Early Bird: Alligators, three dumb mice and one dog that did bark

What will history remember about Carnival 2026? Not the mas, for sure! Post-Minshall, mas has been eminently forgettable.

Most, especially the Catholic Church, will remember the sex toy distribution and forget what Tribe played.

Pan? Perhaps. The narrow Exodus win, their sixth in all, over a consistent Renegades, leading the pack with 13 Panorama titles, seasons the rivalry. Who can wait for next year’s shootout?

“When all is said and done,” I suggested to Bobby, “calypso will be the lasting element of Season 2026—for all the wrong reasons! The silent professionals and the amateur allegators.”

“Alligators?”

“Yes, the allegators. Contributors make a contribution, no? So, allegators—with an E! Allegations abounded.”

“Oh ho!”

“In 13 years, Kitch won 11 Road March titles. Machel finally pass him—after 30 years!”

“Fairly?”

“Ah! That is the question! The jury’s still out…”

“Finally, Superblue’s daughter walked away with the $1m guaranteed prize—and the car that, a month before Carnival, nobody knew was a part of the package.”

2007: Nobody Eh Go Know. That was the tune that, almost 20 years ago already, earned Cro Cro the last of his four Calypso Monarch titles. It’s the only one he won with the PNM in government.

The first two came with the ANR Robinson-led NAR in charge. By 1996, when he won title number three, T&T had already voted in our first Indian prime minister.

Cro Cro will probably best be remembered, I suggest, for Corruption in Common Entrance, the 1988 calypso that won him his first crown.

It arguably did not win him any Indian friends because it alleged that race affected, perhaps even dictated which students got placed in prestige schools:

Holy Name Convent and Bishop Anstey (…) have to pick Lakadeo, Boodoo, Krishna, Maraj… 

Like a police boots on the UNC’s corns, Cro Cro would make much of his subsequent work unabashedly, proudly supportive of the Black man. But, in the 2026 season, the consistent thorn in the UNC’s side offered us no new calypso.

He has, Town say, bigger, quarter-million-dollar fish to fry…

Bobby: “Where the car come from?”

Me: “The talk all over town was that the car was fuh not spoilin she father name.”

Bobby: “Oh? Yuh mean she wasn’t supposed to be the winner? I completely missed that.”

Me: “Town also say TUCO took instructions from on high and doctored the scoresheets. Not unheard of, right? But Dimanche Gras night, Helon Francis, the reigning monarch, was simply unheard.

“You is just a lil Black boy, some powerful person or persons say, a nobody. You want to play you is the voice of the voiceless? We know how to shut people up!”

1997: With the 21st Century fast approaching, Gypsy’s Little Black Boy swept all before it, giving him his first and—so far!—only Calypso Monarch title. Eleven years earlier, his Sinking Ship had announced the For Cane Man to the political world, arguably helping to sink the PNM in a general election for the first time.

Gypsy’s subsequent meanderings suggest that he has devoted considerable time to thinking through how to keep his ship afloat in politics in T&T.

A government minister for two years in Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s 2010-2015 Partnership, he also served as chairman of the National Carnival Commission under Keith Rowley. He only resigned—reluctantly?—a couple of weeks after the UNC returned to power.

Having been in the belly of the beast, he certainly had, indeed, almost certainly has stories to tell the country about post-April 28th politics.

But so far, just like the four-king king, Cro Cro, nary a word in the public domain. Not in writing, not on record, not on video. Not in prose, not in verse, not even a lil extempo…

Come to think of it, Town say, no surprise there. This Little Black Boy went to calypso school and learned.

From Sparrow, echoing Kitch: Both ah Dem

And from Penguin: What Sweet in Goat Mouth.

Bobby: “You really believe somebody sabotage Helon Francis?”

Me: “Me? Town say! We dealing with allegators, no? But what are the options? Somebody on social media reminded us about the Red Force CPL match in Guyana. Remember that? When somebody pull the plug on the only contestant whose material is unknown, coincidence is a stretch.”

Bobby: “Like in Guyana, the video went viral…”

Me: “Concerning Dimanche Gras? I didn’t see it. But I saw, I watched Calypso Fiesta on TV. Preachers a-plenty but no Mistah Shak.”

Bobby: “You surprised? He say the wrong thing! Yuh cyar tell powerful people to F.A.F.O.”

Me: “So Town say.”

Bobby: “But Devon Seales and Queen Victoria both make Skinner Park…”

Me: “… but not the Big Yard. Town say toute vérité n’est pas bonne à dire. Keep your truth to yourself.”

Bobby: “Which, I suppose, is what, just like Cro Cro and Gypsy, Aloes chose to do.”

2012: In May of the Year of our Lord 2012, Sugar Aloes, long viewed as an unconditional supporter of the PNM, chose to put pennies before party and accept “a job offer” from some big sawatees.

The job? To sing at the second anniversary celebration of the UNC’s 2010 election victory. His choice of tune? Tarrus Riley’s She’s Royal.

He also chose to add insult to injury by choosing, during the performance, to hold the hand of the UNC political leader and then prime minister Persad-Bissessar.

Calypso people saw red.

In 2008, Aloes propelled himself to the top of the calypso world. His Reflections was a commentary on Panday’s sullen reaction to the 2007 cutarse Patrick Manning put on him. It earned Aloes his second title, 16 years after his first, both notched under the PNM.

None imagined then that they would see that kind of ‘betrayal’ and ‘treachery.’ None expected that kind of ‘sell-out.’ None imagined they would ever see the spectacle of Sugar Aloes booed and showered with toilet paper at Calypso Fiesta.

They did. In 2013 when, instead of penitence, he chose defiance, opting to sing My Response.

More than 16 years since Aloes’ last win, Season 2026 came and went. His Calypso Revue belatedly opened its doors in Arima and then at the SWWTU Hall in Port-of-Spain.

But no new Sugar Aloes song came. Silence from Cro Cro. Silence from Gypsy. Silence from Sugar Aloes too? No public comments about any aspect of the season, including funding?

Monkey know, Town say, what tree to climb…

Bobby: “Gypsy, Cro Cro, Aloes? Daiz it?”

Me: “No, breds. Not everybody keep quiet. One man talk. He in town too long…”

Bobby: “Chalkie?”

Me: “Reflections whole last stanza is about Cro Cro but Chalkie name come up too. It very relevant to Season 2026.”