as fast as you can, rain or shine...just run like hell! Run to save yourself and your family. Teach your wife, girlfriend, children and co-workers to run because they might need to run real fast one day...yuh hear mih! Guess why T&T produced people like Olympic gold medalist Hasely Crawford, silver medalist Ato Boldon and Jereem Richards? Those fellows learnt to run fast, fast, fast. That is the kind of speed that I'm talking about. Instead of trying to help distraught commuters, some of these miscreants will rob a dead man on that highway.

Just before I approached the Twin Towers (Eric Williams Financial Complex), of course, there was an almost naked man with matted hair, dirty black on black body, probably a vagrant (homeless person) doing some serious dumpster diving. With the haste at which he was emptying the dumpster, he was surely in some great hurry, and certainly looking for something of value, some rotten victuals perhaps. I asked myself: Why should this be happening in this blessed Land of Calypso and Steelband? Why should this be happening in a land with oil and gas money?

Internalising this specter, I reasoned: I grew up fatherless on the tail end of poverty, but I did not have to resort to the city dump for survival.

There are some people in the United States of America who adore Rosa Parks for her work in breaking the shackles of servitude and second-class citizenship by sitting in the front seat of the bus, a seat in which a black person could not sit. By doing this, Rosa took a powerful position and made an eternal statement. Despite what Rosa championed, some people are sitting in the front, first class, but are still mentally riding second class in the back.

It is a fact that the majority of the people residing in T&T still do not have economic independence. According to the New York Times, T&T, the“The tiger in the sea of pussycats,” is more fortunate than many of the islands of the Caribbean because of hydrocarbon deposits. George W. Bush, former president of the United States of America mentioned that T&T is a high-income state. I do not think that Bush knows anything about T&T. He should have said that the only thing in T&T that is high is crime.

This form of garbage retrieval from dumpsters and dumpsites is not an isolated case in the country. It is quite possible that the 55-gallon oil drums used for creating the steelpan were dumped somewhere. The steelpan probably came from the dump, but in T&T, the dump lives at all levels in the steelpan. My investigations into the instrument revealed quite a few things with regard to the dump that resides in the invention.

How the steelpan is treated in the land of its birth, is to me, laced with lip service and gran charge. There is a profusion of lip service and 'gran charge' when it comes to the politico-religious underpinnings of the steelpan instrument. Many steelpan orchestras in Trinidad are still operating in makeshift buildings and on lands without tenure. Several wonderful bands are now defunct. Three orchestras in Sangre Grande (my hometown) went out of commission.

It is my opinion that there should be a panside, (a steelpan orchestra), in every village. Wouldn't it be nice to have a slogan such as 'In Every Village a Panside?' In a certain era there was an orchestra in the northern seaside village of Matelot but the steelpans simply rusted away because of salt spray and sea blast. This is a sure sign the government is paying lip service to the development of the steelpan culture of Trinidad.

A long time ago Kamal (Charch), former People's National Movement [PNM] minister of agriculture said“...dey only speaking himself to himself.” It is only now that I understand what he meant. With all that janjhat, I was one who was sacrificed on the altar of pan. I never learnt to play the steelpan. Why?

Sad am I for not learning. It was the church that prevented me from learning and appreciating my own culture! It was a church that came from America in 1891 and sank its big toe in the cane field mud in the village of Couva. Believe me! That church was intent on surreptitiously turning people away from their own culture. It was neo-colonialism dressed up in 'jacket and tie' with Bible under its arm. In their circles in my youthful days, steelpan was thought of as the instrument of the devil.

I didn't learn to play the steelpan so a good friend, taught me how to play the cuatro, a little four-stringed instrument. The cuatro is a primary instrument in a Parang band, and you know that the same church doesn't want anything to do with Parang. That too, they allude, is devil thing because the parranda (Parang) is somehow related to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Parang songs talks about the Virgin Mary. If you don't know, that church is in constant opposition to the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, I used to really enjoy myself with my cuatro and I also learnt how to sing Parang songs.

It was so bad that the church was so anti-steelpan that the head deacon, in his ignorance and arrogance, bodily lifted expensive chrome-plated steelpans and threw them out of the church one Sunday evening. The steelpans were placed there to play the wedding march for my friend on his wedding day. What a travesty. The playing of the steelpan is one thing, but cultural imperialism is another. I cannot resist the Trini dialect in my book: Sweet and Sour Trinidad and Tobago in the next paragraphs:

“Well it look like heaven go have two kind ah people; people who does play steelpan and cuatro, and people who don't. Dat same church had tuh call dey board members one Sabbath morning tuh decide whether mih good friend could play di termite ridden piano in di church. Some ah dem really believe dat the church organ and di church piano going tuh heaven with dem. Yuh know wuh dey do? Dey make di woman remove all she jewels, earring, necklace, and bling before she could accompany mih son...Ah doh know wuh heaven dey going to. Buh if ah reach up dey, ah bong tuh ask mih pardner Peter fuh ah wuk tuh check up on all ah dem.

The church prevented mih from understanding the merits and demerits of the culture of T&T including, steelpan, calypso, folk music, African drumming, tassa drumming, carnival, limbo, and Parang. Cinema going was out ah di question and ah couldn't even talk tuh somebody who was in ah rumshop. Ah couldn't even think about liking ah gyul outside ah di church. Falling in love was out ah di question with 'unbelievers.' And yuh know dat di Roman Catholic Church rong di corner had some rel nice, nice gyuls. Dey say if ah like anyone ah dem dat yuh will be unequally yoked...so turn yuh eyes away from the daughters of the Philistines lest yuh burn in hell. Dem people condemn so many good, good people it eh funny. Dem feel dat dey was di only people dat was going tuh heaven and dey still feel so oui.

Well I done know whe heaven is ahreddy and I eh telling none ah dem. Yuh ever listen tuh ah sweet tenor steelpan? Listen when yuh have time tuh Liam Teague (Steelpan virtuoso) and yuh go tell mih if dat is not heaven. Listen tuh Ellie Manette on the Quaduet Pan and yuh go tell mih if dat is not ah godly thing. Doh bother with dem, leh dey play dey organ breds, leh dey play. Yuh ever geh yuhself inside ah sweet Parang lavway dong in Pinto Road, Arima? Yuh ever hear two old men who missing two or three ah dey front teeth singing ah Aguinaldo? It eh have nutten sweeter than dat, especially if ah lil cocoa-panyol (Spanish) or ah lil dougla gyul watching yuh on di side...”[Adapted from my book: 'Sweet and Sour Trinidad and Tobago' (2010)].

The post Trinidad: A society of spectacle, lip-service and 'gran charge' appeared first on Caribbean News Global .

MENAFN17092025000232011072ID1110076289